WWUTT 2500 Q&A Clapping in Church, Sports Gambling, Happy Reformation Day

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Is it okay to clap in church? Is sports betting all right?

00:06

Gambling, is that a sin? And in communion, do the bread and the cup change into anything?

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The answers to these questions when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, a daily

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Bible commentary in the word of Christ, that we may grow in the knowledge of his will. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt

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.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Starting with Psalm 24.

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The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.

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For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the

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Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

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He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

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Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the

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God of Jacob, Selah. Welcome to the Friday edition of the broadcast.

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This is when we understand the text, when we take questions from the listeners, and you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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or send us a voicemail to www .utt .com.

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Click on that voicemail tab, record a voicemail either from your phone or from your computer.

01:49

Babe. Yes. Happy Reformation Day. Woo, woo, yes.

01:55

I don't remember the last time we had an episode that actually fell on Reformation Day, October 31st.

02:01

Yeah, I don't know. This would be the 508th, 508th anniversary, yep.

02:09

Is that it? Yep, 508 years, feels like it was just yesterday. I know, that's what I was thinking.

02:16

Feels like the 500th anniversary was just yesterday. Yes. Yeah, okay. Sorry, I was not there for the first one.

02:23

I thought it went without saying. I was right there, Luther nailing the thing to the door. I was part of that crowd.

02:29

I can still hear the hammer ringing in my ears. Somebody had posted on our church chat online, somebody had posted the picture of a bunch of Reese's hanging on the door and the pumpkin with Martin Luther's face on it.

02:47

Oh, funny. And they just posted it on the chat and said, I don't get it, what is this? The 95

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Theses. 95 Reese's, yeah, right. I made the comment,

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I got 95 Reese's and the Pope ain't one. Yep. That was what I said. Anyway, some people will get that joke.

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But since it is Reformation Day, we do have something Roman Catholic we're gonna respond to here.

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It's actually something I'm making a video out of and I don't have it done. I'm hoping I will get it done on the 31st because it would be nice to post it on Reformation Day, but I don't know yet that I'm gonna make it, we'll find out.

03:27

But I'm still gonna play the audio clip and we'll do a response to it here in just a little bit. All right.

03:33

But in the meantime, let's get to a couple of questions here. I've got one email, one voicemail.

03:39

Okay. We're looking at this week. Awesome. So as opposed to last week when I tried to cram six into an hour.

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Well, I guess we did try. We went a little over. We did, hour and five or something, wasn't bad.

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It was pretty good. I mean, considering sometimes we only get one answered. That's true.

03:56

Yeah. So we did all that pretty well. So this is, these are the two.

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One is an email, one is a voicemail. So here we go. This is from Keith. Hey, Gabe and Becky, I love your ministry and I have benefited from it greatly.

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After getting married, I moved to my wife's church. It's great, doctrinally sound.

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One thing they do differently is that they clap at the end of each song.

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I guess like applause. So they applaud at the end of the song. I found it odd. My wife also thinks it's odd.

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This week, we have a church meeting to talk and vote on different things. I was considering bringing it up.

04:35

What are your thoughts? Is it important enough to bring up? So we're getting this in time for,

04:43

I guess the church meeting would be coming up on Sunday. Yeah, probably. And I just got this email this week. So we're answering it in a timely enough manner here.

04:51

I remember when I was a kid, I would have the chance to do the offertory in church.

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Whatever music is supposed to be playing while the offering plates are going around. Sometimes that was where my church would let special music be done.

05:07

Right. So somebody else could sing a song, play an instrument, whatever. And it was always strange to me when

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I would sing during offertory and I didn't get applause. Okay. I was like, oh, come on.

05:21

I wouldn't want to clap. Okay. I want somebody to say good job. You know?

05:26

Sure. I was a kid. So anyway, I remember how stoic my church was growing up.

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There was never any applause, never anything. It was just kind of like dead silence when they began the next thing.

05:38

Right, yeah. And then the pastor came up and started preaching right after that. Well, at least he didn't interrupt, I suppose.

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So it happened a few times. Like there would be a rare occasion where one or two people would start clapping and then that would get everybody clapping.

05:53

Sure. But it was still kind of this awkward, you know, trickle of - Do we, do we not? Exactly, right. Do I join in?

05:59

How long is this gonna go? Am I gonna get into class or? I'm doing it. Yeah. Oh, that person's not clapping.

06:05

I'm gonna stop. Yeah. So it is different because generally in our church right now, we don't really do that.

06:14

No. But we don't have special music either, I guess. I mean, not really. Clapping after each song.

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I suppose that would be, you know, when you have the worship leader that would say something like, give a praise offering to God.

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And then everybody applauds. I always thought that was like, that's a cheap ask for an applause.

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You think this person's asking for applause to God, but it's just, I just want you to applause because it feels right after the song that you clap for me.

06:46

Yeah, I don't know. I'm not claiming to know their heart. It's just, you know, it's just funny. Well, I mean, to get down to the heart of it,

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I would ask why, like not everybody or the church as a whole, but like maybe ask one -on -one about somebody who's been there a little while that you can kind of trust and they can inform you of why they clap if it's like impulse, you know?

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Cause I mean, that's what you do after somebody performs as you clap. Or if it's like, oh no, we do that because of this and this and this and this, you know?

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I mean, they could be, there could be a reason behind it. I mean, you could say out of Psalm 47 one, somebody could give this defense and say, clap your hands, all peoples, shout to God with loud songs of joy.

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Yeah, exactly. So you could - Could go together. Right, yeah. And that could be their thought behind it. You could say, this is our obedience to the

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Psalms. We sing as the scriptures tell us to do. And now we're also, we're clapping our hands.

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Psalm 98, eight, let the rivers clap their hands. If the rivers can clap their hands, can we be clapping our hands in church?

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Sure. I guess in my response to this, we're just kind of bantering about it.

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Yeah. It's like, I don't really see it as that big a deal. No. When we don't do it. I mean, it's awkward if you haven't been there, but I'm sure you'll get used to it over time too.

08:16

Yeah. And then if you don't feel led to clap, then don't clap, you know? Yeah, don't clap. It's not that big of a deal. Right, it's just the same as like putting your hands up.

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Right. You know, if you don't wanna put your hands in the air, don't put your hands in the air.

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Right. And I'm not looking around in the audience going, okay, who's got their hands up? I'm gonna go tell them to put them down.

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I think we can get a little gun shy sometimes about some amounts of charismaticism. Okay. When, you know, it's perfectly fine.

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If a person wants to say amen. Right. We have enough of that that goes on in the congregation of people agreeing with what

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I'm preaching. Yeah. That if there's nothing there, it's now gotten to the point for me where if it's just quiet,

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I'm going, okay, something's wrong. Maybe you're not getting what I'm saying. Let me dive this a little bit further.

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Yeah, right. Let me hit this again. I'll try to reword it another way until I hear an amen. Just because we get it so often from our congregation.

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Now I'm used to it. It's not that I expect people to just say amens when I'm preaching, but you know, we have a few in our church that like to say that and I've come to expect that.

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So this could be the same kind of a thing where he's used to a quieter service and now we're applauding at the end of songs.

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Yeah. Just seems a little unusual for what he's used to. Yeah. But Keith, I would tell you, not really to bring it up at a business meeting.

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Especially not since you're new there. Or I guess you could just bring it up and say, hey,

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I come from a background where there's not a lot of applause during the worship service.

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Everybody's applauding after songs. I was just curious if somebody could tell me why we do that.

09:55

Yeah, but then if there's not a reason why, then it's gonna make it awkward. That's why we're speaking one -on -one, you know, with like somebody who's been there for a long time, who has like the no.

10:05

If there's not a reason why, I guess maybe asking the question would be enough to make people go, yeah, why do we do that?

10:12

Okay, fair. I guess it depends on your personality. I mean, we should do all things in worship deliberately.

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So if we don't know why we're doing that. True. I guess it would be. But I would not have the guts to do that.

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That's why I'm saying it depends on his personality. True. I'm more of behind the scenes kind of person.

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Yeah. So I guess Keith, I'm a little on the fence about it. I mean, you could bring it up or you could just let it go.

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I don't know. It's up to you. I mean, as long as it's in the appropriate places, I probably would just let it slide, honestly, but I don't know.

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Yeah. But like you said, we should be doing everything deliberately, so. Yeah. I don't know.

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That's a regulative principle of worship. You know, if the scripture says it, then it's fitting for worship.

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True. So we're not gonna do anything outside of what the scripture tells us with regards to what corporate worship is supposed to look like among the body of Christ.

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Amen. And like I said, you can make a case from the Psalms that there is clapping and worship. Yeah. People even clapping along to songs.

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Yes. And dancing. Yeah, we're not going that far. Hold on there.

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Hold on. Oh, wait, they were outside for that. Nevermind.

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There was a - Heading up to the mountain, right? Or the temple?

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No, yeah, heading into Jerusalem. Into Jerusalem. With the Ark of God. Yes, that's what it was. David was dancing, yeah.

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And you still have like in Psalm 30 where it says, you've turned my morning into dancing. Or Psalm 149.

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So this is at the very end of the Psalms. This is like the summary Psalms when you're getting to the very end of the

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Psalter. Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.

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So some have used that passage to say dancing in the worship service is acceptable. I actually attended a church when

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I was in college that did this. And they had a group of people who took dance classes together at the church outside of worship.

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And then they would dance in whatever dance they learned in those classes. They would go around the sanctuary dancing.

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And this was my charismatic days. Okay. I'm just saying. I would find that awkward coming from a

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Catholic background. So, I mean, very awkward. I mean, I would find it awkward now. I probably found it awkward then.

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We let the silence set. Oh yeah. Like where the background noise, the background, not noises, but music and stuff like that.

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Like if somebody coughs, you're like, what's going on over there? Right. But even when it's at the end of the

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Psalms, Psalm 150, praise him with tambourine and dance. So even when it's at the end of the Psalms, it's still worth asking in what context.

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We're just talking about dancing in corporate worship or is it dancing in another context? So anyway, all that plays into the regulative principle of worship.

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Sure. Definitely. Does the Bible say it? Therefore, is it acceptable? I'm gonna give Keith a heart attack now.

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It's like, man, we've gone from clapping to dancing. Oh my goodness. There was that parody song years ago.

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It was, I could have danced all night from My Fair Lady. Okay. And the lyric was,

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I cannot dance tonight or any other night because I'm Southern Baptist.

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Oh. All right, so moving on from that, this is a voicemail from Spencer.

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Here we go. Hi, Pastor Gabe, Spencer from South Florida. I was listening to your yearly recap of 2024 where you mentioned sports betting has reached an all -time high.

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It's very odd to me because I never watched traditional sports growing up.

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I mainly watched combat sports where the gambling is kind of baked into those kinds of sports. But in the recent years,

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I'm very surprised to see how ads for sports betting are just bombarding regular sports. Recently, our men's group at church, this topic was brought up and several of our guys mentioned they regularly participate in sports betting.

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And that kind of got a conversation started among the group where even though most of our guys will not physically walk into a casino, they don't see anything wrong with sports betting.

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So here's my question to you. What does the Bible say about gambling or sports betting in general?

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And can one remain a faithful Christian and still participate in those? Thank you.

14:53

Well, thank you for your question. I actually had to go back to my article and figure out what it was that I said about this exactly.

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So this was the year end article at the conclusion of 2024. And here's kind of the notes.

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I can't remember, did you do the top 40 biggest events of the year with me? I don't think so.

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I don't think you did. There was something that I missed. I don't remember which one it was though. It might've been that one.

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Anyway, so, oh, it could have been, you just did one half with me. Maybe it was just the top 20 we did.

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That could be. Anyway. Something came up. So this was back in February of last year where online sports gambling reached an all -time high.

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It's even worse now. Oh, goodness. So, I mean, we're a year and a half later and it's already worse. Well, yeah, it's in everybody's pocket. Yeah. So you got smartphones.

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Well, the NBA opened up to sports gambling. I think there was a story this week on Albert Mueller's podcast.

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I think this was on Monday about sports gambling. Well, the big fiasco that just recently happened in the

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NBA. Anyway, I'll bring that up here in a second. But here was what I said in the news article that I had somewhat posted at the end of 2024.

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It took 89 years to go from one state with legalized sports betting to two states.

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89 years. Wow. It has taken less than six years to go from two states to 39 states.

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Yikes. With Missouri last year becoming the most recent to legalize online sports betting.

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And that may have increased since. I don't know if more states have been added since then. But anyway, in 2024 alone,

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Americans wagered over $20 billion in the Super Bowl and would later wager billions more during March Madness.

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Now, why is this considered a Christian crisis? Because my end of the year story are 40 of the biggest stories that have happened in Christianity.

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So why would I include this as a Christian headline? Well, because in states like Alabama and Texas where sports betting was not yet legal, and I'm guessing is still not yet legal, the strongest opponents against it are

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Christians. So many Christians in those red states were preventing those states from becoming heavy gambling states.

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And you'll always hear whenever a state starts pushing toward legalizing gambling, or maybe they will cover it in language like we're expanding the lottery.

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The clever. And when they start doing that, what you will hear, one of the main arguments that you will hear is that our neighboring states, it's legal there.

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And so all of those tax dollars are going to those states and we're losing that tax revenue for our state.

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So we need to make gambling legal in our state so that we can have that tax revenue, which is absurd justification for -

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Of course. Let's make gambling legal. Why is gambling illegal? And why is it that the

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Gambling Commission itself considers gambling a health crisis?

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Because it's addicting. Exactly. It leads to ruin. There are people that have gotten into so much debt from gambling, they can't ever get out of it.

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There are people that will have bookies that they owe. There's a lot of crime associated with gambling.

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On the way other end of that, where it's just like, we're just doing it for fun.

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So my friends would come back from going to a casino and they were like, look, I won 20 bucks.

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And I'm like, well, that's great. How much did you spend? I'm thinking like dimes, because those are little slot things.

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Nickel slot machines. Yeah, the nickel slot. And they're like, oh, probably about 7 ,500.

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I'm like, what, what, what, what, what? Then you didn't win $20. You didn't win. You just lost 80.

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Like there's your whole paycheck. Two of my brothers went to Vegas because a friend of theirs was getting married and they got married in Vegas.

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And so of course they went to the casinos and stuff like this. My brother

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Jacob was really big into blackjack. So he's trying to win big at the blackjack tables.

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He thinks that he can do it. And then my other brother Jesse was really not into gambling at all.

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He was just there to have fun. Jacob lost hundreds of dollars in blackjack. My brother

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Jesse just takes a token and goes up to a slot machine and puts it in a slot machine and pulls the handle, jackpot.

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And he won. Yeah, right. Yeah, of course. And it wasn't like thousands of dollars. It was just a few hundred. But he's still like, you know, got this bucket full of coins or tokens or whatever.

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And he goes over to my brother Jacob at the blackjack table and he just slams the bucket down. And he's like,

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Jacob, stop playing blackjack. We're getting out of here. And on the way home,

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Jacob had said, if I could go back and confront myself 14 hours ago,

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I would punch that guy in the face. Right, exactly. Don't sit down at the table and gamble.

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Right. It's kind of understood. I think we just understand how destructive it can be, how dangerous it is to get into gambling.

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Definitely. And you're not investing in anything. The Bible actually says quite a bit about investing.

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It's wise to invest. Right. Invest for your future, invest for your children. But gambling is not that.

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Gambling is like, you go to somebody who's got a 20 -sided die. Okay. All right, here's a hundred dollars.

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I'm gonna put a hundred bucks on four. Okay. And then the odds that you're gonna roll a four on that 20 -sided die.

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On that next roll. Yeah, exactly. So that you could, I mean, it's not a coin flip. It's not even a six -sided die. And I'm even giving you better odds by saying a 20 -sided die.

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That's true. You're always playing the house and the odds are always in the house's favor.

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So this is not something through which a person can get rich quick.

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It happens very seldomly. Unless you own the casino. Yeah, right, yeah. If you're owning the casino, then you're probably making a whole lot of money.

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But other than that, this is not the way that God has encouraged us to use our money.

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We are told in scripture to be good stewards with those things that God has given to us.

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And even the money that we make, it comes from God. So Colossians chapter three, where it says, remember that you work first for God before you work for man.

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So your employer, yeah, you have to serve your employer. You have to do what it is that he tells you to do or you're gonna lose your job.

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That's part of stewarding the job that you have. But ultimately doing a good job is first for God before it's for your employer or even for yourself or for your family.

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You do it first and foremost for the Lord. But in gambling, we're squandering God given resources.

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Remember in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 verses 14 through 30,

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Jesus teaches there that believers are supposed to be good stewards entrusted with wealth, investing wisely for God's kingdom.

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Now, of course, this is about more than money in this parable, but you're still talking about a master going on a journey.

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He gives three servants several amounts of money. One receives 10, one receives five, one receives one talent.

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And then when he comes back, the guy who has the 10 talents, he's invested it, now he's got 20.

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The guy who had five talents, he has invested it and now he's got 10. But the guy has the one talent goes, see,

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I knew you were a hard man to please. So I went and buried my talent and it's safe, here it is.

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And you get your talent back. And the master says, you wicked servant.

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You could have at least put the talent in the bank and gotten it back at interest.

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But because you haven't done anything, you haven't been a good steward with what I gave to you.

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I'm gonna take it from you. I'm gonna give to the guy who has the 10 and then he's gonna be thrown out with the hypocrites.

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So even though the talent is supposed to represent something else, still, you're talking about amounts of money that serve as examples and none of those men use that money or play it on chance.

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Even the guy who was called wicked, he just didn't do anything at all. Right, he buried it.

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Right, he didn't try to gamble it and lose it. He didn't even lose it. And yet he was called wicked.

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True. And gambling would be even worse than that. So consider

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Proverbs 21 five, the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance but everyone who tries to get rich in a hasty way only comes to poverty.

24:17

Which is so true. I mean, all of those that win the lottery usually end up going bankrupt.

24:23

Oh, people who win the lottery talk about how miserable they were after they won the lottery. Right. I've never played the lottery in my life.

24:30

Never bought a lottery ticket. I'm not saying that to be holier than thou. It's just, I've seen no value in it.

24:38

Yeah. Even when they say, when you turn 18, you need to go buy a lottery ticket. I didn't even do it then or is it 21?

24:44

I don't remember when you're old enough now to finally play lottery. It used to be 18. I don't know about now.

24:51

I guess it depends by state or something. True, that's true. Yeah, I've never even done that before. I've never played slot machines.

24:57

I mean, I've gotten together with friends and we've played poker and it's a five or 10 or $20 buy -in or something like that.

25:05

And we've done that just for fun. And then if you win, you take that money and you invest it in the next time we get together and play poker.

25:14

Right, you're the one that buys the pizza. Right, yeah, something like that, yeah. It's just what you would do to get together and have fun.

25:21

And like you said, I've had friends too that would go to the casino and they would put $100 limit on themselves or something like that.

25:28

I think I had a friend one time that won 300 bucks. So he goes and he spends 100 and then after what he got back, his net gain was $300.

25:38

But it wasn't that big a deal. It was just, this was the way we go out and spend a

25:43

Friday night. And I would be blowing this on whatever, if we went to a theme park or something that could cost that much money.

25:50

Exactly. So we just decided to go to the casino. That's fair. And I've spent the money there. I don't know that I'm okay with that even, just on a personal level.

25:58

I'll let that be between you and God. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Like if it's just for entertainment, okay, whatever.

26:04

But if you're like counting on it or if you don't set your limit and stick to it or if you know that you can't do that, can't stick to your limit, then don't test yourself.

26:16

I mean. It's not worth it. When you're talking about gambling, there's no work involved in gambling. I know that people who are professional gamblers would strongly disagree with that.

26:25

Touche. But there's no work. 2 Thessalonians 3 .10, if he's not willing to work, let him not eat. Ephesians 4 .28,

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let each person work with his hands so that he gains something, he earns something that he might share with others.

26:38

And when you're taking money that God has given to you to be a good steward with and you squander it and you lose it, that was money that you could have used to bless somebody else with even.

26:50

True. But now you're just out that money. You're never gonna gain it back. Yeah. As much as you wanna try to qualify it as, well,

26:58

I'll gamble again and again and again until I make it back. You have no guarantee you're gonna do that. You're just continuing to play the odds.

27:04

Yeah. Thinking that you're ever going to get this money back. And like I said, there are way many more stories of people who have gone to ruin over this.

27:10

If you're wanting to just waste the money, it's fine. You can send it to a ministry or like the people who need help with the, after the hurricane hit.

27:21

And have it go to something good. Yeah. And send God's name with it.

27:27

Right. This is also a matter of covetousness. It's desiring somebody else's money.

27:36

Gamblers want others' money without earning it. Hebrews 13, five says, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.

27:45

Sports, betting, fuels, discontent, and you're -

27:51

And anger. Yeah, right. Oh yeah, heaven's sake. I know a lot of people who gamble that are angry at the world, like everything.

28:00

And it doesn't matter. They're just angry. Yeah. And it's probably from the discontent.

28:07

And Spencer is right that this is everywhere now. Oh, it is. Who was it?

28:12

Joel, I can't remember his last name. Works for the Babylon Bee. Anyway, he posted something on X recently where he talked about how he wished conservative podcasters,

28:22

I can't remember how he worded it, but something about so many conservative podcasters have ads now for sports betting.

28:28

Really? Yeah. Wow. And yeah, I had that same reaction. So I asked him like, who is it?

28:34

And he just, he laughed and said, everybody. Oh man. Now, since I haven't listened to those shows,

28:40

I'm not gonna speculate on who it might happen to be or who he was listening to that it could have been. But a lot of the major conservative podcasters right now are running ads on their podcasts for sports betting.

28:53

That's crazy. I know some of the names off the top of my head of like these sports betting sites, but I'm not gonna say them.

29:00

Sure. Because I don't wanna cause anybody to stumble. Just from what I've seen, watching

29:05

YouTube videos or whatever. I know it's out there. It is. But it's just astounding that they would put it purposefully on their site or their podcast.

29:16

And like you said, it leads to addiction, which destroys families. It mirrors drunkenness.

29:23

Yes. Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled by the spirit. As said in Ephesians 5 .18, it preys on the poor.

29:30

I remember. That it does. There was a column, there was a Christian writer who had written a column on playing the lottery and how the lottery, the way that it's built and who it preys upon is primarily the poor.

29:45

This is the vast number of people who buy lottery tickets are lower class or in poverty because they're thinking that through a lottery ticket that I can get out of this pit that I am in.

29:56

Right. And so the way that whole system is built and it's run by the state. The lottery is run by the state.

30:02

Yeah. And it preys upon the poor. And when you buy it and you play into it, then you're playing into a system that is inherently built to prey on the poor.

30:12

So gambling is, like we said, playing the odds. It's idolizing uncertainty.

30:19

It's not trusting in God. It's going after chance. Remember that Proverbs 16 .33

30:25

says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. And so a gambler is trusting in the rolled dice.

30:33

Right. And not in God. Right, the creator. Right. Now, even where that dice ends up, that's still by the hand of God, but you're not trusting in God.

30:42

You're trusting in the object of your gambling addiction. This thing is what's going to make me rich, is what's going to give me money.

30:52

Covening after things. So it dishonors God by rejecting stewardship. It's covening, it embraces greed, and it's just way too high a risk.

31:03

Spencer says, you know, can a Christian do this and still be faithful? Jesus said, you cannot serve God and mammon.

31:10

And it's contrary to what God expects of us, taking care of those things that he has given to us, including our families.

31:17

Yes. It would be entirely reckless of me. There's a casino just, you know, less than half an hour from here.

31:22

Yeah. It would be reckless of me to take a paycheck and go, well, we need the money.

31:27

Let me go down there to the casino. See what I can get. See what I can get. I lose all of that.

31:33

We're down a whole paycheck. Yep. That would be hard. And what kind of a pit would that be to get out of that?

31:38

I have actually not taken care of my family. I've done exactly the opposite. Right. So this is the reason why knowing -

31:45

Slippery slope. It is, it very much is. Gambling will get you that way. There are some people that can say they can do it just for fun.

31:51

And again, if you've got a limit on yourself and you're gonna do it just for fun, I'll let that be between you and God.

31:58

That takes a lot of self -control. But this is, it's still a fixed system. It is. And it's fixed against you.

32:03

And you know that and you go into it trying to play it anyway. Right. But anyway, the reason why

32:10

I started with Psalm 24 is because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.

32:21

This all belongs to God. So how are you handling that which

32:26

God has given to you? Are you handling it as if you know this is ultimately the

32:32

Lord's? And like I said, it's good to invest. And sometimes investing can, well,

32:38

I won't say sometimes, it always. Investing has risk to it as well. Oh yeah, for sure. You could invest in something that completely fails.

32:45

But you're still investing in something. There's something tangible. There's something of worth that you're putting money toward.

32:53

But we make those investments to the Lord. We put all of those things in God's hands.

32:59

We understand that as the Lord wills, we will do this or that. And not trying to play the odds and get rich quick.

33:08

But instead, working hard, doing according to what God's word says, and giving all the glory to him.

33:14

Yeah, amen. So anyway, great question, Spencer, and I appreciate that.

33:20

Oh, I was gonna read this article from Albert Muller. I never even got to this. So yeah, this was on Monday.

33:26

He said, the big headline that we have to deal with today has to do with organized gambling and professional sports. In particular, the

33:31

NBA, the National Basketball Association. The big headline that came Friday, so this was a week ago, had to do with the fact that on Thursday, eight days ago, federal officials arrested

33:44

Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rosier.

33:50

They were charged that very day as what the Wall Street Journal explains is part of a sweeping investigation into illegal gambling, rigged poker games, and match fixing in the

34:02

NBA. Another line in the Wall Street Journal, federal prosecutors unveiled an indictment against more than two dozen defendants that outlined a major scheme backed by organized crime families to run corrupt poker games and lure in victims by offering them a chance to play alongside famous figures, including

34:23

Billups. Then a former player and a former NBA player and assistant coach Desmond James.

34:29

So here's another part. The revelations instantly ranked among the most damaging in NBA history, throwing into question the integrity of its product.

34:38

Just six years after the NBA opened its doors to the lucrative legalized gambling industry, what had been

34:45

US sports ultimate taboo quickly became part of the business model for the major leagues and put an endless menu of bets at the fingertips of most

34:55

Americans. Goodness. So there you go. That sounds like a, oh, quite a -

35:03

All sorts of scandal in the NBA. I can't remember how many years ago it was there was that referee that got picked up who was fixing games.

35:10

Oh yeah. I don't remember who it was though. I don't remember that either. I mean, that was a big deal. I even watched a documentary on it, but I can't remember the guy's name now.

35:18

Anyway, I kind of stopped watching professional sports. This would have been right around the time

35:25

COVID hit, I guess. I mean, I still watch it. I still watch baseball. It was back when they started like not just kneeling during the

35:36

Star -Spangled Banner, but also when they started promoting the Black Lives Matter.

35:43

Yeah, there was a lot of that, but that was primarily in 2020, if memory serves. I thought it was earlier, a little earlier than that, but I could be wrong.

35:51

I mean, that year was particularly bad because that was the summer of George Floyd and all the rioting that took place.

35:56

That was all in 2020. And then your team that you really, really love for like all time started doing something absurd.

36:06

Oh, it was the LGBTQ Nights instead of like gay games. Yeah, that's what it was.

36:12

And so then we were like, okay, we're done. I'm just not gonna watch it that much anymore.

36:18

I mean, they brought in all, it couldn't just be sports anymore. It couldn't, it couldn't. They were bringing all this politics, especially the identity propaganda.

36:26

And it just was like, I just, I can't enjoy this anymore. So I still watch baseball. I still catch it every once in a while.

36:32

I've been watching the World Series games because my dad and I have been talking about it. But yeah,

36:38

I mean, other than that, it's - That's about it. I haven't watched the

36:43

NBA in years because they got really bad. Of all of the franchise sports, the

36:50

NBA seemed to be the worst about the identity politics stuff. So that was driving me crazy.

36:55

But football, I'll tell you what, it was not even really, it wasn't so much the identity politics that was causing me to be disinterested in the

37:05

NFL. I was sick and tired of watching Tom Brady win the Super Bowl. I just was done with it.

37:12

I was like, I don't wanna watch another Tom Brady Super Bowl. I used to watch a lot of football.

37:19

And then when - I love football. When the college ball changed the way that playoffs are done or the way that the bowl games were done, it just, yeah, even that, it just wasn't as much fun anymore.

37:31

I don't know. I think it was a lot of politics. Even in the NCAA, there's a lot of politics.

37:38

So when stuff started getting in there, that for me, it was just like, I just can't enjoy the game anymore. And I just wasn't watching it.

37:44

But I go to all my kids' games. I get into it. I root for my kids. I love sports.

37:50

But as busy as I am, whenever I get really, really busy, the first thing to go is always sports.

37:56

And right now I'm as busy as I think I've ever been. It's quite possible. Especially with the kids and everything.

38:03

So I just don't watch it as much anymore. But yeah, it's disappointing that it can't just be sports. So, all right, we got this last thing to get to here.

38:11

And this isn't a question. I don't have an email or a voicemail to get to regarding this.

38:16

But this, like I said, I was putting a video together on this. This is

38:21

Mike Schmitz. And he's a very famous Roman Catholic priest. A very popular priest.

38:27

He's like a pop culture priest. Okay. And you've probably seen videos of him everywhere. He's been on some of the most famous podcasts.

38:35

Like he's been on Pints with Aquinas. And Megyn Kelly's show. He's been on Fox News.

38:41

He's got the YouTube channel Ascension Presents. At one point his podcast was the most listened to podcast in the world.

38:48

I think it still ranks in the top 20 where he goes through the Bible. He also live streamed sermons on YouTube.

38:56

So this is from one of those sermons where he's talking about the mass or he's talking about the

39:01

Eucharist itself. The practice of mass, of partaking in the Eucharist and the cup.

39:07

And how Jesus said this is my body and this is my blood. And as surely you know, as you're a former

39:14

Catholic, that they believe that bread and that cup really turns into the body and blood of Jesus.

39:22

Right. So Mike Schmitz is giving an apologetic here. And you're supposed to believe it. Yeah. And it happens kind of thing.

39:29

Right. Right. So they have the true communion. They have the only communion. Right. To have the kind of communion that is necessary for eternal life, you have to take it in the

39:39

Roman Catholic Church. Yes. So Mike Schmitz is giving an apologetic here for why this has to be

39:44

Christ's body and it has to be Christ's blood. And this is our Reformation Day response here.

39:50

Okay. So here he is talking about his own experience with this. I'm about six and a half minutes into the sermon where I'm hitting play here.

39:58

I was so convicted by Jesus's truly presence in the Eucharist that I was like, okay, I want to give my whole life. I want to study this.

40:04

I want to learn more. I went to a college and I've told this story too. I don't mean to beat a dead horse.

40:09

But I went to this college, went to a Catholic school. And by the time I graduated, I was going to Mass every single day because that's

40:16

Jesus in the Eucharist. I was a missionary at a Catholic mission and I hated the Catholic Church. But I wasn't going to leave because, well, the

40:23

Eucharist. So I was one of those kind of like, you know, I guess you might say cafeteria type Catholic where I was like, no, the

40:29

Eucharist is true. The other stuff is optional. That's interesting to say.

40:34

Now I've looked in his bio and he's grown up Catholic. So he was baptized as a baby and he's grown up in the

40:41

Roman Catholic Church's entire life, all the way up to becoming a priest. So he's never had, you know, experienced religious practice or the worship of Jesus outside of Roman Catholicism.

40:55

So at some point he gets really fed up with all of the Roman Catholic practices, but he is 100 % absolutely convinced that the body and blood of Jesus is the real communion.

41:05

And that's what keeps him from going away. That's quite a convincing tool that the

41:13

Romanists, the Papists use to keep people like, yeah, you can not like all the other stuff, but where else are you going to get the body and the blood?

41:21

Right, well, when they told me this, I was grossed out. I was like, I am not eating that ever again.

41:29

Like, that was my question too, back to that person. That I was like, so I'm actually eating skin, like body and his blood?

41:42

Oh, I was just so grossed out. Well, you know,

41:47

I love how in our confession, it says, listen, it's common sense that this is not turning into the body and the blood of Jesus.

42:00

Anyway, we'll keep going here. I'm so grateful to the Lord for that because I would have run away.

42:06

I would have walked away if it hadn't been this deep abiding conviction that this is truly

42:12

Jesus in the Eucharist. And if it's not, this is the miracle thing. If it's not, then what are we doing?

42:18

Not just we're wasting our time. If this is not Jesus, it's not like we're wasting our time. I mean, think about going back to the, Robert Bellarmine, he was a saint at the time of the

42:26

Reformation. He was one of the counter reformers, basically. So Martin Luther and some others had pointed out real corruption in the church.

42:31

They put out real brokenness in the church. And so it wasn't like the church was like, no, we're fine. The many in the church were like, yes, you're right.

42:37

There is real brokenness. There is real corruption. Robert Bellarmine was one of these guys. At the same time, his solution wasn't to abandon the church.

42:43

His solution was to be converted himself and then to help other people be converted. His solution wasn't leave the church.

42:50

His solution was lead the church in conversion. And so Robert Bellarmine is having this debate, right, with a

42:55

Protestant reformer who was. Okay, just stop there for a second. So even among the Protestant reformers, their solution was not to leave the church either.

43:03

Right. That's not what they wanted. It's a misconception, I think. Yeah, this is why they're called reformers. They wanted to reform the church.

43:10

Right. So they weren't interested in leaving the Catholic church. Martin Luther especially didn't wanna leave Roman Catholicism.

43:16

But eventually it got to the point where we are not going to see the reforms that we know need to be seen in order for the light of the gospel to shine.

43:27

Roman Catholicism is not going to let it shine. Right. It is apostate, it is far from the truth.

43:33

And when you get to the Council of Trent, which was Rome's response to the

43:38

Protestant Reformation, that was pretty much Roman Catholicism setting in stone. Yes, we are actually doing all the things that reformers accused us of doing.

43:47

We do believe all the things that the reformers accused us of believing. And that became the

43:53

Council of Trent. And all of the anathemas that they passed, if anyone says that salvation is by grace through faith alone, he's anathema, even though that's what

44:03

Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 say. Right. So through the anathemas, through what you see

44:10

Rome cursing people for believing is where you see them solidify these are the doctrines that we believe and teach.

44:19

By the way, I just saw a new story. This is coming out on, when's the 4th?

44:24

When is November the 4th? Tuesday? The 1st is Saturday, so the 4th would be Tuesday. Coming up on Tuesday, the

44:33

Roman Catholic Church is making some announcement about a Marian dogma, or rather a

44:40

Marian, sorry, a Marian doctrine, not dogma, about the role that she plays in salvation, which some are hoping will turn into a dogma.

44:51

So they want it to be a Marian dogma that she is a co -redemptress with Christ in salvation.

45:01

And there are many people that have been pushing for this for years. Mary or Marian? Mary. Okay, Mary. Mary, yes.

45:07

Marian is, are those teachings or those doctrines that pertain to Mary.

45:13

Okay. So that's why I was saying Marian, not Marium, but Marian. Right. I thought you said Marium at first, and then

45:19

I was like, wait, I don't think that's right. Yeah. So anyway. So we're actually on the verge of another Marian dogma, it sounds like.

45:25

Oh my goodness. I don't know if that means Pope Leo will sit ex cathedra, or ex, what do you call that?

45:31

Whenever he sits in the chair of St. Peter. Oh, I don't know. And the issues that divine

45:37

God ordained decree, this is now a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. I just know it happens.

45:42

I don't know what it's called though. But yeah. Yeah, anyway, let's keep going with this. Basically denying

45:48

Jesus's presence in the Eucharist. And he's saying, this is not his body. This is merely a symbol. And Robert Bellarmine is kind of a jokester.

45:55

At one point he got up and he said, okay, let me sum up your argument. Your argument is this is not Jesus's body.

46:01

He says, but in the gospels, Jesus says very clearly, this is my body. So he said, you're saying this is not his body.

46:07

Jesus said, this is my body. If you were me, who do you think I should believe? Now, could

46:12

Jesus possibly have been speaking metaphorically? No. It's astonishing to me that that's not even allowed.

46:21

You're not even allowed to consider that this could be metaphorical. Jesus said, I am the door. He said,

46:27

I am the vine, you are the branches. He's breaking bread and passing it to his disciples and saying, this is my body.

46:33

They did not have anything in their minds to think, oh, wow, he's handing us his flesh.

46:39

They had no idea what was going on. Jesus was talking about going and being arrested and put to death and rising again on the third day.

46:48

They didn't even know what that meant. The scripture says they didn't dare ask him any questions because they were so confused about it.

46:56

But when Jesus is there with his disciples at the Passover, they're eating the

47:02

Passover and the Passover itself is a symbol, it's symbolic. It's a remembrance, meaning a memorial.

47:09

So it is a memorial meal to remember when God brought

47:15

Israel out of slavery in Egypt. And so this was something that was instituted by God for Israel.

47:23

And they were always supposed to celebrate it at exactly this time. And the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed in Jerusalem.

47:28

We just talked about this, what, a couple of weeks ago on the podcast. And so he's there with his disciples at the

47:35

Passover meal. He took bread and after blessing it, he broke it.

47:40

And he gave it to the disciples and said, take and eat, this is my body. Okay, that's

47:46

Matthew 26, 26. Let me go on to the next verse. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink of it all of you.

47:55

For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

48:01

I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when

48:08

I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. It didn't become his blood, it was still the fruit of the vine.

48:16

When Jesus said, this is my body, this is my blood, it's even before he had gone to the cross and sacrificed himself.

48:24

His body had not yet been pierced, his blood has not yet been shed. And the disciples are not receiving that going, oh, bread, that's flesh.

48:36

The cup is his blood, you know? Yeah. Like how grossed out you were, yeah, right.

48:43

It's nothing like that in the disciples at all. Jesus explicitly calls the cup, the fruit of the vine after saying, this is my blood of the covenant.

48:53

It's still the fruit of the vine. It symbolizes his blood.

48:58

Now, is Jesus with us when we eat and drink? 100%, these are more than just symbols.

49:05

They are something sacred. This is a treasured practice, but not because the symbols themselves have been transformed into something sacred, but because the people who partake in them are made sacred by the

49:19

Holy Spirit who dwells within us. The symbols in and of themselves, the bread and the cup are not inherently sacred items as much as the priest will handle them a certain way and even discard of them a certain way because they're considered to be the actual body and blood of Jesus.

49:38

We can't let these things just be poured out into the ground. Yeah. I once asked a

49:43

Roman Catholic, so all this great care that you take with the bread and with the cup, you can't let it fall on the ground or anything else.

49:51

Do you remember this? Yeah. Okay. I said, so you eat it and then what happens to it?

50:00

Now, I'm sure a priest would give me a different answer to this or some Roman Catholic apologist, but I'm just talking to a

50:07

Roman Catholic. And I said, what happens after you eat it? Well, it goes into my stomach, right?

50:14

And then what? What ends up happening to this food that you ate?

50:22

So do you defecate Christ? And he was appalled that I was asking that, but he didn't have an answer to that question.

50:32

So, it's like, I don't really think you've thought this through of what you're doing and what ends up happening to what you consume.

50:41

But anyway, so Jesus himself said that the food goes into the stomach and then it's expelled. And you are not made holy by what you eat.

50:49

Right. That includes the bread and the cup. That's true. Doesn't make you holier than you were before you partook in it.

50:56

So anyway, let me come back to the video. I pulled this down. Because that's what it comes down to. It comes down to like, this is

51:02

Jesus or it's not. It either is at every mass, the body, blood, soul, and the divinity of Jesus or it's not.

51:07

And the stakes are not, again, like we're just wasting our time if it's not. The stakes are higher. We run a camp every summer with our junior high students and high school students work there, college students and adults.

51:17

We all work together. It's an incredible couple of weeks. It's not a Catholic camp. The camp we put on is

51:23

Catholic, but the grounds are not. They belong to another Christian denomination. And at one point, the director of the camp, he came up to me and said, yeah, you know,

51:30

Father, the board of directors, we had a meeting and they're really concerned that we host

51:36

Catholics at our camp. It's like, oh, how come? And he said, well, one of the members of the board stood up and said, you know, that they believe, those

51:46

Catholics believe that at every mass, that really is Jesus. They worship bread and wine as if that is

51:51

God. They're committing idolatry on our campground, like in our facility.

51:57

Do we really want people to commit idolatry in our buildings, at our camp?

52:04

And he was like, and I told him, like, no, it's not that big of a deal. Actually, I looked at him. I was like, he's actually correct.

52:10

Like that, those are the stakes. You're right. He's right. That what we do, if it's not really

52:17

Jesus, then we are the worst idolaters in the history of humanity.

52:25

Boom. Yeah. That's quite an admission. Yeah. If this doesn't become the body and the blood of Jesus, if it doesn't become his flesh and his blood, then we are the worst idolaters in the history of humanity.

52:45

I could not have summarized it better myself. And that is why Roman Catholicism is so incredibly dangerous.

52:53

I remember hearing years and years ago, before I even spent any time listening to a lot of James White's material, which now at this point,

53:03

I have listened to a lot of videos of him, have seen him live many times. But this was like when James White was a new name to me.

53:10

I remember when he was talking about Roman Catholicism and talking about how the mass is everything in Roman Catholicism.

53:19

It all centers around the mass. And so if the mass breaks down, all the rest of Roman Catholicism breaks down with it.

53:27

And when he was putting so much emphasis on the mass, it was just like, I'd never considered that before. I mean, I've always heard of the prayers to Mary or the prayers to dead saints and that they don't teach justification by faith alone.

53:41

They don't believe in Sola Scriptura. So these are the kind of the main things that I've heard about Roman Catholicism.

53:46

I never even considered the mass or had heard about the mass. And so once he had said that, and I started paying attention myself to Catholic masses.

53:56

And when I'm seeing what's going on in the mass, I'm going, even as a young man,

54:01

I was looking at this going, this is really bad. This is idolatry that's going on here.

54:09

And the whole genuflection thing that goes on because you have the consecrated pieces of the host that have been put in the tabernacle inside the sanctuary so that you're praying to it or you're kneeling to it or you cross yourself and you do the genuflection because the belief is -

54:26

Or you do all of that. Yeah, the belief is God is physically in the room with us.

54:31

Right, right. That just blew my mind. I mean, that was like, this really is idolatry.

54:39

I mean, they may as well just put a golden calf up here and dance around it. I mean, they had Mary at the front. Yeah, I mean the -

54:47

On the sides, but still front. I haven't been to a lot of Catholic weddings, but a few and every single one of them, there's a point in the wedding where the couple goes over to Mary, goes over to the statue of Mary and kneels down in front of it.

55:03

At least one of the services - Asks for a blessing or something like that. Yeah, asks for a blessing on the marriage. I'm just like, this is insane.

55:12

Have none of y 'all read your Bible? Anyway, but yeah, there's our

55:19

Roman Catholic response on this Reformation Day. This is - And celebrate the

55:25

Reformation Day. Right, celebrate the gospel. Amen. That the gospel was, the light of the gospel was recovered, brought out from all that darkness that Roman Catholicism had put over it so that the gospel was hidden.

55:39

This is why the - I mean, how many years did it take for that to happen? Oh yeah, quite a while. But this was the mantra of the

55:47

Protestant Reformation being post -Tenebrous Luke's, out of darkness, light. Yes. So the light of the gospel could shine forth again.

55:54

And you know, there's, we often talk about the, well, sorry, the Protestant Reformation starting on Reformation Day.

56:01

It starts on October 31st. But yeah, there were men working this - All the way up.

56:06

All the way up. Martin Luther just happened to be the guy that took the 95 Theses, nailed them to the door.

56:12

And all he wanted to do was have a conversation. Right. He wasn't trying to launch the

56:17

Protestant Reformation. It was like the memo board or like the Twitter site of the town, you know, like -

56:23

Right, it was the town square. Whatever. People were posting their announcements on the church door.

56:28

Right. I've seen the one painting where Martin Luther is nailing his 95

56:34

Theses to the door and there's all these other bulletins on the door. And it's like, that's probably an accurate depiction of it.

56:41

Yeah. He did not think that in doing this, it was going to set off what would end up happening.

56:46

If he knew, he probably wouldn't have done it. Maybe. So by the providence of God.

56:53

I'm so glad that he did. No kidding. Oh my goodness. And you have a Bible today and you can read your Bible thanks to the

56:59

Protestant Reformation. Amen. So Mike Schmitz, Schmitz or Schmitt?

57:04

Nah, I can't remember now. Anyway, Mike Schmitz, who we just listened to, has that very popular podcast in which he's reading through the

57:11

Bible. That podcast will a lot of times be used by Roman Catholics against me when

57:17

I say Catholics don't want you reading your Bible. Are you kidding me? We have one of the most popular podcasts in the world with Mike Schmitz, who's literally reading through the

57:27

Bible. Okay, in the United States of America, Roman Catholics have to do that because the

57:34

Protestants have basically won out in the United States. Everybody has a Bible. The average

57:39

American has three Bibles in their home is generally the statistic. In my house, it's more like 50.

57:45

You know. It's a lot more Bibles. A little bit more than average. Got a few study Bibles, archeology

57:50

Bibles, you know, things like that. Anyway, I do like a good Bible. So the Protestants have the advantage in the

57:56

United States. So it's kind of like the Romanists have to play. Okay, fine.

58:02

We'll let you study your Bible, but you have to study it the way we tell you to study it. You go to other parts of the world and the

58:09

Roman Catholics are not as liberal or free with encouraging you to read your

58:15

Bible. So it's almost kind of like an American phenomenon. And Rome still doesn't want you reading the

58:22

Bible and studying it on your own. You have that implicit faith. Then you'll find the contradictions. Yeah, exactly, right.

58:28

You have that implicit faith thing in Roman Catholicism. Just do what the church tells you to do.

58:33

Believe what they tell you to believe. And then, oh, boom, okay. I've got faith and I'm saved. And whatever the

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Pope says. Right, whatever the Pope says goes. Even if it's contradictory. Kiss the ring, eat my bread and drink my cup, which is the literal flesh and blood of Jesus.

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And yeah, but it is idolatry. And this is the end of the first epistle that John wrote.

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The very last line, my little children, keep yourselves from idols. And this is an entire religion that's built around idolatry.

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So praise God for the Protestant Reformation. Happy to be a reformed Baptist to this day.

59:14

Amen. And continuing to proclaim the gospel to the glory of God. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.

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He rose again from the dead. And all who believe in him, by faith in him, you are justified.

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Your sins are forgiven and you have eternal life. Now, as a follower of Jesus Christ, you will follow

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Jesus. You will live in the righteousness that he has clothed you in, that you have received by faith.

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And so your works will therefore exhibit that you have been saved by Christ, but your works don't save you.

59:49

Ephesians 2, eight and nine. It is by grace you are saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.

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It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. But verse 10, you are

01:00:02

God's workmanship, created for good works in Christ Jesus, which he prepared for you beforehand that you should walk in them.

01:00:11

So you should be doing good works, but that's not what saves you. It's because you're saved, not to be saved.

01:00:19

Because without him, that is impossible. Yeah, and that's a message that you won't get in Roman Catholicism, because they'll call me a heretic for saying that.

01:00:27

Well, thank you again for listening to the program. And once again, you can send a question to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

01:00:34

or go to www .utt .com, click on the voicemail tab, record a voicemail from your phone or from your computer.

01:00:42

Babe, thank you so much for joining me. You're welcome. God bless you guys. Let's finish with prayer.

01:00:47

Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for the Reformation. We thank you for the gospel.

01:00:54

At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly, as said in the book of Romans. And at the right time, you sent somebody into our lives to share the gospel with us so that we would understand our sin and need for a savior and turn to the

01:01:07

Lord Jesus Christ and live. We are not saved through a priest. We're not saved through works.

01:01:14

We're not saved because the church has popishly declared us to be saved. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ.

01:01:21

We have been saved by God, by your mercy that has been shown to us through your son who died on the cross for us, who rose again from the grave.

01:01:31

All who believe in him will have eternal life and we will dwell forever with God in glory.

01:01:37

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. We ask these things in his name, amen. Amen. All right, babe.

01:01:53

Yes. So our outtake for this week is not something that we did say or mess up saying during the podcast, but something that we didn't say.

01:02:07

This is our 2 ,500th episode. Yes. 2 ,500 episodes.

01:02:14

It wasn't until - We need the applause button. Come on. Oh, yeah, yeah, right. You're slacking. I do this every time. I can't remember which one it is.

01:02:21

That wasn't it. No, no, no, no. Try again. There it is. Yay, woo -hoo.

01:02:30

2 ,500 episodes on Reformation Day. Amen, yes. I didn't realize we had hit that many episodes until I pulled the file that we had just recorded and I was saving it and I'm typing in 2 ,500.

01:02:45

I'm going, whoa. Yeah, go figure, huh? 2 ,500 episodes. That's awesome.

01:02:51

And that whole library is still there at www .podbean .com.

01:02:56

I think on Apple, you can only go back 500 or something like that. I don't think you can go back that far, but they're all still there.

01:03:05

And somebody sent me a wonderful archive listed all of the episodes and their links. And I just haven't gotten that up on the website yet.

01:03:12

Almost. Because we're probably gonna move it over to the church website. I don't know yet. Okay. Yeah.

01:03:18

Maybe. So before I build one page and have to rebuild it another place, it may end up there.

01:03:23

Anyway. That makes sense. So www .utt .com is where you can go for all of that. And we thank you for watching the videos and listening to the podcast.

01:03:33

Thank you. Because it's you, it's out of service to you that we've continued to do this. And whatever church we've been a part of has been encouraging us in this work as well.

01:03:43

Because that's how it started out in the very beginning. It was just a service to our church. We never expected to have the kind of audience that we have now.

01:03:51

So we thank you as always. Your prayers and support, just sharing the program with somebody else or commenting on the videos and -

01:03:59

Sending in emails. Oh, yes. Voicemails. Of course, we love to hear from you. Definitely. So email or voicemail.

01:04:06

And babe. Yes. Every single one of these episodes has had your voice in it.

01:04:12

Every one of them. Yep, that's true. Even if it's a prerecorded liner, but you've been there from the very beginning.

01:04:20

That's true. Thank you. You're welcome. It's been fun doing it with you. It has.

01:04:26

It's been really fun. And may God continue to bless us with more years to come. Exactly.