F4F | John Cameron Hijacks Romans 1

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith here on YouTube. I am Chris Rosebro, your servant in Jesus Christ.

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If you've ever witnessed a pastor hijack a biblical text, you're thinking, what is that?

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I'll explain it shortly, but the basic idea is they read a biblical text and then totally ignore what it says and what it means and basically hijack it and then make it about what they want to make it about.

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Yeah, if that's ever happened to you, go ahead and hit the subscribe button down below. Don't forget to like the video and ring the bell.

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Ring the bell, yeah, that way you can be notified when we update our channel because you've been taught false doctrine.

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That's a way of twisting up God's Word. Case in point, we're heading down to New Zealand to a

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Rise Church and vision casting leader John Cameron is going to read out a nice chunk of Romans chapter 1, like verses 18 to 24, 18 to 25, something like that, which is a good thing.

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That's a great, this is how you're supposed to start a sermon, is by actually taking a look at the text we're going to read out, but then he's gonna hijack it.

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Not even at gunpoint, he's gonna hijack it and then basically tear this thing out and make it want to be what he wants it to be about rather than what it is about, because it is about something, but it ain't about what he's trying to make it to be about.

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If that doesn't make any sense, just hang on, it will shortly. Let's jump into it.

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Here's John Cameron from a sermon titled, Thoughtpocalypse, as he hijacks

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Romans chapter 1. Alright, if you got a Bible, we're gonna dive straight into this this evening.

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Romans chapter 1 and verse 18 is our text for the night. We're bringing to close a...

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Again, this is the right way to start a sermon, with a biblical text. That's a good thing, if you rightly handle it though.

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...series this evening that honestly, it feels like we could just keep going on and on about it. The series is entitled,

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Thoughtpocalypse. Romans chapter 1 and verse 18 is what we're going to dive in, and it says the Word of God is being revealed, the wrath of God, sorry, is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

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For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

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Here's our key Scripture. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile.

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Now note, he's putting the emphasis on the, their thinking became futile.

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That's where he wants, that's the phrase he wants to key in on. And their foolish hearts were darkened.

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Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal

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God, the wonder of the immortal God, the splendor of the immortal

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God, for images made to look like mortal man, and birds, and animals, and reptiles.

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Therefore God gave them over, and the sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity. The trunders fill a void for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

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They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and they worshipped, and they served created things, rather than the

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Creator, who is forever praised. Amen. Verse 21 is our key Scripture, and it says, for although they knew

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God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile.

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Now we're gonna pause right there. So far, so good. I mean, you can't complain when a pastor opens his sermon up with the biblical text that he's going to be preaching from.

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That's a correct way to teach. Now, that also requires that pastor then, after reading out the portion of Scripture that he'll be preaching on, to help us to properly understand the real sense of the text, so we understand what's revealed there, and what

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God is attempting, or actually not attempting, but what God is communicating in that portion of Scripture.

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So let's take a look at Romans chapter 1, key passage of Scripture. Now, some of you may have had, in college, a logic course, and as part of your logic textbook, this portion of the book of Romans, from Romans chapter 1, verse 18, through a large portion of Romans chapter 3, would be held up as an exemplary example of a logical argument, because it is airtight, it is a perfect logical argument, and so you must kind of understand what's going on here.

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So in the opening portion of Romans chapter 1, Paul is, you know, giving his, you know, saying who he is, this is the opening part,

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Paul, a servant of Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh, and who was declared to be the

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Son of God in power according to the Spirit of Holiness by his resurrection from the dead,

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Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith.

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It's a great opening to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, and you'll note that all who are called to be saints, that means it also was written to us as well.

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So he says, grace to you and peace from God our Father, and then he gives some thanks, and then we have like this last transition piece before he gets into his logical argument, and then he writes, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it, the gospel, is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the

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Jew first, also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

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Then begins a very long portion of this letter that must be taken as a whole.

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You have to understand the function that it is serving here in this epistle, and the goal here is to demonstrate that none of us are saved by works of the law, and that every one of us stands condemned.

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And so he'll start with the idolatrous world out there, and here's what he says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

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So we're talking about a particular kind of futile thinking, if you would, those who suppress the truth of God.

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You know, they literally take it and, you know, it's like a cigarette butt, you know, they flick it on the ground and then stomp on it with their foot and snuff it out.

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That's what they do with the right, with God Himself. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

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His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power, His divine nature, have all been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so that men are without excuse.

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For although they knew God, and you'll note here that this portion of Romans makes it clear that there's no such thing as an atheist.

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Everybody knows that God exists. The atheist just spends an inordinate amount of time playing the game, trying to deny that they believe that God exists.

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Their obsession with proving that God doesn't exist is actually proof that they are engaging in a lot of truth suppression, that they already know that God exists.

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So you don't have to prove that God exists to anybody. Everybody already knows that. Romans 1 makes that clear.

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For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. They became futile in their thinkings, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

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So because they didn't acknowledge God, now their thinking becomes futile, their hearts are darkened, and claiming to be wise then, they became fools.

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And they ended up exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images. This is idolatry, resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

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So because of that then, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies amongst themselves, because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the

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Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. So this is talking about rank idolatry. And then for this reason then,

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God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

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Men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.

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Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. So you see, it goes from idolatry to sexual immorality of a rank and abominable kind, and then it continues.

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And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done, and they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness.

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Evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

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They're gossips, they're slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless, and although they know that God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, they give approval to those who practice them.

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So yeah, so talking about the feudal world out there, sold into idolatry and then the slide into complete immorality, it's all there.

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Now chapter 2 builds on that, but notice then where Paul goes, therefore you have no excuse,

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O man, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you judge, you practice the very same things.

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Yeah, so don't get all high on your righteousness, because you're just as guilty as everybody else, and that's what

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Paul goes in chapter 2, and then the resolve is found in chapter 3, where Paul then, you know, talks about not just the rank idolatrous pagan world out there, but now how about people who have the

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Word of God? Those who, you know, in his time, you know, who had received the

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Word of God, they were Jews, and Christians now were being brought in, you know, the

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Gentiles were being brought into Christianity, but Christianity very early on was a very

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Jewish religion. And so Paul then asks the questions to the Christians at Rome, so what advantage then was there to being a

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Jew, or what value of circumcision? Well, much in every way. To begin, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God, this is the

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Word of God. So if some were unfaithful, does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

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By no means. Let God be true in everyone a liar, as it is written that you may be justified in your words prevailed.

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So you get the idea then. So Paul then, here's his conclusion. Are we Jews any better off than the pagan world that's sold into idolatry and all this kind of stuff?

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The answer is not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, they are under sin.

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As it is written, none is righteous, no not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God.

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All have turned aside, together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one.

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Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive, the venom of asps is under their lips, their mouth is full of bitterness and curses, and their feet are swift to shed blood, and in their paths are ruin and misery in the way of peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes.

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And this is the description of all humanity. All of us,

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Jew, Gentile, doesn't matter. Scythian slave, free, doesn't matter.

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This is all of us. We've all terribly fallen short, all sold into slavery to sin, death, and the devil.

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And so Paul, where he starts with the pagan world, he resolves now by including Jews and Gentiles together, and the purpose of this argument is to show that we all stand condemned under God's law, none of us keeps it.

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So we know then that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped or shut, and the whole world then may be held accountable to God.

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So the whole point then of this argument, multi -chapter long, is to show that we are all sinners, we've all fallen short, and we're all going to be held accountable to God, and the purpose of the law is to get us to be quiet, because God has determined that we are all guilty.

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That's the point. So then he says this wonderful thing, "...for by works of the law no human being will be justified," you can say declared righteous, "...in

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God's sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin." That's the purpose of it.

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God's law is given in order to show you that you do not measure up, so that you can acknowledge that you're a sinner, so that you can then receive the gospel.

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But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets they bear witness to it.

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This is the righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction.

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All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us. And that's the point then of his argument beginning at chapter 1.

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"...and are justified," then declared righteous, "...by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation," or you can say atoning sacrifice, "...by his blood to be received by faith.

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This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the former sins, and it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ."

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So you get the idea that this is, you know, this whole section of Romans has to be taken as a unit, and there's something very specific that Paul is trying to do under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit, because all scripture is God -breathed, and that is to demonstrate that every human being, regardless of whether they are a

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Gentile or a Jew, it doesn't matter. All of us have fallen woefully short, none of us will be justified before God by keeping the law, instead the law was given to show that all of us are condemned, none of us is righteous, no not one.

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That's the point of this portion of Romans. Now all of that being said, we'll come back to John Cameron, and John Cameron then will hijack this text to make it about something that it most certainly is not about.

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"...their thinking became futile." We've been talking about this passage over the last four weeks in our church and the evening services, talking about the fact that although these guys knew

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God, they knew of God, they knew about God, they had a problem in their life, they made a mistake.

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They neither glorified Him as God, nor did they give thanks to Him. And then the

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Bible says that as a result of that, something very harmful began to happen to them.

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Their thinking, which God gave them. Did you know God gave you your mind?

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God gave it. Yes, okay, yeah, we can already see he's not really keyed in on what this text is really about, what it's showing us.

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"...minds capable of the most amazing things. Every artist who's ever written a song or painted a painting, any scientist that's ever cured a disease or come up with an invention that's aided the course of humanity, any engineer who's ever built a building or created a bridge, anybody who's ever been able to witness in their life in any kind of way what it is to have a thought that leads you in a brilliant direction that helped you and helped somebody else, can understand that our

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God gave us minds and that those minds were designed by God with brilliance, brilliance on the inside, and you have creative potential."

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What? Okay, so notice he's 100 % hijacked this text now.

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This text isn't about your brilliant mind and your creative potential. This text is about demonstrating that you're a sinner and that you have woefully fallen short of the glory of God and you're in need of a

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Savior. That's what this text is about. "...you have resilience in your mind.

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You can tell your body to keep going when it feels like quitting. That's the power of your mind.

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You have the ability to resolve issues, to invent things, to change, but the

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Bible says that because of something wrong in their connection with God, in our connection with God..."

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Yeah, they're dead in trespasses and sins and although they knew

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God, they refused to acknowledge Him as God. "...their thinking became futile."

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Right, and they engaged in idolatry, sexual immorality, even getting to the point of slander, malice, and murder, and Right, yeah, that's...

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"...and their foolish hearts were darkened. Futile thoughts and darkened hearts.

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If our generation can empathize with anything, I think we can get with thoughts that are going nowhere and emotions that are not in a positive direction."

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Nowhere thoughts in positive direction whatevers has nothing to do with this text.

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"...we could actually say, I think, with a lot of validity, that the greatest challenges of our generation are challenges of the mind.

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Anybody with me on that one? Anxiety, fear, melancholy, despair.

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We find ourselves..." This text has nothing to do with depression and melancholy.

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"...as a generation getting futile and dark. And what unites us, as we're hearing this talk this evening, is that what is common amongst every single one of us is that we are all thinking.

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From the moment you woke up to the moment you go to sleep, you're thinking. Even when girls that, you know, your fellow, you turn to him and say, what are you thinking about?

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And he says to you, nothing. He just doesn't want to tell you what he's thinking about. We're all thinking.

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You can't stop thinking. We're gonna do it all the time. And sometimes those thoughts are awesome.

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We're thinking about thoughts that are wonderful, dreams and ideas and memories of great holidays and accomplishments.

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But all too often our thoughts are futile."

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What are you doing to this text, John? You've totally hijacked it and you're running for the border with it.

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Man, put it down. Put it down. You're hurting it.

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You're messing it up. You're not paying attention to what this text is about. Just step away from the text.

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Leave it alone now. "...they're empty. They're vain. They are foolish.

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We're thinking about things, but it's not taking us in a life -giving direction. Quite the opposite. We're thinking about things and in our minds we're like,

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I'm never gonna make it through this problem. They don't really love me. I'll never be as good as them."

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Romans 1 through 3 has nothing to do with somebody saying and thinking to themself, they'll never love me.

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No, this is not what this is about at all. Put the text down, John.

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Step away from it. "...that person's got more than me. Oh my gosh, this mistake is gonna derail my dreams.

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I'm never ever gonna overcome it." Yeah, this mistake will make it so I'll never achieve my dreams.

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Yeah, whatever. This has nothing to do with the text at all. "...I'll never bounce back from this temporary defeat.

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It is so easy to find ourselves in our lives falling victim to the thoughtpocalypse."

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Falling victim to the thoughtpocalypse. Yeah, that ain't what this passage is about at all.

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So that's an example of Bible hijacking.

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Yeah, hijacking a biblical text. He just took that thing, he read it, he started off so well, and then he grabbed it and just bolted with it.

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Yeah, and tried to make it about something it ain't about, because it ain't about any of the things that he was saying. Something completely different, but we've already demonstrated that.

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So hopefully you found this helpful. If you did, all the information on how to share the video is down below.

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Don't forget to like the video, subscribe, and ring the bell. And of course, all the information on how you can support us financially is down in the description.

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You can join our crew, support us by becoming a patron on Patreon, things like that. Yeah, we can't do what we're doing here without your support.

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So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ, and His vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.