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Welcome. We're going to try to think biblically about everything, including wise men at Jesus birth. And I know this may sound trivial. I'm not suggesting that it's a big deal if you get this particular fact about Jesus birth wrong. Um, it's not in itself that big of a deal, the timing. But it's a great thing to talk about because when the wise men showed up seems clear from Scripture. And this is a great example of a detail the Bible gives us that many people simply don't notice. So, uh, what I want to do is use this first question question as an example of the kind of thing that we can learn if we just pay attention when we're reading scripture. It's so easy to just hear the same Bible verses read over and over again, to hear your pastor teach them, and to not actually really absorb what you're reading. There's so many beautiful treasures and wonderful things in scripture in the details of the text. This is an example of how we can miss those details. So, um, aside from other things, that's one reason why you should read the Bible on your own and not just listen to Bible studies. You will notice things that you never would have noticed if you had only listened to other people teach the Bible. You should really be reading it, reading it, listening to it, whatever your method is just taking it unfiltered as it is. All right, so the wise men I say were not at Jesus birth, but the way that we know this, how we know they weren't there, is what, to me is really cool. So I'm going to give you like five reasons and then I'll, um, explain again why I shared this. I'll remind us of the point.

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So Jesus was born where. You guys know the answer to this. Jesus's birth. It happens in Bethlehem. Let's look at what the text actually says. Notice the details. That's where the rewards are here.

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And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn or in the house. You could say there was no room. So they were in probably like a cave, like manger. Okay. Very likely a, uh, cave. In fact, there's even potential locations in Israel that you can visit everybody in Israel if you ever go. Everybody claims they know exactly where everything happened. So that's, that's definitely something. It's a tourist thing, it's a money thing, it's a glory, it's a tension thing. But there are some, some Possibilities. Uh, there, in Bethlehem. It's pretty, pretty cool to think about. So it was in a manger. Now, where did the wise men find him again? Scripture, same book, same chapter. Luke, chapter two. We'll just go down to verse 11 and 12. The shepherds find him. Um, there is born to you this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. Okay? These shepherds were there that night, that very day, the same approximate time Jesus was born. They go to see him, you know, because of where he's located, he's still in that location. Now, when you go to Luke 2 and just scroll down a little bit more Luke chapter to verse 24. And we get to this verse, um.

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Oh, let me make sure I've got. I wrote down the wrong verse. Oh, I apologize, guys. I wrote down the wrong verse. Maybe one of you guys in the chat can help me find it because I don't want to spend my time searching. The wise men find him, and when they find him, he is actually at here elsewhere, while I scroll around, I won't make your eyeballs explode. He is actually at a house. He's no longer in a manger. He's in a house. Um, I wrote down the wrong verse. Wow, this is kind of like undoing my whole preparation thing. I'm so sorry. You guys could help me out in the chat. Where does it have the wise men? One of you will know. Um, at any rate, I'm going to move on to the other ones. So we've got. He's in a house. Not a stable, not a manger. He's inside of a house. He's in the house. So some time has passed. But that's only one of the many reasons. The several reasons. We have In Matthew, chapter 2, verse 11, we have the following. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child. Oh, maybe that's. That's the verse I was looking for. They, uh, saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. When they had opened their treasures, they presented him gifts. Gold, frankincense and myrrh.

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Do you catch that? The. The house is there. But the second thing here is young child with Mary his mother. When the wise men show up, the word that's used to describe Jesus is child. Now, there's different words in Greek to describe an infant versus a child. So like paidion versus brephos and Pydion is definitely um, it can be an infant, but it's more generic. It's like more of a generic term for like a prepubescent human. So it covers a very wide range of age. Whereas Matthew, he never uses Brephas.

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He however uses Python, which is a wide range. That's what we see here as soft evidence. Reason number two, soft evidence that Jesus may have been older. I wouldn't stake my whole claim on that. But In Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, we see the following. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. What did we just skip over, possibly reading without noticing? After Jesus was born, where did they come?

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They come to Jerusalem. So Jesus birth happens then they come to Jerusalem. They're not even in Bethlehem yet. There's some journey still to be made from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. It's more than like an hour walk.

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There's some distance here. So this is post the birth of Jesus. They're not there when Jesus was born. Now this is unlike say the Mary movie that I recently reviewed from Joel Osteen, uh, executive producer of the Mary film, where they have the wise men showing up when Jesus is born and then the slaughter of the infants comes like instantaneously. It all happens like crammed into one day because it's a non historical fictional account. But this here shows that there was a delay. They even ask where is he who has been past tense born king of the Jews? So even the wise men had this awareness that Jesus's birth had already taken place. That's our uh, third reason. And then Matthew 2:16. Scroll down some more.

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We get the following.

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Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its districts from 2 years old and under. And this wasn't a random, uh, age. He's trying to target and make sure he gets Jesus. He targets two and under according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. So he thinks at least to cast um, a broad age range, he's going to say let's take everybody two years and younger, meaning that Jesus, at least by Herod's estimation, could have been possibly as old as 2 years old. Now was he 2? I mean that would seem like the outside, it would seem reasonable to think he would have been younger than that. But two years and under is the uh, slaughtering of the infants. This horrendous, evil, uh, thing that Herod did, and he did do this kind of stuff in history. He was a butcher. He was an evil man. Then we have the fifth reason. I'm moving pretty quick through my reasons, which is the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And I remember when I first noticed this, it was actually when I was reading, um, after having read through Leviticus and looked at some of the sacrifices there, then going on to the Gospels, I read this and was like, wait a minute. Something's interesting about this. Let me show you guys. I'll walk you through it. Okay. We know that they received gold, frankincense and myrrh when Jesus was born. These are very valuable, very expensive gifts. This would provide them with some wealth. My theory is that this money that they used for the gold, frankincense and myrrh, that it was used to keep them afloat while they were on the run in Egypt. They left home, they left belongings, and they fled to Egypt, probably spent all this in order to keep themselves alive, and then came back to Nazareth and were back to being poor. Because Jesus was poor at his in his life, but also he was poor at his birth. Why do I say that? Okay, so Leviticus, chapter 12, verse 6, and put it on your screen.

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This is what a woman should do after, uh, for a Jewish purification ritual. This is what she should do after the birth of her child, when the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter. She shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtle dove as a sin offering. So she brings two animals to be offerings, a lamb and then a turtledove.

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Then they offer that. But there's a special allowance if you're poor. The poor in Israel were allowed to offer lesser sacrifices. This was a type of God, just showing that God cares for and will receive the offering of the poor. And he doesn't accept your gifts based upon how much money you have, but based upon how much giving, uh, you've got, if that makes sense. It's the story of the widow's mite that's kind of grounded here in Leviticus. So if she's not able to bring a lamb, she doesn't have the money for it. Then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons.

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So you can substitute the lamb because you're poor. That's the idea. Well, what did Jesus mother offer? We read this in Luke, chapter 2, verse 22, 24. Now, when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord. A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now, Luke isn't even drawing attention to it, but this is teaching us that Mary and Joseph were relatively poor. They didn't have the money to pay for a lamb. They had to do the two turtledoves. Why do I bring that up with the wise men's gifts? Well, if you had just been given gold, you're certainly able to buy a lamb. So we either think that Mary didn't have the money, Joseph and Mary didn't have the money to buy the lamb, or we think they held it back and wrongly offered the poverty gift, which is to charge them with, uh, a type of sin related to the birth of Jesus. That I think is inappropriate to say. So I wouldn't say that at all. The reason why Mary brought two turtle doves is because she didn't have the money. That was the reason. Pretty interesting stuff, if you ask me. The reason why I bring this up, These five indicators that the wise men were not there. It's not to rip on you. If you have a nativity set and you've got the wise men there. I get how a nativity set is trying to tell a large story with a still image. Okay, fine. You put the wise men there. I don't think it's that big of a deal. But the reason why is because this stuff that we're reading about in the text of Scripture, uh, are real events that truly happened. And the details in the order in which they happen does matter. It's part of divine inspiration that it's there. And I want to just encourage you, along with myself, that when we pay attention to the details in Scripture, and we don't treat it like it's a devotional book, but we treat it like it's God's inspired word, it's more than devotional, right? It's more than just inspiring. It's inspired. We learn great things. We learn details, we learn specifics. When you read through Philippians and you read about the encouragement of what things to think on, and then, you know, it'll guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus to actually spend time really meditating on what those things are, what does it mean to Think about those things. Don't just go. Go away encouraged and walk away forgetting the details of the text you've read. The details of Scripture are important and valuable. That's my point. Pay attention to the details. When you're dealing with sadness, when you're dealing with anger, when you're dealing with marriage problems, when you're dealing with how to have wisdom in the stuff you do in your employment or in your parenting, and you read the book of Proverbs and you pay close attention to what's being said there, that's where there's great rewards. A lot of knowledge, a lot of wisdom is left on the table because people don't pay attention to the details of Scripture and even get sometimes irritated with people who do.

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But, um, that's not what we're about here. My name is Mike Winger. I'm here to help you learn to think biblically about everything. At least that's my agenda. That's my goal. That's what I'm trying to do, uh, for myself as well as others. Think biblically about everything. Um, I'll say it again. That doesn't mean that I do it perfectly. I know I don't. Um, but we should all be on that path of trying to. So let's go to question number two. Luke says, is it possible to not believe in penal substitution without being a progressive.

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Um, yeah, sure. So the doctrine of penal substitution, the idea is that penal penalty, right? Like the penal system, where we have to send people to prison, things like that, that has this concept of penalty and this concept of substitution. And what we're saying with this very biblical, very correct doctrine, is the idea that Jesus, when he was on the cross, one of the many things he was doing because he was providing a moral example for us on the cross. That's one of the things he did. He was having victory over the powers of darkness and over Satan. That's one of the things he did on the cross. But in addition to that, towards the heart of what he was doing, is that Jesus was paying the penalty for my sins, the penalty I deserved. As my substitute, he was going in my place to pay the penalty for my sin. This should be an uncontroversial doctrine. It's not. Um, but I have a playlist I'll put down below where I go through all this in great detail. So if you want to hear details about what is the doctrine in more detail, how do I defend it? What about claims that it wasn't historically believed, Calvin made it up, or the very Modern trend. I didn't say it only exists in modern times, but it's a very strong trend. Modernly is the idea that you have to have competing theories of the atonement. Like either it was Christus Victor or it's psa penal substitutionary atonement. You have these different competition theories. And that's not what we read about, uh, through the swath of early church writing on this topic. In fact, they're just not having that kind of debate early on. They're just talking about different aspects of the atonement, which includes penalty and substitution. Okay, so that being said, um, you asked, uh, can you reject that one doctrine without being a progressive? Uh, yeah. I mean, there's no rules here about people thinking consistently in their lives. Like they can hold to all solid doctrine and reject one doctrine without it making them a progressive. Because progressive is an overarching claim about all kinds of things that the person believes. Right? So when you say progressive, you're talking about a larger number of different doctrines and beliefs. That being said, progressive beliefs are inherently contradictory to penal substitutionary atonement. Generally speaking, like the ones that I've encountered and talked to. The idea that God, um, is punishing sinners, and not just sin, but he actually punishes sinners. That. That's something that is offensive to many progressives. The idea that he's even punishing sin, that he's. You know, they often want to talk about judgment as though God is merely improving your life. Now, judgment can have the effect of improving your life by fixing you. You know, David says, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. So we have that in Scripture, that very idea. Of course God chastens those he loves, but he also just punishes sin. He also just is vindicated in his righteousness through punishing wickedness. And that's something that progressives tend to reject. The idea of hell, progressives tend to reject or have a very unique view of it so that it doesn't conflict with other views they have about basically what's at the core of progressive theology as far as I'm concerned. Okay, this is my opinion here as I try to assess this. This isn't like progressives come out and go, here's the core of my theology. But I've looked at a lot of their stuff, and it seems to me at the core is a belief in the goodness of man and the goodness of individuality. So that, um, I am, um, I become the source of the revelation of God. I don't follow the light of Scripture. I follow the light within myself, giving me knowledge and wisdom and understanding. And so that this empowers me to disagree with Scripture or to disagree with whatever. There's a lot more that can be said about that. Um, along with my playlist on penal substitutionary atonement, which I think is a very important doctrine. I'm going to put that below, but I'll also put after the stream a link to, um, my analysis of progressive Christian beliefs, where I surveyed a bunch of different books and teachers and stuff like that to try to, like, pull out what. What is the core of their beliefs here.

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You don't have to be progressive to reject PSA, in my opinion. Um, number three. Caleb McMurtry says, hi, Mike, love your ministry. Does God perfectly and exhaustively know his own future? If he does, is he able to change his future? Or is he only able to do what he already knows he is going to do? Mmm, great. M. Question. This is. This is not. This is not an uncommon question, Caleb. Let me try to walk through at least my attempt to answer it after I drink more of my coffee.

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Uh, okay.

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This is part of a series of questions that basically suggest that foreknowledge equals fatalism, that if God knows what's going to happen, then everything that's going to happen is unalterable and determined. Um, and the way that I've heard this answered, um, I guess I'll give you two different answers. One is going to be like, the way, like, Grandma might answer this, which I think is a good way to answer, to be honest, but I'll just give it to you. And it may seem insufficient. But hold on for my second answer.

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One of them is to simply say, come on, just because God knows what you're doing doesn't mean you can't do those things. He still tells people, do this, don't do that. And the way the Bible talks about it, it's like they're making real choices. You can't, on a surface reading of Scripture, think that people aren't making real choices. You just can't. And yet God foreordains and foreknows and so just believe. How about we just believe both of those things? The Bible says both. Maybe you don't know how they work together. That's fine. You're kind of dumb. I'm kind of dumb. The Bible's telling us that's how it works. It's like Grandma style of response. Um, not that my grandma ever taught me theology. I wish she would have that would have been cool. But I mean, yeah, you get my point.

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The other answer is a little bit more complicated. And it's where we try to actually reconcile these two ideas using philosophy. And so we say, look, yeah, okay, on the surface level, Scripture seems to affirm people have free will, that they have free will, but also affirms God's sovereignty and God's foreknowledge. Okay, I'm going to. That's my starting point. Um, I'm going to suggest that that's already the case. So how is it then that God can know, say, his own future actions? He knows what he's going to do, and yet he has a choice about what he's going to do. And then the question here is, what are you foreknowing?

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So in time, foreknowledge precedes choices. Precedes, uh, at least for humans, God's foreknowledge of human choices, that foreknowledge precedes those choices. So chronologically, the foreknowledge comes first, the choice comes second. So this can cause you to think, well, if in chronology, foreknowledge is first, then foreknowledge dictates choice, and therefore there is no choice. But foreknowledge isn't a dictating behavior. I don't think that's what it means in the text of Scripture. I do have some teaching on this somewhere. I talk about, um, foreknowledge and Romans, chapter eight. I think I was going through there. Maybe someone could find that video, link it where I talk about this. Uh, what is the nature of that divine foreknowledge? Um, some try to say that foreknowledge is God's decree, like God foreknows and the foreknowing is an act whereby he causes. So then, yeah, they would just say, yeah, it's divine determinism. God causes everything you do, every decision you make, everything. Now, this is a small number of people who say this, but there are some who would say that. Others would argue differently for compatibilism and stuff. Um, the response I have to this is, I think I'll try to. I think I can say it simply. God's foreknowledge is chronologically prior to my choice. But his foreknowledge isn't causally prior to my choice. Right. Chronologically it comes first. But causally, he's foreknowing my choice. He knows it ahead of time. What's he knowing? The thing I choose. So the thing he Knows is what I choose so causally. My choice is what ends up m causing the contents of God's foreknowledge to be. Mike will choose such and such. This would be true with God's choices of his own actions. Okay, this is my theory. I'll present it to you here. If you disagree, fine. But you want to know how I would explain it, Caleb? Um, it would be the following. God knows he will choose, um, to send his son to die on the cross for our sins, or he knows he will, let's say, heal this particular leper in Israel during the days of, uh, the ministry of Jesus. So he knows he will do this.

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Does that mean that then he has no choice in doing it?

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Because God's knowing is. He's knowing the choice. Meaning that if God were to choose a different thing, if he were to choose anything else, then the foreknowledge would have reflected that other choice. If God chose to heal two lepers instead of one, if God chose to heal none, if God chose to turn. Turn the leper into an apricot, like, whatever God was going to choose, that's what he's going to foreknow. The choice causes the foreknowledge. So that, to me, I mean, unless I'm missing something, which is always possible. And, um, Sarah linked below what she thinks is the study I was referring to, so you guys can find that in the live chat. Um, I don't see a problem with this resolution to say, oh, yeah, because just because foreknowledge is chronologically prior doesn't mean it's causally determinative. Right. It's rather the thing causing the foreknowledge to be what it is is the actual choice. Now, God, he also knows in a set of circumstances, if there's a tree over here and if the wind's blowing a certain way, maybe someone will choose differently. So he knows the choices they'll make with all the variables and all that. And God's in control of ultimately all those things. But, um, I don't think this violates that moment of decision that the person is making. They're still a free will agent making a real choice. And God, his choices are a little different in this back here in eternity where God has foreknowledge, he also knows all the factors. There's nothing that's going to actually truly change his mind. That's metaphorically said of God, you know, in Scripture, in the way he interacts with people in real time. But of course, all of his Actions are known from all eternity. And so he, um, foreknows and has already made those choices in a sense. He just hasn't play them out in time. That's how I would put that. But I have to acknowledge we're getting off of the clear teaching of Scripture here into the realm of conjecture and philosophy. And you should just hold everything there a little bit lighter, in my opinion, and say, yeah, what's Scripture say? Scripture has God telling people to make choices and then treating them like they really did make choices that they're responsible for. We should do the same thing. We should treat people the same way. And God certainly takes credit for his own choices and does speak in times of how he could do things differently. There actually are verses, um, where God speaks in like, I could have done this, I could have done that. And if that's true, then he has real free choices. So I'm not going to overturn that with a philosophy that's built on conjecture. All right, let's go to question four.

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Ismit1234 says, As a former strict legalist orthodox, will I ever be able to shake the feeling that salvation truly is by faith and, and not by works? I struggle.

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Um, I don't know the answer there is. I just don't know what you'll be able to do. This is your feelings we're talking about, which are not. That's not diminutive. Your feelings aren't like, lesser. Um, but we do recognize that our feelings are complicated and they come from a variety of things.

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There are plenty of accounts that show that Martin Luther, after he discovered, um, the grace of Christ, the true grace of Christ, that he still would struggle with this, and it would still be like these continual patterns of behavior in his thoughts, in his mind, these battles that he describes, like a struggle with Satan, um, that he psychologically struggled with this stuff still. Yes, he struggled before he became aware of grace, but he still struggled to some degree, maybe a lesser degree afterwards. And maybe he can be comforted. He could have been comforted to know that he was struggling less and that now the struggle he'd always had had a solution. So he just keep applying the same solution. The grace of Christ. The grace of Christ. The grace of Christ. And you continually go back to that. But, um, as far as, like, you know, will you be able to shake the feeling? I don't know. The thing you can do is you can lean into things that are true. You can lean into. You can deliberately, let me not use a vague metaphor, that people Use too much today. Um, so I won't say lean into. You can be deliberate in thinking about and meditating on and confirming and affirming truths that help that struggle. For instance, you're laying in bed at night, you're thinking about how you have not lived worthy today, that there's problems, uh, you've had, or errors you've had, or your prayer life's not good enough, and all these things aren't good enough. And so then you remind yourself of the thief on the cross who offered nothing to Christ, but he was brought into his presence. Or you remind yourself that it's not a, ah, righteousness, that is of my own, Romans says, but his righteousness. God imparts imputes to me his own righteousness so that my access to God and my entrance into his presence is through his grace. It is always entirely through his grace. Now, you don't want to use this to kid yourself about whether your faith is real. And so James 2 is written for a good reason, to help show us. And first, John, to say, hey, if you claim that you have faith but you don't exhibit any change of life, any transformation, any evidence of the Spirit working in your life, then, yeah, that claim is dead. Faith, that's not real. But the works there are serving to evidence the genuineness of your faith. They don't merit the grace of God. There's a huge difference there. My works merit nothing. They might demonstrate the work that God has done in my life, but they're not going to earn my salvation or my forgiveness. So when you face those thoughts and those feelings, you stop and you affirm and you go through Scripture. You take what you're feeling and you compare it to what you know is true based upon the word of God. And there's a part of you that might. I'm just going to speak to you very humanly for a second.

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There's a part of you that might just say, I don't feel better. I accept that I don't feel better. I'm just not going to believe my feelings on this. And that itself is a fantastic victory when you choose to trust what God says over your feelings. This might be kind of what's meant when Scripture says, trust God with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding those two ideas. I don't just trust God. I, uh, trust him with all my heart. Meaning my heart is sometimes going astray. My heart is sometimes condemning me. My heart is sometimes telling me lies or bringing up fears. And I say, God, I trust you with My heart. Here's my heart, messed up as it is. But I'm going to trust you with it. And I continue to acknowledge you in your ways. I don't lean on, um, my own understanding. I know what your word says. I will just trust that. And all the doubts and fears that feel like they're ultimately grounded in shadows and whispers and, and ultimately things that aren't worth believing, those things, I'm just going to entrust those to you and move on.

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I hope that helps you. I really, really do. Um, let's look at the next question. This is from Alison G. Who says, what do we make of the temple at the end of Ezekiel? That's a great question, Alison. I struggle with this myself. I'll just talk about it a little bit. And um, I admit ahead of time you guys are going to be like, still having questions. It says that God will dwell there and sacrifices will be continued by the Levites. And verse, chapter, uh, 43, verse 27 indicates this will continue happening. Thank you. So then the Ezekiel temple, um, this giant temple, it's like a mile square, massive, massive temple, like way bigger than anything Solomon ever did or anybody else ever did. And it is, um, it seems eschatological.

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It's kind of got like this Jewish element. There's like gentiles that are coming to worship there as well. So this feels, you know, like very future kind of fullness of the Gentiles and the Jews all kind of together. Sacrifices are actually part being done in the temple at this time. Now there's a typical view of many Protestants, which is to say, um, or probably non Protestants as well, I imagine, which is to say, hey, there isn't going to be any, ever any other sacrifices. And if any sacrifices take place in a Jewish temple, it's only in rebellion to Christ. And there is an idea that any priest offering an animal at this stage is inherently in rebellion to God. I don't think that that's accurate, that particular perspective. So in the Book of Acts, and I've got a video on this, I'll link it down below how the Book of Acts handled the Jewish law and the Gentile question and all that. We'll, I'll link that below afterwards. But in the Book of Acts we see the continued participation of Jews who are followers of Jesus. They're Messianic Jews, they're Christians and they are still participating in the temple and some of the sacrifices. Paul, he has a vow where he has to give a sacrifice as part of this vow. This is long after his salvation. And we see James and John going to the temple of all places, at the hour of prayer, when they offer, uh, you know, when they can't give gold or money, but they give healing in the name of Jesus to this man.

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We see this kind of thing.

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The debate in the church wasn't whether Jews, who were already part of all the temple stuff, whether they could continue participating. That wasn't even a debate. It was whether Gentiles had to get circumcised and start doing it too. And the answer was, no, they don't. Acts 15. But this tells me something now. Some go, well that was a transitionary period. And Hebrews does talk about that to a degree. But it does tell me something that you could be a Christian who is still to some degree participating in these things, not in rebellion to Christ, but in honor of Christ. And that God was okay with that.

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That category exists now, doing it in rebellion to Christ. If you rebuild the temple and you're doing sacrifices, when you deny the sacrifice of Jesus, there remains no sacrifice for you. But what if the Ezekiel temple is this future in times, maybe it's in the millennium. Some people, this is their view during the thousand year reign of Christ, you have this rebuilding of this massive temple Jerusalem. All the nations of the world were coming there on a regular basis in order to honor Christ, in order to say, hey, here's a sacrifice. This is how this day of atonement is about Jesus. This is how this passover lamb was fulfilled by Jesus and that it might be done in honor of Christ. If it's a literal temple, that's one way of reconciling this. This is a millennial, ah, thousand year reign type of thing. Um, before uh, the final judgment and remaking of the heavens and the earth. That could be, that's one potential way to do it. Um, I'm not saying all my eggs are in that basket because I just don't know. Another is to say, well it's metaphorical that this vision Ezekiel has of this giant temple, it's a mile square, like you can't even fit this anywhere over there, at least not without a whole lot of reconstruction. And they're going to say that this is actually metaphorical. And the Ezekiel, the rivers and all this stuff is all metaphors, um, or allegory for how God is going to cause Israel to thrive and be the center. And the Jew and Gentile are all sor of united under the thing that the temple represents, which is fulfilled in Jesus, you know, his death, his resurrection, um, access to God, the tearing of the veil, us becoming the holy of holies, so to speak, with the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and that this will be Jew and Gentile united together in Christ. That might be the case too. I'm not sure. Part of the reason is that Ezekiel is. It's a whole massive section of Ezekiel. It's a huge chunk of the book you'd want to go through carefully, thoughtfully, and um, I don't know, I feel like I had. This is sometimes the case. I feel like I had more confidence in my view before I studied other eschatological views. And now I take even my own premillennial view, which I still hold, I still believe is true. But I take that and go. I can see why someone would have a different view on this. If the first coming was that easily misunderstood, could the second coming have some misunderstandings associated with it? Yeah, Ezekiel's gonna happen. How? I'm not sure, but there's a few thoughts.

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Uh, let's look at the next one. This is from Ricardo Gloria who says, hi, my friends and I love natural bodybuilding. Is it biblical to work on your body to one day showcase it in a minimal clothe, in minimal clothing, on a bodybuilding stage or on social media in a non sexual way? Thanks.

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That's okay, let's break these down. Okay, I don't know that I have the solid answer for you here, but let's break this down a little bit and just think through it together. Um, the idea of bodybuilding, um, the Bible does comment on this a little bit. Um, so in the Old Testament especially, we do have the idea of being young and strong, healthy and active as being a positive thing. This is carried throughout various places in the Old Testament. It's just spoken of as being a positive thing. There are those who, in church history, especially in the times of like mystics and things like this, who seem very spiritual in some ways. In other ways there's questions where they would emaciate themselves, starve themselves, and that they saw this as a type of self denial that was somehow bringing glory to God, like a death to the flesh.

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Um, but the body's not inherently evil. Yep. The Bible talks about flesh as in carnality and sin nature. But the idea of the physical body just being plain old evil is not true. Otherwise how could the Bible say a phrase like this? In Hebrews, the marriage bed is undefiled. This idea that a man and wife doing the most physical of physical things together is something that God has blessed and God asks and tells us to even you're obligated to do this in marriage. In 1 Corinthians 7. This is not a bad thing. This is a joyous, wonderful thing to thank God for. Food is the same way. Food can become a crutch, can become a sin, gluttony. But God has given it to you so you can enjoy it. You give thanks and you eat of this delicious food and you're like, wow, Lord, you're good. I'm tasting your goodness when I eat this yummy New York style pizza. That's what I'm doing.

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The fact that bodybuilding itself is not inherently some sinful thing, it is a good that can be, that can become a bad is my point. Um, how can it become bad? Well, bodybuilding isn't the same as working out for health reasons. Bodybuilding bodybuilders are going for hypertrophy or muscle size. That's the main goal is muscle size. That already is moving us into. Not entirely, but you're certainly leaning towards a realm of vanity and self love and competition, unhealthy competition with others. You don't, I'm not saying every guy who does it is doing that, but as a trend, you know, kind of like when I, when I looked at punk music back in the day. Punk music as a trend tended to cause kids who listened to it to have rebellious attitudes. Not everybody, some were great kids listening to punk, but it tended that way. Bodybuilding tends to lean towards vanity because the purpose of it is to make yourself look a certain way. And that's the main goal. It's not health. In fact, bodybuilders, you, uh, say natural competition. So to set that aside. But bodybuilders largely are on, um, they're not natural. Right. They're not natty. And so the bodybuilders themselves, if you see, for those who don't know, who aren't in the initiated, if you see a really, really big dude, he's on drugs. That's the rule. That's just the rule. It's almost always the case. So the natural bodybuilding competitions don't look anything like the pro bodybuilders who everybody knows they're using, even if they say they're not.

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Yeah, the natty ones are like, wow, okay. They're not even that big. Uh, yeah, because humans don't naturally get that big. That's the thing.

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So yeah, there's a few problems there that you have to at least think, how am I going to work through this if I'm going To do a lot of bodybuilding. How do I avoid the vanity? How do I avoid the pride? How do I do it in a way that's healthy and not just about looks? Those are good questions to ask. Um, I wouldn't assume if somebody is doing bodybuilding they're doing something wrong. I would assume they're doing something that's good, that comes with possible pitfalls. That'd be my assumption. You say, is it biblical to work on your body? Oh, did I mention Scripture says, um, bodily exercise is of some value? Um, this is something that, uh, Paul says to Timothy, uh, and I'll just put it on screen because it relates so directly to what you're saying.

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So Paul says, reject profane and old wives fables and exercise yourself toward godliness. He uses the exercise terminology. He wants you to work at being godly, then compares it to physical exercise for bodily exercise. Profit's a little, but godliness is profitable for all things. This is a great balance. Bodily exercise has some profit. If you make it your whole life, you're obsessing over something that only has a little value. That might be a mistake.

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Um, if you take it and turn it into a crutch where you're doing it for wrong reasons and stuff, that's a problem.

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We see people who do obsess over their bodies, they tend to get more and more, what's called, ah, body dysmorphia. Okay, this is human wisdom here. Let me offer you some though, for you to consider.

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Um, people who either they obsess over becoming super skinny and then they become deathly skinny and they can't even tell that they're too skinny. Like they actually lose the ability to tell. It's a weird thing. It's also true of bodybuilders where they're never big enough. They're never ever big enough. It's never strong enough, never, never enough. Um, there's a type of hunger that can be created when we make too big of a deal out of something that's not a big deal. Where it doesn't satisfy you, it actually just makes you more hungry. I want more and more and more and I can never get enough. And so we see this with alcoholism, or we see this with drug use. We can see this with bodybuilding. It does happen sometimes. These are things to be aware of.

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What about the, uh, issue of, um, showcasing your body in minimal clothing on a stage or in social media in a non sexual way? Easier to do it on a stage than on social media because in a stage you're in, on stage, you're in a culture in a community, uh, where it's a local group of people who are all part of this hobby. And so they have a certain attitude about what's happening on stage. I still think that it's too minimal. Okay. I think that it's immodest that you're asking my opinion. I think bodybuilding, men and women, it's inherently immodest. And so it seems to be a moral compromise to a degree. But when you put those same posts on social media, um, you're now expanding far beyond the clique of people who are interested in this stuff and sort of understand the culture of it a little bit better. And you're expanding it to everybody, uh, stuff you post on social media goes with no context into everybody's cell phones and everybody's screens. And so we should have wisdom on that kind of thing. I know I just sort of like, judge negatively about that sort of behavior. But I think that that's actually. I think that's right.

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If you guys have other opinions about it, please share them down below. I, uh, don't think I've ever talked about bodybuilding in particular. This tiny question. So, Ricardo, that's my answer is it seems to bodybuilding I see on stage seems to violate modesty standards, um, especially when it's on social media. And maybe there's more, um, I don't know, maybe there's more leeway for. If it's just inside of a culture and community where everybody understands what you're doing there.

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But inherently, we take girls sports and we force them to wear these outfits that are inappropriate. We just do this. This is what we do. Because carnal humanity, this is what we do.

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I don't feel like I fully answered your question, but there's some thoughts for you. Hope it helps. Isa, uh, says, can you give some thoughts how to have peace and joy in Christ in this season despite being stuck in some really messed up circumstances.

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That's huge. A huge question, but I'm going to give you a verse. Um, this is from Hebrews. We're going to get there eventually. In the book of Hebrews.

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There it is on your screen.

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Let, uh, your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?

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There's a few keys here. This is just going to be an Exposition of one verse. Okay, just one verse. Two verses. I guess. Um, there's other stuff too. Read Philippians, read other passages that talk about this, where people are going through hard times and they reconcile with the difficulties they have and their trust in God. But here's one. Let your conduct be without covetousness. That's the first thing I'd suggest is as you're going through the year, you're looking around, you see someone who you feel has a better marriage than you, a better family than you, has kids and you don't, uh, has good kids instead of the ones you got, has a better job than you, has more money than you, has better health than you. Let your conduct be without covetousness, where you just. You refuse to look upon others with selfish desire that you wish you had what they have instead. The opposite of covetousness is, I'm actually happy that you have something I don't have, because I'm happy for you that you have that. Sure, I'd like it too, but I'm actually happy. I'm not upset, I'm m not bitter, I'm not irritated. I don't feel inferior around you, and I'm just glad you have that. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Guard your heart against the sin of coveting of I want, I want, I want, I want.

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Then be content with such things as you have, which is really how you ultimately. How do I not feel coveting towards others? You just say, you know, here's what I've got. I'll be content.

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Um, Paul describes contentment this way elsewhere in the New Testament. He says, having food and clothing will be content.

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He's like, if I have clothes on my back and food, not even gray food, just food. He goes, I'll be content with that. So you kind of have permission to be like, lord, I literally don't have clothes. I don't mean cool clothes. I mean, like, I'm unclothed. It's okay to be like, I'm not content with this. Um, if you have no food, you're literally starving. Then you have more cause to be openly outwardly going, like, I'm discontent with my situation right now. I'm still. Except that I have Christ. And then, you know, this body fades. I, uh, will still have him and eternal clothing and food, so to speak, metaphorically, forever. But with this, be content with such things as you have the house you have the car you have or don't have, the physical body you have, including ailments, you Have. Or you're like, yeah, I'm suffering, but I'm going to accept my situation as it is. Now that is too big of a task. And you can think of situations where you've got, uh, people. There's got to be people watching this who will watch this video who are like, I have situations. You have no idea, Mike. You don't understand the pain I'm in. You don't understand the torment I'm in. It's not normal. I'm not dealing with normal problems that you're listening or thinking of. I'm dealing with crazy stuff. And I would say, yes, this verse still applies to you. It applies to all those who are in all circumstances. But you have to read the rest. For he himself has said, this is why you can be content with what you have. I will never leave you nor forsake you.

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List the things you have and you may find yourself discontent. I can't be content with what I have. Now add to that list. I have Jesus, the Lord of glory, who will never leave me nor forsake me, who when my body dies, will raise me up, will bring me into his eternal life and joy and pleasure forevermore, so that the sufferings of this current time aren't worthy to be compared to the glory that's going to be revealed in us. I have him who will never leave me or forsake me on the list of things I have. Maybe it's not car, maybe it's not healthy, maybe it's not good relationships even, but it's Jesus. He's on my list. And if you take that seriously, if you seriously take. And you don't take it like a cliche, like a cute little Sunday school answer from like a seven year old. You take it like you really mean it. Jesus himself, he will never leave me nor forsake me. That's on my list of things I have. Now I can be content with what I have because I have Jesus.

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That.

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That's huge.

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Let's go to the next question. This is going to be, ah, question number eight. Yeah, um, anonymous question. Good evening. A friend of a friend asked why he has chosen to. Chosen. Excuse me, let me start the question over. A friend of a friend asked why he has to choose sides, God or the devil. Why can't he just remain neutral? He claims it's not really free will when there's only one right side.

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Um, it's tough to handle these kinds of conversations because part of you is like, I could see someone who's really struggling and they're working through a challenge that they have in relation to God. Um, but on the other side, um, you go, this is kind of being childish, too. And I don't mean childish as an insult. I mean, I'm being a little naive in my asking of this question. This is kind of like when, um, a kid says, um, hey, mom, I really want this car. And the mom says, we don't have the money for that car. And then he says, yeah, but my friend, his dad bought him the same car and they had the money. And your mom says, no, but we don't have the money. And the kid goes, well, that's not fair.

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I totally understand where he's coming from when he says that's not fair. But I also realize he's being immature and childish and taking things for granted and being like, he has a lot of immature levels of thinking that are going on here. And that's kind of what I see. Here I go, hey, I totally get where you're coming from. I can see how it's irritating. It feels unfair. Why can't I just say, have I, um, do my own thing. I am my own God. I'm going to put it in that terms. I'm my own God. I don't follow God. I don't follow the devil. I follow my own path. And then everybody just leaves me alone.

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That's cute, but that's not how reality works.

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Well, uh, that's not fair.

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Here's the thing. Imagine if you have two governments. One government is. God is in control, and you're submitting to God as king. And then you think, well, I'm going to break off from m God and I'm going to do my own thing, my own little rebel government. I'm the king of my own little world, and I'm going to live my own life outside of his governmental control. And so you start doing that. And then Satan comes up and he says, hey, guess what? I'm bigger than you. I'm stronger than you. And all these things that you're running after instead of God, those things are things I control. So guess what? You're now in my kingdom. Well, I don't want to be in your kingdom, Satan. I don't want to be in God's kingdom. I don't want to be yours. And Satan goes, look, God's the biggest and most powerful. You submit to him. I have no control over you. But I'm way bigger and more powerful than you. So when you rebel against God, I'm just going to Take over. You don't get a choice. You chose sin, you chose slavery. And guess what? I control this side of things. So it's understandable, but not excusable to be irritated and frustrated about something like this. When you rebel against God and you lose his salvation and you lose his control and you lose his authority and his power and protection in your life. The next biggest guy comes along and takes over and that's Satan, that you become part of his kingdom. Um, now Satan will never come up and tell you, guess what, you're part of my kingdom. No, no, you know he's going to tell you you're doing it on your own. Good job, kid. Don't worry, I'm way over here. You've got control of your own life, so he'll affirm to you that you got your own thing going on, but that's part of his lies.

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When Adam and Eve ate of the, of the tree, they were going for their own freedom in a sense, but they were coming under the bondage to Satan because he is just the next guy in line. I think that that's kind of, to put it crudely, that's kind of how Scripture puts it. Um, you could put it this way, say, well, I want to rebel against, um, government and live the gang life, but I don't want any other gangs to try to control me or tell me what to do. And you're like, well, I mean this is cute, but you're just, you're just reinventing reality to suit your own purposes. And it's wishful thinking. It's not how it actually works. When you rebel against God, you come under the control of Satan. You become a child of and under the kingdom of the evil one. Whether you realize it or not, that's what scripture teaches us. And it makes rational sense to think that humans just aren't big and strong enough to do our own thing and get away with it. We're just not. Alright, this is question number nine and it is, there's a parent warning on this one. So parents, please, if you have kids, um, and you're worried all about what I'm about to say, stop watching. Okay. Damian Mansfield says, are married Christian couples allowed to engage in things like, um, this is going to be tough for me to talk about. Okay, um, kink costumes and role play in the bedroom. Hebrews 13:4 says the marriage bed must remain pure. What is in and out of bounds. The Bible doesn't talk about these things and partly because, um, they were not in widespread awareness. So let Me, Let me talk about why I think this question even has to be asked right now. I think largely this question is being asked because of. We have a pornographic culture. Our culture is so exposed to pornography and inappropriate sexual depravity that people are aware of activities and ideas in the bedroom that they otherwise would not have even thought of.

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There is the natural use of the woman. That's what the Bible talks about as approved by God. Romans 1, the natural use of the woman, the natural use of the man. And that is obvious. That is the thing that leads towards procreation. That's the natural use. Then we have unnatural things. We have men, uh, with men and women with women. And that stuff that the Bible absolutely says is wrong. But when we talk about like kink, I mean, to my knowledge, okay, I mean, terms change all the time, right? So to my knowledge, when you say kink, costumes, roleplay, that's a huge, wide variety of things. And to be frank, if you would expect me, and it's okay for you to ask this, but I'm going to lay out where my boundaries are here. I'm not ever going to, on some video start outlining exactly what level of strange things you can think of are okay in a bedroom between a man and a woman. That is not something I'm interested in doing. Um, I will outline the basic principle of. God made us male and female and he wants us to honor his design in male and female. And that leads towards procreation. So that's normal natural intercourse.

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Beyond that, is everything forbidden? That would be too harsh of a rule. But if you start to do things that devalue the partner, right? So you're doing cruelty type stuff and you're. Because you get a kick out of it. That is, I think, immoral and inappropriate. If you start to do things that treat your partner as though they're not physically designed the way they are. You guys, you have to read between the lines here because I'm not going to get in more details. Then I think that that's inappropriate because it seems to violate the natural male female relationship that we're actually designed for. And pornography culture has created it where we start craving these because we engage in these things. We engage in all kinds of stuff that nobody in human history could have even conceived of seeing. The stuff most of you have watched on your phones in human history. Nobody could have even thought of this. And it's polluted our minds and distorted our thinking. I'll tell you guys, here's a true story.

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I went to a Youth Bible, ah, club at a high school, a local high school here. And I was going there on a regular basis to help out the Bible club, um, to share and stuff like that as well. So this is at a public school. One time they had this youth pastor show up and he talked to the kids about waiting till marriage for sex. And again, this is adults only talk here. And he says, uh, to this large group of students, just assuming that everybody's interested in this, everybody wants this. That. Don't worry, when they get married, they can do everything, including. And he says, and he calls out anal sex.

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I remember at that moment thinking, this man has a pornography problem. Now, I could be wrong, but the fact that it even occurred to him that this is something that, oh, you really want and everybody really wants. This is weird, okay? This is not natural. And it is not. And as many people are going to try to push it as natural, I absolutely believe it's not. That is an unnatural behavior. It shouldn't be done. That's my understanding of this. Because it doesn't fit the biological design of humans. It causes physical harm. It causes incontinence. It causes, um, uh, anal fissures. You want to look up the medicine on this? You're welcome to. I have a video where I talk about this. It causes people have to wear diapers when they get older because of this stuff. This is not natural behavior. It's not appropriate. It's not something that belongs in marriage. We should be exalting what's natural and good. Now, what we've done, in my opinion, is we participate as a culture in so much pornographic stuff that we start looking for novelty. And novelty creates more and more of a desire for kink and whatever boatload of things. That includes, um, and the costumes and role play. Now, I wouldn't say that every aspect of role play is inherently wrong, but if what we're doing is role play that devalues our partner, uh, that is sort of subtly saying, normal male, female marriage, sexual relations aren't good enough for me. Now, then that role play seems unhealthy at that point, and then that's when you need to stop. And if it's anything like that, I don't know. I feel like I've said enough. Y'all can figure out the rest on your own. Number 10. No more parent warning. Uh, eclipse. Sonic says, if, according to John, that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him, how do we explain David being saved when he had Uriah killed? Great question. This is a really good Question. Um, let's go to First John, chapter three, verse 15.

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All right. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. This is key to John in general. In First John, he keeps giving lists of things that mean you're not saved, that mean you're not a Christian. Okay, so let's go back and look at some of these things. Um, we'll start in.

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I guess I'll start in chapter two, um, verse three and four. By this we know that we have come to know him. If we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. Then he gives another one. By this we may know that we are in Him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. So if you're going to say, you know Jesus, you got to walk the way Jesus walked. It was not just murderers. It's everybody who walks the way Jesus walked versus those who don't. He gives, uh, others as well. How about whoever says in verse nine that he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

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Verse, uh, 11. Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. So it's similar to the verse that you quoted earlier. One of the things that helps us understand First John is to realize that he continually uses a verb tense that implies ongoing, unrepentant behaviors. He says, whoever practices sin is not saved effectively, and the one who practices righteousness. So then we read this, and we think someone who commits a sin once, like, say, murder, and then applies that, we apply that First John to that. But that's not what John said.

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Ongoing habitual behavior that demonstrates you do not walk in the light is evidence that you what? You don't walk in the light. So a person who harbors hatred in their heart and is ongoingly hatred towards their brother or sister, and they're unrepentant of it, that person is not going to be forgiven. They're outside the kingdom of God. But if that person was to turn, if that person was to repent, if that person in a moment was to stop and come to Christ genuinely, that would change in a moment. John is not here telling you how to get saved. First John is talking about how to identify whether you are or not. And the way that you prove your salvation, it's not how you get saved. You get saved through grace and faith. That's it. You demonstrate genuine salvation, though, through the life that you live. Yes, you proclaim you have faith, but as James, uh, says, even the demons believe and shudder. You claim they have, but you demonstrate your salvation through works.

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You can't get away from that. In the book of James and in First John, um, you don't get saved by works, but you evidence. Maybe I could put it in a different way. That maybe will make some people understand it a little bit different. Um, when the Holy Spirit causes you to be born again and fills you, God, his spirit fills you. It results in a change of your life, doesn't it? You start caring more about people. You start acting differently. You start turning away from sins that you otherwise would have committed because it's the true, genuine work of God in your life.

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That is, if you are really born again, you will look like someone who's born again. Now, there's obviously this muddy middle where you go, well, what if someone's committing this many sins and not that many? How do I know whether I don't know it's muddy in the middle? I don't know who is exactly saved versus not. But I know that these categories exist. Real saved people, people who are really unsaved, and then people who say they're saved. And you can't tell whether it's real or not because their life is unclear.

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That's a category that exists. And the Bible seems to want, uh, to talk about that category. So how do we explain David being saved when he killed Uriah? Uh, so it wasn't just David. There's other murderers who were forgiven as well. David did kill Uriah, but he also repented of it. And so First John is talking about if David just continued, like, let's say David 10 years after Uriah, he's like, I'm glad I killed that guy. I hate that guy. Okay, then you'd be evidencing David. You never really repented of that sin. It's an ongoing thing. I hope that helps you out. Um, read First John and know that it's talking about patterns of behavior, not just singular actions. And it will help you a lot as you're reading One John. Okay, bonus question. It's from. Is your name John 18? That's not my name, that's your name.

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Since, um, Christmas is next Wednesday, what is your favorite Christmas tradition? What Christmas traditions would you recommend avoiding or refusing to participate in?

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Oh, uh, my favorite Christmas tradition. Um, I never thought about that. There's a number I could point to that are great. My wife's family is very, very much Christian in very wonderful ways. I didn't grow up with that. So when we first got together and I got to have a holiday with her family, you know, Christmas or whatever. I remember on Christmas, her dad gathering, uh, everybody around a circle were all standing there, and he opens up the Bible and He reads Luke 2. Just reads it. Um, and I thought that was really neat. I was like, that's so cool. And they, like, sang a hymn together and stuff. And I was like, this is amazing. This is not what I've ever experienced in my family, growing up or extended family. And I thought that was really cool.

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There's, uh, a great tradition, just reading, um, and then singing, like, a hymn. Uh, that's fantastic. My, uh, favorite thing is just getting together with family who you don't get to see very often. Obviously, that's going to be the best thing for most people, um, for a lot of us anyways, um, not to participate in things. Not to participate in. I would recommend avoiding telling your kids that Santa is going to bring them gifts. And the whole Santa tradition, I think, is unhelpful and distracting of Jesus.

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And it's trippy because in Christmas we have an event, a celebration that is done around the world. Like, all over the world, people are doing it. But all over the world, the emphasis is going to be, for many people, Santa and gifts. Nothing's wrong with the gifts, okay? I think it's nice and wonderful to give each other gifts and stuff like that. But the emphasis on Santa is a way of replacing any need to talk about Jesus. And so if you emphasize Santa and the gift giving and that sort of thing as a way of no longer needing to talk about Jesus, then that's a horrible tradition to absolutely avoid. I think that. And, uh, my counsel. I've talked about this a few times over the years. My counsel would be to parents, don't tell your kids that there's a Santa that doesn't exist. Like, if you want to talk about actual St. Nicholas, like, the actual historical guy, fine. But don't pretend that he's flying around on a reindeer. You can tell your kids that as a fun story, as a fake story. Just like I might tell them about, um, like any other fake fun story about, like, some leprechauns dancing on top of a church building and throwing snowballs at people who walk by. Like, I might make up and then they laugh and they know I was joking.

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That's how it should be with Santa Claus. That'd be my encouragement. And, uh, the modern trend, to take what to earlier Christians would have been an amazing time to celebrate Jesus and the incarnation, the significance of what it means that God became man and dwelt among us. To see in the gifts, uh, to see his deity and his sacrifice and his priestly service and all this, to see all of these amazing realities, the fulfilling of prophecy and the birth of Christ, the nature of the virgin birth, the, all this stuff. Beautiful and amazing things to talk to your kids about. But I had to learn it all from 12 and up because in my home growing up, it was just Santa, no idea what it was. In fact, it made people uncomfortable for it to be more than about that. And so I think Christian families shouldn't follow the lead of the secular families in that regard. Santa was a mistake.

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Santa was a mistake.

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And not everybody agrees with me on that. And fine, just disagree. You don't have to hate my guts. I don't hate your guts if you disagree with me on this. I think you're incorrect. You think I'm incorrect? We can still, um, celebrate Christ together, but I think the net effect of Santa has been net negative, not positive. It allows for the secularization of Christmas, which is largely what most people experience in their Christmas celebrations, uh, and events and stuff like that. Relatively little awareness of Christ. And I'd love to continue celebrating Christmas, but point people more towards Christ, find ways to direct them towards Christ. And if you still tell your kids about Santa, that's up to you.

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I hope that it's not replaced Jesus for you, though. All right, that's the bonus question. Um, I should have clicked the button, but I didn't.

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All right, let's, uh, pray and I will see you guys in a week. Although I'll tell you what, probably on Monday, look at my calendar here. On Monday. I think I'm going to do the next Hebrews stream. So that's going to be the next verse by verse study through Hebrews. I'm doing a whole series through Hebrews. I'll put a link to the playlist down below. In fact, it's already there in the description of this video.

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All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your holy word and we thank you for the correction that we received from it, the encouragement, the help. We need, all those things. And we pray that you would, um, help us to grow in Christ and to be Christians who not only cling onto your grace, but who stand up and run with endurance. The race set before us. We pray that we be Christians who have a boldness and a confidence and a health in our hearts and in our lives, where we're able to actually run forward for Christianity, for Christ and for his name. We pray that we would not just see the Bible as our daily like therapy, but that we would. We would actually take up the cross and follow Jesus in our lives. That's our prayer. And that this year, this, for the rest of this year, in December, that we'd be really meditating on where our lives are at and where you'd like them to be. In Jesus name. Amen.

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Sa.