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Welcome to the live stream. Today we're asking the question, uh, what does it mean when the bible talks about delivering someone over to Satan? What is that talking about? That is the question. And let me read to you who it came in from. This came in. And by the way, I'm taking your questions from the live chat. There'll be ten of them all together today. Sometimes we get a bonus one in, so maybe eleven. This one comes from Tim, Abma, who says, hi, Mike. Love your ministry. Thank you very much, Tim. Uh, considering one corinthians five and one Timothy 119 20, what do you think delivering people to satan means? There we go, changing the counter. Um, I actually had. I'll tell you guys true story. I became intensely interested in this passage when I was, uh, auditing a bible college class. I couldn't afford to do the bible college, but I at the time, so I paid to audit it, um, which means I got no credit, but I got to sit in on the class. And I think it was either Galatians or Ephesians. But for some reason, this passage came up, this section in one corinthians five that I'm about to read to you. And my college teacher, Bible college teacher, said he thought it meant killing somebody that, like, the church would gather together and literally kill the person who was in sin. And then, of course, I became intensely interested. I started studying and looking at it and stuff, and then having a debate with the college. You can imagine me having a debate with the, with the guy in class at this, uh, Bible college. Um, he did not represent the Bible college in that view. That was his own view, but it was wild. Um, what does it mean, though? Let's look at it now. So, first Corinthians, chapter five, I share that story not only because it's anecdotally interesting, but because there really are christians who will grab onto a difficult to understand verse and then do something very wild in response. If this, if this, uh, let's say that the same Bible college teacher became extremely popular online and he's teaching, and then he starts telling people, yeah, you got to kill people in your church. Do you get what I mean? Like, this is, you know, I was very young at the time, older now. I would have, uh, at this stage, I would have gone to the leaders in the, in the church or in the Bible college and said, hey, he's got this really dangerous teaching. You guys need to be dealing with it. So here is the verse, um, starting. Let's see here. Well, we will get the context. It's always good to get the context. That kind of answers most questions. For you, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among the pagans. For a man has his father's wife. There's a guy who was with, romantically was with his father's wife, probably not his mom, probably like a stepmom. And he's with her. Okay, so this is considered gross immorality. Horrible. Um, even the pagans look at this and go, whoa, you're doing what? And he's a christian, or at least he claims to be. He's among them, meaning he's like a member of their church, effectively. And then verse two says, and you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn?

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This is a great example of, um, actually the progressive church movement right now, where they're arrogant about the sexual immorality of the progressive church that they're promoting, and they're going to put rainbows on things and talk about, um, all are welcome. And these are the phrases and the ideas that are used. But it's an arrogance instead of a mourning over sin. Um, they've got the shoe on the wrong foot, so to speak. Let him who has done this be removed from among you. Okay, there's your first clue as to what it means. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit. And as if present, I've already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing when you were assembled. In the name of the Lord Jesus. And my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for. For the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Now, if you take the killing view, which is very much wrong, if you take the killing view, you're interpreting this to be, uh, you gather as a church, and you collectively have vigilante justice. You know, like, he who's without sin cast the first stone. Like, you're casting the stones, you have vigilante justice. And the reason you're doing this is because you're thinking that by killing him, you're going to assure his eventual salvation. So he's, like, making some. Is he making a sacrifice for sin that he might be brought into heaven? It's just all of a sudden you have to see wrong ideas sometimes grab onto our theology and change it, and you believe one wrong thing. It forces you to change something else about your theology. And so you can absorb these wrong beliefs unintentionally. So that's one of the things that happens, um, when, uh, when someone says it's always God's will to heal. That's a wrong belief, that it's always God's will to heal. And God's power is always available to heal. And so then it, unintentionally, you start being forced, whether you like it or not, to demonize people who aren't healed. Right? Oh, well, you're not healed. Why am I not healed? Well, God's power and will are present to heal you, so it must be something's wrong with you. Maybe you're in sin. Maybe you don't pray well enough or pray enough. Um, there's got to be some problem on the human side of things.

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That's the reason, because God certainly is more powerful. You can't just blame Satan, because God's more powerful than Satan. And if it's his will and his power is available, you're forced. Like your wrong thinking here forces you into something you don't even want. I guess I have to make sick people look like there's something wrong with them spiritually, not just physically, which is why it becomes, over time, increasingly difficult to continue attending a church that, uh, believes God always heals. Like you say, Bethel church. When you have a chronic illness in your own life, or maybe in your family, your child, or something like that, it just becomes more and more difficult because these unintentional theological commitments that you've made because of a wrong belief. Okay, so what is it actually saying? Um, well, whatever it is, Paul has done it once before. Did you know that? That's the first Timothy passage that was brought up in the question one Timothy 119.

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Paul talks to Timothy about holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. Now, here's a little clue. Whatever this handing over to Satan thing is, it was meant to be a lesson that they may learn not to blaspheme. So it's not like I'm gonna. Paul's not like I killed Hymenaeus and Alexander. That'll teach him. That's not what he's saying. Rather, he handed them over to Satan. He did this thing where he delivered them in some sense, to Satan, to his control, to his authority, to his realm or something like that, um, in order to teach them a lesson that they might learn something and actually be changed.

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One of the wrong beliefs that the, uh, bible college professor had in this, uh, first corinthians five was thinking that Satan is the ruler of the dead, right? Like, so that delivering people to Satan is killing them. Because he had this, like, cartoony version of hell in his head where Satan's like the boss of hell, guys, he's not the boss. That's his prison. That when he is eventually sent to hell, that's his prison. He's not in charge there. He's in solitary confinement or destruction. And I say, or, because I'm not getting into that debate here, but the issue of. Of what his position is in hell is one of weakness and one of powerlessness. You're not delivered to him when you die. When you die, you're delivered to God, not Satan. That's a theological problem, um, that, uh, we don't want to soak up. Let me make sure everything's all right with it. All right? I think so. So, um, what does Paul mean? Well, delivered to Satan, you just have to keep reading in one corinthians five, and you can see what he did with Hymenaeus and Alexander. And you just keep reading. Always check the context. If we just read a chapter instead of a verse, sometimes we'll answer our questions before even having to ask them.

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So, verse six, he says, your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Now, this is an analogy they would understand better. You know, we don't. We don't bake as much nowadays, but, yeah, you put a little leaven and it spreads through the lump. Well, guess what? The leaven is this guy in sin. And if you let him stay in your midst, then it's going to. It's going to spread. Sin will spread. Tolerating sin in the church. Tolerating open, unrepentant sin in the church will. It will spread and it will affect others. It's always a balancing act for church leaders, because you want to be gracious and receive people as they are, but you cannot endorse their sinful behaviors. And so if those behaviors continue and they're unrepentant and they're not, there's no humility, but there's arrogance and things like that. You've got to bring this thing, you got to deliver them to Satan, is what he's saying. So cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. So leaven is an example of sin here, and you're going to be like sinless people. You can think of the Passover, right? And that's what Paul is thinking of how they had unleavened bread at Passover. And Christ, he was that unleavened bread. There's a debate nobody ever has. And, uh, I'm not selling churches what they have to do, but I'm bringing up the topic. Um, leavened bread or unleavened bread for Passover? Well, for Jesus's initial passover, it was definitely unleavened bread. That was part of the jewish holiday. They had to do unleavened bread during that time that actually goes through their homes and clear out any leaven that was in the house so that they couldn't have any leaven there. It was definitely unleavened bread and leaven. Here is a biblical picture, a type, an allegory for sin. And so Jesus, he was sinless. And so you are to be like unleavened bread. Now, some then think we're to, um, for communion, only have unleavened bread. And I think that's an option. But, uh, I don't think there's a clear teaching in scripture that that's the case anyway. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, but with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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So this would be the case that you say, yeah, maybe what's behind this is a picture of saying, hey, um, the early church did the celebration of the. Of communion with unleavened bread. And, um, more often, most of the times when I've had communion, it's been unleavened. And I think I prefer it that way. But I wouldn't refuse communion if it was leavened, because I understand it's a picture and that we have no clear teaching in scripture that says, you have to do it this way. And we shouldn't put those burdens on people when we don't have that. At any rate, he goes on, I wrote a. To you in my letter, not to associate with sexual, sexually immoral people, but not to associate with them. He doesn't say, I wrote to you in my letter to kill them. He says, not to associate with them. Not at all. Not at all. Meaning the sexual immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters. Since then, you would have. You would need to go out of the world. But now I'm writing you to not associate with anyone who bears the name of a brother. If he's guilty of sexual immorality. And then he goes a list or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard or swindler not to even eat with such a one, which may be about communion. He just brought up celebrating the Passover. And communion is on the topic here in general, this, not eating with them, maybe about communion. Um, but in the very early church at this point, their communion was not just, it was a ceremonial thing they did, right. But it was not just that. It was also a meal. Like they had a whole meal, the church would gather together and they would eat together as a group. Now, over time, and it didn't even take long in church history, communion became kind of separate from the sort of what you might call Potluck experience of the early church. So you're still like within a hundred years of Jesus. And now it's become very separate and it's being more guarded and part of it is things like this, because Paul's like, don't even let them participate in this. Um, so as a church, this doesn't mean if you have a friend who's in sin and they've, they've been rebelling against God, you can't get lunch with them. That's not what it means. It means that as a church, you cannot gather communally with them. And let me be careful with my words here in a way that messages that they are part of your fellowship, they have to be seen as not really part of the group because that's the lesson they're learning, is that when you are living this way, you are not part of our, of our lump. To use the analogy Paul uses, you're eleven that will damage and hurt the body of Christ. So for your own good and for our good and for the glory of Jesus, we cannot consider you part of our fellowship. This is a hard teaching, especially for churches in California. But there's in other places as well, where the idea of excluding anybody is considered immoral, it's considered mean.

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Um, the Bible clearly teaches against that. And so, yeah, church discipline is something that is rare. That's what we call this.

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Bringing somebody, saying, hey, here's your sin, here's your issues. We love you, we want to welcome you here, but you've got to set these aside as part of your commitment to Jesus. And they go, no, I'm going to keep doing what I'm going to do. I just want to be here anyways. You have to kick them out. This is, by the way, I know I'm getting on a rabbit trail. This is the opposite of Andy Stanley's version of church. And I say this because Andy Stanley is influencing many thousands of pastors around the world now, so it's worth addressing publicly. His vision of church is one where a non believer, an atheist, a compromised Christian, uh, someone who says they're christian but they're married in a same sex, quote unquote marriage. That's not a biblical marriage, but they're in a long term committed, sinful relationship, um, that they are part of the church. He considers them part of the church and welcomes them. And it's his stated agenda to make them welcome. I could have found clips to play to show you where he says this and writes about it in his book and boasts about it, about people feeling like they belong to the church when they're living in rebellion against God. But that's actually directly against what scripture says because it warns us here that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. And so you can't do that. That's not biblical. Now, I don't know how much Andy Stanley cares if it's not biblical because his view of scripture seems to have shifted quite a bit over the years.

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He'd, um, probably be irritated by me saying it's not biblical. He'd probably be like, that's the problem, Mike. You're saying the Bible told me so.

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There's a long, long video that could be made about all that stuff. But at any rate, church discipline is something that is not culturally practiced in many american churches, especially. The more, the more east and west coast, the more liberal the church, the less likely they are to practice church discipline. But even culturally, the conservative churches in the more liberal areas seem like that too. Um, this is probably offensive to some people. I think these are facts. I think that these are facts. I say the more, the ones that are in the more like blue states, for obvious reasons, um, are like this, uh, because it seems to me that the more like middle America churches, just they're more likely to practice church discipline for whatever reason. There's good and bad on both sides, of course, but so he says, uh, what do I have to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Then he just straight up says it, purge the evil person from among you.

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Uh, being delivered to Satan, then is terminology for excommunication, which is the protestant understanding of this. I think the biblical understanding of excommunication is we're literally removing you from the local body of Christ.

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We're not saying we have dictated that you are, um, outside of salvation. Maybe you are, maybe you're not. But we're not creating that. We are simply kicking you out of our fellowship. That's excommunication. Out of communication or fellowship.

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The, um, catholic version is different. So quick questions before we go to the next thing. Why Satan? Why is Satan the one he's being delivered to? Why is he not just being sent to the world? Uh, well, scripture says two corinthians four, four, that Satan is the God of this world. And so when you're being removed from sort of the, the kingdom of Christ, where Christ is, uh, reigning as king in his body and is in the church, and you're being sent out into the world, you are being given over to Satan. That's the terminology that's being used there. Also. One, John 519, says, the world lies under the sway of Satan, of the wicked one. So that is why the terminology delivered over to Satan is being used there.

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But why does Paul use the terminology destruction of the flesh? If he's not talking about his body being killed, like being stabbed or shot or something, what is he talking about? Paul, um, uses the word flesh frequently to talk about that sinful nature and those sinful desires that seek to rule over us contrary to the Holy Spirit. So you have the flesh and the spirit fighting one another, and then you're between sort of choosing which one you will follow when. And this is great. This is a great biblical lesson. When we live in sin, we are not living in freedom. It feels that way. You think it's that, but it's not freedom. It's destruction. And so going out, away from the church to live in sin is not a time of sowing your oats. It is not a time of freedom. It is not a time of liberty. It is destruction. It is bondage, and it is pain. And so the destruction of your flesh is your sinful desires ruling you and destroying you at the same time. That's the destruction that comes in. Biblically, sin is seen as destructive, not as freeing. We, when we see a sinner, we see a self destructive person. That is what we see. Um, all right, let's go to your guys. Questions from the live chat. Let me pull those up.

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Okay, this one comes in from Don Miguel, who says, I hear many Bible teachers say that the New Testament gift of prophecy is merely proclaiming preaching the word. It is never predictive or revelatory. That doesn't seem right to me. Could you give your take? Uh, yeah. Um, I'll give my take. I've heard this, too. Um, and I've heard it in this fashion. Um, I'm trying to think of how transparent should I be? Um, I mean, I'll be transparent about myself, but I'm talking about other people and stuff. So I've seen circles. Some of you guys will figure this out, and it's fine. But I've seen circles where, um, there's a belief in the gift of prophecy and a belief that prophecy should be active in the church. And I, a sense in which we want to, like, show that that's happening. Okay, now I'm open. Uh, you know, we can go 100 years with not a single prophecy from God, or we can, we can have a hundred today. I'm. Either one's great by me. The, the holy spirit does the gifts as he chooses, as he wills. There's no sort of barometer that tells you this many prophecies in a church, and it's healthy. There's a lot of christians out there that think this. They think your church isn't healthy unless it has, has prophecies. I get this in my video, I just did this video on the false prophet Brandon Biggs, um, who supposedly prophesied Trump's near assassination. And he's a very dangerous false prophet. So I just did a video about him. And in the comments, I'm getting lots and lots of pushback. It's actually one of the most negative responses I've had to a video.

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Uh, lots of his supporters and people calling me a Pharisee and stuff like that, which I'm not saying to feel. So you can feel bad for me, don't feel bad for me. Okay. There's no reason for that. But, um, uh, in the chat, there's people commenting, Mike, how many prophecies have you said that were fulfilled and they actually believe that? This is like a test of me or, like, Mike, show us the prophets you really believe in, or else. Or else we don't think you count. We don't think you have anything to say. So there's people, I say this to say, there are large groups of people who use a. Are you prophesying or are you speaking in tongues, or are you fill in the blank? This sort of supernatural gifting thing. And if you're doing that, then I'll think that your church is worthwhile. I'll think that your ministry matters. I'll think that you have the holy spirit in light of that, out of that movement. I'll just call it as it is. Okay. Out of that movement came Calvary Chapel. So it came from Foursquare and stuff like that. And then Calvary Chapel, which was in my mind, a lot more grounded and a lot more biblical and a lot more properly discerning. And of course there's ups and downs, but as compared to the groups that it came out of when it comes to the spiritual gifts, but there is that sense that they need to have active prophecy, need to have active tongues, need to have active things. Now, I say open to hopeful for, but need to have is different. Need to have in order to validate my ministry, need to have in order to prove that what I'm doing is really from goddess. And so I say all this. Don Miglio, to answer your question, in that environment where you have, like, say in the Kyrie chapel, you have teachers who are. And it's primarily a teacher focused ministry, right. The Sunday morning, the Bible study, the worship's there, but the Bible study is, is a major emphasis, um, probably the major emphasis of the day.

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You want to affirm prophecies happening, and so you start folding that gift into the teaching gift so that you can say, for pr reasons, you can say prophecy is happening on a regular basis when the pastor is teaching.

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Do you get what I'm saying? I'm saying that there is a, there was a cultural need to affirm that prophecy is happening. And there's a, there's a reality that teaching is the main focus of the church. And there's usually one guy doing, doing primary, doing the ministry on Sunday mornings for the body, for the adult body. And so we're gonna fold that gift into the teaching. I think this is what happened. Now, it's possible that as a teacher talking, that they actually have a prophecy, that they're literally, and I've seen this happen, whether you wanna say it's true or false doesn't matter. But I'm just trying to draw an illustration here where a pastor is teaching and in the middle of the sermon, he's like, um, I believe the Lord's giving me a word for somebody here today. This is God's message to you. That's prophecy.

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But then when he's teaching the passage, he's not prophesying. When you're just right now, as I was teaching you to you what one corinthians five means, I'm not exercising prophecy. That's not what that gift is.

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Why do people say it is that you asked, what's the definition of prophecy? And this is where the debate really lies. There are those who say, well, prophecy is speaking forth the word of God. And therefore, anytime I'm even reading the Bible or, or teaching the Bible, I can be said to be prophesying. But that seems too loose. So they might say speaking forth the word of God under the leading of the Holy Spirit, which becomes a vague idea of, like, maybe it's when you're, when you're teaching or you're speaking or reading the word and there's some sort of inspiration from the spirit there that's a little difficult to determine, understandably.

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So maybe whenever it's a powerful moment, I go, that was prophecy.

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I don't think so. Um, in the church, we have teachers, and we also, there also are prophets. And limiting prophecy and saying it's not predictive, revelatory, it's just speaking forth the word is not. It doesn't make sense that the Bible has teachers. They would just be prophets. You would just have prophets. Right. Uh, when Paul gives his list of requirements for the, uh, elders in the body of Christ, he wouldn't say able to teach, he would say able to prophesy, because that's speaking forth the word. That definition is not sufficient. But then defining prophecy as just future telling is also not sufficient. The Bible has tons of prophecy that is not future telling. So what is prophecy?

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Uh, I think that our initial loose definition works a little bit, but it's just too loose. Okay. So there's got to be some real leading in the moment from God that he's giving you information to share with others. So it's not just reading the scripture and then communicating what God has revealed through prophetic word of God, but there's some sort of, in the moment, God is giving you something to share verbally with other people that I think is prophecy. It may be predictive, it may not be predictive. It might be good news, it might be bad news. And anybody who tries to put a more narrow definition, I think that you create a definition that doesn't even fit scripture.

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In the New Testament, we have prophets who, um, say something like Agabus, who talks about a famine that's coming. We have, uh, uh, Philip's daughters who prophesy. We have, uh, those types of things that are there. In the, in, in the, um, um, New Testament, we have Anna, who speaks prophetically over Jesus, who speaks of who he is, but also what he'll do. So there's something predictive and there's something just descriptive about the present. There's. Prophecy is, is not about. Yes. Uh, if it's future telling, it's prophecy. But that's not all prophecy. Prophecy is just, God gave me information, I'm sharing it with you. I think that's prophetic. I think it's meant to be a very broad category. And there are those who feel motivated to limit it. So there's those who want to say, new Testament prophecy is always positive. Um, um. That's not true. That's not true. Have you read revelation?

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It's not true. Have you looked at Agabus talking about a drought coming? I've. Have you read Paul when he says, when. When you speak a, ah, word prophetically, people get convicted, okay? That's not always positive. That brings conviction that we can't put those rules on it. I think those rules exist in those groups because they want to. So encourage prophecy, even when it's not really from God. So they start making artificial rules to limit people saying crazy stuff. So they go, only positive stuff. You can't tell people who you're gonna marry.

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That's. You know, how many of us have heard somebody say, God told me that you're gonna be my spouse. And, um, generally speaking, that's the heart speaking and not God. Not that it's never the case, just more often than not. All right, we'll go to the next question. This question number two comes, three, comes in from filigapi, and I got all ten questions for today. All ten questions are in.

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Does, um, Jesus calling the pharisees fools, vipers and whitewashed tombs give christians license to call our enemies insulting names? Thank you for your ministry. So, Filigopi, I'm going to answer this very, very short, and then I'll give a long explanation. My short answer is yes.

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Broadly speaking, you cannot make a rule that name calling is always wrong when Jesus himself does it. Not just Jesus, God does it. In scripture. Um, we also have Paul who does it. We also have, uh, the prophets in the Old Testament who do it. You can't make a rule that says all name calling is wrong.

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So that has to be. But here's a thought. You can't make a rule that all name calling is right either. This is a wisdom issue. If you make a rule that all name calling is wrong, you end up creating the niceness problem where people are incapable of taking certain strong actions that are needful, uh, in lives and in society and culture because it violates the rule of niceness. And that rule is not biblical. Okay, yes, be kind, be gentle, and those. But there are times to be strong, there are times to be bold and there are times to call names on the other side. Once. Here's what I see people do. They swing over here, and they're super, super nice. And winsomeness becomes so important in christian interactions that you lose truthfulness, you lose honesty, you lose, um, the ability to call out problems that need to be called out. And then on the other side, once people wake up to that, which they're doing right now online, people are waking up to the fact that winsomeness went overboard, and then they swing over to the right of that. I'm not trying to make left right analogies of things here, but they swing over, although I guess it kind of connects. Uh, they swing over to the right of that, and all of a sudden, no winsomeness whatsoever. I will have zero winsomeness. I'll be the opposite of winsome. I'm going to name call everybody. I'm going to. I'm going to be bold at all times because I considered boldness is my new virtue. Winsome was a virtue I rejected instead of nuancing it and thinking of when it's appropriate. And now boldness is my virtue, and I'll just do it at all times, whether it's appropriate or not, because I think that's strong. And if you don't do what I do, I think you're weak. You're feminine. These are the extremes. The middle ground is Jesus. When we see him walking the earth, there are times when he is so gracious and kind to people, and there are times when he is so rough and so harsh, he goes, suffer the children to come to me. Yet then he says, like, you whitewashed tombs. Well, they were whitewashed tombs. That was appropriate. And it needed to be said, because the people, they were influencers who were affecting people around them, and they needed to know that the Pharisees had these major problems that were going to affect them too. This was important. Jesus says, don't call someone fool, or you'll be. You'll be liable to judgment. But then he calls the Pharisees fools. This is the same Jesus. So in general, you don't do name calling. But there are times when it's appropriate. And I know that this is not easy, uh, to apply in our lives. Um, I know it's easier to just swing to one extreme or the other, where you have little concern for guardrails and you just have boldness. And maybe manliness is the virtue that you think you're seeking. Um, or you are overly cautious, and you're so winsome that you're weak and that you're unable to call out facts.

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And I've seen this, like, with, like, let's say, the question of, do I affirm somebody's, uh, claim about gender? When someone says, I'm a woman and they're really a man, and you say, well, I'll call him her. I'll call him. I'll call him she.

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I think that's winsomeness or going overboard. I think that's winsomeness having gone overboard and that now we're affirming a lie, a self deceptive lie that's actually hurting a person. And I'm affirming it.

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This is why it's so important, is because when you affirm the gender, that's not true. I've been thinking about this more and more over the past, recent time. And when you affirm the gender that's not true, you're telling somebody, I believe the lie. You believe. You should keep believing that lie. And I go, wow.

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Yeah, this is, um, winsomeness tells me to yield here.

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Boldness tells me to call him names. But. But here, I should. I should. I should lean more towards boldness. Not. Not name calling here, but honesty and truth. Is it okay, for instance, um, the elections are coming. Um, Kamala Harris is now running for v, is the VP, now running for president. And she's, to my knowledge, okay, if I'm wrong on something here, you guys, let me know. To my knowledge, she supports abortion up, uh, until birth.

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Um, so would it be appropriate to call her, like, a baby killer? Is that. Is that like a name? That's a name calling thing that you got to say? Winsome? Don't say that, Mike. You know, but boldness. Yeah, do. Do it, Mike. Do it. Pull the trigger. Um, I think that that is probably appropriate. And then you have to ask yourself the setting you're in, whether or not it is helpful at that time. Is that boldness helpful? When Jesus calls them whitewashed tombs and Pharisees, these Pharisees, he calls them fools and things like that. It was genuinely helpful to the people around him. He wasn't just. He wasn't just venting his irritations.

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These are all the things we have to juggle if we're going to walk in wisdom and not just have, um, sort of a one note treatment of all things. We walk in wisdom. What do you guys think about that? Do you guys think that my answer there is balanced, is wise, is true? I would like your input on this because this is something I think a lot of people are struggling with right now, um, where do I draw the line? And I just see people keep swinging. They swing from overly winsome, which honestly winsome. People sometimes just become passive aggressive with their words. And then you swing over here to, like, the bold people who just have. Almost like, they don't even ask if it's wise before they say it. And somehow we got to bring things closer to the middle.

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Um, all right, so the Lowry says, at age 19, I made a lifetime vow to God, not, uh, marital. That 31 years later seems counterproductive in light of new insight. So, okay, your vow wasn't, I'm not going to get married. Or something about marriage. It was some other kind of vow. So you made a lifetime vow at the age of 19 that 31 years later seems counterproductive in light of new insight and circumstances. Is there a biblical case to cancel a vow despite ecclesiastes five, four, six? Yeah, ecclesiastes is like, hey, um, do nothing.

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Make, uh, these vows. Don't make these vows before God. They're. They're bad news. Hold on, I'm gonna show you guys the cat, cuz why not? So Mika's over here chilling. I know I have a cuter cat, but she's. She's not hanging out in the office for whatever reason.

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Uh, uh, this is Mika, also known as pickle.

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All right, that's enough of the cat camp for you guys.

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Okay, he's right here.

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Ecclesiastes. Let's look at the passage in ecclesiastes chapter five. I clicked out of it.

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Okay. Verses, uh, four through six. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay in paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin. And do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake.

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Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase, where are we at? And words grow many, there is vanity, but God is the one you must fear.

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Um, so a person here, in this analogy, it's a specific vow. It seems to be a monetary type vow. Like, I'm going to give this cow to the Lord or to the temple. I'm going to give this financial donation to the temple or something like that. And then the messenger comes and says, hey, you made a vow. We're here to pick it up. And you're like, oh, yeah, I made a mistake.

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Um, and the statement is there is, you should fear God. Don't be vowing before the lord and not doing it. There's also a proverb that says that a man, uh, who keeps his vow, even to his own hurt, that that's like a godly thing. Like, I told you I would do this, and now it's hurting me. It's difficult to do it. And so that is the general rule. The general rule is you keep your word, you don't break a vow. Um, but it's not like it's. Let's be realistic. It's not like it's impossible for a person to make a very bad vow that ends up hurting other people, not just himself, but even other people.

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Let's say that I had vowed that in my life, I will, um, let's. I'm just trying to come with a hypothetical that could apply to me. Let's say I'd vowed, um, because I'm worried about vanity. I will never appear on camera.

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Like, let's say that that was a thing. God, I'll never appear on camera. And now I feel like I've safeguarded myself against vanity.

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Um, the harm that that would cause to others through the, through the diminishment of this ministry would be pretty significant.

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When my vow is harmful to others, not just myself, I should actually consider not just saying, oopsie, I made a mistake, and I'm selfishly holding back from my vow, which is the example in ecclesiastes you shouldn't do, but rather I could say I made a really foolish vow. I should not continue to do this and pretend it's obedience to God. I did something wrong. The vow itself was wrong. This is very different than the self interested person who's like, well, I promised I would show up to this event, but I woke up tired. So, um, I take it back. It was a foolish promise. No, you show up anyways. But if my vow is hurting other people, so that's the question you'd ask, is my vow that I made hurting others? Jeff is an example of this. In the Old Testament, he makes a vow, he's going to go out to war, and whenever he gets home, whatever comes out of his house, I'll offer it to the Lord as a burnt offering.

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Now, he may or may not have actually done it. We talked about this last week, so look up last week's Q and A. Whatever episode this is. Um, it'll be one number back from that. So what episode is this anyways? This is episode 23, so it'll be episode 22, I believe it was there. We talked about Jephthah in detail. But there's an example of a guy that made a foolish vow and should not have engaged it. Whether he did or not is the debate. Um, he shouldn't have done it, right? Because this isn't about you being sacrificial. This is about someone else being wounded and hurt because of your foolishness. God, uh, specifically said, I don't want you to do this. So you may trap yourself with a vow into doing something that God doesn't even want you to do.

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If it's that kind of situation, if that's what you're talking about. I think that you repent. You recant of the wrong vow that you made, and you say, lord, this isn't about me making my life more comfortable. This is about me serving you. Well, I made a foolish vow. I restricted myself, my family, my ministry, the life that I'm living, in a way that is harmful to serving your kingdom. And so my number one commitment is serving your kingdom. I repent of that. I won't do it again. I think that that would be the right attitude to have. And some are going to push back and be like, no, Mike, you always obey your vows, but I want you to stop and think for a minute about what that. What that looks like, because you don't know what vows people have made.

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What if somebody made a vow, um, I'll never eat meat again. I'm doing a Daniel fast for the rest of my life. And they just felt so excited about it. They made a promise, I'll never do it again. And due to their lack of eating meat, they start experiencing major physical health issues. And it's not like Daniel, where they were shinier than the other youth. They're, like, major health problems. And, uh, three years of five years have gone by, and their doctor's like, you need to start eating some more meat, because otherwise, you're not going to make it. And you're telling that person, you all, you obey that vow. I would say your vow is foolish. Repent of that foolishness, and now serve the Lord. That would be my advice and counsel to them. Because life is complex, so depends on the nature of the vow and the nature of the harm that's being caused by the vow. Um, yeah, so let's go to the next question.

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Number, uh, five. Oh, by the way, um, there's other scripture that weighs in on this. I'm just, honestly, nothing off the top of my head coming up with it. Um, if I think of it, I'll put it in the video. Description. If I, if I think of it later, we'll see how the day goes.

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All right. Number five, John Doe says, what does the Bible say about participating in dangerous activities, particularly those that are recreational, such as riding motorcycles, mountain climbing, big wave surfing, etcetera. Thanks. God bless. That's a great question.

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Um, that is a really good question.

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I've known plenty of people who enjoy doing these kinds of activities, right. They like dangerous stuff. Um, and some of that stuff is legitimately very dangerous. Um, even just riding a motorcycle is considered, like, a dangerous activity, especially if you live in like, a trafficky area.

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So, like, around where I live, I have encountered people who respond to these dangers by saying, look, God knows the day and the hour.

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Nothing is going to change the day. I'm going to die. God already knows it's already set.

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Or that's one offer of excuse of why it's okay for them to do things that are dangerous. Another offer, uh, is, um, uh, that I'm not afraid of death. I'm not afraid of the harm that could come my way. I'll just go to be with Jesus anyways. And so that's kind of the other thing I've heard. Both of these, I think, are very unwise. And let me, let me build a case. I'm not saying that you can't ride a motorcycle. I'm saying those reasons, that way of reasoning seems very unwise to me. Imagine Jesus on the temple being tempted by Satan, right? Takes him to a high place. Satan says, jump from here. Why? Because God will protect you. That's the command. God will protect you. This is, I can quote scripture that says he'll command his angels concerning you so you won't dash your foot against a stone. And as the person rides their motorcycle, or as they, again, I'm not yet answering whether you can ride a motorcycle. I'm saying this is not a good reason. Do you catch the difference? Let's, let's not get emotional about, let's, let's parse this out one issue at a time, using the excuse I can do dangerous things because God will protect me until my time comes.

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That's very similar to Jesus's temptation on the temple mount. Jump down and God will protect you. And Jesus says, don't tempt the Lord, your God. I, if you continue serving God, God knows the very day and hour of your death. But if you keep doing reckless things, you are tempting the Lord, and it may come sooner rather than later.

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A man that dies in a motorcycle accident, it's not like he wouldn't have, or, uh, he would have died anyways, even if he didn't ride motorcycles.

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That's not how reality works. It's not how God works. You do things, it changes things. You do things that changes your life. You do. You do dangerous things. Dangerous things can happen to you, and, uh, you're kind of rolling the dice with certain things. Every motorcycle rider does not die. My dad's been riding motorcycles. He's in his eighties. He still rides riding motorcycles since before I was born.

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And he has never had a serious accident.

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He's also lost some people. It goes both ways. Um, so the excuse of God, um, will protect me. I think that fits Satan's temptation to Jesus.

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God's protection is on your life insomuch as your life is walking in wisdom and walking according to his will. The minute you go outside of that, it's difficult to appeal to God's protection for your life. So if motorcycle or extreme, um, sports, stuff like that, if that is, um, an unwise thing, hypothetically, then that you shouldn't just claim God will keep you alive.

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What else? Um, the statement of, like, yeah, but if I die, I'm just going to go to heaven is a reckless throwing away of your life. If that's your attitude about things. Like, I've known people who don't wear seatbelts. Like, I've spent time in my life trying to convince people to wear a seatbelt. You guys know what I'm talking about. Some of you are like, mike, I don't wear my seatbelt. Um, I've spent time trying to convince people to wear seatbelts for the following reason.

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Statistically, um, your chances of surviving an accident go way, way up in the air, and they get much, much better, as well as avoiding major physical injuries. And so why not? Why would you not do that? That's just wisdom. This is just basic wisdom. Yeah, wear a seatbelt. Yeah, but every once in a great while, the seatbelt causes harm. That's true. But if you're worried about the statistics, you're not going to say that. So the response of her in reply is, um, I don't care if I die. I want to go to heaven.

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God does not treat death so lightly as you do. Eternal life is there present for the believers, but it is not a small thing to lose your life and to care so little about your family and your loved ones that you don't care if you die, if even for, only for their sakes, is a very short sighted kind of perspective on things. If you die, that's going to affect a lot of people that care about you. Uh, this is just, it's a reckless, weird way of thinking life. It's a very self centered attitude is I don't care if I die. It's actually pretty selfish to say that because there's a lot of people who do care and who will care and whose lives will be radically impacted. And some of you who say that you're married and you have kids, and I'll say you're crazily unaware of the lives of others who depend on you. When you say things like that, that's just bonkers. Oh, uh, but God, I'll take care of my family. God can't just be in your pocketbook as the one who covers up for all your foolish thinking. Like, you can't just pull God out like that. That's the nature of tempting the Lord. I think that's my honest thought on that. Now, all that being said, evaluating how risky it is to do particular sports or extreme sports is complicated, right? You could do rock climbing and it's a, uh, it's very risky. It's very hard to even get insurance when you're rock climbing. But there are more and less safe ways of doing rock climbing. Okay. And so it can get kind of complicated. I don't know. That's not my area, so I'm not going to weigh in on that. If you do free climbing, that's way more dangerous than, than other kinds of rock climbing. But rock climbers know this is a very dangerous thing if you go off and do surfing. Uh, uh, you know, most surfers, I think, are actually pretty safe. But is there extreme surfing where there's like crazy waves and it's actually more dangerous? Yeah, I suppose. Or places you can go to surf that are more dangerous. Yeah. So maybe it takes wisdom, motorcycle riding. Maybe it depends on where you live and, um, what kind of bike you've got and how good you are at it and how bit, how, for instance, how bad's the traffic where I live, southern California, La county, like this. It's bad. It seems unwise to me. I wouldn't necessarily judge others, but for me, I wrote for six months and then I hung it up because I thought, this is just too dangerous. This is not, the risk reward evaluation is not working for me. I don't think it's wise. So I quit.

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Um, so that being said, uh, what does the Bible say about participating in dangerous activities? Use, uh, wisdom is what it says. And so is it wise for me to be playing that sport or doing that thing, even though I'm excited by it. Is it wise if I'm going to go skydiving? What are the statistical odds that something bad happens? If it's pretty low, then okay, but if it's starting to get a little scary, then maybe don't do that. I think you have to consider those things. Uh, I don't want to.

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I enjoy, look, I like a thrill like others. I'm not trying to take that away from people.

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Um, but an analysis of the safety of a thing is important for wise people to have. It may feel scared, like you're, like you're fearful or weak. You don't have to be scared to say, that's unwise. I'm not going to do that. And so every sport's different. Um, let me give you an example of one that I think is probably a blanket unwise, is slap fighting. Have you guys heard about slap fighting? This is a new sport on the rise. Um, where two guys stand in front of each other and they literally just whack each other in the face as hard as they can. Unlike with boxing or other sports, which are also dangerous to a degree, slap fighting is, there's no dodging. There's no, there's no blow coming at you. And so you get a swing as hard as you possibly can, and a slap can be extremely hard. It's not that different than a punch, actually. In fact, it's probably slapping to save from breaking their fingers. Um, so they slap like this, and they get a swing, you know, absolutely as hard as they possibly can. The person takes a hit to the head. These people are going to have brain damage in the future. Like, a very high number of them are going to have significant brain damage, dementia, um, other problems in the future as a result of participating in the sport. No brainer. This is an unwise thing for a christian to do. No brainer. Other stuff like surfing, like, I mean, just be safe when you do it, you know, that seems like that's a different situation. All right, let's do the next question. Number six, Matthew Banks. Matthew Banks says, have you heard of Pastor Chuck Missler and his endorsement of the hologram theory, the idea that there's no gravity beyond our solar system, a holographic representation of God's creation.

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I've never heard that. I know who Chuck Missler is. Um, I have heard his stuff on, like, Daniel nine or on, um, um, the bible code stuff, which I've never talked about publicly because I don't endorse it. But, um.

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Um.

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But I've heard that stuff. And I like Chuck Missler. He's super interesting. He's super neat. To listen to him talk and stuff like that. But he often talks about things that you have to kind of take his word for it. So you're not really sure what you think about it. And so some of it's like, that's really cool. And some of it you go, is that right? I don't know. Is that right? Well, this one sounds pretty weird from your description. Matthew Banks. I haven't heard of it. The idea that, um, there is basically no gravity beyond our solar system, and it's a holographic representation of God's creation.

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Theologically, okay, scientifically, that sounds weird. Theologically, it sounds, um, as though you're accusing God of being misleading.

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Catch this. Because so creation is meant to teach us. It's meant to. People talk about the book of creation, the book of scripture and the book of Creation. Now, I don't usually use that terminology, because it sort of implies an authority off of your interpretations of what you see in the world as having authority equal to or similar to the Bible. And that's not right. But there is. Creation is a source of knowledge about God. Creation declares the glory of God. The earth shows his handiwork. You look up at the skies and the stars, and these things all declare truths about God. And they show his glory. They show his glory. How vast the world is that? How vast, uh, the space is. Outer space is a picture of how great God's love for us is. Now, imagine if you're like, oh, and you think it's like billions of light years across, but it's actually pretty small.

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That seems like a theological issue to me, to suggest that God is actually misleading us. Like, I'm seeing stars, uh, that are not even really out there. I'm seeing a supernova that is not even taking place. It's not happening. It's never happened. The thing I'm watching in space is a trick.

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And that trick is supposed to teach me how glorious God is, because he created all that. So it shows how amazing he is. But if it hurts, how amazing he is to say that it's just a projection, it's just, uh, an illusion.

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You see what I'm saying? When scripture also talks about God making the heavens and stuff, it says he actually created the stars. He made them. It doesn't say he just sort of projected them. So there's something that's there that actually exists physically, that God created. He created the heavens and the earth. He's not just projecting visual images there. I don't know what Chuck Missler's reason, uh, because I'm only hearing about it from you, Matthew, so I'm not sure what the details are. I don't know what his reason is for this theory, but I think it clashes against my biblical theology in a few different places. In the nature of the glory of God, the specific description of how God created physical reality and not just images and holograms, um, as well as how creation speaks of God's love and God's greatness and God's goodness and all that just seems weird.

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Yeah, I can't think of any merit to it except that, um, it might be part of trying to push a view of creation that they feel will be in some other way. This hologram view is going to help support maybe a particular young earth creationist view of scripture or something like that. But I think it's got major problems with it. So let's go to number seven.

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Um, this question comes in from an anonymous person who says, is it possible to discern between temptations that come from Satan and those that come from within due to the sinful desires of the flesh? Yeah, um, I don't have, like, this clear biblical policy on this, except here's. Here's a biblical guardrail. James one tells us that we're tempted. Each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed so that if you ever want to sin, that desire for sin came from within you. That wasn't Satan. Satan didn't make you want something.

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Satan, I believe, can tempt us. Um, it's more external than internal. The temptation comes from without instead of from within. Let me give you an example. And so, Satan, by the way, works in tandem, I believe, with my own desires. He doesn't create them, but he works in tandem with them. Example. I'm a sucker for this, okay? If I see someone eating food I like on tv, I crave that food. So if I'm watching and not commercial so much commercials, somehow it's like I. It's like I know they're trying to manipulate me so it doesn't work. But then if I'm watching a tv show and then the character on the show's got this juicy cheeseburger and just takes a bite of this juicy cheeseburger. Mmm. And he's. And he's just eating it, I will crave cheeseburgers after that. That's just the way I am now. What tempted me? Okay, cheeseburgers isn't a sin. Obviously. You can do it too much, it becomes a sin. But cheeseburgers aren't a sin. They're a gift from God.

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But let's say what tempted me? Let me ask you a question. Was it the commercial, which here in this allegory represents Satan, or the guy on tv? Was it that, or was the thing that tempted me? My own desire for cheeseburgers? And the answer is both.

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I had an internal desire for something, and I was presented an external motivation for that thing as well. And that worked in tandem with my desires. So Satan can, um, take your desire for something sinful and try to orchestrate your life so you're confronted with that thing. Or here's one. Maybe somewhat controversial. Or whisper into your ear, so to speak, like, yeah, remind you of it, bring it up in your mind like a fiery dart from the enemy to make you think of that thing. Let's say, for example, off of desire for food or something like that. Um, you are bitter about the past, that somebody has hurt you, and you should have forgiven them a long time ago, and it's kind of resolved, but you're still angry about it and bitter about it. You're human. I get it, okay? I'm human too. And so you find yourself going through your day where suddenly, out of the blue, you think of this event, how they hurt you, how they've offended you, how they backstabbed you, how they, uh, did you wrong, betrayed you. And you think about this moment, and as you're thinking about that moment, then your internal temptation, that was external, that was maybe even Satan whispering your ear, I don't know, possibly, or just something that happened that you saw that reminds you of it. But let's say it was Satan whispers in your earth that name of that person. Or that day when that thing happened. And you start replaying the day in your mind. And now you're sort of talking to them internally or out loud, you're sort of talking to them. I can't believe you did that to me. Da da da. And now your internal desire for revenge, your internal desire for bitterness, that is now taking over. So Satan presents you with something that is internally tempting to you.

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That's how I think Satan works with his temptations.

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I'll give you another example. Um, Balaam, the prophet, who is really a trippy story to read about in the Old Testament, in the book of numbers. This guy is tasked by the enemy of Israel, curse Israel for me. And he goes I can't curse Israel. God's blessing them. I can't curse who God is blessing. Unless they sin against God, nothing is going to happen. Um, and so you'd think that the enemy's hands were tied. I guess there's nothing we can do. Israel is protected. But Balaam gives them this advice. He says, tell you what, send your women into their camp to seduce them. And so the women come visiting, and the women are then going to be presenting seduction to the men of Israel. The men have internal desires for women that are now being appealed to through this planned invasion of the enemy into their lives. You know what I think about every time I think about this Balaam story? I think about the Internet and pornography and how Satan has orchestrated the God of this age to have rampant pornography easily available on everyone's phones, on everyone's computers, on everyone's tablets, because he's simply sending the women into the camp so that the men will fall to this and sin so that we will cause our own downfall and our own destruction and the harm of our own marriages and the destruction of our own ministries and the increased perversion that comes when you engage in stuff like that. Like, I think about that all the time. So how does Satan work? He. He sees you. He knows human nature, and he sends what he can your way. But you're only tempted because you have internal desires. You have to take full accountability. You never even would have wanted to do that thing. You can't blame Satan unless it was in you to want that. That was something in you. That's where we got to die to ourselves.

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A man who dies to himself can always overcome the temptations of Satan. A man who will not die to himself will end up falling to Satan. And he may blame Satan for it, but the real battle, the real battle was in him dying to himself all along. Let's go to question number eight. Callan says this. What does it mean, Callan? Uh, aga. Agate. I'm not gonna. I can't even try. I'm gonna say it wrong. What does it mean when Paul says, for me to live is Christ? I've never heard someone use a phrase where an action or state of being is a person. Yeah, cool. Let's, let's look up the passage here. Um.

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Paul says, for me to live as Christ and to die is gain. What is he talking about here? Um.

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Put on your screen.

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There we go. So here's the verse. Philippians 121, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Um. Um, initially, you can say this is, is Paul saying that his life personified is Christ? Like, we're sort of reimagining Jesus as something other than Jesus. Like, there's people who are like, well, there's a Christ in us all, or the cosmic Christ. And they use the word Christ to describe something that's not Jesus. I don't think he's doing that at all. And, um, the proof is in the same sentence. He says to die is gain, right? Well, he doesn't think dying is, like, gain personified. It's not a personification. He's talking about the experience. If I'm living, it is some sort of the goal of living. The benefit of living is somehow related to Christ. Whereas if I die, then what is it? It's gain. I actually gain something else. Let me back up then in Philippians and see what is he talking about? What is he talking about? Um, I'm thinking about how far back I need to go to get the whole context. Um, so Paul's in prison when he writes Philippians, and he is there, there's, uh, a potential that he'll die in prison and not be released. But he's like, I believe God will release me. So Paul has his death on his mind. He's thinking about it. He's there like, yeah, ah, I could be killed. I could die right here in this prison, and that's the end of my life. And he's thinking about that life, death. Or do I go on? Do I get released and I continue my ministry? So I'll start in verse twelve. We'll get some context. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of my brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. It's crazy how Paul's suffering and being bold caused others to be bold. Sometimes we sort of need to see examples of christians, uh, who go through hardship in order to proclaim Christ so that we can get the guts to do the same and say, I'm not going to be afraid. I'm not going to be afraid.

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Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I'm put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. Okay, so he's in prison. This is a great thing to discuss. Sometimes it's just too much for one, for the question today, I think it's. I don't even think it's believers that he's talking about. When he says, who's they were proclaiming Christ to cause him problems. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in that, I rejoice. Paul has this amazing perspective on the trials of his life that I try to remind myself of.

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Um, I really, really do.

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He literally processed how he felt about his day, about his trials, about his hardships, based on how much Christ was proclaimed as a result. And this caused him to be a man of joy. Even when he was in prison, he had joy because he's like, man, the gospel is getting out, isn't it? The gospel is getting out, isn't it? And that literally did bring him great joy. Whereas we would often be like, how comfortable am I today? How well treated am I today? How much enjoyment do I have in the things that are going on in my life? And instead he's like, I'm in prison. I've been attacked, I've been beaten.

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All this because I preach the gospel. And he's like, guess what? In prison I preach the gospel. And when I'm in prison, everyone's talking about it, and more people are preaching the gospel, and the gospel is getting out. And he's excited about the spreading of the gospel more so than he is about his personal comfort. A wonderful thing, wonderful thing to model. So, yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. He must have had some sort of revelation from God that he would be delivered from prison. As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed. But that might with full courage, as now, as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

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For me to live as Christ and to die is gain.

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Paul's like, look, am I going to die as a result of the court stuff that's going on, or will I be delivered? Well, if I live on, what will I do? I'll keep preaching Jesus, and it will keep serving the kingdom. My life will be all about Jesus. And if I die, I'll get to go be with Jesus, so I gain. I think that's all he's talking about there. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, right? That's what he means by live as Christ. He means fruitful labor. Serving Christ. If I live, I'm serving Jesus. So to live is Christ, as in Christ is like the, the call word of my life, the purpose of my days going forward. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I'm hard pressed between the two. Paul wanted to go. He wanted not to die. He wanted to go be with Jesus.

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My desire to depart and be with Christ, uh, is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. For him, it's far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress of enjoy in the faith.

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It's, um. This is a passage often used, side note here. Often used to say that when we die, we will be immediately in the presence of Christ. And I think it's entirely appropriate. And so others have taken this statement and say, and they say, um, uh, let me see, how do they word it? Paul says, my desire is to depart and be with Christ. And what's the phrase that we often hear people use? Um, to.

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I think it's just the translation that's making it hard for me to remember.

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There's something like, there's a phrase people use, um, if you're, uh, oh, apart from the body and present with the Lord. If you're apart from the body, you're present with the Lord. And this is a phrase Paul uses talking about himself.

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But people have pushed back and they go, hey, that's not technically what Paul says. He says his desire is to depart and be with Christ, and that is far better. So it's better to depart and be with Christ, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the m moment he dies, he's going to be with Jesus. And I actually disagree. I think when you look at the thrust of the passage, you see that Paul is indicating that there's a tug of war in his heart. Do I live on and serve and I bless you guys, or do I die? Not that he's going to kill himself, but he's like, which one would I pick if I had a choice? Or would I die and go be with Christ? This tug of war wouldn't exist unless it was an imminent be with Christ, unless he was going to be with Christ in that moment, in that same day, right away, unless he was going to be with Christ immediately. There would be no tug of war because it would be more like going to sleep.

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If you die and you, like, you have soul sleep or you cease to exist for a while and you're sort of brought back by God or something. If you don't go to be with Christ. This tug of war doesn't exist in Philippians chapter one. So I think this is actually a really, really strong proof that we get to be with the Lord right away upon dying. And that's consistent with other things too. In the, uh, uh, Jesus tells the thief on the cross, today you'll be with me in paradise. Not today, I tell you, you'll be with me in paradise. But today that the, the Greek is consistent and all, all the gospels that have the account, he's going to be with Jesus in paradise that day. Then you've got things like Stephen, when he's being stoned, Jesus is receive, standing to receive him. It's not as though Stephen dies and then he's like, well, don't worry, in a few thousand years, I'll come and receive you. Right? No, he's being received right away. Paul thinks he'll be in God's presence right away. It's not what you were asking about, but it's relevant to the verse. So I thought it was worth worth addressing. Um, so you asked, um, you've never heard someone use a phrase where an action or state of being is a person? Um, you probably have heard phrases like this. Um, but if you really think about it and pay attention in the future, I think you probably will. But yeah, to live as Christ, to die is gain. A. He's describing these two states of being. If I live on, I'm serving Christ, I'm walking in Christ, I'm living for Christ. If I die, he doesn't become gain, but he has gain even though he's using it, um, in the same way he uses the word Christ there. Okay, let's go to number nine. Jennifer Taylor says a local church believes Jesus was literally the son of God before the incarnation, who proceeded out of the father like, just like Eve from Adam. Can you help me understand the sonship of Jesus? Um, so Jennifer, this is, this, uh, is not an uncommon view. That view that you're describing.

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It's a pretty standard view for a lot of people if you nuance it carefully. So let me give you guys what will assuredly be a clumsy representation on this, on this tough, genuinely tough, trinitarian, inner trinitarian debate. As in people who believe in the Trinity have a debate on this. And they're, both sides are christians, but they internally discuss this, the sonship of Jesus. Does he proceed from the father or does does he, um, exist sort of eternally without that procession from the father? The, the thing that you have to understand both sides agree on is that Jesus has always existed eternally.

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There was no moment where he came into being. When they say that your local church, unless they're some very rare group, right. Um, your local church believes that Jesus was literally the son of God before the incarnation, who proceeded out of the father, they don't mean Jesus didn't exist and then came to exist. That's a different view. If they do mean that, then we will say, yeah, that's like heretical view. You're denying the eternality of the Son. What they're trying to affirm here is not, for those who use that phrase, is not that Jesus isn't eternal. They're trying to refer to his sonship being eternal. Does that make sense, that his quality of being a son is eternal? And the way it's eternal is there's forever. The father has existed in a sending relationship with the Son, not just from the incarnation, but from eternity.

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And, um, I don't take a hard stance on this topic, to be honest. Um, its one of those issues that gets into things that to me feel like were really extrapolating beyond the obvious meaning of a text of scripture. And it may be right or it may be wrong, but were extrapolating really far beyond it. So were sort of stretching our understanding, and then we kind of create these hard and fast rules about things that are kind of vague. Um, and so I dont currently have a strong stance on that. Um, I'll just say that. I'll say I have some opinions, but, but I don't think they're well established enough for me to teach other people about them. I think it's careful. It's good to be careful about not saying every single thing. I think, even though you probably think I do, you'd be surprised. Um, yeah. So this is what you would want to clarify with the local church is just like, so you believe jesus is eternal, right? Like he's always existed. He didn't come into existence at some point.

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Thats the thing youd want to know. Um, and then that would clarify. Yeah, theyre just talking about the procession. The relation between that, the relation between the father and the son is a father son relationship before the incarnation from eternity. And thats the thing that theyd be affirming. I would just put that in the camp of youre inside the doctrine of the trinity. Youre still safely inside of it. Youre just trying to debate and understand some of the aspects of it that are difficult. And that's your view? That's how I would put it, yeah. I hope that that helps you out. Jennifer? Yeah. Uh, number ten, Lauren says what can idol worship look like in a more modern sense?

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Well, there's literal idol worship, and then there's what idol worship is at its heart. And the bible talks about both, both of those things.

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Literal idol worship is actually pretty popular. Still, believe it or not, we have, uh, especially in, um, eastern religions. You've got lots of literal idol worship happening in those other religions. It happens very frequently, um, even. Even here. So I live in a very multicultural area. Right. So here I go out and I'll go to a restaurant in cerritos or restaurant in Long beach or restaurant in garden Grove or something like here in southern California. And it's not uncommon for me to see actual idols with actual offerings of food or money sitting at their feet in the restaurants in which I might go eat or at like a car dealership that I go to or at like a, uh, whatever, you name the place. It's very much common to see these things in play nowadays. So idolatry in that sense has never died. It has never died. It has never gone away, and it probably never will till the lord rules and reigns on his own on the earth.

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That's the idolatry the bible is usually talking about. But then there's like, the heart of idolatry. And what is that? Well, let me see. There's another example of idolatry the bible talks about, and that is in catholicism. Um, is every catholic icon an idol? Uh, no. I'm sure that there is, um, um, a variety of catholics, individual catholics, who have different views about things. And there's probably someone, maybe in the comments, who's like, dude, I've got like a statue of the saints. I don't really treat it as an idol in any way whatsoever, but the way that Catholicism worldwide treats statues and images is the same as the idols have been treated throughout time. And it's very much, it's idolatry by any reasonable measure. It is largely an idolatrous thing that's happening there. Actual idols. And you can see video, uh, go look it up, catholic idols or something, or catholic statue worship and things like that. You will see plenty and plenty of evidence, especially in South America and stuff like that.

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The amount of idolatry that goes on there is crazy. You'll see processions where Mary, a statue of Mary is presented, where she has a giant veil covering, like hundreds of people, and they're freaking out over the statue, and they'll. And they'll say it's just veneration, but that's. That's pr. This is don't believe your lying eyes pr stuff. This is not reality. That is what the early church. The early church fathers would have totally rejected this. The early ones totally rejected that as idolatry. It's appropriate to call it what it is. Um, as offensive as that is. I know, but, um, there's an. There's an example where I think boldness, um, is better than winsomeness when it comes to things like idolatry. You got to call it what it is. The bible never pulls punches on the topic of idolatry. It's never like, well, you know, let's be nice. That's idolatry.

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Okay.

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What is idolatry? At its heart, though, there's, um, a statement from Paul where he says, covetousness is idolatry. And that is a super interesting idea. Let's look at it in colossians three five.

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There it is on your screen. He says, put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you? Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

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Huh.

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I mean, covetousness does not inherently engage in any sort of images.

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What is covetous? How is covetousness idolatry? The heart of idolatry seems to be. It's my understanding of. It seems to be the idea of I take some object in creation, and I give it the attention, the focus, the admiration, the credit, the desire that God deserves.

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I give it. The things that. The love that God deserves, I give to this thing in creation. And covetousness is me loving the things I want more than I should, more than I love God. That's covetousness. And so, in a sense, covetousness is idolatry because I'm exalting creation above the creator or alongside the creator in a way that diminishes my love and respect and admiration for God. And so, yeah, covetousness is idolatry. That seems to be, like, the heart of what it is. So that's. That's metaphorically idolatry. It's not literal idolatry, but it. But it is the heart of it. And so we recognize that when I see somebody, um, uh, you'll see this thing. Southern California, too. Hispanic communities especially. But you'll see someone, like, take, um, a saint, and there's a specific saint. I forget his name. They'll dig up their lawn, and they'll bury the saint in their lawn or another saint that they're going to hang from the rearview mirror of their car for protection while they're traveling.

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This desire for protection for your property or for your car, for traveling.

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This is prayers that should go to God. This is faith that should be directed towards God, but is being directed towards these idols. In the same way a man who, um, covets somebody else's wife or woman who covets some other woman's figure, a person whose covet you name, fill in the blank someone's money, that this is a type of discontentment about what God has given you. Putting it like, I'll be fulfilled. I'll be happy. I'll be more, like, complete in my life and more content in my life if I just get these things that ultimately are sinful desires that have taken over my heart. That's something. That's an idolatry that's there. A, uh, dissatisfaction in God. So to combat covetousness, uh, we have, um. Where is it? It's in the book of Hebrews. Let me see if I can find the passage. Um, it tells us to be content with what we have. Hebrews 13 five.

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This combats covetousness in our heart.

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Let your conduct be without covetousness. And what's the solution? Be content with such things as you have. Look, if you have food and water and clothing, be content. Yeah, but I don't have this. I don't have that.

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Just be content with whatever you've got, whatever it is, high or low, just be content for. And then here's your motive to be content. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Now, this, to me, is kind of mind blowing, if you think about it. The equation is, you can be content with what you have because you have Christ.

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So when I'm discontent and I'm coveting other things I don't possess, am I not setting aside Jesus as though he is not fulfilling what I need? And I'm looking at that other thing like, no, you'll be the thing that does what Jesus needs to do for me. Then it becomes idolatry. I hope that makes sense to the sort of math of that, of covening and idolatry. There's more that can be said about it, but there's some stuff. We have a bonus question for today, and this comes from Corey Willis, who says, will you pray for my mom, Kelly? She was diagnosed with breast cancer and has started chemo. But they found a mass on her liver. Not sure if it's cancer, but it has grown in the last month. Through this. She has been through. She has been saved through this. Uh. Oh, thank God. We, uh, pray God's will is for her to be healed, but most importantly, for her testimony to live.

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Wow. Um, Corey, let's. Yeah, let's. Let's. Let's pray for Corey's mom.

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Lord, uh, we lift up Kelly to you and we ask that you. You bless her, Lord, thank you so much that you're using even this hardship and this scariness, the fear and all the things that are going on right now, you've been using it to draw her close to you, to bring her to salvation. We pray that she would grow in Christ, that she would thrive in Christ, so that she'd be opening her eyes quickly to so many wonderful spiritual truths, showing her that Jesus is with her, bringing her the joy and the peace and the contentment, um, that is so desperately needed at such a hard time. We also pray, Father, if it is your will, please heal her. Please heal her of any cancer in her body. What they found, what they haven't found. We do pray that you heal her completely, that she'd be fully restored. We rejoice in her eternal life that she has in Christ, and we pray that her testimony would live, that we ask that you would also deliver her from the physical issues and all of the health stuff that's going on. Father, it is nothing to your power to do it. We pray for it. If it's your will, do it. And may the family be encouraged and strengthened in you. May you help them through this hard time. Remind them of those ironclad truths in the midst of any hardship that may come. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

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Yeah. Uh, my. My heart goes out to you, Corey. I, uh, went through this with my mom last year, and, um.

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Uh.

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You don't know until you go through it. Till you go through what it's. What it's like. And that. That is the case for hardship in life in general, for pretty much everything. You don't know unless you've been there. And so, um. I get it. I've been there. All right. So, lord, bless you guys and keep you. Make his face to shine upon. You know that you can be content with the things you have for no other reason than Jesus is with you. You have Jesus with you. With you. And to look at these petty little things in life and think, oh, I need this, and I need that. You have Jesus and he is so much more and so much greater than anything else that you could be desiring, coveting, that, uh. That you just don't need to. There's no need.

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Uh, next week. I almost forgot to tell you guys. Next Friday, I'm not doing a Q and A. Me and my wife are getting there to celebrate our anniversary. We're going to be taking a couple of days. Um, and so I will not see you next week. And I'm happy about it, so don't feel bad.