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All right, let's talk about abuse. Okay. Not really. Not like a depressing kind of discussion like that. Um, the issue we're dealing with here is this meme that we found that was sent to me, and I wanted to address it as the first question for today. By the way, my name is Mike Winger. I'm here to answer questions about the bible, at least to the best of my ability. I certainly don't have all the answers, but I know I've got some, and I know the bible has a lot, a whole lot more than all that. I'm stalling because I'm getting the meme ready here. Okay, let me show it to you guys. This is my first abusive relationship was with God meme.

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Um, yeah, let me just read it to you on your screen, as well as kind of go over it and say that when you first read it, it's not going to be. I don't think it means what you probably think it means, or there's another layer to it, at least that doesn't hit you till the end. I'll explain. Okay, so here we go. This is a meme. It's got one, um, 500 shares on this one post on facebook from believe in reality, and it says, my first abusive relationship was with God. Conditioned to not trust in myself, to not think for myself, to not listen to my needs, to repress my natural desires and feelings. Conditioned to believe I'm worthless, broken, and sinful. Conditioned to believe I needed to be saved. And in order to be saved, I needed to submit myself completely to his will, whatever may come. Threatened that if I ever spoke up against abuse or voiced my questions, I would be shunned. And in all that, I was taught to believe this was from a loving God. You can feel, um, the hurt, but also, if I'm honest, probably like some anger that's coming across with this meme. And in short, my initial response to this was to think something along the lines of, okay, this is another one of those. I hate to put it this way, but the world revolves around me and my pain. Um, you and your pain is valuable and important, but the whole world doesn't revolve around it. That turns us into people who are reactionary in negative ways, and we cause harm and hurt others because of those things. But then I thought, okay, and this is also putting on God these issues that a person's going through. How do I respond to it? How would I deal with it? How would I actually talk to a human being who posts this on social media in a way that is not just sort of too analytical, because I could analyze it. Let me put the meme m back up on your screen. I could analyze it and say, hey, the first few lines. Um, conditioned not to trust in myself, not to think for myself, not to listen to my needs, to repress my natural desires and feelings. Those four statements are all basically the same. Okay, so I can analyze it. Four statements about not doing the things I want to do.

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Normally in today's culture, when you read this, you think, okay, so you had, like, sexual desires you wanted to do. Probably. Most likely that's what I'm thinking. Uh, maybe I'm wrong, but that's what comes to mind. And then you could analyze it and go, okay, the next four are conditioned to believe I'm worthless, broken, and sinful. Conditioned to believe I need to be saved. And in order to be saved, I just submit myself completely to his will, whatever may come. Okay, so the next section is that the person is saying, oh, uh, I had desires, most likely sexual, that I wanted to do, couldn't do them. Then I had this teaching that I had something wrong with me. There's certainly nothing wrong with me. I'm not broken or damaged or whatever, but we all are. Every human is psychologically damaged as well as sinful, as well as actually. We do things that we know are wrong, and we do those things. Anybody who tries to go full swing the other direction is entering into delusion and the kind of delusion that makes you angry when people tell you the truth about yourself. Right? So that's tough. Um, and then you could say, okay, this person then is going into, um, um, sort of a narcissistic religious perspective where they go, my desires are automatically good.

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My character and my behaviors are also good. I'm not broken or worthless.

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And so then I have this kind of religion built around myself and my wants that's very self serving.

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That ultimately is, I'll call it a religion, but it may be an atheism that's built around that. It, uh, may be a non religion that is built around those basic things, taking all cues from self. Self desires and self esteem, self approval as being the core elements in this new religious perspective.

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Okay, that's obviously an overreaction to any kind of negative experience they had religiously. But here's what hit me with this meme that I would like to point out, and that is that I think this person was a former Jehovah's Witness. Let me look at it one more time with you. Sorry if I'm going back and forth.

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It's this word shunned. At the end, they said they were threatened that if I ever spoke up against abuse or voiced my questions, I would be shunned.

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That word shunning is a particular Jehovah's Witness term. That is a term that refers to something that you do as a matter of course for a Jehovah's Witness that has broken ranks. They've broken ranks with the organization.

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Phone calls go out and they're told. Everybody's told, shun that person. It's an official doctrine. You shun them, you don't talk to them, you don't interact with them, especially on anything religious related. You disconnect from them. In, uh, some cases, whole families have been split up and broken up. People haven't talked to their parents in years because they've been shunned.

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That's not a term that christians or evangelicals typically ever use. That word shun makes me relook at this whole meme. Let me reread the meme now. I'll put it on your screen one last time.

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From the perspective of a Jehovah's Witness, former Jehovah's Witness, their first abusive relationship was with God. Well, I would say, first off, that wasn't really God, okay. That was a cult organization that is abusive. You were conditioned not to trust in yourself. Well, I mean, there's balance, biblically speaking.

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You want to feel that you have capacities. You're made in the image of God. You have reason, you have intellect, but you don't rely on yourself above God. You don't rely on yourself above multiple other sources of people showing you and telling you you're wrong. You have humility, in other words, so you don't have total trust in yourself. Um, you know that your heart is deceitful, and you can be lying to yourself, but this part. Conditioned to not think for myself. That second line, that second phrase, uh, not think for myself. That actually is a Jehovah's Witness thing, to not listen to my knees. Okay, but not thinking for yourself. In Jehovah's Witness teaching, you're actually told that you're not supposed to, um, do research unless the research that you do. I'm going to see if I can put myself up here with you guys.

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Slide over there. That's better. Ish. So the research that you can do in Jehovah's witness beliefs is just using the jw.org source. So it's kind of tricky. They tell their people, yes, research, yes. Use your brain, but only jw.org. We can be your only source for your research. So whenever you're fact checking us, make sure just you use us. That'd be like me saying, guys, if you ever want to fact check my teachings, me, mike winger. Right. Just make sure you check my videos. Only. That's not real research.

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So not thinking for yourself actually is a Jehovah's Witness kind of thing. Um, to repress my natural desires and feelings. Uh, every human needs to repress certain natural desires and feelings because certain ones are unhealthy and wrong. And so I'm not really sure how to respond to that. But read the rest. Conditioned to believe I'm worthless, broken, and sinful? I'm not sure.

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Sort of. Um, Jehovah's Witness teaching does involve the idea that people are sinful. Right, but christian, true biblical teaching does not teach that people are worthless. Broken, and sinful, yes, but worthless. Yeah, there's a scripture that says all of us have become worthless. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. Um, but that doesn't mean in every aspect, all you are is worthless. It meant that those people religiously weren't bringing value to God with their religion because their sins block their religious service. In other words, let me put it this way. You can't be profitable or of, uh, value in your service to God until you're cleansed of your sins. Because otherwise, everything we do is tainted by our sins. Uh, we are stained by our sins. That's true. But you're also made in the image of God. So there's these two conflicting maybe or two balancing elements. I mean, the image of God, the highest crowning thing of all creation. Take away God, get rid of God. Your first abusive relationship with God, get rid of that. You're left with. You're just an intelligent animal.

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You're not made in the image of God. Your value has dropped down infinitely lower. Because in the worldview where there's God, and specifically the christian worldview where you're made in God's image and you're endowed with, like, this eternal qualities and this ability to be joined to God's spirit, you have free will. You have all these elements. This elevates mankind amazingly. But then we look at God and we go, oh, the one who made me gave me all this value, but he also stands as the moral standard for all of humanity and shows that we all fall way short. So I'm incredibly valuable, but I'm really stained by my sins. So it's like all of the above.

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Um, but this kind of meme doesn't deal in nuance. It only deals in heavy handed attacks against religion.

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To lean towards a narcissistic kind of religious view of self. I'm just being straight with you guys. Help us try to analyze these things.

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So then it goes on. Think, uh, of it again as a Jehovah's Witness, conditioned to believe I needed to be saved. I read that part.

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Next um, line was, uh, in order to be saved, I needed to submit myself completely to his will, whatever may come. In Jehovah's Witness teaching, you submit yourself to the organization because there's no distinction between God's will and the organization. Whereas, um, biblically speaking, the leaders of your church can be an error, but you submit yourself to God.

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There's a freedom in that, because when an organization is abusive, you don't have to submit and yield to that abuse. You can step out from under that and say, like Peter, in acts, I will obey God rather than man, that there's ultimately my allegiances to God above all organizations or groups or communities.

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To me, that's a liberating thing, not an oppressive thing. Submitting yourself to the will of God is a liberating thing, not an oppressive thing. Otherwise, when you take God out of the picture, what are you replacing it with? Your own will or the will of some other human?

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Ultimately, I'm yielding myself to myself. I'm assuming this person is self, because everything about this leans towards a narcissistic end result. So if I only submit to my own will, and I only believe that I am immensely valuable, and I only believe that I, um, should always totally trust myself and should listen to my desires and feelings and just run with them. I'm creating, like a monster in the name of avoiding abuse, and I will become the abuser. This person will go around abusing others, and not that they'll, I mean, they'll probably do it not on social media as much, not as publicly, but inevitably, this is what happens. Because you become God. You're God. Now, certainly God's desires, if he exists, are m more valuable, important than mine. Like, what kind of an arrogant person would I be to think that my desires are more than God's? God's will is certainly more valuable, important and good than mine. God's sense of truth and justice is more accurate than my own. So I'm going to trust him above all. It would just be reasonable, if God exists, to give him that sort of submission and trust and credit. It would only be rational. Um, there's nothing abusive about that.

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To take that out, you devalue yourself, you deny your own issues, your sinful problems, um, and ultimately become a narcissistic person. So, yeah, this person, if they were Jw, they probably really were abused by an organization in the name of God. But this organization got them on the way in and on the way out because it lied to them about God, abused them in the name of God. And then when they broke free, they broke into a narcissistic overreaction where they rejected the true God because of false representatives of God. Very sad. Um, and I guess that's where I think this kind of meme lands. Now, what would you do in response to this? I say all that just by way of an analyzing it. Like, just trying to kind of work through and understand the logic of it so that you guys can see, strip away in our culture right now, where we have this thing where if someone tells you a story of their own abuse or their own hurt, it's not appropriate to push or challenge it. And if I had someone standing in front of me, if I was interviewing someone and they were talking about these things, I'd be really careful how I push back. Partly because it feels like it's different when it's a real person and not just a meme. Right. Um, but partly because in our culture, abuse. Uh, people who say, I've been hurt and abused, they become a moral authority in their storytelling, and that is a dangerous thing. We can't just elevate people because of. Because they were hurt. We can't elevate them as moral authorities in all of society. Like, that's not a safe way to do reasoning and thinking and living. Okay. I'm saying a lot of things. I think that's actually a really valuable thing. It goes against our Oprah Winfrey culture. But, um, something to think about.

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In the books of scripture, there are those who are, say, the book of judges, there are those who are abused, and they're abusers. Right? They're both. It's not like we can separate humanity into abusers and abused. And that's the whole story. It's m more often m we're all kind of a mixed bag of both. And so that's why you can't give that person so much power. You can recognize the abuse and all that. But all I could do is, I could say, look, uh, I'll read through this one last time, and I'll share with you how it applied to my story. Okay. My first abusive relationship was not with God. My first non abusive relationship, perfect, pure, wonderful, joy filled relationship, was with God.

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He conditioned me to learn how to think. Yeah, to think, this person says, I couldn't think for myself. I learned how to use critical thinking, how to really push myself intellectually. Because of loving God with all my mind, because the writings of the scripture are so deep and thoughtful and intelligent, and because of my pursuit of knowing God and talking about God with people and trying to discuss the rationality of all those things. This caused me to push forward both in education and intellect, in ways I never would have otherwise. Um, it didn't teach me to repress natural desires and feelings like this meme says. It taught me. I'll put it back on your screen here. It didn't teach me to repress them. It taught me to filter them. To recognize that my natural desires are often good at the base but twisted when I apply them into real life. So that, yeah, eating food is good, I should enjoy that and thank God for that. But eating too much becomes gluttony, becomes bad. Um, health issues, um, money, expenses that are not wise, that trying to find people to put around you that are friends is a healthy thing. But work balance is also important in your life, too. These things. Yeah, I filter my feelings. Uh, but scripture, God gives me the balance, gives me the filter, shows me which desires are good, which desires are bad, and also which feelings are lies so that I'm not pushed into, like, paranoia or fear that would control my life or the inability to forgive others. God is the one who's restored me from that. This is my story of my real life. Yes, I've learned forgiveness towards family members because of God, and it really did change those relationships. And I'm able to be more like, glue in my family than like, um, a divider and a separator. At least I hope so. I hope that's the effect I have. Um, was conditioned to believe I'm worthless. No, I have huge value because I know that I'm a son of God in Christ. Huge value because I know that I'm made in God's image. Huge value because I know that I have eternal life ahead of me. This elevates my value. It doesn't diminish it. I recognize my sinfulness, but that's not the end of the story. I then turn to Christ. I then receive forgiveness. This is the effect of my relationship with God through Christ. You just had a bad religion or a bad relationship, or you want the narcissism and you're demonizing all religion as a way of getting it, um, threatened. If I ever spoke against abuse or voiced questions, I'd be shunned. Well, that's not my experience. I think that as a christian pastor, I was a domestic violence counselor for many years. So I was actually trying to fight on the side of those who were abused. And this is all an outgrowth of that religious faith. So this is the opposite of that.

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Um, it's the opposite of that, at least in my life. The idea that I can't voice questions or I'd be shunned, that's also not true. I do apologize. Genetics and stuff all the time, and tough questions. In fact, here you are with the q a, where you guys get to ask questions about God, Christianity, the Bible, dealing with this question right here and now. I would say to the person who wrote this meme, or who agrees with this meme, is that there is abuse in religion, but that doesn't mean religion is abuse. And you can look up world statistics and stuff on this, actually do some research on it. Religious religion has the impact of increasing the happiness and the prosperity of the world, including, like, marriages. The people who are real, not nominal christians, real christians who actually go to church and who actually are involved, and they're not just in name only. They have happier marriages. Their divorce rates are way, way lower. And don't be like, well, that's because they can't divorce because they're afraid. No, stop making stuff up about people you don't know. The actual statistics show that these things are true of them. Their divorce rates are way lower, their levels of happiness and satisfaction. Their marriages is much higher. Lots of good things going on there. Um, my own marriage, we've been married for 15 years, and, uh, that's not going to change. And this is a blessing due in significant part to that christian faith we have and the way that it helps us filter our sinful desires and point ourselves towards the Lord and correct us when we're wrong. Anyway, I have a lot more questions to answer. I hope that that's got some ground with somebody, somebody out there. You've learned to hate all religion because of some abuses, and that is imbalanced. Um, let's go to question number two. Uh, intense faith says, what does James 513 through 15 look like today? Are we missing something today that is hindering more healings from the holy spirit?

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James 513 to 15, what does that look like today?

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Um, I've struggled with this passage being open with you guys. Let's read through it together.

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Is, um, anyone among you suffering.

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Let him pray.

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Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. If is anyone among you sick, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

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Um, so there's a couple of different ways to approach this verse, right? Like the question is, hey, uh, the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. So we should expect healing every time. That's one way to approach it. So the prayer of faith is, I get healed every time, because as long as I pray in faith, there's always healing. I don't know of any church that does this. There's some churches that pretend that they do it. Bethel is an example of this, and they've made themselves a public example. I'm not talking out of hand about somebody. They've made themselves an example. Right. When Bill Johnson puts out teaching that says publicly, um, when Bill Johnson goes out and publicly says that it's going to be a place of total healing, it's going to be declare a zone where there's no sickness. In Bethel church in reading, California. And then coronavirus hits and they close their healing rooms and they put up signs to tell people not to point. My point here is that I don't see that happening anywhere. I see people talking about it, and the people who talk about it are always like, well, it's coming soon, it's coming soon, but it never seems to show up. It never seems to just be the reality. I remember when Nabil Qureshi was a wonderful christian man. He was an apologist, former Muslim, doing great things for the Lord. He got cancer and it was, uh, a bad outlook, right? He didn't have much longer to go. He visited Bethel church and he talked about, when he went there, he talked about how he received tons and tons of prophecies from people over and over again that he was going to be healed. He even got visited by some of the top faith healers in the christian communities. Are they christians? And stuff like. That's a debate. But some of the top guys that are well known, they went over to Nabil's house and they declared and prophesied over him that he was going to be healed. And they prayed for him and told him, we know you're going to be healed, and I believe in healing, okay. You might think I'm building a case against healing. I'm not, um, against healing every time. Yeah, I am, but not against healing. Not against miraculous, supernatural healing. I think we have tons of evidence that that's happened. Um, but every time, well, he received all these prophecies and then they didn't come to pass. Nabil then passed away. I thought about making a video about it at the time and for him and his family's sake, I just couldn't do it. Um, so a good amount of time has gone by now. I'll talk about it a little bit now. But I didn't do that because I felt like it wouldn't be in good taste. But these people who go around using verses like this to act like they're going to get healing every time. I think that that's an incorrect interpretation. I think it doesn't fit a bunch of other scriptures. Like Paul. He says he left one of his fellow workers sick. He just left him sick and he's like, oh, I left him at my, I was worried he was going to die. Um, Paul wouldn't do this if he could just faith heal every time. That would never happen that way. That's not the case. Jesus healed a lot of people.

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Healing seems to go out more when the gospel is going out freshly into a new place. That just seems to be what's going on. At least when I look at these sort of like bulk healing moments in scripture.

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And even people would say it's the same in the world today where we have the gospel going out into new locations, there seems to be more healing. Where it's more of a stale location, there seems to be less, but not none.

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So if it's not that, what could it mean? The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick? Well, there's a couple of ways of handling this. It could just be that he's saying, yes, the prayer of faith will save the one is sick. Does he say every prayer that's prayed in faith will save everyone who's sick? No, he's just reminding them, you guys should pray because prayer does do things.

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Do you get that? It's not a statement about all in every time. It's a statement about something that does happen and that's why you should go and anoint them and pray. So it's a belief in healing, not a belief in healing every single time.

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My own view is that the prayer of faith, the ultimate full prayer of faith, is faith that is inspired by the Holy Spirit who is sort of revealing to you that he is going to heal that person. And so you have a strong faith. And I've had this happen in my own life anecdotally where someone comes up for prayer and um, I just had a really strong confidence that they were going to be healed. And I didn't pray any different. I just prayed Normal. I just had this on my own. And then, um, he had had a diagnosis of a cancer and then he left and came back and said it's gone. The doctors looked, they said it was gone. They said maybe they made a mistake, which that's fine, whatever they want to think. I mean, I wasn't even thinking about trying to gather evidence and prove it, which is probably what you're wondering right now. This was many years ago. Is that typical for me? No. Did it happen? Um, it at least appears that it happened.

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And I think that that idea of when the Lord gives you sort of an awareness that there's a healing coming, that maybe that's that prayer of faith, maybe there's an element there that that's what prayer of faith is referring to. Maybe I say maybe tentative.

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And um, I think there's some other scriptures that could be brought in to talk about that as well. Um, that the nature of that faith is that it's inspired by the Lord. Calvinists think I'm preaching Calvinism here and I would encourage you to catch the nuance. Um, and it would be consistent with Calvinism, but it wouldn't be Calvinism. There's a difference. I'm not talking about regeneration before faith. Um, I'm talking about God, sort of his spirit sort of whispering to you like, I'm going to do this. And then you respond in faith to the thing that he says. That's it. Something like that. Anyway, I have some other teaching on that somewhere. If I find the links for that, I'll share it in the description down below afterwards, maybe Sarah's. Everyone can help me find that. Where did I talk about that faith and healing and how that works? Because there's several other verses that I worked through and tried to sort of harmonize together and that was the conclusion I came to. I could give it to you guys for your consideration.

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All right, question number three. We've got all ten questions for today and this is just by way of reminder, every Friday now, ten questions I'll be dealing with. That's ten instead of 20. But it's every Friday instead of every other Friday. You get the same number of questions. It's just separated into two shorter videos, which is easier for me. All right, question number three.

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Uh, from r. Tamara m a pastor I listened to says that any community service, charity work that is not done through the church or a christian organization is meaningless to God. What are your thoughts on this?

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Um, that. That's ridiculous. Um, utterly, utterly ridiculous. Um, let me see if I can find you a verse that comes to mind.

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Okay, so here's a man, um, in the book of acts, acts, chapter ten, the church has begun. It's been growing and all this stuff. Then there's a centurion who's going to end up getting saved here. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the italian regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always.

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About the 9th hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius. And when he observed him, he was afraid and said, what is it, lord? So he said to him, your prayers and your alms have come up before, uh, a memorial before God.

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Now, alms means donations to the poor. He's just giving money to the poor. That's what his alms are. Is he doing it through a christian organization?

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No. As you read the context, he's not part of a christian organization. He's not even part of a church. He believes in the God of the Jews. But he's not doing this donation through any organization. He's just giving money to the poor. Now, send men to Joppa, or Yappa, as others would probably call it more accurately, and send for Simon, whose surname is Peter. He's lodging with Simon Tanner, whose house is by the sea, and he will tell you what you must do. Then Cornelius later finds out about Jesus as you read the passage, and he ends up getting saved, and he gets filled with the spirit. The dude's not even truly. He's not even born again at this point.

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And so here's a guy that's not born again, not filled with the spirit that his offerings. God notices and cares about those things he's giving him. Not organizationally, he's just giving to the poor. Jesus. Uh, there's more on this Jesus. When he. I'll give you at least two more things. When he approached others and told, know, sell what you have like to the rich man. Give it to the poor, and come follow me. When that rich man sold what he had and gave it to the poor, he didn't give it to an organization that works with the poor. He would have literally just gone and given money to the poor. If he had done it, Jesus would have instructed him to sell. And outside of any organization, just literally walk up to poor people and be like, here's, hm, money, here's money, poor people, and then go the other way.

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That is the kind of giving that Jesus instructed. So if it was worthless before God, if it was pointless, let me see the words you used. Um, if it was meaningless to God, that's what you said your pastor claimed, or a pastor you listened to, then I think that that would never happen. In addition to this, we have statements in the prophets in the Old Testament where God is exposing, uh, what he judges non jewish nations for. I always find this fascinating, because if God judges a non jewish nation, they're not under the law, and he judges them for these things, then those things would be something that God would just be. He judges all nations for that. It's not just about the law of Moses. It's like everybody gets judged for those things. Um, and some of those things are like not giving to the poor, not doing charitable works, not taking care of the people around you who have less. These are some of the things that God judges non jewish nations for. Now, certainly those non jewish nations are not involved in some sort of organized christian ministry or organized jewish ministry. They're just taking care of people around them. Right? The good Samaritan. Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan.

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He helps out this guy he has got no connection with. He helps him out, he pays for his medical expenses, he cleans him up, he gets him back on his feet. He doesn't do this through any kind of organizational structure of any kind. Yet Jesus uses him to lift him up as an example of someone who's loving their neighbor and something that is what, the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor. So all that to say, um, when you say that a pastor you listened to says, any charity or service work that's not done through the church or a christian organization is meaningless. That doesn't make any sense.

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That doesn't make any sense. But I will say this other thing. Any work that's not presented to God ultimately through Christ, does not counterbalance our sins, does not overwhelm the guilt. I have the sin of my guilt before God. I can't pay for my own sins through my good works, none of that. So all that's worthless in that sense. As far as if I bring my little tickets, if I go to the arcade and I play skeeball and I bring my little tickets up to the arcade, guy and I want to get like a little army figure with my like 6000 tickets. And I do that. That ticket has value, but it wouldn't have value for buying a car, uh, buying a house, going out to eat somewhere, and then paying with these tickets. My works in Christ are rewarded before God, but it's sort of that in house reward system. It's not about getting rid of my sins through my works. The only way to have your sins forgiven is not through your alms giving, your charitable works, the religious things you do as a Christian or non Christian. The only way to have your sins forgiven is through faith in Christ, trusting in him. It is this thing that's easy to get and hard to get at the same time. Some people just don't. It doesn't click until they realize, oh, me, me being forgiven is just me trusting in God. And then he does all the work. And so when I try to present my good works to him, like, look, I'm a good person, God, welcome me to heaven, forgive me for my sins, because I'm going to do good stuff and I'm going to work real hard. That's actually kind of an insult to him because he already paid a massive price in Christ when he died on the cross for my sins and rose again. So to present my works as something that's going to accomplish what jesus did with such a horrible, horrible thing he had to go through, to present my works that way, that would be um, ultimately an insult. So there's that sense in which I'd say, yeah, the pastor maybe, that he was trying to get at it being meaningless in that sense. But even christian ministry work is meaningless in the sense of trying to absolve my sins. Only Jesus can get rid of my sin.

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Stephen Exley says, I often hear that sin breaks fellowship or causes relational unforgiveness to quote, got questions which I like. Got questions a lot, by the way, uh, the website. But uh, is there scripture to show that sin can in any way separate a Christian from God? And then you put hashtag Hebrews 1019, which is probably a different thing than what got questions was talking about.

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Hebrews 1019. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest of by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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This is a great boldness verse about coming for grace. Right. I come. Let me just talk about this verse, then I'll answer the question about broken relationship with God as a Christian. Um, we have boldness to enter the holiest. Okay, that. To say this in the context of the Old Testament and of the law and of the temple, that holiest. We're talking about entering into the presence of God in the temple, which only the high priest could do once a year and at risk of his own death if he did so impure.

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Wow. We all get to enter in, not crawling down on our hands and knees under the veil, right? But boldly we come in because the veil has been torn open. And we walk in as though we walk through Jesus. And we come into the veil, that is, through his flesh. I'm quoting scripture here in the book of Hebrews. We enter into this incredible grace of Christ, like I walk in because Christ has brought me in. You can't reject Jesus, so you can't reject me.

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Amazing. Um, so we have boldness how? By the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way in which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God. Okay? So he's also interceding for us. He's made the sacrifice for us once and for all. So we draw near with a true heart. Now, why would I tell a Christian to draw near?

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Aren't they already near?

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That's an interesting thing to think about. There's a sense in which, uh, you can continue to draw near to God because I will agree with. I don't know about the terminology. The relational unforgiveness. That's an interesting term. I have to think about that more. Um, but the idea that you can have a problem in your relationship with God even though you're cleansed by the blood of Christ, I think that that is a biblical view. I think it is that when you read first Corinthians, say, and Paul talks about the problems that the Corinthians are having, he's like, don't you know the holy spirit is in you?

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You're the bride of Christ. You're the temple of the living God. And he's talking about these things like, this should shock you and concern you. There's these problems, uh, in Galatians, he's threatening almost to the Galatians, like, who's bewitched you?

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This is a scary thing you're going through. In revelation, Jesus writes the letters to the churches, or he has John write them and he talks to them in, uh, ephesus, he goes, oh, yeah, you've got this and this and this and this and this. But you've left your first love. There's a relational problem. I don't know if I'll call it relational unforgiveness, but a relational problem in that passage, in the letter to the ephesian church, where in revelation, not the book of Ephesians, where, um, he's like, you've left your first love, get back and do the first works. Do those original things that you did before.

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You can have problems in your walk with Christ, even though you're still in Christ. I think that that's definitely a biblical reality.

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What about unforgiveness? Well, there's an element, um, where maybe forgive me, because this is going to be clumsy. Okay. Consider this, my attempt to grab at what I think is a biblical truth with my own clumsiness.

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Um, I'll offer a crude analogy. Think of forgiveness in layers.

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I feel like I'm going to regret saying this.

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I reserve the right to take it back.

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Um, consider forgiveness in layers. Like, you've got the base layer of forgiveness. This establishes real relationship and permanence in that relationship.

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Um, then there's momentary forgiveness. Forgiveness, that's like, maybe second layer, two, where it's like, hey, everything in our relationship is actually solid. We're okay. We're actually getting along well.

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We're like this.

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Marriage is a good analogy for that, because me and my wife, sometimes, we're not like that, but we're always solid down here. Layer number one, always there, always solid marriage, not in danger, secure. But there's moments where we're not getting along, and there's an issue there that needs to sometimes be resolved by forgiveness, by grace, by saying, let's move past this. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. In other words, I think that, like marriage, my relationship with God happens in real time. And when I have times of sin, I need to come to the Lord and I need to clear the slate, even though I'm still forgiven. There's a relational issue there. Whatever words we use to describe that can be a little clumsy. Forgiveness. I think it's kind of okay to say forgiveness. Like the James verse we read earlier, James 315, and it said, um, if he's committed sins, he'll be forgiven.

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Is that talking about a christian right, that there can be this stuff that we go through, um, that we still need to come and bring to the Lord for our relational health with him?

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I think that seems like it's biblical. I'm just not sure of all the right words to use to describe it.

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Uh, Tyler Nichols says, do I have to like a brother in Christ? I know I should love my neighbor and not hate anyone, but there are some personalities I don't like. Is that sinful?

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Um.

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I feel like I want to have a nuanced view of this, Tyler, because let's just say there's maybe two extremes, right? One, I go, no. You could be like, I love you, but I don't like you. And I've seen that done in real life in a way that's very entitled, a way that is very much like, um, I don't really love you. That's how it feels. Um. And then there's, um. Like, I have to love you, but I don't like you.

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And my heart goes out to that person, just the way they say it. Different, right? Like, I have to love you, but I don't like you, versus I have to love you, but, uh, I don't like you. And I'm not going to say it out loud to them because that would be cruel. Maybe. Most likely, I wouldn't say it out loud, but I get that there's, like, that nuance. I don't want to be the extreme person who's ultimately just not loving at all. But on the other side, I don't want to play some mind game with people and be like, well, if you love people, you also like them.

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You feel likey, like, towards them. That's weird. There are people who I, um.

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Still to this day, this is my habit. I learned this years ago through hard relationships, is that every time. And I have to remind myself of it, too. I don't always do it every time. Um, but I want to, uh. Every time I think of them and I think of the feeling I get towards them that I stop and pray for them, not about them. There's a difference. Praying about someone is like, lord, fix that person. They irritate me, make them less irritating. I'm sort of praying about them.

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Praying for them is different, lord, they have these issues.

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I pray that you'd help these issues not to hurt their life. I pray that you bless them, that you'd raise them up in godliness and restore them in hope and joy and peace, and that their marriage would be healthy and that their kids would be doing good. I start praying for them and praying like, lord, help me to love them, help me to care about them. And then I find that my actual love, real love for them, m goes up. And then the dislike feelings come down to a degree. That's what I'm going to shoot for as a Christian.

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I want to shoot for having less of those dislike feelings and, uh, more of those loved ones. And, uh, this feels all very clumsy the way, using these terms this way.

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Um, but one could say that, um, God in the scripture represents a sort of I love you, but I don't like you kind of attitude towards people. Sometimes Jesus is like, you brood of vipers. But he's also inviting them into his kingdom. Now, he's not just calling them names. You might think he's just expressing emotions and anger, but he's not. He's calling them out. He's not calling them names. He's calling them out. When he's like you pharisees, you whitewashed tombs, you hypocrites. He's calling them out. He's not just venting at them, he's calling them out. And some of them woke up and some of them actually got saved. And they're welcomed in.

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They're welcomed in. When God talks to Israel, he's like, you're filthy rags. All your righteousness, it's filthy rags. You guys are so messed up right now. And then he says, like, come, let us reason together. Though your sins are like Scarlet, they'll be as white as wool, they'll be like snow. You will be washed and clean. I will take you under my wings, he tells them. So there's maybe that example of God, um, the way you see that you love versus like is, I do desire the best for them. I do desire good for them. I do desire forgiveness for them. Even though justice may come if they continue in sinful ways, I desire good for them. And a habit that I have that helps me is people like that pray for them each time that you find your frustrations rising against them. Stop and pray for them every time as a habit and thank God for them. Is it easy? No, I know it's not easy. I've done it many times, but I have found it. It shifts my heart towards a heart of compassion.

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Number six, Hagen Freyer says, how is it some can cast out demons in Jesus's name, but then be told, depart from me, for I never knew you. How do I avoid that fate?

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Um, so, yeah, you're thinking of Jesus'story, his, uh, statement about the coming of the son of man. And he'll come and he'll separate, like a shepherd, the sheep from the goats, one on the left and one on the right. And so the goats are on the left and he know, depart from me. You workers of know go into everlasting fire. And they say, well, but lord, we did all these things. We cast out demons in your name. We did great works in your name. And he says, I never knew you. And then to the others he says, enter into my kingdom. And they go, what did we do for you? Effectively? And the answer is, when you visited people in prison, when you took care of my people and you blessed my people and you loved them, you did that to me. So you've got these ideas right there in the text that show that great miraculous works are not the proof of your salvation.

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What is the evidence that you know God? Well, it's love. It's love and compassion you have towards your fellow human beings. First, John. Right. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. You guys know the song? He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Anyway, you know the song?

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Um, yeah. That's qualified with faith in Christ and trust in Christ. It's not like you look around and go, well, they're a loving person. They must be saved. Uh, no, there's certainly more to it than that. The primary command in scripture is to love God. But one way, you see, this is your love for your fellow man and your forgiveness for your fellow man. These are two indicators in scripture. When Jesus says, if you don't forgive others, neither will you be forgiven. So when I love people for the sake of Christ, that's an important caveat, and I am forgiving towards people for the sake of Christ. This is a piece of evidence that demonstrates my own salvation.

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But it's interesting how doing a great miracle thing is not proof that you're saved.

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And I like that. I like that that's the case. I think that's a wonderful thing. There's a simplicity and a beauty in that.

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All right, question seven. Chris Boswell says, what is the significance of people taking their shoes off in the presence of God in the Old Testament?

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Um, I don't know enough about the history of that to give you a great answer. Um, just what's obvious in the text is when God says to Moses, he says from the burning bush, like, take your shoes off, for this is holy ground.

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So the significance is that somehow that you couldn't argue with somehow taking the shoes off is a way of giving m glory and honor to the moment, to the place, to the event. Take your shoes off because this is a holy ground. Um, beyond that, I looked into it once a while ago, and I don't remember the answer. I just don't know. That's a good question. Maybe you guys can help me out. If you have, uh, something in the comments that you guys can add to this. Taking your shoes off. M. Yeah, there's other taking shoes off stuff in the Old Testament, like the man who won't do the leverite marriage. So the leverite marriage is this idea of your brother in the Old Testament, levitical law, very important to continue the bloodlines, to keep the land in that family, that tribe that it was given to. So your brother, say, your older brother, gets married and then dies and hasn't had a kid. So then according to that law, you then would marry his wife. She's his widow now. So you marry her, and then the first kid that you have you raise in his name gets his inheritance, and you carry forward the inheritance and the name of your brother. But you could refuse this. You could say, no, I don't want to. And one of the things you do is you'd take your shoe off and then you'd give it to them, and you'd be the man who had no shoe. So that was obviously something very different. This was something of a shameful thing.

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So there was obviously significance there in those cultures that I don't see today. Um, I guess the closest I can think is if I walk into an environment that's very like that wholly. If I have a hat on, I'd think to take it off, like, instinctually I would reach to take my hat off. Not my shoes, but my hat.

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Maybe it's just simply an outward way of demonstrating awe and reverence. And, um, that's all I could say with any confidence. Number eight, Gracia says, how do I stop comparing myself to others? As a college student, I'm surrounded by a highly competitive environment, and I find myself comparing my grades, career to others. How do I overcome this?

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Um, try to cheer and root for other people when they succeed? Um, the danger of this kind of comparison is that it breeds a lot of jealousy and animosity, at least potentially in your heart towards others.

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So cheering for and rooting for them, for rejoicing, rejoicing in their progress, in their achievements, in them, even surpassing. You rejoicing in those things deliberately. This is something, when I say rejoicing, you might think, but I don't feel super joyful. No, I mean, when the Bible says rejoice always, it means, like, you can actually just choose to do this I'm not talking about the emotion, talking about the behaviors. Rejoice. Good for them. I'm glad that they achieved that. That's great. I'm happy for them. This is love does not envy. Scripture says, our greatest command is love God and love others. Well, you want to love others, don't envy them.

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Comparing, um, is about me being better than you.

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Maybe another way to put is me being in competition with you in ministry. I've seen this happen a lot where somebody feels weird because they're a worship leader and someone else comes up and they seem like maybe they're a little better at it, better singer, better at music or something, um, better at inspiring a crowd in godly ways so then they can become jealous of that person. And this happens with teachers, too, where, say, there's a young and upcoming teacher in the church, and they're just really gifted. They're really good at expounding scripture, maybe answering questions and stuff like that about the Bible, and so others feel intimidated by them. And then that competition mentality really breaks the church and can hurt the ministries in pretty significant ways. I've seen it can actually hurt it in really significant ways. As well as alienating people, stopping, uh, great ministry things from happening, winning. Instead of identifying gifts around you and raising people up, we start feeling like we have to find something wrong with them. Oh, yeah, they're really good at this. But, you know what's wrong with them is this and this and this and this. And now I can feel like I'm better than them, which is where I always wanted to be.

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All of this is. Love does not envy. So all of this is of the flesh. All of this is sinful.

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Root for them, cheer for them, be glad for their achievements. You are not competing, uh, in life. You're not competing with, know, like, I have a ministry and an online reach and a YouTube channel and all this stuff, but lots of other christians have their content. There's plenty of channels out there growing more than mine, faster than mine, bigger than, and will be bigger than mine, and their reach will be greater than mine. And I should be like, thank God for that. That's more ministry. That's more people being impacted. These are wonderful things. How does this have any effect on me at all, except in my own little jealous brain? So I should be excited for them and rooting for them. And I am christians out there doing content. Good for you. I hope you keep growing. Hope you get way bigger than me. Me, uh, meaning the numbers on my channel, not me. I'm six foot, slowly shrinking like everybody else.

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At any rate, um, root for them, cheer for them. You're not in competition with them. It's all in your head and it's all envy and it's all destructive. Become the person who, when you hear about others achieving things, even things you failed, be glad for them, because just as much as you wanted it, you should be like, wow, they did it. That satisfaction and joy they have, I'm happy for them. That's great. Love does not envy. So love them, pray for them. Thank God for the achievements of others, and see them as your partners, as people who, uh, the rising tide. You're all pushing each other forward, not all competing with each other. Try to see people like they're on your team as much as possible. These are my things. I'd suggest, based on many years of ministry. I've definitely done ministry with people who didn't treat you like they were on your team. They treated you like it was competition. And I had to keep telling myself, don't compete. I'm not saying I was perfect in it, because I wasn't, but I had to keep telling myself, don't compete, don't compete, don't compete. We're on the same team.

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Celebrate their achievements, um, bolster them up, don't talk bad about them behind their backs to tear down their ministries and stuff like that. I'm just being honest with you because we're humans doing these ministries, and we have all the flaws and shortcomings that every other human has, but we're handling holy, holy things with ministry, so we just can't afford to do that. And you, as a Christian, should try to see your whole life as ministry and not just be like, well, that doesn't apply to me, Mike. I'm not in ministry. If you're a Christian, then your school is ministry for you. Your marriage is ministry, your work is ministry. It's all ministry.

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All right. Number nine, Japaroni gaming. I like that, Japaroni gaming. Uh, do current Jews and Christians worship the same God? They claim to worship the God of Moses and the saints, but reject part of God. You mean like Jesus? Right. This question has had me very confused, so thanks in advance, Mike.

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Right. So, yeah, it is the true God. Um, but there's more to it than that, I guess maybe to try to have a balanced, I think, biblical view. And I'm not just saying stuff randomly here. I'm going to try to back it up with scripture that, um, they accurately have the right God and the description they have of God is accurate to a point, but that if you reject the son, you lose the father too. So you lose that relationship with God. Maybe I'll put it that way. They have the right God, but they don't have a relationship with him apart from Christ. Because if you reject the son, you lose the father too. So here's an interesting place to go for this. Remember the woman at the well?

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Um, Jesus has this back and forth with her, and finally she's like, hey, uh, let me ask you about the big question between us, the Samaritans and the Jews. Um, here it is.

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In John 419, the woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. And you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship. For salvation is of the Jews.

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She's worshiping some God she doesn't even know about. Like, she's confused. I don't understand. But Jesus here affirms that the God the Jews worship is the true God.

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We're not saying that the Jews have a wrong version of God, but in relationally rejecting the son, they lose the father too, because Jesus says, he who sees me sees the father.

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Um, it seems to me that balances that biblical view to say, yeah, you can know who the true God is, but not really have a relationship with him, not have eternal life in him. Like, people, even who know who Jesus is can be this. When Jesus says, depart from me, I never knew you. And they were like, wait a minute. We did all this stuff in your name. There are people right now who have all the right theology about God, but inwardly they are dead. They are not saved. They're not truly in, um, um. Now, when it comes to specific statements about Jesus, I can understand how there'd be some pushback against what I just said. So when, ah, a jew says, God could never become a man, God cannot become a man. This is not possible. They're wrong about that. But does that mean that they've got, definitionally, a different God? Or rather, they have something wrong that they think about the true God? Uh, I would suggest you have something wrong. You think about the true God, but are you in relationship with him? Are you saved by his grace? No. You lose him because you've rejected the second person of the Trinity. You've rejected the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So that's how I would parse that out. I'll make sure I've answered your question. Um, do they worship the same God? Um, yes ish, right? Yes, that's the same God. But when they deny that Jesus is God, they certainly have messed up on their understanding of that God that they're trying to worship. And when they worship in rebellion, if I worship God in rejection of his son, I'm not really worshiping him.

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So I don't mean it in the ecumenical sense of, like, we all, like, sort of two paths to heaven, right? Like, the jewish path and the Jesus christian path.

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The word Christian just means messianic, right. Just means the ones who are, like, followers of the Christ.

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If I say there's a jewish path and there's a christian path, what I'm really saying is there's a no Jesus path. Like, um, I reject the messiah path, and I embrace the messiah path, well, then obviously only the embrace the messiah path is going to work, logically speaking. Um.

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Um, there's more that should be said on this. I hope that those things are helpful for you. Number ten, Juan Diego says, hi, Pastor. Thank you for your ministry, and thank you, Juan, for your question. Um, it has truly changed my life.

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Uh, just Juan. Just that statement right there will sit with me. I appreciate that. I'm grateful for that. I praise God for that. Uh, I don't know you, right? But I'm not trying to be, like, weird, weird here at all. But I do care about you. I care about that statement that it's changed your life. That means a lot to me. And I praise God and thank God for that, because it's only by his grace I could do any of these ministry things. And it's certainly his word, his truth, and his spirit that has ultimately done all the work in you. So I'm just grateful I got to be an earthen vessel.

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Um, so your question is, was Solomon saved? Did he repent after what he did? What is the book of acts of the acts of Solomon? Um, first kings, 1141. Okay, so was Solomon saved?

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Um.

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That's a tough question. I'm not really sure if I know the answer to it. So, uh, let me explain why it's tough for anybody who's wondering. So, Solomon clearly called of God, right? He prays when he first becomes king, and God gives him this wisdom, great wisdom, wisest man ever. And he runs the kingdom with wisdom, but he doesn't run his own life with that same wisdom. Ecclesiastes kind of records how he steps into great folly, even deliberately. Um, and that it was vanity and it was all a big waste of time. And he increases knowledge, increases sorrow. Like that kind of knowledge, the knowledge of sinful things you do. That especially is sorrowful.

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Um, not that that's what that verse is initially about. I'm just giving a slant application of it. Don't think that that verse is about knowledge of sin. It's not.

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Anyway, that being said, sorry, too many neurons firing. We're not enough or both. Um, so the issue of Solomon, though, he starts off good. He's the son of David. He's kind of a, uh, picture of Jesus Christ because he builds the temple that, I love the picture here. David, the father, he's this man of blood, right? So he can't build the temple, but he lays out the blueprints, right? He prepares the temple. He's the one who designs it. Solomon gathers the resources and actually builds the temple. So we have the father who designs and the son who then builds. Jesus comes and he turns us into a temple, but he's following the father's, um, direction and directives the whole way. I only do what the father shows me. He says he's always walking in obedience to the father. And he creates this new living temple out of us. And he's also the son of David, Jesus, the ultimate son of David. There's just beautiful things here in Solomon's life.

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But then Solomon marries a whole bunch of women and has even more concubines. It's like a thousand women.

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He does this after scripture told him not to. Do not multiply wives. Kings of Israel don't multiply wives, deuteronomy says. And he did it anyway. And his heart goes out to these false gods of these women. So he builds them high places. And he didn't stop believing in the God of Israel worshiping. He added other gods on top. This is what Israel always did. They didn't just stop worshiping the true God. They added extra ones in there, which is not okay, right? It was pluralism. It wasn't just rejection.

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So he does this, and his heart goes out after those other gods. Did Solomon repent?

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Was Solomon saved?

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I'm not sure. I know that. Ecclesiastes, it seems to show a kind of attitude of repentance. In ecclesiastes, if you look at it and you read it, I think you'll see it there. He says, I did this and I did this, and it was folly and madness and foolish. And then at the end, he's like, the end of the matter? Just be faithful to God. He writes in proverbs this stuff like, um, rejoice in the wife of your youth, the singular wife of your youth. Let her satisfy you always.

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The idea in proverbs and ecclesiastes and stuff is that there's this sort of attitude of, this was a bad idea, this was wrong. Um, and so I guess I would lean towards thinking that there was a repentance there and that there was a change that happened there. Um, and I certainly hope so, yeah. Do I have clarity on that? Uh, 100% sure. No, but I guess I would lean that way. Um, so first kings 1141, you also have, like, this little kind of extra question. What is this talking about the rest of the acts of Solomon and all that he did and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of know? We have a few times where the Old Testament references these other books. There's other books where it happens, especially in first and second kings, first and second chronicles, where it's talking about going over these different reigns of these different kings, and it references other books. And let's just take this from a pragmatic standpoint here. Step one is to recognize that there were other books in existence. You know this, right? I'm just reminding us of all of it. There were lots and lots and lots of other books in existence. It's not like the only thing written at that time was the Bible. There were a whole bunch of other books. Step one. Now, step two is to realize that every book the Bible mentions does not become inspired and canon. The Bible can talk about a book, mention a book that doesn't make that book scripture. So put those two together and you go, oh, it's just the author. You know, Solomon did other stuff, and that's where it's found. It's just their way of saying, look, he did other things. Maybe it helps ground the historicity of the Old Testament here, that it references books that we're not even familiar with.

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You don't do that when you're writing something after the fact and you're fabricating all this stuff. You don't typically throw those kinds of statements in there. These are statements that arise out of, like, a real world where there really is other books. And, oh, yeah, he did a bunch of other stuff, but I record this, um, ultimately under the inspiration of the spirit for those purposes, and that other stuff is recorded elsewhere. So the acts of Solomon would be literally a record of the stuff that Solomon did while he was reigning, that somebody was chronicling and writing down, interestingly enough, acts of kings back then, they would typically record all the good stuff and none of the bad stuff.

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What's really cool about scripture is it records the bad stuff that Israel did, the failures of Solomon, like Solomon's wives or David's adultery. Scripture records the Failures of Israel, the failures of the kings. I mean, you look at the kings and most of them were bad. And you don't get this from the propagandistic writings that you have normally recorded from kings and histories in other places. Because in scripture, God is the hero, not you, not even these people. Ultimately, we're kind of a neat, neat thing to think about. All right, I've got one last call. This eleven bonus question. This is also from Juan Diego. You got in there, you got a lucky day, you squeezed in a lot. And no, I don't mean supernatural luck, guys. I just mean fortunate.

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Side note, christians, when someone says lucky, we don't have to say, like, don't believe in luck. They don't actually believe in luck. Most likely they're just trying to say fortunate.

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Sorry. Many years of slowly learning things in my life now just spilling out. Um, okay. Also from Juan Diego, in Lord of the Rings, return of the king, it is mentioned that three days are needed to gather more forces before Aragorn leaves. However, only one day seems to pass. How do you reconcile this?

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Um, well, I don't know.

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That's a good question. I don't know. I never noticed that.

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I'm a big lord of the Rings fan. I love Lord of the Rings and watched it many times. Now, I'm going to try and figure that out next time I watch the movies with my wife, which we do every once in a while. Um, Aragorn, left, right? That's when he's with the Rohirim. Right? That's when he's with the Rohirim. And then he heads into the mountain and travels the paths of the dead and then he goes. And who knows how long he was walking through those caves and then gets out the other side and then eventually rides up and meets them in battle, right? Is that what you're talking about? I'm not really sure if there's a day issue there. I'm not sure if that's a true contradiction.

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Anyways, all right, you guys, uh, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your holy, holy word. Uh, we acknowledge that, uh, we're broken. We are broken, but we're also hugely valuable. But we're also powerless to save ourselves. And we stand in judgment before you because of our sins that even as christians we wouldn't make it if you weren't sustaining us with grace every single day. We wouldn't last a minute without the blood of Christ, without the forgiveness and love and grace that has been poured out on us through Christ. And so we are grateful. But we don't just cling to your grace like it's something that you might at any moment just take away from us. But rather we, like Hebrews says, we come boldly to your throne of grace with boldness, not because we're good, no, we're not. But because Christ has died for us. Because we come through him to you, Father. We come in the name of Christ. In his name we pray. In his name we worship. In his name we live. In his name. We have boldness before you. We stand by faith. And we thank you for the new mercies that we experience every day. We pray that you would sanctify us, that you would focus us upon you, that you would help us to take advantage of these days, that we've got to not waste our lives with frivolous living, selfishness and just emptiness, prodigal living, but rather to live fully for Christ to seek first your kingdom and to have a huge impact in this world. We pray in Jesus m name. Amen. Amen.

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It's.