WWUTT 1060 Q&A Truth Matters, 3 Day Exodus, Syrophoenician Woman?

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study in the Word of God, that we may proclaim

His excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

Visit www .utt .com for more information about our ministry. Here once again is

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. At the present, we are in California.

LA. Paying a lot in taxes. Yes. I wonder if the power is on.

I don't know. Was that power outage that they did last week, was that a statewide thing or was it just local?

I have no idea. So I'm asking this question now while we're at Truth Matters. Yeah, we'll figure out the answer,

I guess. Are we sitting in a dark room right now? I don't know. We could sit outside.

It's California. Hey, one of the things I'm looking forward to at Truth Matters, of course, by the time you're hearing this, we've already been able to experience it.

Yeah, a couple days. Is the post -Tenebrox -Lukes Bible binding that's going to be there.

Oh, yeah, definitely. Post -Tenebros -Lukes. I always want to put an X at the end of Tenebrox.

Tenebrox -Lukes. Post -Tenebrox. See, there I did it. Yep, you did it again. Post -Tenebrox -Lukes.

Yes. Out of darkness, light is what that means. Anyway, Jeffrey with P -T -B or P -T -L.

I can't even do the letters. You are struggling. P -T -L. I was thinking of Bible rebinding.

So P -T -B, P -T -L. Oh, I gotcha. Praise the Lord. Post -Tenebrox -Lukes. There, I got it.

Okay. It is amazing. They are incredible. We saw the display that he had at G3 back in January.

I remember you came over to me and you were like super excited, jumping up and down almost. And you were,

I swear. And I was like, okay, so you have leather

Bibles. That's nice. And he's like, no, no, no, you have to understand. And he drags me over to it.

And it's like over on the other side of the conference bookstore. Yeah, where we had the booths and everything.

And it was, I was very, very impressed. I was thrilled.

So I'm standing there and I'm looking at the Bible binding and I'd seen this stuff on James White's program.

Because he's always praising the stuff that Jeffrey does. And he gets all kinds of stuff bound.

Like he's even got his Nestle Alland leather bound now. He'll just send stuff to Jeffrey and have him do it.

And then he'll do it as gifts for people. And Jeff Durbin will be showing off the Bible that James White got him.

And then, and even people like he debates with. He'll get a Bible bound like this and give it to them as a gift.

Oh, that's crazy. It's incredible. So I've seen it. I've seen it all on James White's program. But then when I was there at G3 and I'm looking at it,

I'm like, this stuff is fantastic. But I was not putting together that this is the same craftsmanship that James White was promoting on the dividing line.

Okay. And so I'm grabbing a pen and I'm filling out the card to win a Bible because he had a

Bible that he was giving away there. And the pen that he had sitting there was one of our when we understand the text pens.

Oh, that's awesome. Hey, meet. And it's on like clear the opposite side of the exhibition hall that we were in.

Right. The far other side from where our booth was. Yeah. So I'm picking up one of our pens and I'm filling out the card with it.

And he said, you know, hey, who are you? I can't remember how that whole thing started. But I said, actually,

I'm this guy. I'm holding up the what pen. And I'm like, this is my ministry. I'm over there.

And he's like, I recognize the voice. You're the one guy. I'm like, yeah. He said, I listen to you all the time.

And so I was just on cloud nine going, wow, the Bible binding guy listens to me. And I want his

Bibles. So we're just like all giddy over each other, you know.

So he's been on me about sending him a Bible. And I just couldn't pick which one I wanted to send.

Yeah, it's hard for us to make decisions. Yeah, yeah. And actually, it's good that I wasn't able to send him a

Bible until now. Right. But you can't say why. I can't say why. Oh, my goodness. Stop. I want to talk about it, though.

It's just exciting to talk about it when we get back. Well, you know, it'd have to be later.

It's going to have to be later. I can still praise his work now and then look forward to when

I get it back. All right. So speaking of happy moments here, we are going to start with a very praising email.

Okay. So this, of course, being Friday, we take questions from the listeners. And you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

This comes from Leah. And I'm going to leave it at that. She shares some pretty personal info here.

Okay. And so I'll leave her anonymous. We'll just know that she's Leah. Okay. And she says,

Pastor Gabe and Precious Becky. Oh, are you going to have to send me the tissues?

Because seriously, it's already starting. I'll go ahead and pass the tissues over. Pastor Gabe and Precious Becky.

My hope is that this rambling email will be an encouragement to both of you. I say rambling because I know myself enough to know

I will ramble. Me, too. Me, too. Yeah, that makes three of us. I am here in your inbox to thank you both for the work that you do and your willingness to share yourselves and your faith with all of us.

Your podcasts have been a help and a blessing to me on many occasions. My favorites are, of course, the

Friday Q &As. Aww. This morning, I finally listened to the episode from September 27th.

Somehow, I had skipped over it until today. I was very encouraged by your discussion about divorce and remarriage.

My husband and I both were previously married and divorced. His marriage ended after years of his wife being unfaithful to their marriage.

My marriage ended after 13 years. I'm not even sure how to end that sentence. Long story short, in the span of three days,

I found out he had been unfaithful since the week we married. Realized that he had been emotionally abusing me to a startling degree and that he had been sexually abusing our two daughters.

He is currently in federal prison. I thought I was saved since the age of seven or eight, but God chose to open my eyes in those three days and call me to repent and reconcile my relationship with him through Christ.

That's amazing that you found out that he was doing this to you and yet you were convicted to repent.

You were the one that was convicted to repent before God and be reconciled to God. I understand.

Yeah, that's amazing how God would use a situation like that, even to show us our sin when the culture would probably otherwise tell us, no, you're a victim here.

See, you need to be raising your fist and going, huh, look at what this person did to me. And yet Leah was so humbled throughout this ordeal to see her own sin and need for redemption before God.

Yep, that's how I got saved. Yeah, pretty incredible. Praise the

Lord because that is a work of the Holy Spirit. We're in a culture and a society right now where everybody wants to show you how you've been victimized.

You're a victim in this and this guy or this group of people, they're the ones that are oppressing you, but all must humble themselves before God.

Even those who the society would otherwise label as victims, they need the gospel too.

Yes, they do. And they have sins they need to repent of. Yes. But anyway, I'm not trying to steal Leah's thunder here.

No, no, no, let's get back to the letter. Keep going, okay. You let me dry my eyes long enough. Okay, around the same time, my husband, current husband, was having the truth revealed to him as well.

Fast forward to us dating and then promising to marry each other. Wow, it amazed me how confusing the counsel and comments were from other

Christians concerning us marrying. Our pastor at the time refused to marry us and refused to let us be married in the church.

I honestly was okay with that, respecting that this was his personal conviction and seeing that he just didn't want to be responsible for making the case -by -case decision if remarriage was acceptable or not.

So last week we talked, oh, bump my mic here. So the few weeks ago where we did this episode,

September 27th, we talked about handling these things on a case -by -case basis. Definitely. It is difficult to just kind of give a blanket prescription of, well, they should all be this way or that way.

It's what you wanna do, but you can't. Yeah, and especially when it comes to ministering to those individuals that might come forward with this particular scenario, situation.

When you minister to them, it has to be particular to the situation to say, here's your sin, here's where you need to repent.

Here's what God's word says about this. This is the instruction we have in Colossians 4 to let your speech be seasoned with salt and always be gracious knowing how to answer each person.

If you have these blanket responses to all of these, well, this scenario comes up, so boom, there you go.

There's my response to this. Then you're not having, you're not exercising that instruction to knowing how to answer each person.

Be intentional and personable and caring and compassionate with each person in whatever scenario that they bring to you.

And they're each different. And yeah, everybody's different. And it doesn't matter whether they're guilty and they need to repent of something or they've been wronged by somebody else.

You need to show your compassion for that individual, no matter the scenario and presenting the gospel to them in light of the situation that's going on.

Here's where sin has occurred. Here's the gospel and the response to this sin.

Either you need to repent and follow Christ or the gospel is offering hope for you in the midst of your situation because you are being redeemed from this by a great savior who cares for your every need.

Cast your anxieties upon him because he cares for you as it says in 1 Peter 5. And we look forward to the day of glory when we're gonna be delivered out of all this fallen mess.

Amen. So yeah, case by case. Very good, Leah, even remembering that from our answer and understanding that we need to consider each person's need and speak the gospel into that situation.

I was bombarded with people, she goes on to say, I was bombarded with people who were perfectly okay with us dating, but we should never marry because it would be a sin.

They're okay with them dating, but you shouldn't get married because it's a sin. Yeah, that's the wrong approach to dating.

They shouldn't be dating. Yeah. If it's not gonna go to marriage, then that's - Right, there's no point.

We use that word because there's just not a better word. Right. That's just kind of the nomenclature of our culture.

Because courting is taking a totally different, it's -

Well, even courting can have varying definitions to it. Exactly, that's what I'm trying to get at, that people don't all think of courting as the same, so you just kinda, it doesn't have its own label yet.

So we'll get there. Yeah, so then she goes on, this is me making the puppy dog, head cocked to the one side, eyebrow raised face.

We should date, but we can't get married? As a new

Christian, I just kind of kept my head down and didn't argue. The entire ordeal has been confusing to me for many years.

What I hear so many say versus what I read in my own study of the Bible, versus what

I see people within the church actually doing. Yikes, this topic seems to be one where people either just refuse to touch it because of fear of offending, or they jump in head first with just repeating what they've always heard, but haven't actually compared to, or looked at the scripture on their own, or they cherry pick verses with zero context, et cetera.

I'm sure you're both acquainted with all of the different diversions, oops, versions of this debate.

So anyway, I told you I'd ramble. I say all of this to say, thank you for confronting this topic so boldly, using scripture so faithfully and carefully, and for not shying away from the fact that it is not a big blanket, yes or no.

I appreciate that you are willing to see and say that each relationship is to be looked at individually.

Side note, we'll be married 10 years this January. Four precious daughters, my husband very excitedly adopted my two daughters at their request, faithful and thankful.

That's beautiful. Now you're gonna make me cry. Now the tears are the early part of the email babe, we're moving on from the tears.

Nope, that was sweet. That is, that is very touching. I truly hope that the two of you know how very much

God uses you in the lives of others each day. Your videos, podcasts, social media presence is being used as a faithful encouragement to many of us.

I hope you already realize this. I'm sure I'm not the only one to tell you. I also pray that your children will grow up with an appreciation of what you are doing.

I pray that since it is never seen by them as just what mom and dad do, but that God will grant them the ability to see the importance of your work and your daily example, and that it will be used as an encouragement for them to follow and obey our

Lord in all things, even more so than it is for any of the rest of us.

With much love for both of you, Leah. Well, I will say Leah, I hope that my kids grow up to be

Christians more than I hope any of the rest of you do. You know what

I mean? I think you're being a little partial, a little biased.

It is my personal affection that my own children would become Christians and that's more important to me.

Though, of course, it's important to me that everyone hears the gospel. But I have that affection for my children more so than for anybody else.

But thank you for that email, Leah. It was wonderful and touching. And we both delight to read it.

And may God keep us faithful. Yeah, in tears. May God keep us faithful in the work that we do.

Oh, amen. It is by, yes, it is by His mercy and His grace that we have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Right. Out of darkness into light, post -Tenebrous Lukes. Out of darkness, light.

So we desire to walk in the light of Christ and it is by His sovereign hand that we have come into faith.

And it is by His hand that we will be delivered from this world into glory in the end as well.

Amen. All right, so next question here, this comes from Quinn. He says, hey there,

Pastor Gabe and Ms. Becky. You're not Precious Becky in this email. That's okay. My question is about Exodus.

Was God being deceitful when he told Moses to ask Pharaoh for three days in the wilderness when

God planned for them to stay longer, i .e. never return? Is this a biblical contradiction?

Thanks for your answer. Love the podcast. Okay, this is kind of a tricky question here. And Quinn, no,

God is never deceitful. But if we were applying that word, you would be approaching it from man's perspective.

You would not be attempting to look at it from the sovereign divine perspective. But the question's kind of tricky here.

So let me read it again. Was God being deceitful when he told Moses to ask

Pharaoh for three days in the wilderness when God planned for them to stay longer, i .e.

never return? So it sounds like Quinn's question would be, was God being deceitful to Pharaoh?

Okay, yeah. Because the question was being asked of Pharaoh, hey, let us go three days into the wilderness.

Right, that's how I took it. Yeah. Okay, so now let's read. Let's go to Exodus chapter three. This pops up in several places, believe it or not.

But the first time that God says it is when he's talking to Moses from the burning bush.

So this is Exodus chapter three, starting in verse 16. The Lord says to Moses, go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, the

Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob has appeared to me saying,

I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt. And I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the

Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And they will listen to your voice and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the

King of Egypt and say to him. So the Israelites will listen to you. You'll go to the King of Egypt and you'll say to him, the

Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. And now please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the

Lord, our God. Verse 19, but I know that the King of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.

So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it.

After that, he will let you go. So was the request deceitful of Pharaoh saying, let us go three days into the wilderness when

God's intention all this while was for them to be completely freed from slavery in Israel.

What this is demonstrating is the hardness of the heart of Pharaoh, that he was not even willing to let them go for three days.

When God knew that this was the condition of Pharaoh's heart, that he would never let them go for three days.

So it's to demonstrate the hardness of the heart of Pharaoh. No, it was not deceitful to Pharaoh.

The deceiver in this case was Pharaoh. It was not God. So God is demonstrating through these questions that are being asked, how hard Pharaoh's heart really is and that it will take all the wonders of God, 10 plagues, all of which having to do with the gods that the

Egyptians worshiped. Each plague corresponded with some false god of the

Egyptians to show that the God of the Hebrews is the true God.

And these false Egyptian gods are puny and cannot even do the things that you are praying to them to do for you.

So this whole three days thing comes up multiple times in Exodus 5 .3.

That's when they go before Pharaoh and they say, please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the

Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. Exodus 8 .27,

we must go three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us.

Then Exodus 10 .22, when the plague of darkness comes upon Egypt, it says,

Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was a pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

See, if you'd only let us go three days journey into the wilderness so that we might worship the

God of light, but we're gonna demonstrate there's darkness on your heart that you could not even let us go three days and come back.

And then in Exodus 15, they went three days into the wilderness and found no water.

So this was a demonstration to the Israelites that even if they had gone three days journey into the wilderness to sacrifice unto

God, they wouldn't have gone far enough because there was no water for them. Three days journey into the wilderness.

So God's intention all the while was to free the slaves, absolutely. But he did everything by his own providence and divine decree and the statement of Pharaoh was to demonstrate the hardness of Pharaoh's heart.

It was not deceiving Pharaoh with some sort of request. Go ahead.

I didn't let you finish your sentence. Do you think it was also to prove to the Israelites how hard Pharaoh's heart was?

Yeah, absolutely. And to prove that he wouldn't even let them go three days. And when you get to the point where the

Israelites are grumbling about how difficult their situation is out there in the wilderness, it even brings condemnation upon the

Israelites because it's like, do you guys not remember how wicked Pharaoh was? Right. I mean, the kinds of evil and oppression that was falling upon you in Egypt and yet here you are free.

Right. You're being promised a promised land. We haven't gotten there yet, but it's coming if you would trust in God.

And we know that generation that was freed from slavery didn't trust God. They all died in the wilderness. It's only

Joshua and Caleb from that generation that got to see the promised land. But they in their own hardness of heart did not see what it was

God was doing for them. And so they were judged. They had to perish there in the wilderness and were not given the promised land.

So yeah, so even that situation became a testimony against Israel when they grumbled against God.

Yeah. Because they forgot. They forgot how wicked Pharaoh was. Quickly forgot. Quickly.

Yes. They forgot how wicked Pharaoh was and how merciful God is.

So thank you for your question, Quinn. Next question comes from, let's see, Daryl in Florida.

Hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. I have a question regarding Mark 7, 24 through 30. The Syrophoenician woman who had a demon possessed daughter.

When she asked Jesus to cast the demon out, he replied, let the children be fed first for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

Then when she replies that the dogs under the table still eat the children's crumbs, he dismisses her and declares the demon gone.

What is the correlation between him casting out a demon and this statement about the children being fed before dogs?

I can't figure it out and I'm hoping that you can help me. I love the podcast. I listen every day. God bless you both.

Okay, well, let's come to the story in Mark 7. I'll go ahead and read it all. This is starting in verse 24 through verse 30.

Okay. I turned too many pages at once. And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyree and Sidon and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know yet he could not be hidden.

But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.

Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

And he said to her, let the children be fed first for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

But she answered him, yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

And he said to her, for this statement, you may go your way. The demon has left your daughter and she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

So there's the story as we have it in Mark 7, beginning in verse 24 again, from there he arose and went away into the region of Tyree and Sidon and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know.

Now Jesus' primary ministry was to Israel. Right. He came to Israel. As we have it said in John 1, he came to his own, but they did not receive him.

Right. So here he goes into a region that is Gentile. The woman here is described as a

Gentile a Syrophoenician, which means a Syrophoenician was the Roman province of Syria.

Oh, okay. So she was not a Jew in any way. She was not a Hebrew speaker.

She was not Jewish by heritage or by birth. She was Syrophoenician by birth.

She was a Gentile. Through and through, she was a Gentile woman. So this is neither a Samaritan nor an

Israelite nor a Jew. She is a Gentile. And Jesus' ministry was not to the

Gentiles. He came to the Jews. Right. Then commissioned his disciples, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

So you will testify not only in the region of the Jews, but even in the region of the Gentiles. That's where Jesus was sending his disciples.

But as far as his earthly ministry was concerned, he stayed exclusively to the Jews, except for this small story that we have, where he ventures even outside Israel into a

Roman province in the region of Tyre and Sidon and enters a

Gentile woman's home. So this story is meant to be foreshadowing of the ministry that's going to go to the

Gentiles. Doesn't happen yet. It doesn't happen during the lifetime of Christ, but it will happen when he commissions his apostles to go.

Oh, right. And share the gospel with the whole world. Why did he go into this region in the first place?

It's possible. Well, of course, by the decree of God, it would be a foreshadowing of the ministry to the Gentiles.

Definitely. And so that this woman would receive that ministry also. But he was likely trying to get away from just the rabble of the

Jews that didn't like him. So he goes to an area where he can breathe a little bit. Right. Get away from the mob mentality.

Right. But the word of Christ has gone as far as Tyre and Sidon. So this woman knew who he was and what he was capable of doing.

That's awesome. And so he goes into this house. It says he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.

So he didn't want anyone to know that he was there. He's trying to get a breather, but immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.

Now, the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

And he said to her, let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

The children in this case would be the children of Israel. That's what Jesus is referring to.

He's not referring to her child. Children are the children of Israel. The dogs are -

Are the Gentiles. Yeah, the dogs are the what? The blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, the tongue speakers apparently. The gibberish speakers.

My tide's all tongued up. The dogs are the Gentiles. And there are multiple references to Gentiles as dogs.

Gentile, it is not a complimentary name. Right. From a

Jew, especially, to consider somebody to be a Gentile. The equivalent to Gentile is pagan.

And in fact, you'll even see some verses where Gentile is used, others where pagan is used.

Then you might pick up - Interchangeably. Yeah, interchangeably. You might pick up a different translation of the Bible, NIV, NASB, or something like that.

And where you see Gentile in the ESV, you see pagan in another translation.

So those words can be used interchangeably. It's not a complimentary title. The word dogs is often used to describe a

Gentile. In Revelation 22, 15, outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Anyone who is not a follower of Jesus does not receive the kingdom of God, but is cast outside.

And they're referred to as the dogs. Right. And in this case, and the way that it's being used in Revelation 22, 15, it's anyone who is not a believer in Christ.

But in this context in Mark 7, it's the difference between the children of Israel and the

Gentiles. So Jesus is using this very harsh term to describe a

Gentile and calling them dogs. The children who are Israel must be fed first because this is who

Jesus was sent to, to minister to Israel. And even when Jesus sends the apostles out, they're sent first to the

Jews. Right. Before they're sent to the Gentiles. The apostle Paul, when he goes into a Greek city, even he goes to the synagogue first.

Right. And he preaches there. And when they don't receive him in the synagogue, then he goes out to the Gentiles.

So the children must be fed first for it is not right to take the children's bread. And Jesus being the bread that was sent from heaven, it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

But she answered him, yes, Lord, yet even the dogs. And that's a very humbling thing for her to say.

Yeah. Understanding that the Jews referred to Gentiles, to pagans as dogs. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

This is demonstrating in what she's saying to Jesus. This is demonstrating faith that she does believe that he is who he says he is.

What other people have been saying about him. She believes that. She believes that he is the bread from heaven, probably not in a deeply theological sense.

Probably couldn't lay out a theological treatise on Jesus being the bread from heaven. Right. But she does understand that.

The reference that he's made for she says, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

It's like it's her saying, can't you give me something though? A crumb. I know you're the bread from heaven.

So give me a crumb, heal my daughter. And Jesus, because of her demonstration of faith, because she believed in who he was, he said to her, for this statement, you may go your way.

The demon has left your daughter. And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

So she had a very humble demonstration of herself before Christ, not proudly thinking at all.

Well, who are you? Give this to Israel, not give to me. You owe me too. It's not fair that you would give it to Israel.

No, she understood what he was saying and saying, but just give me something, just a tiny little bit, just heal my daughter.

And because of her faith and her humility coming before the Lord, then he blessed her and cast the demon out of her daughter.

So we come back to the question here that Daryl asked and he said, what is the correlation between him casting out a demon and this statement about children being fed before dogs?

Well, I hope you see it. They're kind of two different statements. The children being fed before dogs are referenced to the children of Israel.

It's Jesus saying, I came to minister to Jews, not to the Gentiles.

But that ministry to the Gentiles was coming and that Jesus would even be the one who would be ministered to the

Gentiles and demonstrating that in the healing of this woman's daughter. So I hope that helps you out,

Daryl. I hope you understand the story a little bit better. Yeah. And thank you for your question. That's it. So these last couple of weeks, we've just done half an hour programs.

Yep. Since we've been gone, we've been on the road. But next week. Yes, pray for safe travels.

Safe travels, yep. Becky and I actually get to fly back together. Yeah, tomorrow. Yes, we came to California separately.

Yep. But we're returning to Kansas next to one another on the plane. When was the last time we actually flew together?

It's probably our honeymoon, wasn't it? I thought we flew out to Florida once, no?

Oh, yes, we did. Just once. Yeah, you're right, you're right. We did because it was when we went to the

Gospel Coalition Conference in Florida. Yes. The same year.

Well, it wasn't the same year Aria was born. It was about six months after Aria was born. Right. And she went with us.

But we haven't flown just you and I together. Right. Since our honeymoon. Right. That is true.

Yep. Yep. Because we had a six -month -old with us when we went to Florida.

Mm -hmm. Yeah. So, all right, well, good to fly with you again. Yeah, it'll be neat. Finally. Let's close with prayer.

Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time and always grateful to be able to do this.

And we thank you for giving us an opportunity to be able to do a program like this and that it's been helpful to someone like Leah and to anyone else who would benefit from the words that we share.

But they're not our words. And we don't want it to come across as, well, listen to what Gabe and Becky have to say.

But our desire is that we would point people to the word of God and that this would be the thing that illuminates our path and guides our steps according to what you have said.

And by your will, we live our lives and commit ourselves fully unto you. As we are instructed in Romans 12, 1, in view of God's mercies, present your bodies as holy and living sacrifices unto the

Lord. This is your spiritual act of worship. And may we do this day by day all the more.

We pray for sanctification in ourselves. We pray for others who are walking in sin, that as we share the gospel with them, they would be convicted by your spirit and turn from sin and so live.

And help us to be gracious with each one, knowing how to answer each person, our speech being seasoned with salt.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. If you would like to send us an email, our address is whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

And I'm behind on personal responses. So you may have sent me emails and I haven't given you a personal response yet.

I got to catch up with all of that. But anyway. You have time. Yeah. There's a plane ride and a layover.

Right. Plane ride. My battery on my laptop doesn't work. It only holds a charge for like 15 minutes.

So I can't use it on the plane. I have to sit in a terminal next to a plug.

That's a bummer. During my layovers. Should you get that fixed before we leave? We don't have money to spend on a battery for a laptop computer.

That is true. We are spending money on going to Truth Matters. That's where our money's going. And at our daughter turning five.

And a party for our daughter. Yes. Those parties are too expensive. No more parties.

What? No more parties. You tell your five -year -old. Well, to be five -year -old. Okay. This is a discussion for off air, my sweetheart.

You started it. I did not bring up a party. You said money. You're welcome.

I said money. And so now you have to go through all the things that we have to apply money to. Yes. It's forever going.