WWUTT 1720 Q&A Paul’s Thorn, Witnessing to Catholics, Improving our Prayers

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What was Paul's thorn in the flesh that he mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12, 7? How can we evangelize to Roman Catholics?

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And how do we improve our prayers? The answers to these questions, when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study to help encourage your time in the Word. Be sure to let your friends know about our ministry at www .wtt

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.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. You're welcome. It has been two weeks since the

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Supreme Court decision on Dobbs that brought Roe v. Wade to an end. Yes.

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Praise the Lord. We are two weeks without Roe. Yay! Praise God that he has had mercy on this bloodthirsty nation.

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Oh my goodness. He had to give somewhere, right? I'm just so thankful it's sooner rather than later.

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Yes, right. Because what we deserve is judgment. Oh, yes. But God has shown mercy to America that Roe v.

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Wade has been overturned. Which is what we've been praying for. That's right. It goes back to the states. Now, each state has its own responsibility to set its laws regarding abortion.

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Many states have trigger laws that have gone into effect that make abortion illegal. Here in the state of Texas, it's a couple more weeks before that trigger law goes into effect.

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But yeah, then life will be protected from conception. And there are other states where that has gone into effect as well.

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Now, there were other states that prepared for this and they set in motion trigger laws that actually protect abortion.

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New York being one of those states. I did a what video on that. California being another. Yeah, California being another. And then there are businesses and organizations out there that are saying, hey, if you need an abortion, we'll pay for you to go to a state where it's legal.

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Yeah, it's terrible. And that's just monstrous. I mean, it's monstrous, of course, to the unborn child that is going to be slaughtered by that.

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But it's so demeaning of women. Yes, definitely. It's the cheaper route because this business does not actually want to pay for child care or maternity leave.

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Exactly. Or child, like you were saying, child care. But if the person needs off for a sick baby or, you know, just lots of things.

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So instead, the organization, hey, we'll pay for your abortion. It's just so, so wicked. But I am grateful that God has granted this mercy to us, that we have

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Roe v. Wade overturned. I'm glad the Supreme Court saw it that way and ruled the way that they did.

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Yes. We still have a lot of work to do, though, getting out there with the gospel. Yes. The law doesn't change hearts.

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The gospel of Jesus Christ does. Amen. So we preach the gospel of Christ that people may be convicted in heart over their sin and they may turn from their sin to Christ and be forgiven and have everlasting life.

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And I'm praying that the fact that it's overturned makes people stop and think, why was it overturned?

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Why was this such a bad thing? Yeah, right. The ones who were convinced that it was my body, my choice. Exactly. As Paul said in Galatians, the law is a teacher.

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So the law can teach you this is bad. Very true. Yeah. It's also been two weeks, two weeks since Roe v.

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Wade was overturned. In these two weeks, Russell Moore hasn't said a word. Okay.

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The former president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and now director of public policy at Christianity Today.

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And this guy who is supposed to be the voice of public policy has not said anything, not a word about the biggest

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Supreme Court decision in the last 50 years. Publicly. Publicly. Right. Because you're talking about on Twitter.

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Not just Twitter. He hadn't done any articles on Christianity Today. Now, Christianity Today has said something about it, but they've got a guy they're paying to say stuff like this, and he's not said a word.

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Well, he really has gone... Left. Short. That's a good way of describing it.

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He's gone wayward is what I was thinking of. Okay. But so I imagine this kind of upset his whatever he had planned out.

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His last couple of tweets were gushing over Beth Moore. Something that was like...

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That they're not related. In case you didn't know. That's right. They're not. Yeah. But it's like Beth Moore fandom. He's had plenty to say about sex abuse in the

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Southern Baptist Convention, even though he's not Southern Baptist anymore, but not a word about the

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Dobbs decision. Not one word. That's weird. It's just absolutely astonishing. There was something else

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I was going to say about Moore. That's your job. I know. It's your job. It's his job. It's your job.

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Yeah. Well, anyway, this just kind of reveals how the wokeism and the identity politics have strained the moral credibility of guys that, like Russell Moore, are supposed to be speaking into the ethics of our nation, but it clashes with the identity politics aspect of things.

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When Roe v. Wade has been overturned, now how do I maintain all the wokeism and Black Lives Matter?

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All of that was pro -abortion. This was something that I pointed out in one of my What videos.

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The reason why the social justice movement is not really about social justice is because the group of people in the

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United States that are being shown the most injustice are the unborn. Right. And the social justice movement is not speaking out for the unborn.

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So those that have united with that particular movement are now finding it difficult to, how do

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I rejoice over the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which I didn't even see happening when

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I started aligning myself with all of this leftist social justice propaganda. Our world is very upside down right now.

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Romans 12, 1 and 2, in view of God's mercies, present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto the

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Lord. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may test and discern

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God's good, pleasing, and perfect will. Amen. Are we going along with God's will according to his word, or are we going along with the world, going along with the culture?

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Examine yourself, Paul says in 2 Corinthians, to see that you are in the faith. Now incidentally, that particular chapter of 2

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Corinthians where Paul says that, chapter 13, we're coming up on that pretty soon in our study of 2

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Corinthians, which we're doing on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Ecclesiastes on Thursday, and then the

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Q &A Friday. Q &A Friday. Here we are, and we take questions from the listeners. You can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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You could also write us a letter, like literally write a letter on paper and drop it in the mail.

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Old school. Do you remember how to do that? With a stamp. Don't forget the stamp. And a return address if you don't put the stamp on it, because it's got to come back to you.

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You didn't put a stamp on your envelope. I mention that because we have a handwritten question today.

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That is true. Before we get to that though, this has to do with a question that we read on last week's program.

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Was it last week? Were you on with me last week? No. Yes. I know a lot has happened since then.

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Has it now been two weeks in a row you've been on with me? I think so. That's awesome. All right. So this was a question we responded to last week from Jenny in Alaska.

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Do you remember that now? Yes. Yes, I do. Okay. She says, Hi, Pastor Gabe. I just wanted to take a minute of your time and thank you for that in -depth response to my email in your

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Q &A session with Becky on July 1st. Well, there you go. She said you were on the program. Yay. So we know you were with us.

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I was there. Yes. If I had just read ahead, I would have known the answer to that.

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We can't keep our own days straight. No. It's hard. So thank you all. Thank you all for keeping our days straight for us.

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Yes. I really appreciate it and agree with you. I probably am in the pan mill crowd, which just made me laugh.

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It's all going to pan out in the end. But as for drawing the line in the snow, remember we said that last week, drawing the line in the sand.

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Yes. But we said in Alaska, you're probably - It was probably snow. Yeah, probably snow. Uh -huh. She said, I thought

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I would share a couple of pictures where we live in Kanai. Not much snow in July. Sand, grass, permafrost, tundra, yes.

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Snow? Not right now. We enjoy short summers with a lot of light. And so here are the pictures.

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Here's the picture she sent. Look, that's actually a beach. Beach is in Alaska. Nice. I bet it's too cold to swim in though.

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Oh, sure. The Pacific Ocean? Yeah. Up north, brr. I mean, we don't think about Alaska being a beach state.

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Right. But it is. They have a lot of beach. That's right. Plenty of beach in Alaska. Three sides of it.

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Now, this next picture, she says, these are some midnight visitors in our front yard last night.

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And yes, it really is midnight. Oh, it is so light out. It looks like it's sunset.

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I know. But that's midnight. That's midnight. That's crazy. And there's a big mama moose and two baby mooses.

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Two baby meese. Meese. They're so cute. They're eating flowers.

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That's awesome. We know that you actually say moose for plural, but we have kids, so. And it's fun to make fun of them.

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All right. It's always mooses or meese. Is it meese or is it mooses? Is it meese? Is it mooses?

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Like the fishies. Or are they mouse? Mouse. Plural. They're mouse.

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So she goes on, I just love listening to your podcast and thanks for your interesting insight into Paul's thorn in the flesh.

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I have heard that false teachers were his thorn as well. Yeah. So that was Wednesday.

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On the Wednesday episode of the podcast, I had read from 2 Corinthians 12, 7, where Paul says, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.

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Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me. And he has said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.

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My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore,

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I will rather boast in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

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Amen. Now, I said on Wednesday what Paul's thorn in the flesh was, but I said I'd come back to those other verses on Monday, because that's just such a great verse.

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My grace is sufficient for you. I didn't want to just hit that and move on. Right. I wanted to spend some time on that particular verse.

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So we're going to do that Monday. But let me tell you, false teachers are painful. They are.

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They are. Now, I remember, so this was several years ago. No, it was 2017.

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Yes. Several years ago. That's half a decade ago. Oh, dear.

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Yeah, right. Back in my day. Back in the old days. Back before COVID, which aged us all.

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Oh, my goodness, yes. We all got older after COVID. Well, we all lost a year. Yeah, right.

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There's actually a hole in the timeline. It just doesn't count.

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2020 doesn't count. Nothing happened. You just aged. That's right. So, anyway, going back to 2017, my elders at my church in Kansas, at First Southern Baptist Church, they gifted me with a trip to go to the

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Shepherd's Conference. I had just finished up a really hard spell, and there was going to be another hard spell just right around the corner.

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You kind of remember some of the things that happened after that. Yeah. But we just finished up a really difficult time where we had some false teachers in our church that we had to discipline and move out.

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And then after we moved them out, there were even people outside the church that were making things difficult for me.

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So once we got all of that kind of smoothed out, the elders said, we're going to gift you a trip to go to the

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Shepherd's Conference. So they paid for me to go out to California. This was my first ShepCon.

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Yeah, it was. 2017 was my first ShepCon. That was the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation as well.

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So at that Shepherd's Conference, Pastor John preached on 2

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Corinthians 12. It may not have been his main text, but I remember he read that text. And so he said, what is the thorn in Paul's flesh?

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What was the thorn in the flesh? And I already knew the answer to that. So the thorn in the flesh, when you're looking at it in context, it's the false teachers that he has been pleading with the

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Corinthians to not follow. They've been going after these most imminent apostles. Don't go after those guys.

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They were the Paul in thorn's flesh. That was awesome.

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Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead. They were the thorn. So everything was going so well with writing this tearful letter to the

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Corinthians. They were convicted. They were turning from their sin. They were turning back to righteousness. But some of them are still now going after these false teachers.

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Right. So they are the thorn in Paul's flesh to keep him from becoming too conceited.

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And so when Pastor John was reading that, he was talking to the pastors about that. He said, why does

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God give you, why does he give you obstacles and people that oppose your ministry and make it difficult for you to do what you have to do as pastors?

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Why does God put those people in your life? And he said, to keep you humble. Yep. Yep. Just as these false teachers were a thorn in Paul's flesh.

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So we face that opposition to keep us humble. That was huge for me as a pastor to hear that, especially in the chapter that I was in, the timing was just perfect for that.

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It was God's timing. It was God's timing. It definitely was. So now relate that to anybody.

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Of course, Paul is an apostle. I'm a pastor, but this relates to anyone. Why does

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God put those obstacles in your life? Right. Why does he allow there to be people who would oppose you or ridicule you or turn their backs on you and betray you?

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Why would God put those people in your life? To keep you humble. Right. Going back to 2

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Corinthians 1, 9, where Paul says, we thought that we had received the sentence of death, but this was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

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Right. And so same with the opposition that we face in our lives, that we would not depend on ourselves.

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Right. We would turn to Christ whose grace is sufficient for us. Yes. My grace is sufficient for you.

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And he's the one that saves, not us. That's right. And he's the one that gives you wisdom, not us.

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We just follow what the Bible says and leave that up to God, Holy Spirit, Jesus.

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You're covering the whole Trinity there. Father. All of them. So going back to Romans 12, which

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I referenced a moment ago, that's where Paul says, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, so don't take it into your own hands to avenge yourselves.

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Right. Even when we face that opposition, we do as Jesus said. We love our enemies. We pray for those who persecute us.

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Somebody slaps us on the right cheek, we turn to them the other one also. Yes. And we put these things in the

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Lord's hands. Yes. And we love Jesus. And we love Christ and live as Christ, who when he was reviled, he did not revile in return, but he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

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That's in 1 Peter 2. So anyway, thank you for bringing those things to mind again,

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Jenny, and I appreciate your thoughts with regards to the podcast. Thank you for listening also.

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Yes. This next question comes from Genesis in Kilgore, Texas. Hang on.

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My wife has to clear something out. Are you good? I'm good. All right. I'm better. All right. Well, I'm not good, but I'm better.

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Genesis is from just down the road in Kilgore. And she wrote us, hand wrote us a letter.

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And she says, I have two questions for you. Hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. That's at the top. Okay. I have two questions for you.

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First, do you have any good recommendations for a book or a podcast on the beliefs of Roman Catholics?

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Second, do you have any tips on how to witness to Roman Catholics? Most of my family are

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Catholics, and I want to know how to approach them in a godly, biblical way. Thank you for your faithfulness of preaching

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God's word. Have a nice day. I appreciate that, Genesis. All right.

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Here is my recommendation for you. So you want to go to ForTheGospel .org.

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That's ForTheGospel .org. That's Costi Hens Ministry. In the search bar on his website, type in Roman Catholic, and you'll get a bunch of videos of interviews that he's done with people, giving tips, advice, biblical counsel on how to witness to somebody who is

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Roman Catholic. Some of the videos are real short. Some of them are just like two to three and a half minutes long. There are others where it's like a very long -form conversation.

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You're going to be listening to 40 minutes. You can either listen to it or you can watch it as videos, because he's got those portioned out as videos as well.

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Oh, that's cool. Let me play one for you here. So this is Costi talking with Mike Gendron.

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It's either Gendron or Gendron. But he's talking with Mike Gendron about witnessing to Roman Catholics. This is just about a two -minute video here.

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Listen to this, and then I'll have one more recommendation for you at the end. Sounds good.

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Mike, when building bridges with people for the sake of sharing the gospel with them, how long do we take before sharing that truth?

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So let's say you have a Roman Catholic friend, and you want to build a relational bridge there to share the gospel.

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Do you wait two months, two minutes, two years? Some people wait five years, go, hey, take it easy. I'm building a bridge.

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I'm going to get there. Well, we need to eventually get there. When's a good time to do that? Well, we have to remember that God doesn't promise anyone tomorrow.

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We have to have a sense of urgency. Today is the day of salvation. So it really depends on the relationship you have.

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Is it your family? Is it co -workers? Is it your neighbor? Are you going to see them again? Can you begin sowing the seed of God's imperishable word?

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That's what Peter called God's word. That's what's going to bring forth life. And so you can begin as you're developing the relationship or getting even more familiar with who they are.

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Just start sowing the seed, asking questions, and maybe leaving a gospel track and coming back and talking some more.

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But a lot of it depends on how much time you have and whether or not it's a relationship that you already have or one that you hope to develop.

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Now, we go out all the time into the city square, and we engage people. And we ask them questions about their spiritual interest, and we find out very quickly whether or not they're a believer, a brother in Christ, or whether or not they're lost.

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And so in that kind of evangelism, you may never see them again. And so if they have time, we simply say, would you like to sit down and let's look at the scriptures and see how you can be sure of having eternal life based on 1

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John 5 .13. And so that method seems to work very well if you have people that have time sitting on a park bench.

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So a lot of it depends on who you're meeting and whether or not the relationship is already established.

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Yeah. And lots more videos that cover what Catholics believe. Yes. How to respond to certain arguments from Catholics.

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There's a bunch of videos on there. Hang on. Let me look at some of these titles. Are Catholics Christians?

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Is Roman Catholicism a false religion? Do Catholics worship Mary? Is this blasphemy?

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Are Roman Catholics just another denomination? Building relationships with Roman Catholics? What was the

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Council of Trent? Is the Eucharist unbiblical? So there you have it. Yeah.

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Many different topics. And there's tons more. So again, you want to look at forthegospel .org, that's

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Costi Hens Ministry, and then type in Roman Catholic in the search bar, and you'll get all kinds of different interview questions just like that one.

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Now, as for books, while that clip was playing, I bought two books. Oh, yeah?

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While the clip was playing. Because they were both a dollar each, so I went ahead and bought them.

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James White has several books that he's done on Catholic answers or responses to Catholic claims.

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Okay. There's his main book that he's done. I have not bought this one. I read it some time ago, but it's the

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Roman Catholic Controversy. That's kind of his most popular book on Catholicism. He wrote it back in the 90s.

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And I read it. I think it was like the first thing I ever read from James White when I didn't know who he was.

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A lot of people will say like their first introductory book to James White was the King James Only Controversy.

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For me, it was the Roman Catholic Controversy. That was my first one. So you can find that one on Amazon.

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That one's about 20 bucks. But he's got two other shorter books. And if you have Kindle, they're just 99 cents.

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Nice. So I went ahead and bought both of them while that clip was playing, because I haven't read either one. I've heard them referenced before, but I haven't read them.

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So one of them is Answers to Catholic Claims, A Discussion of Biblical Authority, and the other is

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The Fatal Flaw, Do the Teachings of Roman Catholicism Deny the Gospel? Give you a good idea as to what

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Catholics believe and how to respond to those claims from Roman Catholics. Pick those books up from James R.

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White, and you'll find them at Amazon. Yeah, I know. I talked to her just the other day, and she was saying that she picked up a whole bunch of Paul Washer books that she's been reading through, the really thin ones.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Paul Washer, he'll just get kind of a creative itch and crank out another paperback.

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So he's got a bunch of those. Thanks for writing, Genesis. Yeah, literally writing.

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Yes. That was fun. Literally wrote us a letter. All right, one last one we're going to get to here.

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This one is from Vicente. I love that name. Yeah. Hi. Great name, Vicente. He says,

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Hi, Pastor Gabe. My name is Vicente. I was just looking at the signature at the bottom. My question is, how should my personal prayer life look, and do you have a book recommendation about it?

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I just ordered Gleanings from Paul by A .W. Pink. I did not even know that book existed.

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I have never heard of that from A .W. Pink. The Gleanings? Yeah. Gleanings from Paul. Interesting.

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And he goes on to say, because I recently started to develop this craving for prayer time, but I do not know how to start.

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What would be the most reverent way possible to pray? Or simply, what should

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I be praying for the most? I also want to thank you for your ministry. I listen to your podcast daily while I get ready for work.

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One of the best ways to start my day. That is so touching, Vicente. I appreciate that a lot.

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Well, let me give you an example. Since you mentioned Gleanings from Paul, let me mention to you an example that I often give to a person when

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I'm teaching them how to pray. And it comes from Paul's letter to the Colossians. So I'm going to go to Colossians chapter 3, and I teach them how to pray the scriptures.

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And I'll use the first four verses of Colossians 3 to teach them how to pray the

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Bible. So here's what Paul says, Colossians 3, 1 through 4. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

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Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.

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When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you also will be manifested with him in glory.

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So let me go back over that again. I'm reading from the legacy standard here. But let me go over that again, and let's look at it as if you're praying that particular passage.

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Okay? Okay. Becky's turning in her Bible here. Do you want me to wait for you? No. No. I was looking up something different.

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Okay. You've got another verse you're going to share in a moment. Kind of. Okay. I was going to ask about it, if it applies.

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Yes. Well, hold that thought then. Yep. We'll come back. Okay. So now Colossians 3. Here's what praying it might sound like.

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Heavenly Father, I know that I have been raised with Christ. Help me to keep seeking the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

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Help my mind to be set on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.

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For I know that I have died, and my life is hidden with Christ in God.

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When Christ, who is my life, is manifested, then I also will be manifested with him in glory.

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Now going on. I didn't read this far, but let's go on to verse 5. Therefore, may the members of my earthly body be as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

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I know that on account of these things, the wrath of God is coming against the sons of disobedience.

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And in them, I too once walked when I was living in them. But now I must put them all away.

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Wrath, anger, malice, slander, and abusive speech from my mouth.

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Teach me not to lie to others, since I have put off the old man with its evil practices, and I have put on the new man, which is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the one who created me.

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A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,

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Scythian, slave, and free, but Christ is all and in all.

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So just kind of give you an example of how you pray the scriptures. That's awesome. Now you'll notice that at the end of the lessons that I'll do, oftentimes,

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I don't do this every single time, but oftentimes the prayer that I give at the end is taking what we just read and now making that our request.

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So like when I get to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, again later this next week, where Jesus says my grace is sufficient for you, at the end of the podcast

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I'm going to pray, may I understand, help me to recognize what that means, that your grace is sufficient for me.

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May it be sufficient that I not be longing after anything else in this world, but I know that I have everything that I could need in Christ Jesus.

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And that's how we pray the scriptures. Now, another place that's really helpful with that is in the

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Psalms. So in Psalm 1, I'll just go to Psalm 1 here, Psalm 1 verse 1, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.

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But his delight is in the law of Yahweh. And in his law, he meditates day and night.

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He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.

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And in whatever he does, he prospers. So praying that as in Lord, teach me not to walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.

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May my delight be in the law of Yahweh and teach me to meditate on it day and night.

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I remember hearing R .C. Sproul say that the two passages of scripture that he most often prayed were the

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Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 and Psalm 23. And if he could not think of anything else to pray for, but he wanted his mind to be meditating on Christ, those were the two places that his mind went first.

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Praying either the Lord's Prayer or Psalm 23. So just taking scripture and making it your prayer unto the

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Lord. We're learning even to think the thoughts of God when we do that. When we take the

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Bible and that becomes our prayer language. Now what we're, in prayer language, not like,

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I chomped up, a real language, actual discernible words.

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Something everybody understands. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. The other thing's just gibberish. Okay. So what was your question?

29:52

Okay. So Jesus prays for his disciples in John 17. The High Priestly Prayer.

29:59

Right. Is that applicable too? Well sure. We're going to apply that a little differently though.

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Here, let me come to this. So John 17, Jesus spoke these things and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said,

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Father the hour has come, glorify your son that the son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life.

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And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

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Now you're not going to pray, Father glorify your son that the son may glorify you, you know.

30:41

I was thinking more of, sorry, pulling on the wire, verse six area.

30:47

Okay. Because it says. My pages are stuck together, go ahead. Yeah. Well, I mean, it just talks about how

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Jesus prays for his disciples. Yeah. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world.

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They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you for the words which you gave me,

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I have given to them and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you and they believe that you sent me.

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So taking a passage like that and just simply praying, God, may I understand your word and help me to keep your word.

31:31

And we pray that pretty regularly on the podcast. I've done the same thing. Yeah. Okay. Well, just that whole section was like Jesus prays for us was one of my little note things.

31:42

Yeah, he does. Right. So. Yeah. We even get to the section where he, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as you father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me.

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Verses 20 and 21. That's funny that you did that because that's right where my little note is right after that.

32:08

Yeah. Well, there you go. Anyway. That was not planned. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So praying and asking that we may be one, you know, you would say that as the church or as a family together or with, you know, a brotherhood of believers, may we be one just as you are one with the son or you

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Christ are one with the father, which by the way, you can pray to Jesus Christ and you can pray to the

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Holy Spirit. Yes. There are some that believe very legalese, very legalistically that you should only be praying to the father because Jesus taught us in Matthew six to pray our father who art in heaven.

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Right. Well, he's not going to pray to himself. Correct. I mean, that'd be awkward. Now it is.

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It's great that through Christ we have access to the father. So we can play. We can. We can pray our father in heaven.

33:01

Right. Hallowed be your name. Right. Holy is your name. I listen to you. You mentioned Paul Washer a moment ago.

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I heard Paul Washer say recently that that is a confession of the fear of God to say holy is your name because God is other than right.

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He is. He is set far and above high above us. Right. So to acknowledge God is holy when we pray how low it is your name.

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Yeah. Your name is holy and great, greater than any name in the earth. Right. Is to be said in the fear of God.

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Yeah. That reverent fear of the Lord. Well, and that's the thing is that we get into a habit of saying the same prayer over and over and over again, but to really think about what those words mean.

33:40

Yes. And to dissect each word, like what does hallowed be thy name mean?

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You know, and the different phrases and stuff like that. I think that's another way you can be reverent in your prayers is to really research how, what all of that means that you're to say,

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I'm just repeating myself. No, I'm following you. I know what you're saying. Okay, good. Yeah.

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Not to get repetitious so that you're just saying the same things over and then it doesn't seem meaningful to you.

34:09

Right. At the same time, we need to be careful not to try to be too original. Right. You know what I mean?

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I agree. And then our - Because if you've never heard this before. Yeah, that's right. That's like a red flag. That's right.

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It might not be true. Don't do that. Now, as we're teaching you, though, to pray the scriptures, be careful that you don't get into the whole prayer of Jabez thing that everybody was doing.

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What was that? 20, 30 years ago? I don't know. But yeah, something like that. So 1 Chronicles 4 .10,

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where Jabez prayed, Oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory.

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Let your hand be with me and keep me from the evil one. Yeah. Now, of course, we pray, keep us from the evil one in the

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Lord's Prayer. That's there in Matthew chapter six. But that whole prayer of Jabez thing was used as like a magic spell.

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Like we can charm God into making him do what we want him to do.

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Right. Like a genie. Yeah, the way that Bruce Wilkinson talked about that was God always answers this prayer.

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He does not promise - That's the magic trick. Yeah. He is not promised that he is going to enlarge our territory on the earth.

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Right. Definitely not. We are - We're going to have hard times. He's even said that.

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He said that life is - In this world, you will have trouble. Yes. Exactly. It's sinful.

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It's awful. Now, while we don't have earthly blessing, we're not guaranteed earthly blessing anyway, we do have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

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Amen. Amen. That's where our home is. Ephesians 1, 3. So that comes back to praying

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Colossians 3 helped me to set my mind on things that are above - Yes. Where Christ is.

35:50

Right. I hope that was helpful for you, Vicente. Great name and great question.

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Thank you for emailing us. Anybody else, if you have a question you want to submit to the program, send it to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

36:05

Speaking of the prayer of Jabez, that came to my mind because that's the subject of the next what video.

36:12

Oh, gotcha. So be looking for the what video on the prayer of Jabez.

36:18

Yeah. You can find all of our videos on YouTube. I have a new blog that's coming out today.

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It's probably out already by the time you're listening to this. I don't know. Anyway. Maybe. It's part two of the series that I've been doing on the liberal drift of the

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Southern Baptist Convention. Yes. So that's out today, both audio and written. Look for that at pastorgabe .com.

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If you don't have time to read it today, the audio portion is going to be on the podcast tomorrow in the

36:46

Saturday special edition. Awesome. And that's it. I think that covers us for this week. Anything else you want to add?

36:53

Thank you for listening. Yeah. There you go. You know, our social media outreach is becoming more and more limited.

37:01

Now that I can't get into Facebook and I've been banned on Twitter. So if y 'all would be so kind as to either share a podcast episode or a what video.

37:10

Yes, please. That keeps the stuff that we crank out in front of people. It's all free.

37:17

Yeah. Not going to charge you anything for that. We just thank you for listening or watching and sharing it with somebody else.

37:23

That's right. Definitely. All right. Let's finish with prayer. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your kindness to us.

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Thank you for your mercies, which are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. We deserve the judgment of God.

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But you have shown mercy and grace to us through Jesus Christ, our

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Lord, who died on a cross for our sins and rose again from the dead so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

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I want to pray for those who have submitted questions to us. Thank you for Jenny and her continued study into the end times, what we should believe about Christ's return and those events and what order they're going to take place and continue to guide her as she studies those things.

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The letter that we got from Genesis, who is wanting to witness to Roman Catholic members of her family,

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I pray that the resources that we have recommended to her would be helpful and that she would be educated in these things, most especially according to your word, that she may know how to answer each person, but do so with gentleness and respect, as it says in 1

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Peter 3 .15. And we thank you for Vicente's question. You have put this desire in his heart to grow in his prayer life.

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What a wonderful desire. And may that book that he picked up from A .W. Pink, may it be insightful for him.

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And also these things that we've done right here, just as an exercise of praying the scripture, that it would change his heart, renew his mind to be thinking with the mind of Christ, especially as we continue to live in this world, such a crooked and depraved generation we live among, yet we are told to shine as lights in the world, as it says in Philippians chapter two, holding fast to the word of life.

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So may we continue to do these things in these days, holding out the gospel to those who need to hear.

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And that's pretty much everybody. That is everybody. Thank you, Lord. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.