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All right, welcome to the live stream. This is a.

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A class in learning how to think biblically about everything. That's the agenda, that's the goal. That's what we're all about here. And, uh, the first question we're going to be dealing with today has to do with the Old Testament versus the New Testament. A persistent myth in our culture, in our society, and even in our churches is exposed in this question.

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And here's the question. Sorry, let me bring it up for you. Okay. Why does God, the God of the Old testament, seem more wrathful than God in the New Testament? Um, why is.

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Why does God seem. Excuse me, let me read it again to you without my summaries.

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Why does God seem more wrathful in the Old Testament and more forgiving and loving in the New Testament? Does this mean there are different morals and values between the Old and New Testaments? So I say this is a persistent myth, because I'm going to give you guys some examples, some specifics, some Bible verses to demonstrate that this is simply not true. It's never been true. It is a persistent myth believed by the masses, even people in churches. This, um, isn't me being mad at people for it, right? I don't want them believing false things about God, about the Bible, about Christianity, that is upsetting. The people themselves are believing myths, and that's never going to help anybody when we believe things that aren't true.

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Let's dig into this. Um, first we'll talk about the wrath versus grace concept. This is the idea that God in the Old Testament is wrathful, but in the New Testament, God has more grace. A, uh, commonly believed thing, something that I too would have believed before I'd spent a lot of time really reading the Bible and studying it, because we just hear these verses, these stories out of context. We don't really read the Bible and understand it carefully, but we're going to look at some of that today. So, for instance, uh, let me offer a few points. I guess there's two main points on this. First off, God is more gracious in the old testament than you think. Um, and he's more wrathful. The second point, he's more wrathful in the New Testament than you probably think as well. And those two things right there set for us the major difference between pop thinking and actual biblical stuff. Uh, I think the problem in our thinking is we think wrath and grace are two diametrically opposed ideas, that God cannot be both wrathful in certain occasions and settings, and gracious for certain reasons, in certain settings. Instead, we just tend to think of, like, God is this one note being either he's always angry or he's always smiling, he's always wrathful, or he's always nice.

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That's like, God is not that, um, nor are you, nor is any person that. Nobody's like that, where they're always one note and one response to all scenarios. Anybody who does that, you start thinking that something's wrong with them mentally, right? If they don't respond with wrath, even when it's right with anger or with being, uh, justifiably angry, then you think something might actually be wrong with them. There might be a moral deficiency going on there or a mental deficiency. So in the Old Testament, you think of God's wrath, you think of the flood, or you think of the ten plagues of Egypt. Did you know that in these passages has occurred to you like, how long God waited for the flood he endured? When the flood whole story is introduced, he's, uh, enduring, and he's being patient with man. And according to the Genesis, he's striving, genesis six, striving with man. His spirit is striving with man to try to, like what? Deter him from this path towards destruction. So before wrath came, there was this time of God waiting and being patient and trying to seek people, getting forgiven, getting restored to him, getting made right with him. But he says, my spirit will not strive with man forever. I'm not going to just forever be here saying, please stop. Eventually judgment will come. In Egypt, it wasn't as though God just brought plagues. He brought warnings, they were ignored. He brought plagues. Those themselves were warnings. They were ignored. He brought more plagues. Those themselves were warnings. And there were warnings about the plagues, and the plagues themselves warned about other plagues, and all those were consistently and persistently ignored until finally the last plague comes. And then finally pharaoh drives his army into the sea and they get destroyed. Even when God is demonstrating his wrath in the Bible, in the Old Testament, there's a persistent theme of him being patient and waiting so that wrath is served up.

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It's a dish that is served up cold, you might say, to borrow the phrase, revenge is a dish best served cold. Um, I don't mean it in that same way, uh, in that same heart that's behind that phrase. But wrath is always served up cold.

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Uh, love is quick, wrath is slow. That's the basic theme you find in the Old Testament, not the new. I mean, it's in the new as well, but it's definitely there in the old, even when God has his prophets, who we think are exposing God's wrath, you think of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and you can think of Isaiah, and you think of these guys bringing messages about God's wrath. Nahum, those, um, very messages are meant to prevent the people from having to undergo and experience God's wrath. Those are messages of peace before a coming army. It's, hey, let's make peace now. But if you continue down this path, you will get wrath. So wrath is served cold.

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Scripture describes God when Moses asks God, tell me who you are. Show me who you are. Um, show me your glory. And he describes God as being quick to forgive, but being slow to anger. That's not new testament. That's old Testament. Old Testament describes God as being this one who in the face. I'll quote a specific verse for you now. In Isaiah, chapter one, we see God interacting with the wickedness of Israel and how. Imagine how bad they are. And if you think of your picture of God, the wrathful God of the Old Testament, a lot of the pop versions of God, of the God of the Old Testament would not fit what you see in Isaiah one. So he talks about how he's brought up children, but they've rebelled, about how bad they are, about how they're a sinful nation laden down with iniquity. They're a brood of evildoers. These are some, like, really messed up individuals, okay? That's the point. There are children who are corrupters. They've forsaken the Lord. They provoked to anger the holy one of Israel. They've turned away backwards. So you think it's hopeless for them. Right? But then God pleads with them because he's been giving them, like, chastening, not. Not wrath, exactly, but chastening, um, lessons through hardship to try to bring them back to him, and discomfort, um, to try to teach them to return to him. Why should you be stricken again? God doesn't want to strike them again. You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole heart faints from the sole of the foot, even to the head. There's no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They've not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment. The, uh, country of Israel is being likened to a person with a bunch of medical ailments. From the sole of the foot, even to the head. Oh, excuse me. Verse seven. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land and your presence and it is desolate, overthrown by strangers. And it just goes on, you know, Zion is like a besieged city. Um, unless unless God had left you a small remnant, you would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah, totally destroyed.

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Now listen, what is God's message to the people that are in such dire straits, such terrible, terrible sin, storing up God's wrath for them? He says, hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. They're so bad. God calls Israel Sodom. So, you know, his attitude towards them is like, this is how sinful you are. Now, some think God is being mean when he says that. Others think God is being accurate. I'm, um, in the camp that says, God's actually being accurate. When God says, wow, you're really bad. I think probably people are really bad. Instead of, wow, God must be really overreacting. I, uh, don't think it's a wise move to take, although a lot of people do take it nowadays.

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So he says, give your love, God, our God. You people of Gomorrah, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? Says the Lord, I've had enough. He's like, don't. I don't want you to offer things to me. I have enough of your burnt offerings of rams, um, and the fat of fed cattle. I don't delight in the blood of bulls or lambs or goats. What they were doing, instead of getting their lives right, they were like, we'll just do the regular ritual offerings. You know, I'll keep living the same sinful way, but I'll just be like, here's my, here's my offering. I'm sorry. Paying off God when you come to appear before me, who's required it? Bring no more feudal sacrifices. He's not looking for them to make a bunch of sacrifices. Ultimately, Jesus is our sacrifice. We'll see this even in Isaiah. It's beautiful how Isaiah sets this up. Anyway, that's another. That's another study altogether. Uh, how this ties into Isaiah and the servant songs that, uh, have their apex in isaiah 53. How Jesus becomes the actual sacrifice that will satisfy the need of our sins.

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So he says, yeah, don't do all this stuff. Um, then finally he tells them, your hands are full of blood. Then he says this. Look at God's heart towards a nation that deserves God's wrath. Like Sodom and Gomorrah. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to eat. To do evil, learn to do good, seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

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Wrath and grace are coexisting here, but grace is God's heart, and wrath is what you'll get if you reject it. Grace is God's desire, and wrath is the result of turning away from God's forgiveness.

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You just have to come in sincerity to him. That's, that's the old Testament here. And you can keep reading on your screen there. There's more.

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The first mistake people make is thinking that the old testament is, has less grace than it does. There's a tremendous amount of grace, even in the places where God's judging. I'm just showing you places where God judges. And yet in those places, there's amazing grace. The psalm, uh, uh, 136 is, um, I think it's 26, 27 verses where it just says over and over again, God's love or his mercy endures forever. Over and over and over again, lamentations at the after God's wrath has been poured out, they're just crying out, lord, your steadfast love is the only reason why we still exist.

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God's wrath is not in contradiction to God's grace.

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The two only make sense together. For grace is not just liking people or being nice to people. Grace is forgiving people for things that they did wrong. Grace is giving things to people that they don't deserve.

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Grace is what you don't deserve. Wrath is what you do deserve. And the Old Testament shows God desiring to give grace, but he will give wrath if you do not get the grace on his terms. That's right. He's not, he's not just there to serve us like a cosmic vending machine.

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He has terms, and those terms are turning to him with your whole heart.

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There's more wrath in the old Testament than you think. Um, excuse me. There's more grace in the Old Testament than you think. And, uh, Jonah is another example of this. Jonah is a guy who goes to the city of Nineveh and he's going to destroy it. Excuse me? He wants it to be destroyed. God's going to destroy it. Jonah goes and he's preaching to the Ninevites. He doesn't actually want them to be saved. God sends Jonah against his own will. And the whole story is there to show that it's God who loves these non jewish people and who are in sin, who deserve his wrath, and he wants them to be saved. Now, Israel should rejoice in this because it means that God must have that same kind of love for them. But, uh, Jonah doesn't rejoice because he never really understood these things. At least we don't know if he did. After the book, maybe he got it, but not in the course of reading. Jonah, God cared about them. He cared about them. That's the point.

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There's also more wrath in the New Testament than you think. So there's more grace in the Old Testament than you think. And there's more wrath in the New Testament than you probably think, than most people think. Anyways, look at what Jesus said about the son of man. Um, so here we are in Matthew, chapter 24 36. I could actually pick stronger verses for this, but, um, I'm not just trying to shock and I'm trying to bring the theology out to help you really understand that theology. So let's go to that passage.

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So Matthew, chapter 24, verse 36. But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven. Um. Oh, I'm sorry, I wanted to. No, 36, that's right, that's right. Um, but my father only. But as the days of Noah were, you might think Noah is the example of God's wrath.

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Uh, in the Old Testament, the flood, Noah, uh, in the New Testament, though, Jesus is the example of God's mercy. Jesus is the one who would never, he would never break the bent straw. He would never offer anyone anything but grace. But look at how Jesus describes his eventual second coming. As the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the son of man be. There will be a parallel. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away. Took them all away. That taking away is in judgment, right?

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So also will the coming of the son of man be. The two men will be in the field and one will be taken and the other left that's taken in judgment. Two will be, two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and the other left.

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Jesus describes his second coming in terminology like the flood.

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Jesus has wrath. I mean, this is actually specifically in the book of revelation. If you look at revelation chapter six, it talks about the wrath of Jesus. And you might think Jesus is the lambda mike, he's the lamb. The lamb doesn't have wrath.

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Revelation uses the phrase the wrath of the lamb. I looked here, revelation 612, I looked when he opened the 6th seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it was rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, how do they respond? Now, some would say, okay, some of this is perhaps poetry, but, um, even if you suggest that there's poetic or pictorial elements here, you should acknowledge there is major judgment of God coming upon people.

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It is terrifying. It is absolutely cosmic, uh, judgment that is falling upon people. But look at how they describe it in verse 15. And this is God's inspired word. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to us, said to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand.

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You cannot stand against the wrath of Jesus. That's the New Testament.

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I would have to suggest that the flood.

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Right, the flood of Noah, the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the Midianites, the Ammonites, all the various judgments of God in the Old Testament, none of them compare to what we're reading about in revelation, not only in six, but go to 19 2021. You're going to read about a judgment that is worse because it's eternal. It's a judgment that lasts forever. The wrath of the lamb is a real thing.

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If you want a, uh, Jesus or a God that is either gracious or wrathful, you cannot find that in the Bible.

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You're going to find both in Old and New Testament, Luke, chapter twelve. Let's look at another passage, another example of this, and I'll talk about other ways in which the Old New Testament is supposedly more, um, in moral conflict after this. So, and I say to you, my friends, Jesus himself speaking, do not be afraid of those who kill the body. I mean, the flood killed the body, uh, most sodom and Gomorrah that killed the body. Those judgments in and of themselves, by themselves, were not as scary as what Jesus talks about here. Don't be afraid of those who kill the body. And after that, have no more they can do. This is kind of the Jesus people like, right?

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Like, yeah, that's encouraging. Uh, I don't want to be afraid of those who kill. The. That's. I feel encouraged. I feel strengthened. I feel like I want to be courageous and bold. Righteous or bold as a lion. And I'm a child of the king, and I can have courage and confidence and stuff. Right. This will preach in Joel Osteen's church.

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But verse five probably won't show up in Joel Osteen's church. It won't show up in a lot of people's understanding of Jesus because they don't understand Jesus, sadly. But I will show you whom you should fear. Fear him, who, after he is killed, has power to cast into hell. Yes. I say to you, fear him.

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Your physical death is not as scary as eternal damnation.

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Hell is worse. This is, we know this intuitively when you just think about it for 5 seconds. But the point is, it's on Jesus's lips, right? Jesus himself in Luke twelve, he's warning people, this is the thing you should fear. You should fear eternal damnation before God. This is the thing. So he's the one who says, um, you know, I'm going to be gracious to you. I'm loving to you. I don't condemn you.

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But that's not all he says. He says more. He's in the phrase there. He says, like, to summarize, like the idea of Jesus, I don't condemn you yet.

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That's really the message in the New Testament. I don't condemn you yet, and I offer you a way out of that condemnation. If you receive me. And if you don't, you should be very afraid. That's the Jesus of the Bible.

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When we see God's wrath and when we see God's grace, what we're seeing is God's goodness on both hands. We're seeing his goodness. His wrath is good. His grace is good because God's wrath is always righteous. His judgment is always good and true. It's always proper, like a right judgment being sent down by, uh, by a judge in court to a criminal who absolutely deserves it, deserves it, and needs it. But his grace is also good. We tend to think wrath bad, grace, good. And then we try to split and cut the Old Testament from the new. But what we're really doing is we're just cutting all kinds of scripture out of all of the bible to remove the grace of the old that we might say that's a wrathful God to remove the wrath of the new. That we might say, that's a gracious God.

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It's entirely on us.

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But some would say Jesus taught a different standard, though, right, Mike? Jesus taught a different standard than the Old Testament. Right. For instance, Jesus says in Matthew five, you've heard it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, don't do that.

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This is the most commonly cited and quoted one, um, here. It does take some study, it does take a little bit of research to probably come to the bottom of this, because the sermon on the mount, or at least pieces of it, are often quoted out of context. So people have their own ideas of it and they've never really looked into it on their own. Um, they've maybe read the sermon on the mount, but they're not really reading the Bible as a whole when it comes to this passage where Jesus says, you've heard it was said eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, but I say to you, turn the other cheek. This is, um, the context you're missing is this. The Old Testament approves of eye for an eye as a judicial sentence, not as a personal vengeance practice. Judicial sentences must always be fair and equal. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. They have to be fair and equal. Um, you dole out exactly the right judgment depending on the crime, not more, not less.

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In Jesus setting. In the New Testament, they were using this, this rule of eye for an eye to get personal vengeance, to get vendettas against people. You hurt me, I hurt you back. That is not how the policy was originally written. In the Old Testament, Jesus is taking a passage of scripture away from an abusive community. They were taking it, using it for personal vengeance. That's why he says, turn the other cheek. He's saying, I don't want you to go after personal vengeance. And that's not a, uh, new idea in the New Testament. Let me show you where you can find Jesus's ideas in the Old Testament. Proverbs 2022.

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Do not say I will recompense evil eye for an eye, but I'll do it personally. Don't say I'll do it personally. Wait for the Lord and he will save you. God has always been against personal vengeance, but he set up governments as the hand of God. When they act properly and appropriately, they're acting as the hand of God, bringing judgment. That's what Romans says as well, Romans 13, that the government is God's minister, his servant, to bring his wrath upon evildoers. So Jesus is not in conflict with the Old Testament. He's clarifying and purifying their understanding of it. He's making sure that they get it right instead of wrong. So to take Jesus's phrase eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and use it to say that he's disagreeing with the Old Testament is only to affirm the very error they were believing at the time, that they could take that old Testament thing and turn it into personal vengeance. If you want to get on board M with what Jesus is saying, you need to affirm the Old Testament and the new. You've got to affirm both. You got to see the same God throughout. What about love your neighbor, though? Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself. That's. That's definitely not new Old Testament. Right, Mike? Well, Leviticus, 1918, you shall not take vengeance. There it is again. Old Testament principle. You don't take personal vengeance. Right. Uh, you let government do that. That's. That's how it's supposed to go. Sorry, guys. I know that a lot of people are, like, our tendency to want personal revenge on the same as you. I want it to is exactly what God was trying to argue against, stop us from doing Jesus in the Old and New Testament the same. So don't take personal vengeance, but then it goes on. Nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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Wait, what? That's old Leviticus. I thought Leviticus was this book that was, like, nobody read, and it's all about just, like, blood and stuff. Well, it's about sacrifices, which are, in turn, about Jesus. There's a lot going on there, but guess what? Jesus got his theology totally in line with the Old Testament, 100%.

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What about loving God above all? Well, Jesus describes love neighbor, love God above all these two things, these two policies, these two rules of life. He describes them as simply the summary of the commandments of God in the Old Testament. This is not Jesus changing things. This is him just saying, hey, it's always been there. I'm just telling it to you. Now.

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Let me give you an example. Uh, when God called David. A lot of you are familiar with King David. David is a man after God's own heart. That is, he loves God. That's David's big, shining thing. It's the one thing God really commemorates in King David. When every other king shows up, they're often compared to David in this. Did they love God? That's how kings are measured in Israel. How good of a king were they? Well, how much did they love God. That's Old Testament stuff. Then you have in two kings 23 25, this really cool verse. This is a guy named Josiah. He was a king who brought great revival and reforms, good ones, into the nation of Israel. And it says now, before him, there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his might. According to what the law of Moses, loving God. According to the law of Moses, with all his what his soul, heart, mind, strength. This is like an echo of Jesus, or Jesus is echoing this.

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Jesus is not in disagreement with the Old Testament. There's 100% agreement between the Old and New Testament. It's beautiful, it's wonderful. It's part of the reason why I think we can show the Bible is inspired of God is the consistency that's there. Let me talk about a major problem in a second before we go to your guys questions in the chat, we still have nine questions from the chat we're going to be taking, possibly a bonus. We'll see how it goes. Um, so some think the New Testament policy, uh, is love, and the New Testament policy is rules or laws. So we have love versus laws, or we have, uh, the inner heart versus outer rules and policies, loving, um, God versus obeying God. In the old versus new testament, that's another conflict people see between the two.

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Jesus himself said in John 1415, if you love me, you will keep my commandments showing what? Uh, that you can't really separate love and rules.

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You can say rules, um, and love are different things, but you can't separate here. Let me say, um, I'm trying to think of an analogy. I can, um, water and hydration. I got water here. Trying to think of an analogy.

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I just drink water.

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Hydration, um, is a quality that my body has and that has to do with how much water is in my body. Now, you can, you can separate conceptually water and hydration, but if you partake of water, you get hydrated. That's just what happens. You can't drink water and not get hydrated. You can separate the concept of loving God, the idea of love and the concept of obeying God. You can separate the two in that sense. But if you love God, if you take in the water of loving God, you will get hydrated, you will obey God. This is a natural result. If you are not obeying God, you are probably not going to be loving God.

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One is a symptom of the other.

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And so Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Um, Exodus, 26, though, shows that this is not, again, this is not new. Do you know how much of Jesus, uh, Jesus sayings that people love and quote are actually in the Old Testament in some form or another? A lot. A whole lot. Exodus 26. But showing mercy, this is God showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.

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There's, it's seen as this harmony between loving God and keeping his commandments. And this is why the kings are measured by their love for God, because that love would simply outflow into them, keeping his commandments.

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And now I might well clarify real quick before I give one last sort of, I don't know, uh, I don't know, just a wake up call on something, um, and then go to your guys questions. So let me clarify something. Um, some would say, but Mike, in the New Testament, we're not under the law anymore, right? Like you say, I'm going to keep God's commits, but I'm not under the law. Um, so isn't that a big change? Isn't that a moral change? Because God gave these rules to Israel and I'm not under them. Now, I would say a few things to just clarify quickly. This deserves a whole nother q and a or a whole nother video to explain in detail. So a few bullet points without deep explanation. Um, the old Testament law was never for all nations. You're not jewish. It was never for you, the old Testament law never for you. Uh, at no point did the prophets hammer, uh, they hammered the, uh, moabites, they hammered all these different nations, the ammonites. They hammered them a lot for all sorts of sins and failures as a nation. Never did God hammer them for not obeying the Old Testament law.

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There would be some things in the law they should have done. They shouldn't, but never because they weren't under the law or didn't treat that law like it was their own law. Never for that. The law was for Israel. In other words, it was only also for a time. It is fulfilled in Jesus, so that the law itself is fulfilled in Jesus. This is the New Testament teaching, and this is consistent with the Old Testament. There's a whole study it could do on that. So that as a Christian, I don't walk under the law, but I live out fulfilling it through Jesus Christ.

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But yet the law, it's not as though I disregard everything in the law as pointless, because the law itself says things like love, uh, your neighbor. Do I ignore that? No. I want to get the heart of the law, the principles, the morals, behind the law.

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So here's a good analogy for this. In short, training wheels on a tricycle or a bicycle, I should say. So. You got training wheels on your bicycles as a kid. You're learning how to ride, and those training wheels keep you from falling over.

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In the meantime, they're teaching you, helping you learn how to ride upright and not need the training wheels. The law, it's a little clumsy, but the law is sort of like that. The law teaches Israel how to follow God and obey God. There's nothing wrong with the law. It's entirely good. It's entirely right. But there are various reasons it's there to teach and train.

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The law teaches, you know, training wheels teach you how to, how to handle balance, mostly, right? How to handle balance and measure that with speed and things like that. Um, the law teaches people, um, moral truths that transcend the law, right? That I should be obeying as well. They teach them principles, uh, that I can learn from the law, where the exact application isn't the point that I learn now applying it to my life, but the principle behind it, I learned. And they also teach you, um, ultimately christology. They teach you about Jesus. And so the sacrifices of the law, many of the ceremonies, they're all pictures pointing to Jesus Christ, showing you who he is. And once I get him, I don't need to do any of that stuff. And I never did as a gentile anyways.

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That's the short answer on that. In other words, it's annoying to people because it turns out if you want to understand the Bible, it'll take more than five minutes, right? We want a simplistic understanding of scripture, but this is, this is a collection of documents God inspired over well over a thousand years, over all kinds of time periods, different people's lives in different communities at, ah, different seasons. And he's laying out this incredibly long saga of things and truths and events that point you to the ultimate reality of Jesus Christ. This is complex, it is detailed. You can learn it in a short period of time, some of the basics of the Bible, but it is indeed a lifetime to learn and grow and understand it more and more. That's why I have so much content online. Try to be one source of someone aiding you in this. Learn to think biblically about everything. It takes more than five minutes. Um, but now let me talk about why people, um, believe this error, why people believe the error, that there's this conflict between the Old Testament and the New Testament. They even use the phrase old Testament God versus New Testament God. Like they're different gods, which is in absolute conflict with both the Old and the New Testament. It's weird to hold a view of the Bible that the Bible utterly rejects and then think you're affirming the Bible somehow. It's a weird thing in our culture. So why do people fall into this? Why do they think old ot wrath in t grace ot rules nt love, and they don't understand the complexities and the beauty and the, and the harmony that's going on there. It's not that they don't know the Bible. That's part of it, but that's not it. Here's my theory.

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People not only don't know the Bible, if they just didn't know the Bible, they would just be silent or ignorant on the, on the subject. The problem is they think they do know the Bible. Your average person thinks they know way more about scripture than they do your average Christian.

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Sorry, guys. Thinks they know way more about the Bible than they actually do.

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They think they know, but they don't. So this creates a high degree of confidence with an overly simplistic understanding that doesn't represent the reality of God's word. That's pretty typical. Maybe they've been in churches their whole life, and their church, their leader, doesn't really teach the whole counsel of God's word. They don't really teach all of the scriptures. They don't really get into the nuance or details. And they oversimplify things, things. And they'll say things like that. Like, oh, you know, in the Old Testament, we see God's wrath, and the new, we see his love. And I'm like, dude, that is an oversimplification to the point of error to say something like that.

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But they're getting this teaching all the time in their churches. Perhaps they're raised under Joel Osteen, who on my survey of one of his studies, he taught the Bible wrong. I think it was nine out of ten times that he referenced the Bible. He misused the verses. His congregation is just tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. You get it online, just nodding in agreement because there's no ability to discern the difference between good and wrong teaching, because there's nobody reading in context. They're just looking for verses for inspiration. They see the Bible as a source of inspiration for them, not an inspired text. Right. That God inspired this. Instead, it's. This inspires me. When that's my attitude towards scripture, I will have a high degree of confidence and a low degree of understanding, and it will create errors like this. So I encourage people to just don't overestimate your knowledge of scripture. It's okay if you don't know. It's better to know you don't know than to kid yourself and make more mistakes. All right, so we're going to go to your guys questions.

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I admit I went longer on that one than I intended, but that's pretty normal for me. So why am I even telling you? You probably expected me to do exactly that. Um, okay, so, um, let me just say this. Sarah, can you resend question number two to my mod? Sarah, can you resend question number two? Because I don't see it in here. I'm going to go to question three.

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Um, so, hello, hello. I'll still label it as two for you guys. Don't worry about it. Um, I'll label this as two. Hello, hello. How can we find. That's the name of the YouTube commenter. Hello, hello. How can we find a healthy balance between time with God and entertainment, like reading non christian books? That's a fantastic question. Um, I don't know any hard and fast rules on this. Um, in a sense, I want to say follow your conscience. I say, dear me, in a sense, I want to say follow your conscience. I would say that that's one indicator that you should pay attention to where you just pray. Honestly, Lord, help me be aware if I'm spending too much time on this. Um, I think, um, maybe a good way to do this is set aside entertainment. Set aside all that for a second and just ask yourself, am I spending enough time seeking, uh, the Lord in prayer, in worship, in reading his word, and in growing as a christian disciple? And if your answer there is yes, you're like, I feel like I have a healthy amount of this in my regular life. If your answer there is yes, okay, and let's assume you're a mature christian, making this a judgment. So your answer there, I'm assuming, is yes.

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Then, um, you say, okay, how about all my other responsibilities in life, children and work and other things like health and well being, um, whether you're working out or things like that.

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And are all those other things healthy? My relationships, like marriage and things like this? Um, all of that. Is that all in place? And you go, yep, that's all in place. Now you have a space where you can talk about entertainment and you don't want it to encroach too much on your sleep. I think that seems like practical wisdom. I'm just trying to give you practical advice. I think obviously entertainment is we live in an entertainment culture. I, um, enjoy entertainment plenty myself. Um, absolutely enjoy lots of things like that. And I'm sort of wired that way because of the culture we've been raised in. I think there's, if you teleported someone here from 100 years ago, they would probably be like, my goodness, you guys spend an awful lot of time entertaining yourselves, sort of doing nothing.

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You're just sort of doing nothing.

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And they'd be right. So chances are we're all getting entertained too much for the most part.

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But I would set your priorities that way. Entertainment should be the lowest thing on the list. Um, if you feel like I have to have at least 3 hours a day of just being entertained, then that's probably unhealthy. Um, you can have, I'm not saying you can have 3 hours a day of resting, of just chilling with people and family and things like that, but if you must have that time of being entertained, that might be a sign of unhealthiness. This is just my two cent. This is my wisdom. Um, scripture does weigh in on some of these things, and it talks about all things are lawful for me. So entertainment is one of those things. But I will not be brought under bondage to anything. So, like, it's not going to be where this thing's kind of controlling my life. Like, I log in to play a game for. I'm going to play for half an hour, but I play for 6 hours, and then I lose a bunch of sleep. That's an unhealthy thing, right? That thing's bringing you into bondage. First Corinthians six gives these rules. Yep. Maybe it's allowable, but it's not healthy. Maybe it's allowable, but it's bringing me under bondage. Maybe it's allowable, but it's not. It's really harming the glory of God in my life. If it's breaking one of those three rules, health, um, control, and God's, uh, glory, then, yeah, that's. You should step down from that thing. Um, I guess a question, a good question for all of us to ask is, am I willing to do that? Let's suppose that I was to cut off entertainment for, I don't know, one week, three days, let's say. Let's say three days. The three day challenge where you go three days and you don't experience any, enter any self entertainment stuff, games, shows, uh, reels and short videos on social media, social media itself. Maybe just like three days where you just don't do any of that, and maybe that will refresh you and give you a perspective to evaluate these things more carefully. That could be some wisdom.

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All right, let's talk about question number three, which will be what was originally two. Um, this one comes in from Don, who references first Corinthians 315 and says, how can someone be saved if their work is burned up? Wouldn't the frailty of their work suggest their faith wasn't true in the first place? This is a wonderful passage to talk about.

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First Corinthians 315. I'm gonna have to read a few verses, but, uh, that's a good practice. I saw my wife the other day. I often will get your guys verse references like this, 315, and I'll back up and read a section of the, of the text. And that's because I, I want to subliminally train you to do the same thing. When someone references a verse, you just back up and start reading more. Um, so here we go. Back up.

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So he's talking about an analogy between, um, the apostle building up the church or other people building up the church and a person who builds a house building a house or building a structure. And so he's like, hey, according to the grace of God, given to me like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation. Building the church lays the foundation of the gospel, um, and evangelism and the teaching, the basics of Christianity, and someone else is building upon it. These are other people, apollos or whoever, that show up later, and they continue ministering to people that were initially sort of planted in Christ through Paul. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. Okay. Here's where the context comes in. Oh, yeah. Okay. It matters how you do ministry, how you build upon the foundation of Christ, both in your own life, as you grow in Christ, your own self discipleship, as well as how you minister to others. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ. Sorry. Um, now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, this analogy, remember, we're talking about a building here. He doesn't mean like, you're literally building gold on your foundation of Jesus. Gold is like good doctrine and good behaviors and good practices and good spiritual disciplines. Um, those types of things. That's gold, silver, precious stones. Then there's wood, hay and straw. And wood, hay and straw would be like, hey, you may have had Jesus as a foundation. You knew the gospel. You were a Christian, maybe, right?

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But then you came along and you had watered down teachings. You had empty, self centered doctrines. You had a very man pleasing Christianity beyond having the gospel.

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Wood, hay, and straw. Then Paul goes on to warn us that there's a future day when all the work we've done in our own discipleship and as we disciple others, will be judged. Each one's work will become manifest. No, we'll find out one day. I don't know, I don't know how great my ministry is until one day, when it becomes manifest for the day, we'll disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire. Okay, we're continuing an analogy here. If you put, uh, gold in fire, it's not going to be destroyed. If you put wood, hay, straw, it's going to be destroyed. So it'll be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

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If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he'll receive a reward. These are the treasures in heaven. What are they like? I don't know. Um, some would suggest it's this or that. All I know is I get to heaven purely by grace, but I'm going to be in heaven. We're all going to be in the same heaven, same experience of witness with God. This isn't like a mormonism thing where it's, like, different. You get to see God more or less, and things like that, depending on how good you were. Um, higher levels of heaven. If you get to the highest level of heaven, you can become a God and populate your own planet and stuff like that. Uh, this is nothing like that. So. But it, but it's, it's me getting into heaven purely by God's grace. But then after I'm in Christ, God wants to bless us as we serve him. He wants to reward us for our good works. The reward is not heaven. The reward is not our eternal life, but rather, in heaven, there are, there's some sort of treasure. Now, maybe that treasure is something like, some would go, well, bigger mansion or more property or something like that. I don't know if it's that. Maybe the treasure. I mean, Paul says, um, to the disciples, the Corinthians, he goes, you're my crown, you're my joy. Maybe the treasure is just literally the character and the people. You look around heaven and you see there's someone who's stronger in Christ because of me, because of the ministry God did through me. There's someone who's grown in the Lord because of me. And you're looking at them, and you're in such a right state of spiritual thinking, that you're like, they're my treasure in heaven. Maybe that's it. I don't know. I don't know what the treasures in heaven. Are you okay? At, uh, any rate, there's some reward there. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

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So your work could be burned up. What would that be? Um, perhaps you're looking at the people who. Maybe someone made it to heaven, somebody else preached to them, they got saved, and they came to your church, and you ministered, blah, blah, uh, christianity to them, watered down, cultural, you know, weak sauce Christianity. Not true discipleship and following Jesus. And you look at them, and you're like, they have nothing to show. For all the work I've done in their lives, I built. I built trash on the incredible foundation of Christ in their lives.

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Yeah, something like that. Okay. That's least how I visualize this. You know, when I think about it, the work that you do, the work that you think, all those years of serving the Lord, but you didn't serve him rightly. Gone. But then your question is about this. Dawn's question. How can someone be saved if their work is burned up?

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Your work's burned up, but you're saved.

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How does that work?

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You followed up and said, wouldn't the frailty of their work suggest that their faith wasn't true in the first place? That's. This is why I get in trouble online. I will frequently target, uh. I say target or focus on, you know, a, um, teacher, a public teacher. And I will talk about how the work that they're doing is wood, hay, straw, and stubble. I'll say, this is not healthy, guys. In the body of Christ, they have public teachings, so I address them publicly. They're out there on the Internet for the world to see, so I address them publicly for the world to see. But I will often get in trouble because I won't come hard enough against those teachers. Now, I'm not saying I'm always right, okay? There's times where, um. I know when I did, like, my first video. For those of you familiar, uh, with. On Bethel, I wasn't hard enough. But in my. My philosophy at the time was I can always dial up the strength of my statements against them. It's difficult to dial it back. And I did dial it up. I made a second video, which many of you have seen, um, on how it was even more problematic than I thought.

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But I don't know. This I don't know that just because somebody is building on Christ poorly, it means that they don't have Jesus. Just because a congregation like Joel Osteenen has all kinds of. I'm using him as an example not to pick on him like it's a personal vendetta. None of that. Um, obviously his ministry is far reaching to the world.

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Totally fair to discuss it. Many pastors follow his examples. It's worth talking about his examples. Many people believe it, so it's worth discussing it. But I think Osteen's ministry has a lot of wood, hay and straw and stubble. But I also think that there's probably a lot of believers that are there, and that's because of this passage and concepts like first corinthians 315. But I understand where you're coming from, Don, because you're like, no man. If you have wood, hay and straw and stubble and all that, then you're just not a Christian. And I say, look, it's more complicated than that. You might be, you might not be. The Lord knows. And I'm not sure. I'm not sure there's definitely a line. Everybody's got a line somewhere where they go, that guy's not even Christian. I drew that line on Binny Hinn for sure, and others didn't draw it on him, and others draw it on every single teacher they disagree with. Um, and, uh, I think scripture shows us here that it's a little more challenging than that. Um, he saved through as through fire. It doesn't mean he got burned, right? The only thing that got burned was the works. The works got burned. So it's as though you call your family and you're like, hey, my house burned down.

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Everything's gone, but I'm okay. That's the saved as though through fire. I didn't get burned, I'm fine, but everything I own is gone.

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That's the example of the person who builds poorly on Jesus Christ. It's very sobering to think about it.

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My ministry will be judged and it will not matter how many subscribers I had or how many people thought well of me or thought well, Mike, you're a likable guy. None of that's going to matter. What's going to matter?

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Sorry, I'm still getting over being sick. Um. Or maybe I'm just being sick and not getting over it. We'll see. Um.

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Definitely way better than Monday. Monday I couldn't even drink water and couldn't sit up for more than a couple minutes. So I'm doing great. Now, compared to that, um.

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Um, the reality is I will stand before God, um, and watch as, metaphorically, I speak now and watch as all my work, my life's work of ministry is tested and I find out what God thinks of it.

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That knowledge should keep me on the straight and narrow, ideally, and at least, at least have me in a clean conscience trying to serve the Lord. But it'll still be tested. Like Paul says, I judge nothing before the time. God will judge all this stuff eventually, and I'm glad he will, because only what is truly his should stand in the first place. Let's go to question number four. And this one comes in from William Morris says, what's the point of the new covenant when salvation has always been through faith? Um, yeah. Um.

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Let me give you an extreme illustration of what it could be like if we just got rid of the idea of a new covenant. Um, when we challenge the idea of a new covenant, we're sort of really challenging the idea of an old covenant, aren't we? We don't want a new one, we just want the covenant. We just want one covenant, right? One salvation by grace through faith alone. That's all we ever talk about. We don't have an old covenant, then we don't have. If we don't have an old mosaic covenant, then we don't have a new Jesus covenant.

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The only way Jesus Covenant isn't new is to get rid of Moses.

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Let's suppose you did, let's suppose you got rid of the mosaic covenant and that God showed up to Abraham and he just came to Abraham and just said, believe in me and you'll be saved. And now he did sort of say this, right, because Genesis 1215, these different passages that talk about Abraham and his faith, it shows that Abraham, quote, believed God and God counted it to him for righteousness. So we have this in the Old Testament, it doesn't just show up in the new. This is basic New Testament theology stuff, right? Romans chapter four gets into this.

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Um, but let's suppose that God shows up to Abraham, says, hey, abraham, this is Jesus, this is Yeshua, he's going to go and be crucified for your sins. And Jesus dies right there before Abraham, right? And it's like Sodom and Gomorrah are the ones that do it. They crucified Jesus and then Jesus dies, he rises again. And from then on we just have one Testament. It's the Old Testament, it's the only Testament, but it looks a lot like the New Testament and it just happened in Abraham's time. That's how you could sort of get rid of that whole old covenant stuff and just have one covenant.

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What would we lose if we did that? Um, we would lose a lot. We lose more than we think. If you start with the covenant in Genesis, where Abraham is, we lose a lot more than people realize. You're going to lose prophecy because nobody prophesied it. It just happened. So you would open your Bible and you would not have. And some people don't realize how much fulfilled prophecy there is and how much this is evidence that God inspired scripture. But there's a lot. A playlist I'll link below called evidence for the Bible, where I talk about tons of specific, detailed examples of prophecies fulfilled from the Bible. And I deal with objections, objections from atheists, objections from jewish, uh, apologists who are opposed to Jesus being the messiah, all that stuff. So I'll link that below. But you would lose all that because you would open to Genesis and there would be no precursors, there'd be no prophecy, there would just be Jesus showing up.

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But you lose more than that.

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So, like, a 21st century reader wouldn't have any validation of this stuff. They'd just be like, it's just this ancient story from Abraham's time. Um, you lose more than that, though.

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You would lose, um, the pictorial prophecies, I might call them, of the, um, theological lessons of the law of Moses. So the law of Moses taught us some really important things. It grabs Israel as a nation and says, here's God's laws. Obey these laws and you will be blessed. Disobey them and you'll be cursed. Israel fails over and over again. That's a huge lesson, trying to teach mankind as they even read through, as any of you just start reading the Bible, you will first be like, Israel, I can't stand you. How are you so foolish as you keep reading, eventually one day it will hit you and you'll be like, I'm the same way.

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I am the same way. I've been so frustrated at them because they're messed up, but I realize I'm the same way. I do the same stuff.

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That unveiling of your own sinful heart as you read through the failings of the people that God called, that is so important for helping you understand the grace of God in Christ.

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It's not just that, though. It's also the, um, record of God moving and working through history. We learn about God's character. We learn about who God is. If all you knew about God was Jesus, you would be missing a lot of information about God that you get. In the Old Testament, the truest picture of God is Christ. But why would I want to, like, gut so much good knowledge and wisdom and information about who God is and how he operates from the Old Testament, you'd also lose out on all these sort of ceremonial pictures of Christ in the sacrifices in Yom Kippur and Passover. In fact, Jesus dying on the cross wouldn't even make sense. If you didn't have the old covenant, you wouldn't understand it. His vicarious atonement is built upon the levitical sacrificial system, right? Yes. It's brain stuff. You got to have a brain to understand God and to understand the gospel. You don't have to be brilliant, but you have to think. You have to actually think. And so this is amazing stuff. We will totally lose it. Leviticus as, uh, the sacrifices of Leviticus as picturing Christ. The very high priest's garments, the temple and the structure of the temple. Do you know the outside of the temple was covered with ugly skins. It looked very normal, but the inside looked like heaven on the inside. Woven images to look like you were walking into heaven. Picturing Jesus God, but in human form, ugly skin on the outside, but inward, he is God with us.

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The sacrifices, the mercy seat, the day of atonement, the very passover itself, the selection of the lamb, lamb without spot, legs will not be broken. Um, all these things are pictures of Jesus who dies on the cross for our sins. So, in a sense, I'm telling you, the new covenant is woven into and built upon the old covenant. If you remove the old covenant, you take a lot away from the new covenant.

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There's a harmony there. So if you think of it like a harmony, if you hear a beautiful three part harmony and you just say, what if we just remove the two of the harmony parts? Why not? It's actually going to hurt things. So there's so many benefits. Uh, there's more as well. There are things nations can learn from the laws of Israel, things we can learn from the stories and the events and all the stuff that happens. The new Testament says they're written for our example, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. So that I am to actually be educated and learn. Even as I read about these events, they're not just like a boring sidetrack. They're training for my life today.

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There's so much. There's so much that's there. If you. Let's say that you just wanted, but we'll just take the new. Forget Abraham, forget all that Old Testament stuff. Let's just get rid of the Old Testament entirely and we'll just have the new.

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Okay, but let's do one more thing. Let's remove every New Testament quote and allusion to the Old Testament, right? Because otherwise it doesn't make sense. If the New Testament is referring back to something and you get rid of it, you should get rid of the references. Your New Testament would get very small, very fast.

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You can't understand the new without understanding the old. You can't understand the old without understanding the new. They come together into harmony, two pieces of a puzzle.

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Um, so those are some of the reasons that I would give. It's a great question. I'm glad you asked it. I'm glad you asked it. So the point of the new covenant is, of course, salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ. Um, that has always been true, even in Genesis, before the law is given. Abraham believed God and God counted it to him for righteousness. That's what the scripture says. Belief gets righteousness. But the lessons, we needed the lessons, we needed the prophecy, we needed the education, we needed all that, we needed the illusions and the quotes in the new to the old. Jesus himself says, I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets. He's come to fulfill it, right. If you take it away, there's nothing that he fulfilled.

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So, yeah, it's amazing stuff. It's amazing stuff. If the bible's boring, study it more.

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Question number five, movie, uh, monster nine says, who is Ashura? I saw a video that claims she's God's forbidden wife. Was it from a biblical perspective? All right, let's talk about that.

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So, um, sort of, um, uh, there's a yes answer and a no answer. The way that the Internet likes to do these things and has, I've learned this when I was, like, in my twenties or teens, I would see stuff like this and it would disturb me. So I get it if it disturbs you, because it would do that to me too. And then I would go and start researching and digging and looking it up, and then I would get frustrated because I was like, man, they totally lied. That video I saw totally was not true. That person misled me about what's being said here.

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Um, so Asherah does appear in the Old Testament, and, uh, they did try to say that she was God's wife or God's consort, and they even tried to set up Asherah poles in the temple of God, these poles that were like, basically the sign of her deity. And, um, that's absolutely true. Scripture, uh, rebukes it, rejects it, and God actually punishes the people who are doing it. You know, when Elijah is on Mount Carmel and there's this big battle between him and the prophets of Baal, they were also prophets of asher there, and they too were being rejected and refused by God and proven not true. And God says he's the only one to worship, that God has no wife, he has no equal, there's, uh, no other gods before him. And so what we're seeing is in the Old Testament, we see Israel in apostasy, Israel bringing in idolatry. They're going to worship Yahweh and Baal, they're going to worship Yahweh and Asherah, and they're going to try to bring them together because that's what pagans do. Pagans, they have gods that have wives, they have a male and female deity. They have like these. And they were trying to, they were trying to make the God of Israel like pagan gods. They were learning the ways of the pagans. So, yeah, you see these Asherah, these instances, there's, even, if I remember correctly, and forgive me if I get this wrong, it's been a while since I looked in, it's been years, but there was, um, ah, an archaeological dig that discovered a hebrew inscription that says, uh, I think it was to God and his Asherah, to Yahweh and his Asherah, where it actually said that she was his wife, effectively. Right. That's what seems to be meant by that. Now, um, uh, this has been taken by some to be like, see, the original Israelites were worshippers of Yahweh and Asherah. They were worshippers of Yahweh. And this is, I think it's a really silly way to approach it. The Bible clearly dictates that in, uh, the gathering of Israel, they were worshipping all sorts of egyptian gods and all sorts of things. And he calls them out and says, reject all those gods. You'll worship me. First thing they do, they make this golden calf and they start worshipping it. And he goes, look, this is your God that brought you out of Egypt. Aaron says they immediately were paganizing Judaism. They were not supposed to do this, the mosaic truth. And then they're going through the land and they carry idols and they keep their idols with them and they go into the land. Finally, they go from the wilderness into the land and they set up idols and they set up high places. And the kings of Israel usually leave the high places. Every once in a while, someone tears them down. Rarely does that happen. Elijah shows up and it's this pluralistic religious culture.

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We know that the Israelites were worshiping God alongside other false gods. And we also know that from the beginning, this was always rejected. But they just kept doing it. They kept doing it, kept doing it. And it was why God was judging them a lot of the time.

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They didn't seem to get over it. Until the destruction of, uh, the temple, until the deportation. So we get to the New Testament, and now you don't see Israel doing that for the most part. You don't see paganism like that worshipping of. You see, monotheism secured. It took that long to secure monotheism in the people.

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Sadly. Um.

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And, um.

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Sorry, for my own sake, this isn't so much for you guys. I got a mute notifications on my phone for a, uh, particular app that's just going wild.

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It's just distracting me. I don't want to be distracted.

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So, yeah, let me read your question again. Then we'll. Then we'll give you the summary answer. Um, who is Ashura? Okay, so, female deity, pagan deity from other religion. Non jewish pagan deity. You said you saw a video that claims she's God's forbidden wife. Um, that's inaccurate. Biblically speaking. She, uh, is a pagan, non existent being, doesn't exist. That they were worshipping inspired by a demon. Demons are behind these things. According to scripture, um, that they were trying to worship alongside God. Because Israel always dealt with paganism invading into their worship of God. And God always hated it, always judged it, always punished it. And so we're not revealing some truth about the Bible or about israelite, real, true israelite origins. This is just the same thing you read in the Bible. Being twisted to try to, like, ultimately attack the reality that there is only one God, ultimately try to bring you back to the same pagan stuff that God was trying to weed out of his people for all those years. All those years to do this again. Sorry. Okay, um, now let's see. Question number six. Six.

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Okay, so, treasure, child of the living God, says, hello, brother Mike. Uh, hello, brother or sister? I've been very blessed by your ministry. I'm very grateful to hear that. Uh, when we as christians confess our sins to goddess, how detailed should we be? Two verses that come to my mind are psalm 139, verses 23 and 24.

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Let's go to psalm 139.

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It says, search me, o God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. I think this psalm is, um, a beautiful. I love this psalm.

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I like reminding myself of it. I like thinking about it, and I even like praying this, um, this verse 24, I think is a great way of handling unknown sins. Lord, I don't even know. I know I'm messed up. I know I got all kinds of mixed motivations and issues. Whatever's going on in my life that I'm not even aware of.

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See it, find it, Lord. Search me. I'm asking you to invade.

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See, God already knows everything about you, but this is different. This is asking God to participate in your sanctification such that even the sins you're not even aware of, the character flaws, that he will lead you away from those things, too. And that's a beautiful thing to pray. I don't think that this is meant to be a way of handling prayer for sins you know about, specifically. So you, um, commit adultery and so you think, I'll pray psalm 139, Lord, just see if there's anything wicked in me if that's not appropriate. Right. That's kind of insulting to say if when you know exactly what's going on and exactly what wicked thing is in you.

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Sometimes we're avoiding being honest with God, um, in prayer. And so I think when you have known sins that are weighing upon your conscience, weighing upon your heart, you should probably confess them specifically and verbally. I did this. I say, probably not like you always have to. I don't think we have hard and fast rules in scripture.

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Um, there is Jesus's example of the tax collector who comes before the, you know, in the parable, um, where you have, like, the pharisee, he's like, oh, I thank you. I'm not like these other men or like this tax collector here, but the tax collector comes forward and he beats his breast and he says, have mercy on me. And he doesn't specify in the parable at least, and maybe in real life the guy would have been more specific, but he is racked with guilt over his sin, and he just pounds his chest and says, God, have mercy on me. I think that that can be an appropriate prayer, but I don't think we should set it as a standard. If there's some. For instance, if that same tax collector had been told, hey, you should pray and be specific about the things you're repenting of before God. If he responds with, I don't think I have to do that. That reveals that there's a pride in the heart that doesn't want to admit my real sins. So I guess here's the rule I'm getting. If you don't want to confess your sins to God specifically because of embarrassment or pride, probably you should.

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Probably you should. If that's the reason, if I don't want to feel embarrassed, which I will call pride here, um, then probably you should specifically point out those sins for your own spiritual well being. We have lots of examples of that in scripture, too. Daniel, when he has his incredible prayer of repentance in the book of Daniel, he offers very specific examples of the things that they've done wrong. He really does. He's like, we did this. We did this. We did this. We did this. In the book of psalms, where there are these prayers about the errors of the people, it will say, we did this. And there are specifics that are given in many cases.

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So I think that specifics help. And I know that in my own heart, when I specify, Lord, I did. I, uh, know I've done a lot of wrong things. I'm sorry. That hits different for my own confession, for my own presenting of my own issues to God, for his grace.

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It hits different than when I say, lord, I did this. I spoke rudely to my wife, the one you called me to love the way Jesus loves the church.

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That hits a whole lot different than Lord. I know I'm not a perfect husband.

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Language that's meant to minimize my sin is not fitting for confession before God, I'll put it that way.

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So I would default towards trying to be specific, but I wouldn't make a hard and fast rule. Only tell people if my vagueness is to minimize my sin or to hide myself from my own shame, then I should probably not be vague.

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Yeah. And the psalm 139 passage, I think, specifically, is about unknown. I don't even know, lord. See, if there's anything else in me, I don't even know about it, so I wouldn't use it for that.

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Uh, question number seven. Juan Jimenez says, hi, wike. Wike.

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I read ahead. So if you guys ever read out loud, right. Not. Not to yourself. Read out loud. You have to read ahead of when you're talking. So you're reading one word while you're saying. While you're saying the words that came before.

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So I read, hi, Mike. While I was reading my wife's. So it came out, hi, Wike. Hi, Mike. My wife's nephew is trans. Uh, is trans. Is here illegally in the Us and recently got married to a man. He asked my wife, if she could help pay for his immigration paperwork. Am I wrong for saying no?

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Um, um. Let me answer it this way. Let's pretend your wife's nephew is not trans.

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Your wife's nephew is, um, here with a green card legally, and recently, uh, got married to a woman. Okay, let's pretend all that's true. Is it wrong for you to say no to paying for his paperwork?

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It's still not wrong. Um, that's a decision you get to make based upon your guys situation.

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It's not as though you just have to pay for everybody all the time. There is a general attitude of graciousness and giving that God wants us to have. That's true. Um, uh, but we're supposed to walk with wisdom, and wisdom is things like, is this person. Let me be real. I'm going to help this person become a citizen of the US. Is that a good move for them? Is that helpful for them? Is that good for the community in which they're becoming part of?

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I'm helping to create that, a citizenship for a person in a country. Am I helping the people around them? Or am I just giving them money to give them what they want?

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I'll give you another example. Let's say that the same guy asks you for help getting a job, and you have an in, you know, the boss of this workplace, and you go, hey, if I endorse this nephew, they'll give him a job. But you also know that perhaps, theoretically, the nephew's a bad worker, maybe he steals from his employer. And so you know that while you could get him a job, which would be a kindness to the nephew, it would be a harm to the employer. And so you have to weigh. These are things you weigh.

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I would not help somebody get, um, status as a citizen, whether by writing an endorsement or offering like a personal, um, validation or whatever they call that, um, um, what do they call it? Sponsoring or whatever.

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Nor would I give them money to become a citizen if I thought they were a bad citizen for that country, because I'm not going to enable them to harm people.

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Does that make sense? So you, uh, can make that judgment regardless. Now, if you add those factors that he's trans, here illegally, and recently got married to a man, some of those factors may weigh in on that and might make you say, yeah, I don't think this is going to be helpful, um, but I would pray about it and have wisdom.

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You can say no for a number of reasons. I don't really know enough about this person and the situation to fully weigh in on it, obviously.

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Um, I have concerns. Just what you've said alone would. Would raise red flags enough that I'd be like, huh, huh? I'm praying about this. I'm thinking about this. Should I do this? So may lord give you wisdom and guide you in it. You're not, by default, required to pay for nephews to get citizenship without having to consider other factors and whether it's a good idea.

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That'd be my short answer. Let's go to number eight. By the way, um, some might think, I'm not basing that answer in scripture. Jesus did said, give to the one who asks of you. Right. I think that if we take that as a rule for every single encounter in life, we're making major mistakes. But you have to keep in mind that if you think that that is a hard and fast rule policy for every engagement in life, you always give whoever asks. You just give them whatever they're asking for.

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You would have to stop every time you pass by somebody with a sign who's asking for money, including scammers. We get scammers all the time in my area, they do the funeral scam. You guys know that one? They have a picture of somebody they show. It's their funeral. It's probably not a real funeral, at least most of the time, if not all the time, it's not real. And then they're collecting money. So you're in traffic, and they're walking through the traffic collecting cash. You'd have to give to them, too. How much do you give? Well, I don't know. Well, he asked, so I give him 20. What if he says, hey, man, can we have more? I guess I have to give him who asked me. How about more? How about your whole bank account? Write a check for everything you got. Here's $40,000, my life savings. I have to give to him who asks. Is that really what you think Jesus meant, or you meant to have? People have a very generous and giving attitude towards others? Yes, I think that's what he meant. Um, but old and New Testament, there are limits on this sort of thing.

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There's wisdom about how much you give. You're wise as a serpenthenne, gentle as a dove. Um, Old Testament, there was provision for the poor such that the farmers were not allowed to, uh, go back over their crops multiple times. There was left some remnants in the crops, and poor people were allowed to come in and gather food, but only as much as they could carry. They couldn't take as much as they want so there were limits on how much they could even take. So, yeah, give to people who ask, but within reason and within limits, but have a generous heart. I think that scripture seems to support this. There's times where God is asked for things and he says, no, he doesn't give to all who ask.

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Catch that. You pray to Jesus, and sometimes he says, no, he doesn't give to all who ask. Not in that harsh rule sense, but as a general principle, yes. Be a giving and generous individual. I think that that is wisdom.

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Um, here's more proof. Uh, in, in the New Testament, Paul is discussing widows in one Timothy, and he describes who will be put on the list to receive financial aid from the church as widows. Right. They didn't have financial aid any other way. They had to be put on this list. They didn't have government financial aid. Um, so the widows had to be a christians. So if a non christian widow came to the church and said, hey, can I start receiving aid? Aren't you guys a church? Don't you love Jesus? Aren't you supposed to give to him who asks? I'm asking. Paul lays out policies in one Timothy where the church would have said, no, we're not going to help you.

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That is not popular today, but that is actually the Paul. Now, I'm not saying they could never give, but that the policy was, you don't just hand out in general. The rule is you don't give to these non christian widows. You give to the christian widows, even as part of our witness to the world.

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But not every christian widow, he goes, she has to be this and this and this. There's these godly qualities she has to have. She spends her time in prayer and serving the saints and doing all these things. And so if you have a carnal widow in the New Testament church, she's generally kind of doing her own thing. Her husband died, but she's never been a good Christian. But she's part of the church and she's like, I like to receive funds and the church goes, no, we don't just give to everyone that asks.

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Not, not like that. Not in that hard and fast rule. Jesus is speaking a generality, not a hard and fast rule there. Um, so I think that. I think that proves it. Read one Timothy. Check out the section on widows. You don't just hard and fast rule, give to everyone who asks. It's qualified. Um, just like when Jesus says, don't resist an evil man. That's qualified, right? If I call the cops because I see a crime, I'm resisting an evil man. But that's a good thing. That's a good way to do it. There's a right and a wrong way to apply the words of Jesus.

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So, yeah, um. I'm sorry. That's all in the back of my mind, and I didn't express it all out loud, so I thought I should come back and share some of it.

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Okay. So, number eight, Jim Courten says, first, um, thessalonians 411, we are told to be quiet and mind our own business. How does that play out in a time where there's so much wrong in the world and the church? How are you doing it? How are you doing it? Me? You're the best. I'm not the best, Jim. I wish. Um, let's see. First Timothy. Sorry. First thessalonians, chapter four, verse eleven.

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Let's back up a little bit.

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These are general instructions to the Christians in Thessalonica. Uh, which, of course, apply to us, too. Paul's writing to them and through the spirit's inspiration to us as well.

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Now, concerning brotherly love, you have no need that anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that, indeed, is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. They, uh, are probably helping them financially, to be honest in this. It is interesting, but we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

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So living quietly, uh, what does that mean? And mining your own affairs. I don't think this applies to evangelism. I think this applies to people that are disruptive in society.

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So Paul would say that he lived quietly, minded his own affairs, and worked with his hands in relation to. He earned his own living. The guy would even make tents. Even when he wasn't going to ask for financial aid from those around him, he'd make tents. So he's making his own living. He's not out there, um, panhandling the world.

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He's not panhandling to the world in order to do his ministry. Um, he's not using ministry as an excuse for having a lazy, laid back life where he doesn't have to labor.

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Right? You might, as a Christian. If I labor in the word, that's great. If I. If I'm. There's plenty of lazy pastors out there that utilize their freedom to be bums, and that's what Paul, he would say, no, no work, actually labor. But you combine these, you're like, live quietly, mind your own affairs. Are you taking care of your own stuff or is your house falling apart? Is your family falling apart? Are you taking care of, uh, if somebody was to walk into your life and survey around, you know how it is. Someone you respect walks into your home and you suddenly are very aware of, like that pile of whatever or this thing that's sitting on the table. You're suddenly very aware of some problems that are, uh, that embarrass you in front of this person you respect.

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Minding your own affairs has to do with not having that stuff going on, either in your private life or in your home. That sort of thing that you're not embarrassed about. This is a good reminder for me too. I'm not the best, okay? I need these reminders as much as you do. And then working with your own hands is, has a purpose. All these things have a purpose so that you can walk properly before outsiders. The world looks at you and they see, hey, here's a guy who takes care of his own business. He doesn't just stick his nose in everybody else's business and he gets it done in his life. He takes care of his house, takes care of his family.

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Um, that's what we want to see. But also be dependent on no one.

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That's huge. Um, our culture is because of, um, just be super honest with you guys. Because of the increase in the availability of government aid and welfare and all that. We have an increase in christians being dependent on everyone.

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If you're dependent on government aid, you're dependent on everyone. Because everyone's taxes is paying for your food and your housing and whatever else, there are times where people are dependent. Like Paul says, hey, these widows, take care of them, supply their needs, right? There are times, but if you are capable, if you are physically capable of working and taking care of your own business and you're making maybe excuses or just being lazy, you should not be dependent on anybody. You shouldn't be. You should be taking care of yourself.

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Um, that's a big deal.

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That's godliness. This is like a work ethic and providing for your family. This is a godly thing. Evangelism is not the only task a Christian has. That being said, I go online and I don't mind my own business at all. In a sense. I'm not quiet and I'm not just minding my own business.

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That's me online right here. I am mine and everybody's business. In a sense. Certainly not quiet. I'm getting. I'm being as loud as I possibly can, putting my content as far and wide as I possibly can, making it freely available all over the place. By the way, we're on YouTube podcasts. We're on a whole bunch of different podcast platforms, as well as biblethinker.org, comma, the website where you can search the content and use the hear me carefully now clip search feature, because we have two search features. Use the clip search feature to find where I talk about specific topics at specific moments in specific videos. You can find that stuff. Cool thing. You can check out biblethinker.org dot.

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Um, but, uh, yeah, I think that, uh, what we have here is a phrase, live quietly, that is very flexible. It can be used and abused. Paul himself did not live quietly in every sense. He lived quietly in the sense of a man who was not gossipy, uh, and not nosy. And he was not, um, boisterous in a foolish sense, but he was extremely loud. He would go to synagogues and he would offer himself as a guest teacher, and they'd be like, oh, it's Paul the rabbi. And he's like, yes, I'm Paul the rabbi. And he did something very unquiet. He would there, and we read about in the book of acts, he would there start saying, and now let me talk to you about how Jesus is the Messiah. And then they would like Ra, and they would debate back and forth until they finally kicked him out of. And that happened over and over again, made them so mad that some, some jewish, uh, non christian jewish people would actually chase Paul around, sometimes violently. Other times they would just follow him around to try to see what he's doing and try to cause him problems, stir up issues.

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Paul would go to Athens, and there at the Areopagus, he gets up where everybody's debating, and all the loudmouths are going, and he gets up there and he's like, I will be the loudest mouth. And he starts saying, men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious. And he starts preaching at them very loud, not minding his own business at all. So there's a difference between minding your business, like, um, not, uh, being gossipy, and not importantly, failing to take care of your own business. You don't have your house in order. Some people use ministry. This is a reality that sometimes happens. They use ministry and service to God as a way of ignoring problems in their home. So they spend a lot of time away from the family, away from their marriage, away from their kids and away from their house because they want to be in ministry where they feel better while their house is falling apart. They're actually not minding their business. They're not taking care of their business. The primary lesson there is take care of your stuff. The secondary lesson there is don't overly involve yourself in other people's stuff. That's none of your business.

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We usually say mind your own business as leave me alone. I think Paul's using it as take care of your stuff in the positive sense. Um, but when it comes to evangelism, dude, m that's my business. Evangelism is my business. Preaching the gospel is my business. Telling people about Jesus is my business. Helping build up my brother in Christ is my business. Rescuing people from the fire is my business. Like, if I'm in a theater and the place catches on fire, it's my business to yell fire and get everybody out of there.

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That's my business. So I'm. You get what I'm saying? I'm trying to bring some wisdom here. Um, live quietly, mind your business. Right. But preaching the gospel is your business. So don't be quiet about that.

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Let me read your question again, make sure I got it and answered it. You said we're told to be quiet and mind our own business. How does this play out in a time where there's so much wrong in the world and the church? How are you doing it? You're the best. Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to read that last part again, but, um. Awkward.

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Um, um, John the Baptist could be an example of this as well, since you're relating to things wrong in the world. So, like, say, going on social media and publicly calling out, um, for example, I didn't realize I was still on the screen. Uh, for example, calling out, um, um, the radical pro abortion agenda of, at this moment in time. For those who are watching the video later, you might not know, uh, Kamala Harris, uh, when it comes to how, uh, she wants to overturn the overturn of Roe v. Wade and really push government funded abortions, ah, with basically no limit.

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Can I call that out? As a Christian, am I supposed to do that? It's, like, not really the gospel. It's just, I mean, like the murder of millions of innocent children. But am I supposed to call that out? Yeah. Yeah, you can call that out. John the Baptist is an example. John the Baptist did not say, well, that's politics. That's not my realm.

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John the Baptist is called out because he specifically says, hey, herod, you're in, uh, fornication, you're in, you're in adultery, you're an incestuous relationship right now, and that's wrong. And it was actually this calling out a political leader for their sins that everybody knew about.

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It was, it was doing that that actually got him in so much trouble. I can also, as a Christian, call out that Donald Trump has historically, as far as the rest of his whole life that I've known up until now, has been a deplorable individual. Don't read too much into my use of that word, but he has been that kind of individual who is morally corrupt. Even if you think his policies might be closer to christian values than, and you're right about that, than what you see among, say, Kamala Harris. Um, that's true. Can I call out those things? I think as a Christian you can, but you're also going to, when you, as soon as you mention it, you're going to get drug into, uh, polarized sides that don't really represent you properly. Either side represents you properly. And no matter how much I've learned, you kick and scream and say, no, I have my own values I'm using to judge these things. Theyre going to be like, no, youre just one of those people. Um, and I just say, well, I guess thats just the way it is. I mean, people are going to misunderstand as a Christian. Yeah, it seems right and good to call things out and to speak up. I wish for the past years of my life that id seen more christians being vocal about abortion, vocal about all these things, because I think that the louder and more vocal we are about these issues in the long run, the more it wakes people's conscience up and helps them to see that abortion is murder because it is, and God will absolutely judge for it. Um, but it's, but, but obviously, with, with the world we live in today, this stuff is complicated and challenging because then you have like Trump, who just changed his stance on abortion, uh, or maybe shared something that he hadn't shared before about it. Um, so that he's actually for it up to like a certain period of time. Like it was 16 weeks, six weeks, 16 weeks. I can't remember the weeks. It's kind of irrelevant. It's killing a baby either way. Um, and then the republican party was like, yeah, whatever Trump says. And this was like anathema to christians or people who have a biblical worldview and it should be.

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Um, so that makes the things complicated, of course, and challenging. So, um, I don't know where all the balance is. Okay. I don't know always how to say here's the right and wrong of it and then also tell people, here's how you should handle it.

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Here's how you as a Christian have to vote. And I'm saying this as a Christian in the name of Christianity. Oh, uh, man, I would feel comfortable saying, for instance, and this is part of just what's in my head and maybe what not. What's in your mind as you're asking. I'm not sure, but I would feel comfortable saying like, yeah, I don't see, I don't think you can vote as a Christian consistently. I'm not saying you're unsaved, but I don't think you can consistently vote as a Christian for the, say the Democrat policies, but then the republican policies have, are swaying more and more away from actual christian values. But then when you just compare the two in a vacuum, you're like, well, one is clearly a lot closer than the other. Um, and so it's challenging, um, christians in back to scripture here. Christians in scripture are known to for not just saying Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, it's all about Jesus, but for also saying things like that's morally right, that's morally wrong and a lot of times that's what gets them in trouble.

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And I think it's okay for us to follow in their footsteps. Just try to be careful that you're actually representing your christian values and not just falling into um, um, say conservative political values that don't fully reflect your christian values. Because my christian values are actually a lot more conservative than that. And um, it's a challenge.

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Tough stuff.

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The only thing I'd encourage other than that is um, when christians preach about righteousness, preach about God, preach about truth, preach about even how that relates to politics. When we say this stuff openly, outwardly, we are trying to change people's minds where even when we're just saying this is wrong and evil, we're trying to sound as those who have a moral solid ground behind them, not merely as those who are angry and irritated. And there is a difference. Just keep it in mind. All right, let's go to question number nine. Elijah, ML m says, what are some ways to make reading the Bible easier? I'm not saying I want the scriptures deluded or anything, I get you, but im not a very good reader. I just end up getting frustrated and quitting. So Elijah, I have a few tips for you on this, um, quickly and easily. One is, um, and this might sound annoying, but its absolutely true reading is like a muscle. Uh, you get better at it the more you do it. And you may have learned something in your life that was hard at first, and maybe at first felt like you couldnt learn it. You learned a musical instrument, and it was like, uh, um, and I dont mean youre not literate. I know you can read. Im not talking about learning how to read. Talking about how to read. Well, um, that's, that's something that's learned. So you, maybe you learned an instrument, you learned guitar or something. At first it was like, how does anybody do this? And then after a while you're like, I'm doing it. You learn to play. Ah, something else. Piano. Or maybe you learn how to skateboard. Something else. Right. As time progresses, you get better and better. The more you force yourself to read. Like, it's this thing you're obsessed with. I'm gonna read the bible. I'm gonna learn to read it. Good. The better you'll get at it, the easier it will become. And the more that part of you that's impatient and frustrated will learn to just, like, get put in its place.

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And you will find, uh, this ain't so hard. The more you do it and force yourself to do it, the easier it becomes. I am not a natural studier. I don't like studying. I don't at all.

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I, um, study because I have good reasons to study. I don't just enjoy it, but I'm way better at it now than I used to be. And I learned to because I was, I felt like it was so important that I study and read and learn that I would just force myself to do it. And I got better at it and it got easier. Same thing with the Bible.

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Um, there's other things you can do to make it better. Um, one is reading without comprehension is really, it disenchants you in reading scripture. So if you read sections of scripture and you're like, I didn't really understand quite what that was about, it can leave you feeling dry, and it makes it even harder to go back now next time. So, like a simple study bible, you just buy a study bible. It has little notes, little things that maybe summarize or give headlines, just help you understand the flow of the passage. That can help. You can also, like, listen to, just even go online or go to blueletterbible.org. and they've got a bunch of, like, free resources for commentaries. So if you slow your studying down so you're reading, like, let's say you read a few chapters of Exodus. But then you read someone giving an outline, explaining it, maybe giving some application. Maybe you don't want to read that much. Maybe you listen to a video and you go, Exodus, okay, here's a Bible study on Exodus. I'll read and I'll listen to the study, and then you will find enrichment in your reading. Maybe you listen before you read, maybe read before you listen. Figure it out. Maybe switch it up. Sometimes you'll find more enrichment because you understand the passages better. Sometimes reading slower with some commentary is better than reading more without commentary, just because of the enrichment aspect. Once you get some enrichment and you start seeing how much good there is there, you're going to. You're going to be desiring it more. It'll be more rewarding. Another option you have a, uh, thing you can add in your toolbox is audio bibles. So you can get a Bible app. There's a bunch of them, free ones out there. Get a decent version on that app and listen to it. Listen to it instead of reading it. So you might use, if you want something really easy to listen to, new living translation. It's not as word for word, but it's really easy to listen to new living translation. Or you could try more word for word translation. So you could do like, uh, the ESV, the NASB, the new King James. You could do one of those.

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At any rate, listening to the Bible, hugely rewarding, huge blessing. Something I'd encourage. Just make sure that you don't just tune it out. So if you're listening to the Bible and you're like, cool, I'll play games while I listen. Maybe like, walk while you listen, or just sit and meditate while you listen so that you're still focused. Um, otherwise it's an empty ritual. Those are some tips. I hope it helps you out, man. It gets better over time. But if you force yourself through, you get stronger in that. Anybody who, if you ever done worked out, you get this. Like, you go to do your first pull up ever, and you may not even get there, okay? But if you start working at it and it's in your body's telling you, stop this, I hate this.

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And you do some, like, where you. Where you just do, you just lower yourself, right? Because your muscles are stronger on resistance, uh, than they are on, like, the upward motion. So if you go and you sort of, like, jump into the pull up position, then you lower yourself down slow, jump lower. Just do it like two or three times. You just do that every day? Every other day, every third day after a while, you're doing like three pull ups, five pull ups, seven pull ups, ten pull ups. It's the same way with. With this, you build up a tolerance and appreciation and skill at reading the Bible the more you do it.

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Let's go to question numero Diaz.

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Comment channel says, in Mark and Matthew, Jesus remains silent, which amazes pilate, but in John, he delivers explanations. What are your thoughts on this subject, and how would you handle it when presented? Um, so there's two ways to handle it. One is the greatly detailed fashion, which is what I like to do, where you go and you construct a sequence of events, and you read the context of each statement. When was Jesus silent? And this and that. Um, that I can't do, obviously, during Q and A. Um, the other, which I'll do now, is the overview of principles to use to keep you from messing up on this issue. So, first principle, when the Bible says Jesus was silent, this doesn't mean he was totally silent. I'll explain in a second. 2nd principle, when the Bible says Jesus was silent, it doesn't mean he was silent forever. Okay, so it doesn't mean total silence, and it doesn't mean forever silence. What's the difference between total silence and forever silence? Total silence would be jesus didn't make any noises at all.

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So that, like, let's say they hit jesus and he goes, ugh, he wasn't silent, Mike. Well, the Bible's not talking about that, so it doesn't say he was totally silent. Says he was silent in regards to his accusations. Jesus did not defend himself against his accusers. He, um. In court language, is this court language? Maybe he mounted no defense to keep himself from being crucified.

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Right. They brought false accusations. They were like, he said, he destroyed the temple and raised it in three days. Jesus could have easily said, no, I didn't. I actually said that, uh, you guys could destroy this temple, my body, and I'll raise it in three days. And then they'd be like, okay, well, that's obviously not the same.

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He didn't defend himself.

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They accused him of all sorts of things. He didn't do those things.

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But he was silent when it came to defending himself. So he was silent before his accusers. That's what that means. Um, there was also a moment where, uh, being interviewed by Pilate when he's supposed to offer his defense. He doesn't answer Pilate's questions at first, and then he finally answers them. And he basically admits to being a king, but he doesn't defend himself against the accusations. He's silent about that, but he admits to being a king. The other issue of silence is knowing that silence is not eternal. Um, Jesus, uh, was silent.

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There's moments where he didn't say anything. There's moments where he did say things, even during the time of crucifixion, even while he was on the cross. And just knowing that means, okay, what I've done is I've taken this wooden understanding of jesus was, like, silent, silent, silent. And I've applied that to the entire course of events and every scenario happening from his arrest until his death on the cross. And that was. That was, you know, a mistake. Okay, we have a bonus question, and then we're all done for today. This comes in from, uh, spazzy jazzy. Yeah, spazzy jazzy. All right. Hi, brother Mike. Well, hello, spazzy jazzy. Good to hear from you again. My husband and I are grateful for your ministry, as always. Why do you and so many other pastors like Lord of the Rings so much? Um, I can't speak for other pastors or anyone else. Um, okay. There's nothing to do with the Bible here, but I read Lord of the Rings when I was a kid, before the movies were made, okay. Because I was a kid many, many, many generations ago, and, um, I read it and enjoyed it and loved it as a kid. I loved the characters. I loved the world building. I loved the, um, story, all that sort of thing. I loved the ents. I loved all that stuff. The balrog. Going to see it in the theaters many years later was very exciting for me because it was this thing I loved, and they did such a great job with it. Okay, so you have this amazing combo of amazing book with amazing film adaptation together. Add to that that you don't have lewdness, and you don't have sexual things, and you don't have disgusting or inappropriate, morally inappropriate humor and that sort of thing. Um, there's violence. Okay. Um, I don't personally have a problem with fake violence on tv. Maybe you do, and that's fine. You shouldn't watch it. Totally your conscience there. Um, so when you combine those things, and you're like, okay, here's a wildly popular, really good storytelling, that while the world is not a christian world, it's a fake world. The values are christian worldview values in the Lord of the Rings, they are actually the values about character, the types of virtues that they explore, the weaknesses of sin, nature, um, are paralleled in the man's weakness to the ring. And all that sort of thing. Um, yeah, so there's a lot of cool stuff there. Those are my reasons why I've always liked Lord of the Rings. And, uh, I'm glad you all like it now, too.

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Those of you that do, like my assistant, Sarah, uh, she's never seen it. So I'll do a lord of the Rings joke on x. I'll post something on X as a lord of the Rings joke. And she's like, I don't know what you're talking about.

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Which. Which to me, I. When I joke, people don't get the joke. I find that funnier than when they do. I'm weird like that. There's my reasons. Um. Um, yeah, that's it for today. Let me, uh, uh, let me just, uh, close this in prayer and reminder. Monday. This Monday, unless. Unless I take a turn, my. I got sick and it's kind of doing this. It's weird. So Monday I plan to do the Hebrews livestream the first verse by verse study through Hebrews. We're actually going to survey the entire book. It's not going to be a twelve hour video. It's a survey, not a verse by verse. Careful, slow, study. And then we'll verse by verse. Careful, slow study the rest of the way through the book in the months to come. But Monday is the first one coming up. You guys can see it. The live stream is already available on the YouTube channel and it'll be up on podcast and on the website biblethinker.org as well. It's all free. For the glory of God, for the benefit of his people. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you. We thank you for your grace upon us that, um, we don't deserve, but that we get because Jesus is our intercessor. Jesus is the one who died for our sins and rose again.

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You've done all the work, Jesus Christ, and we just trust in you and we're so grateful and we pray that you'd empower us and enable us to live for you today. Show us the sins that we are ignoring, the things that we're doing that we've become calloused and cold to. We pray. You'd rip off our calluses and you warm up our hearts and you'd help us to see the things we do that don't bring you pleasure. The things we do that are distractions that are a waste of time. The things we do that one day we'll look back at and say, I'm so sorry. Why did I do that? Why did I waste so much. We don't want to be prodigals. Lord. Wasteful, we pray that you would, uh, stir our hearts to live for you. Knowing that we stand by your grace alone, and knowing that we are called to great things in Christ. In Jesus name, amen.

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Mhm.