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A lot has been going on, um, not to mention the technical issues I had starting today's livestream. Um, but let me talk about the first question for today. It does tie into some other stuff I've been doing recently on my channel and will continue to do in the future. And the question is going to be how do we spot fake humility, false humility? And the question, uh, let me read to you as it came to me. What does biblical humility look like? And how can Christians avoid pride while still being confident in their calling? One reason why I thought this was an interesting question is because, um, I just came out that video on Todd White and a lot of people are seeing it. And I probably will do more in the future, especially as I'm already being contacted by other witnesses, um, who may be able to come forward on the record. And that would be really good. That's really what we need to see moving forward. But Todd comes off as so humble and these different leaders, different, uh, leaders, even ones who otherwise. And after investigating, I find there's a ridiculous amount of pride there that can sometimes come off as really humble. And so it's important for us as Christians to know, like, how do I recognize real humility not only for others, but ultimately for myself? I need to see it in me. I need to actually be a humble person. Because pride is an incredible danger. It's like spiritual cancer. It will lead to my fall, it'll lead to my destruction. It will lead to all kinds of havoc in my life.

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So how do I spot humility? That's we're going to talk about first. Today is just the Q and A. Those of you who know, I do this just about every Friday. Most Fridays, I do a Q and a at 1:00, California time. That's. I say California time because that's where I live. And the, um, this particular one was delayed slightly. In fact, I'm stalling for a minute while I get my notes back going here because I had to reboot my computer. I had some technical issues, and I.

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There we go. Had to get my notes back on screen so I can actually see what I was thinking about this.

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All right, um, your questions in the live chat, you're already loading them. We're going to take 10 questions ultimately, all together today. And then at the end, I'll give you guys an update on the things that are going on on my channel, on my ministry, in my ministry, um, with the research and the different exposures that I'm taking part in, I'll talk A little bit about that at the very end. You can skip to the end. If you're watching the replay and you think I'm baiting you to watch the whole video, I'm not just telling you what's coming. Just skip to the end. I don't care. All right. Proverbs 26:12. It warns us against the incredible danger of pride. And we probably don't take this seriously enough. Uh, even speaking of myself, I think I often do not take this seriously enough. It's a good reminder. Proverbs 26:12. Do you see a man who's wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. This is a. This is like the smackdown after the wind up of the earlier part of Proverbs 26, where it has a bunch of things about how dangerous and bad it is to be a fool. Right? Honor's not fitting for a fool. Um, the, uh, the. A whip is for the horse, right? The rod is for the back of fools. There's a danger in answering fools. There's a danger in not answering fools. The point there is fools are dangerous. Um, people who send a message by the hand of a fool. You cut off your own feet and drink violence. Fools are dangerous.

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The lame man's legs which hang useless. That's like a proverb or a saying of wisdom that's in the mouth of a fool. Because they'll say it and it sounds wise, but they don't really know how to use it properly. All sorts of things that are bad about being a fool. Fools are bad, right? But then in verse 12, it says, and if you know somebody who's proud, who's wise in their own eyes, they're worse than a fool. The fool has more hope than the guy who has pride. Let this sink in. It is not the pride of Todd White or the pride of some other teacher or some other minister out there who's been building their own kingdom, um, instead of ultimately the kingdom of Christ. It is not their pride that will ruin you. It is your pride that will ruin you. It is my pride that will ruin me. It is something that is incredibly dangerous. If you looked at a list of leaders who fell horribly or Christians who failed miserably as their life went on, they maybe look like they started well and then they ended really badly. You will pretty much always see pride. Always. It's like the constant ingredient in all of these things. We need like a sort of spiritual version of a Prop 65 warning that shows up in our hearts. Whoa. Pride 65. Warning. You've got pride in your heart.

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So here's a few things. Um, how do I test to see if I. Or someone else maybe you need to assess them because they're an influential leader in your life. There's someone that's impacting you, and so you need to properly assess what they're doing, but more for yourself. How do you act when you're offended? There's a big clue of your pride when you are offended. Do you act cruelly? Do you act with animosity? Do you act with anger, vengeance? The way you treat people when they are mistreating you is one of the ultimate revelations, ways of revealing whether you are actually a humble person or not when you're mistreated. Now, that is easier said than done. It's not as though just being aware of your pride will make it disappear, but it's a step, right? Being aware of it going, okay, my reaction right now to being offended, it is showing me the pride that was there all along. As long as they treated me properly, as long as they treated me well, my pride wasn't touched. And so I was nice to them. I was really great to them. But at the second I'm offended, that's when my pride will show its true colors and I will be tempted. Are you internally seething after you're offended? Um, that's a dangerous sign. Okay. I'm not saying you can't be offended. Life offends you. But in this offense, do a self assessment to make sure there isn't something unhealthy going on. Because you do have to stand before God for that. I think that the way the scripture talks about forgiving other people, um, which forgiveness is not the same as restoration. And you don't have to give, um, up all rights to call on God to deal with somebody or to even in some cases call the police or expose them publicly if need be, because that's the righteous thing to do. In that scenario, you're protecting others.

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But if there's a lack, if there's an unforgiveness in your heart, like a closed door of forgiveness towards people, that is a sign of pride. Why would I say that? It has to do with Jesus.

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He is the model of forgiveness. But he forgives us in a different way than we forgive others. Often Jesus forgives us as being the offended party, totally innocent, totally perfect, who owes nobody anything, and he just forgives us. He, uh, dies for our sins. He brings us grace, but then he tells us to forgive others, not just on the basis of us being innocent and really gracious, but on the basis of us being forgiven by Him. You see, his forgiveness is based purely in his incredible love. My forgiveness is based in his incredible love.

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If I don't think that I'm going to forgive someone else, I probably don't think that much of the forgiveness Jesus has given me. Hence pride being at the core of unforgiveness in many cases.

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This is a tricky issue. Forgiveness is a tricky issue because forgiveness is not restoration. And I like to put this way, the offer of forgiveness, the genuine offer of forgiveness, that's how all Christians should posture themselves. Just as Jesus postures himself with the genuine offer of forgiveness at all times. But that doesn't mean accomplished forgiveness. So yes, the offer is there. It's really there. And if it's not, if my heart's holding that back, my heart's unwilling to forgive. There's a good chance that there's pride in my relationship with God that I don't think that much of his forgiveness of me. And that's why I will not extend grace towards others. I think it's a powerful thing.

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There's, um, passive, ah, aggression is also a sign of pride. Um, I see people who act really well publicly, but then they start doing these passive aggressive pokes at others. That could be a sign that there's a pride going on there.

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Treatment, uh, of people who could be seen as less than you, that's a big revealer of pride in our hearts or the hearts of others, is how do we treat those who we would typically look at as a lower skill, lower value, lower importance than us. Now you might be like, I would never say that. Of course you'd never say that. It's super unchristian. Um, but do you do it? Is the question, do you do it? That's the reality. There's a wonderful verse. I Love this. Romans 12:16.

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And it's one that I keep close to my heart. As my ministry has grown, as my reach has grown, as people recognize me and know my name. I keep this to heart because the extra temptations that those things provide for me to be arrogant, proud, to start seeing myself as like an elite person amongst others in the room. And the important one, uh, all that kind of like satanic garbage. This scripture is beautiful. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty. Right? Don't be haughty or proud. But what would be the contrast of that? Associate with the lowly.

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Associate with the lowly. Sometimes when leaders get into spotlights Like I have been, to be frank. Right? Yes. There's a spotlight on me. That doesn't mean I'm good or right or anything proper. But sometimes when leaders get into these spotlights, what happens is they start associating primarily with other people who are in spotlights. And it. It creates like this. There's a camaraderie there. It's like, oh, yeah, we have similar things going on in our lives, similar ministries. We naturally connect. And you start associating with them so that you are sort of surrounding yourself with other important people. The verse here, it says, associate with the lowly. Like, it's important to me that I have friends that are not in spotlights and that I associate with them. Um, that's important. Not because I am righteous, not because I am good, not because what I'm saying to you makes me anything. There's nothing noble about what I'm saying. What I'm saying is just safety for my own integrity and my own issues of pride. Associate with the lowly. If you want to be around people who are important merely because they're important, that's a dangerous sign.

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The celebrity effect, Right. Where this may have happened to you. A celebrity walks in the room, you're like, oh, that's so and so. They're well known. They're very important seeming now. I want to be near them.

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I want to maybe talk to them. I want to get around them. That isn't. I'm not saying that that is like the worst sin in the world, but I am saying that it may be a red flag that you're starting to reveal a desire to associate with the not lowly.

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That's something to fight against as a Christian. Associate with the lowly. I think that's good. Here's another one. Proverbs 16, uh, 19.

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It is better to be of lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.

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Sorry, someone's ringing my doorbell, so.

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Oh, anyways, I know what that is. Sorry, that's Will. Hey, Will. Sorry, man, I'm live streaming. Um, Alice, don't take care of it. Okay, so that's just my lowly friend Will.

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Um, yeah, it's better to be of lowly spirit with the poor than divide the spoil with the.

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That's absolutely 100% reality. Be of lowly spirit with the poor, then to reap the benefits of being with those who are proud. When you start to see yourself surrounding people and they're exhibiting pride, and you start to see that pride is a theme in my Social circle. You must vacate that social circle for your own sake and reset with some people that are lowly for your own sake. All right, let's look at another couple more. This isn't everything about pride, but it's just some things I think are good for self assessment.

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Are you competing for esteem, rank or significance? Do you compete for these things? One thing that can reveal this, if you do, and I have a scripture for this as well, is when you find people that they're like your doppelganger, they have maybe the same skills or gifts or talents or social benefits as you, your worship leader. They're a worship leader. You're good at teaching, they're a teacher. You're good looking and tall. And they're good looking and tall. You're the funny guy in the room. They're the funny guy in the room. You start to, like, find these similar things, you know, you're the pretty quiet girl, then she's a pretty quiet girl. Like there's this sort of overlapping social benefits in a sense. I know this is weird to use these terms, but, um, just to make sure you get my point, this sort of thing gives you an opportunity to show if there's pride in you. Because if you start to feel competitive against them, jealous against them wishing that they weren't around you, wishing, Wishing that they weren't as gifted, as skilled as they are, that is a revelation of pride in your heart. So here's, um, Philippians on this. Philippians chapter 2, verse 3.

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Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility. Count others more significant than yourselves.

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Count others more significant than yourselves.

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It's not even balance. And this doesn't mean other people are actually more important than you. That's not what it says. This, uh, is a character thing. We treat others as if they are more significant than me. So that my life is directed outward towards the benefit of others. The minute someone enters my circle and they can do the things that I can do, and there's kind of like fit the sort of, you know, the identity I feel like I have. And then maybe they even do it better and I start feeling threatened, I start feeling less significant. I start realizing that this whole time I thought this made me significant, perhaps more significant than others. And it's being revealed as a problem. When you can celebrate somebody else having the same gift as you, but having it better than you, then you're walking in humility. Then you are looking out not only for your own interests, but also for the interests of others. There's a beautiful thing that you can do. Leaders who get jealous of fellow leaders in the Christian church, pastors who are jealous, because that time that your associate pastor shared on Sunday, he did a really good job. And everybody. This, uh, is a true story, by the way. It's not from my life, but I heard a pastor complaining about it, and I was like, that's just pride, man. He brought his associate pastor, his youth pastor to teach. It's not in a church I've ever attended, but anyway, so I don't want you guys being like, who's he talking about? I don't even know the names of the guys anymore. It's been too long. I don't remember.

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But this pastor brings in the youth leader to teach on a Sunday, because he's going to be, like, out of town or something. And, um, the youth pastor does a great job. And afterwards, he comes back in town and several people come up to him to tell him, hey, last week, so and so did an amazing job. He taught really, really well. You should have him teach more often. And the pastor, who was the one telling the story to us, he was saying to this group of young guys that were wanting to do ministry, it was meant to be like a cautionary tale. He did not understand his own story. He says, um, that he looked at the woman hurt, and he says to her, well, what about me? Because I'm teaching every week and I don't get this kind of attention and praise. And it was so revealing of his pride. Instead of him thinking, I should have him teach more often, he blesses the body. Let me put other people's interests above my own.

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I should maybe not teach every Sunday. Look at what the Lord's doing in our church. Let me get behind that. It's not just about me. Instead of thinking that, he started seeing this guy as a rival, and it wasn't too long before he fired him. He then told us in this class of young guys wanting to do ministry. He told us in this class that the most important quality for people who serve with you in your ministry is loyalty, which is not true. Um, loyalty to you. No, not true. This was all pride, all pride. Now, years down the road, he has a track record of all these times he's been hurt and offended, and he feels as though he's laid his life down for ministry. And he's been wounded because he can't even see his pride. Because pride hides itself from everyone who has it. It doesn't hide itself from anybody else. Everybody else sees it but you will never notice your pride. Um, not before other people do. They'll see it first. And this is why I've had people who come to me and be like, I feel like you've been kind of proud recently. And I go, what? What do you mean? They tell me, and they give me some examples. And I go, you're right. Now that you. Now that you've pointed, I totally see it. You're right. I'm so sorry. Thank you for telling me. Which leads me to another, uh, one. How do you react when you're corrected? How do you react when you are corrected? Are you upset or are you grateful? Can a person correct you and maintain a good, healthy relationship with you afterwards? Or do they go on your naughty list, your internal naughty list? That's an issue of pride. Iron sharpens iron. The. The wounds of a friend can be trusted. Scripture says. Proverbs, tells us that it's only pride that causes me to think that those who correct me are my enemies or are wounding me. Um, they're trying to make me correct now. It's possible. Correction can be done wrong. Correction can be incorrect. It could be correction. You don't even deserve. All that's true. But my general posture has to be one of humility. Um, not pretending that it always is in my case, but whenever it's not. That's arrogance and pride in my heart.

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Here's, um, another one. A, uh, lack of awareness of personal limitations. I think Job is an example of pride in this area in the book of Job. And you're like, but Job didn't do anything wrong. Well, he did do some stuff wrong. He even repents. At the end of the book, he goes, I repent in dust and ashes.

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The thing that he did wrong was he thought too highly of himself or perhaps too lowly of God. And pride is either one of those or both of them at any given time. And Job thought, if I stand before God, if I could just challenge God, if I could just tell God what's up, uh, then I would know. Then I would know the real reasons for these things. I want to make my case before God. At the end of the book, God asks Job, I don't know what. 60 questions. 60, 70, a bunch of questions. I forget how many. And he's like, were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth? Can you do this? Can you do this? And it's all, like, humility given to Job. And at the end, he repents. He puts dust. He's humbling himself.

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Because Job, he was unable to trust God fully in the midst of his trials. And this is not okay. Look, trials are hard. Trials are complex. And the things you go through when you're in trials are rough. But there can be one element of going through trials. Not the only element, one element of going through trials, which is, I cannot trust God in this trial because I have made the assessment that God should not be allowing this in my life. And the reason I can make that assessment is because somewhere deep down, I have an element of pride where it says I can rightly judge what God is doing in my life. Like, I'm in the position to genuinely and righteously assess and make a judgment call on what God is doing in my life.

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Can you really? Job was not in that position. Job was innocent from Satan's attacks, yet he was still attacked. He was assaulted. It wasn't his fault. But that element of his lack of humility, that was a major problem for him.

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The end of the book, he's like, I just trust the Lord. And that is the lesson we're supposed to learn from Job anyway. So I think that lack, um, of awareness of personal limitations can reveal our pride.

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Um, an example of this is comments online.

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Assuming, um, you know way too much about things and that you can make these super quick, snap judgments about things. We've all done this. I think most of us, at least, we've done this. You make a judgment about something, and then later you watch the rest of the video and you're like, oh, I shouldn't have said anything. What was I thinking? And the delusion that allowed me to quickly make a judgment before I should have, that was pride. I could go on about that, but I've definitely done that myself, and I've seen others do it as well. It's just having opinions that are beyond your actual knowledge is a pride issue. Um, I know of a leader, former leader, who I did work with in the past, who always knew what was best about everything. You could ask him, and he would have an opinion about how plumbers are supposed to do their jobs, opinion about the best way for carpeting to be fixed and replaced, even though he'd never done that in his life, and it was always, he knew best in everything. Now, he would never say that out loud because that would be too obvious. Pride will have to. It hides itself. It has to hide itself.

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But it was revealed in him. Never not knowing things, never just saying, I don't know. You're better at that than me. Why don't you take care of it? That could never come out of his mouth. Is that you, then pride is a danger to you in that area and something to think about and try to grow from.

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Um, lying to people, I think, is an issue of pride. I won't spend time on this because I'm running out of time already. But lying to people is an issue of pride. Um, also, uh, because you're treating them as so much less than you, as basically despising them. Also, do you willingly submit to authority? First Peter 5:5. This will be the last verse. I share in this because I have to move on, um, today. I have a tight schedule today. Likewise, you who are young, younger, be subject to yourselves. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.

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This is in the context of, um, submitting yourself to other people.

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Can you submit to other people, especially those in leadership over you. Do you have, like, uh, yes. I know the government does things wrong, even evil things at times. I know that your church leadership makes mistakes and does things wrong. I know that husbands, um, the head of their household can do things, sometimes horrible, evil things. I know that parents can wrong their children. I know all those things are true and they should be fought against. I know that the police, uh, and not just occasionally misuse their authorities and become bullies and become terrors to people. That does happen. Okay, there's other ones that are good, but that does happen. It's real.

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Yet if there is in my heart the inability to just humbly submit to the leadership that God has placed in my life, that's probably an issue of pride. There's times when you should properly rebel. But our general attitude is one of humility and submission. If I can't do it, if I find myself just can't do it, I'll mention one last one. And this is the homework for you. Read Proverbs 27:1 and then read James 4, 13:16.

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Being overconfident about your future plans is an example of pride in Scripture. Being overconfident about your future plans is an example of pride in Scripture.

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That's an interesting thing. There are some red flags, some pride red flags. We're going to go to question number two. I've got 10 questions coming from the live chat today, and I'm going to move a little quickly. Well, a little quickly in my mind. I'm going to end by the hour, so I've got half an hour to work through the rest of these. Um, uh, Alexis says, my Mormon friend said I felt like God was telling me while reading the Bible is That really God, does he speak to unbelievers? How is it any different when Christians read the Word and pray?

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Um, this is a huge, huge issue in Mormonism. Alexa. The belief in Mormonism about God personally speaking to you is a core belief in Mormonism, in my opinion. Right. Not in the like. If you look at Mormon theology, like a list of doctrines, that one's not going to stand out to you as much. But when you talk to Mormons, like I've actually addressed Mormons and talked to them, spent many hours, that belief that God personally speaks to you, um, is core, is really, really big. And you can see this in the doctrine when it comes to getting your testimony, that's what they call it, getting your testimony. This, like, sort of personal revelation from God that, uh, the Book of Mormon is God's word and Joseph Smith is God's prophet. And when you know that, when you get that from God, you've got your personal testimony. Um, that's a huge deal. The burning in the bosom is the old way of saying it, but like a sort of emotional and physical, like, feeling of heat and stuff like that that you get to confirm. Mormonism is true. Um, the problem is God is not the only thing that can speak to you in this world. We live in a world with real spiritual things going on. You, um, could of course, be telling yourself things and just imagining it's God. But also Satan can speak too. Satan has his signs, Satan has his wonders, and Satan has the messages he sends to people.

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So I'm going to read your question one more time. With that being set up, my Mormon friend said, I felt like God was telling me while reading the Bible. Is that really God? Does he speak to unbelievers?

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Um, how is it any different when Christians read the Word and pray so God can speak, you simply cannot give a plain yes or no. A Mormon said, God told me this, therefore God didn't tell him, because what if God was showing them Joseph Smith is not really the prophet and God is speaking to them? That's always possible.

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Um, but God's never going to disagree with Scripture. The scripture will be used as a test to prove or disprove a claim where someone says that God is speaking. I can open the Bible and compare it to what I see in scripture. Um, easily done. I've, um, been married for 10 years. I'm really unhappy. God showed me that I deserve to be happy. And I'm leaving my wife and I'm, going to marry this other woman from my church. God told her To. I know you're lying. That wasn't God. God didn't speak to you. Easy. Why? Because of what God says about marriage in Scripture. Yeah, but I'm totally convinced it was God. Yes. This is where we know you're deceived. You are deceived. You believe it was God, but it wasn't God. Because we know what God says here, and that disagrees with what you think God said over here. Easy, um, easy to discern, hard to live with, but that's real reality. Can God speak to non believers? I mean, yeah, God can speak to anybody he wants to. I don't put a muzzle on God. Um, but it must be tested with scripture. You cannot take scripture over what people or, uh, take what people say over what scripture has revealed. I won't take what you say God said over what I know God said easily, easily addressed. This is consistent in the Old Testament. He says, if a prophet comes to you and they speak, and even if the thing they prophesy comes to pass, but they are telling you to go a different way than what I've already told you. Don't listen. They're not from me. So God tells us that the prior revelation that he's given us is to be used to test any future revelation somebody claims comes from him.

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This gets us sola, uh, scriptura when you play it out in a rational and reasonable way in real life, as offensive as that is, I don't see a logical way around that resulting in sola scriptura if you just chase it out.

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All right, question number three.

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Michael Zittle says, I saw you talk about how, uh, you once questioned whether or not you were saved because you couldn't name a specific time or event where it happened. How did you overcome that? I'm in the same situation. Yeah. Um, it's sort of. Let me tell you guys how it happened. To me, what happened is I kept hearing testimonies of people getting saved. And typically speaking, the testimonies that people, the people who had a testimony that felt powerful enough to share in public, like on stage or in a youth group or something, I was very young.

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They always had these powerful testimonies. They're like, I was in drugs or I was Satanist or I was suicidal, an atheist. I was this really extreme thing. And then this happened, and then, boom, I got saved. So you'd have this, like, big moment of salvation this day. I prayed. I have my salvation birthday. I know it. It was June 15th. It was whatever the date is.

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And the other thing I heard Is, you know, harvest crusade events or, uh, other events like in church, where they go, raise your hand if you want to receive the Lord, Pray with me. Or we do evangelism, and you'd offer for somebody to pray to receive Christ right in the moment. So here's two things that I don't have in my testimony. I don't have any date I can attach to when I got saved. And I don't have this radical, sudden transformation from, like, openly against God to totally on fire for Jesus. I just don't have that in my history that I could think. And, um, no specific moment of someone praying with me to receive Christ.

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So I'm m. Like, am I saved? Am I even a Christian? Do I have to do that? Maybe I should just raise my hand when someone says, raise your hand and receive Christ. I should just raise my hand just to. Just to be sure. Okay. This is a very immature, younger me as a kid, but that was what I thought.

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Um, in the long run, what happened is a couple things.

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M. Mostly I just read the Bible. Okay. So I read scripture, and I started asking myself, do salvations typically happen in Acts? In the Gospels, does it typically happen that way? Someone says, stop. Let's pray to receive Christ. And they have this immediate boom, transition from totally unsafe to totally saved. Um, obviously, like, life transformation. That's really obvious and evident and has, like, a moment. And I don't think that that's quite how it is. Sometimes that happens. Cornelius, in Acts 10, boom. This guy. Just.

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Just radical, amazing transformation. Um, but sometimes it's like people are being reasoned with. They're thinking about it.

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There's some people in Acts who are helping Paul out, but they seem like they're a little bit on the fence about salvation. There's someone like Nicodemus who is a believer, but we don't even know when he becomes a believer. He's interested in Jesus. He's questioning him. He's told about being born again. He goes away. He comes back secretly to get the body of Christ. Uh, when did Nicodemus even become a real Christian? I don't know. It just seems like it happened over time that mentally, he started trusting in Christ. And when the moment of his spiritual rebirth happened, which would have been at an exact millisecond. Yeah. But we don't know what it is. I don't know if Nicodemus would have known. When Jesus is preaching in the Gospels, we don't see him. Raise your hand if you want to receive me.

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I just don't see that Kind of clean cut thing. And then when I've talked to Christians, I find that a lot of them don't have it. So when you look at scripture, there's a test to see if you're saved. And it's not your test, you sharing a radical testimony. It is, do you trust in Christ? Do you repent of the life of rebellion against God and put your faith and trust in Jesus that he died on the cross and rose for you? And if you can affirm his death, his resurrection, his identity, the deity of Jesus, um, if you can say yes to God's call to repentance, then you should be saying, I'm definitely a Christian. I've just got a cultural expectation of what that process looked like. That isn't necessarily the biblical expectation.

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So, yeah. Was my life changed? Yes, it just wasn't like from before to when I was a Christian. Yes, my life was changed, but it wasn't changed in the dramatic way, like the testimonies I've heard. It was very different. Had a relationship with God. It just didn't match, like the heightened level of those I'd heard around me. So I almost like sharing that with people so I can help them realize that most Christians don't have those, like, crazy testimonies. Um, and it's great if you do. Don't doubt your salvation if you don't.

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All right, we're going to question number four.

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Question number four coming from jp and we have all the questions for today, by the way. All the questions are in, how do I let someone. I know.

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How do I let someone? It must be I let someone. How do I let someone know that when they pray in tongues during our corporate prayer time that it's distracting? I believe tongues are for personal edification. I'm not cessationist, by the way.

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That's tough, jp. I mean, morally speaking, there's nothing wrong with you simply saying, hey, when you make noises, you know, I'm trying to pray, it's distracting to me. And you can even show in Scripture that it says, let him keep, uh, it to himself. Let's just go to the passage as we're on their way there. Let me talk about the other problem.

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Culturally, in a church that over emphasizes tongues and doesn't hold to biblical rules, uh, about tongues, which is, sadly, a lot of churches, there's an overemphasis and they don't hold to the biblical rules about tongues. They just think it doesn't apply to them for whatever reason. And, uh, they misinterpret it, whatever. For some reason, they're not applying it to themselves in those churches. If you were to discourage somebody from speaking in tongues during a time of corporate prayer, it could be interpreted as you, um, having some sort of problem, spiritual problem, a demonic spirit in you. It could be like, the response could be extreme and very negative and very inappropriate. And so there may just be an issue of wisdom about, should I say something, should I not? Is it worth it?

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Um, and if the culture is so overwhelmingly supportive of this thing, it's okay to wonder, like, do I want to stay in a church that is doing that? That's okay to ask that question. Is that what's best for me, for my future kids, for people I bring to church? Should I be introducing them to this, or can you find a more stable option? Um, let me find the passage here. Just a moment.

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Um, let me just. Here, I'll start, I'll start here. All the way in verse 23.

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Excuse my coughing. Sorry, guys.

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It's, uh, just a leftover lingering cough. I'm doing fine. Okay, so verse 23, if, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? Okay, this verse, if you interpret it consistently right, what you're going to say is Paul wants to avoid the idea that when a visitor comes into a church, they randomly see people speaking in tongues without interpretation. So that would include, if logic is to be held as true, that would include the person two feet away from you who's going like, hubba, uh, lubba, luba, luba. And they're. And they're doing some sort of like, what sounds like either gibberish or some sort of not known language not known to anybody in the room. If they're doing this two feet away from the unbeliever or the uninformed person, they are violating what Paul's talking about. And his concern is they're going to think you're crazy. And this is not a badge of honor. The fact that honestly, um, charismatics got to know this, that's not a badge of honor here. Paul's just like, this is a bad thing. If they think you're crazy because of this, because you're not interpreting. So the difference, visibly speaking, the difference between someone authentically speaking in tongues without interpretation and somebody faking it, or a crazy person babbling. The difference to the onlooker is no difference. These are the same picture to them. They can't see the difference and therefore don't don't do that. I just realized that my, uh, camera is all off center from this. Let me fix that real quick. Is that bugging anybody else? Watch. I can do this. I can do it. Probably.

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No. Oh, made it worse.

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Hold on. Uh, grab the wrong one. How do I grab the right one?

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All right, this is live streaming. No, that's so weird. Why wouldn't it? Let me grab the right one now.

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Oh, well, I can grab it, but it's not working.

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What's this? What's this black spot? Whatever. I can't fix it. I'll fix it later off camera. I'll just take it away. How's that? Um, no, no, we need the scripture up. Okay. There's gonna be more, though. Let's read on to what Paul says. Uh, if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, um, he's convicted by all and he's accounted by. He's called to account by all, see, because it's. He knows that it's really God, so that's fine. But the tongues thing, no, doesn't work. Um, now we get rules. What then? Brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.

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That is not a recommendation.

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That is him saying, like, here's your situation right now. Everybody's trying to sort of like, get a word. And everybody wants to do the spiritual thing. And he says, no, no, here's the rule. Let all things be done for building up.

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If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two, or at the most, three, and each in turn and let someone interpret. That's it. Everybody speaking in tongues in a Christian gathering is not biblical. Now you might say, but, Mike, in the book of Acts, everybody spoke in tongues at a Christian gathering. That conflicts with your rule here. Acts is, in, uh, a way, it's an exception to the rule, but not really, because in Acts, they were all interpreting. That is, they spoke in tongues that people there heard and understood right in the moment. It wasn't a church gathering, you know, it was rather a descendant of the Holy Spirit. A bunch of people speaking in known real languages that everybody around them heard. The barbarian, the Scythians, I guess barbarians, not a language. Barbarian was a word that they would use for anybody who's not Roman. Right? So the non Romans, the people who were not part of the Roman regions or Roman, um, controlled, uh, areas, um, they heard in their language. Scythian was one of the languages people were hearing then hearing at that time. This was Mass tongues with interpretation. Okay, if you can pull that off, go for it. Praise the Lord. But here's the general rule. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at the most, three, and each in turn and let someone interpret. But if there's no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. Now, here's the interpretation I think I've heard from people. Keeping silent in the church they think means, um, I'm going to quietly do this so only me and the eight people around me can hear it. But that violates what Paul's concern is about making people think you're crazy. Keeping silent means actually keep silent. You can do the tongues thing without interpretation between you and God alone, not between you and God and the eight people in your close vicinity. That I don't think is biblical. Now, culturally, whether they'll receive it, I don't know. I've got to move faster. I'm so bad at this. Okay, I'm going to go to the next question here. And this comes from, um, an anonymous question. What do you think about genuine Christians that have served in offices that aren't biblical, like bishops, priests, monks, etc. Does God use faithful believers serving in unbiblical offices? Um, yeah. Uh, I don't see a reason to say God will never do this. Like, would it be wrong, morally wrong for God to use someone who's a priest in the Catholic Church who becomes aware of the true gospel and who still stays in the Catholic Church, but he's telling his parishioners his homily is going to give them the grace of Jesus Christ and salvation through faith alone. And, like, can God use. Absolutely, God can use them. But God can use, like, Cyrus, this wicked king, to accomplish his will in the Old Testament. He uses all sorts of things. He uses Caiaphas, who's the high priest, um, in the Jewish temple at the time of Jesus. He uses Caiaphas to prophesy about Jesus dying for the people. Even though Caiaphas was someone ultimately fighting against Christ, God can and will use anybody he chooses. And I'm grateful for it. Um, the office may not be biblical, but we generally, as humans, do not present God with perfect vessels and situations to use us. So he does often use people that are problematic. But even if he uses you, that doesn't legitimize you. So Jesus says, many will say to me, lord, Lord, did we not do these things? Cast out demons, heal the sick, prophesy in your name? And he Says, get away from me. I never knew you. So God can use somebody in a powerful way. Doesn't mean they're legit. Doesn't mean they're a faithful believer. Even God can do what God wants to do. Let's go to the Next question, number six. Brooke Trout says in John 11, when Martha says she knows her brother will rise in the resurrection on the last day. Did she know that from the Old Testament or from Jesus teachings?

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Um, so there's three things to consider. There's the Old Testament, there's Jesus's teachings, and then there's the Jewish culture and teaching that she was steeped in. This is stuff that we often call the Jewish intertestamental period. This is a period between the Old and New Testament. But the Old Testament does talk about the, uh, idea of resurrection, you know, so we have it in Job. He says, like, I know that after my. After m. I die, basically, um, I will in my flesh see God. We have the, the phrase gather to their fathers, which seems to carry connotations about the hope of resurrection. We have other statements about resurrection in the Old Testament, which I don't have time to get into. I recommend doing some research on this. Don't take people's summaries. Go to the actual verses themselves. Don't even take my summary. I'm just giving you, like, some hints here. Go to the actual verses themselves. Daniel talks about this, um, about the Son of man, the coming of the Son of Man and the resurrection.

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And the whole idea of Jewish burial traditions are based upon an idea of a resurrection that that was coming.

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So probably all of the above. Um, Jesus.

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Yeah, Jesus teaching and the Old Testament and intertestamental stuff where what you can see in the Old Testament, um, well, they were able to see this too, in the intertestamental period. And so they're strongly teaching things about the resurrection and how physically they're going to. In fact, when Jesus talks about the resurrection, there's just such a strong cultural element going on amongst the Jews culturally that they're like, yes, we all know what that is. That's the general. Like, we're all going to be brought back and we're waiting on that time. And that's why we're saving our bones and that's why we want to be buried in Jerusalem and that kind of thing. Um, yeah, okay, I could see her more, but. Time, time, time. All right, speed round today. Lena says, I say this for like a video that's gonna be just over an hour.

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If God doesn't allow human sacrifice. Lena says, how do we reconcile Jesus sacrifice? Thank you for this ministry. It has strengthened my faith so much. Thank you, Lena. Um, so this is covered in more detail in my series on penal substitutionary atonement. That is penal as in penalty. P E N a L. Jesus took the penalty for my sins. He was the substitutionary atonement. So he substituted. He went in my place on the cross to suffer the punishment for my sins, which was the death penalty. And then atonement, that is he brought me into right relationship with God through this sacrifice. Now God doesn't allow human sacrifice in the Old Testament. Um, that's true. Yet Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice, human sacrifice. Is that a contradiction? There's um, a few reasons why I would say it's not. Number one, God, um, giving the Old Testament instructions.

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Imagine for a second lina m if he was like, well, you know, I don't want people to think there's a contradiction here. So I think I'll just allow human sacrifice. So, you know, Jewish believers will now be offering humans to me. That's just going to be help part of the setup. So people get Jesus.

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That uh, would be something that would, that God would definitely be opposed to.

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Um, that would definitely be opposed to. What God did do though in the Old Testament that just foreshadowed Jesus's human offering is the death penalty. There are those who do certain things and they are given the death penalty in the Old Testament as God requires for justice sake, for them to die for what they've done.

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That is something he allows. He also allows something else that foreshadows Christ.

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It was not unheard of for ancient Near Eastern religions to offer their firstborn as a sacrifice to a deity. God required the Israelites to offer their firstborn to him, but not as a sacrifice. He had a whole procedure for it. He's like, hey, I get your firstborn, but I don't want human sacrifice. So you're going to offer me a lamb instead? You're going to offer me something else to substitute for the firstborn. So the firstborn of Israel being offered to God is there. But God is doing what he can to protect from actual human sacrifice. He wants to set up in the law concepts and pictures so that Jesus makes sense, so that Jesus sacrifice will be interpreted through that law. But he doesn't want humans killing humans in human sacrificial stuff. So he refuses that. I think he's just doing both of those things. Jesus also is quantifiably different than any human sacrifice. Ever offered.

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A, he offers himself. He is not offered by others.

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B, he offers himself willingly. He's not unwillingly taken. C, he does this as God, not just as man. Jesus on the cross. He's the God, man on the cross.

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And probably one of the biggest ones people often don't get is that Jesus being our creator, but also being our representative, he literally came to be the figurehead of all humanity to represent us all on the cross. So he comes as the last Adam, second Adam. Scripture uses both terms for Jesus. For those who are like, don't ever say second Adam. Just read more of the scripture. It's in there. Um, it's not a bad term. There won't be a third. Okay? There won't be a third. There's just Adam and then there's Jesus who shows up and does the kind of same thing Adam does. Adam M. Each of the three gets the death penalty. Eats of the tree, gets the death penalty. Jesus, he goes onto the tree and suffers the death penalty. So Jesus's death on the cross, while there's elements of human sacrifice, there are elements of that. It's not the same thing. And it's more akin to, um, a judicial punishment of the death penalty and him being a substitute for us. And so human sacrifice is a clumsy, I think, inaccurate term to just throw out for Jesus. No. All right, we'll go to the next question. Number eight.

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Andrew Hodgkin says, how do you maintain kindness in the midst of tension while advocating for self or others? Some lean toward kindness and don't speak up, while others lean towards speaking harsh truth with an emphasis on harshness.

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I have to be honest, Andrea. This is. It's a good question. It's a very good question. I struggle with answering these questions sometimes because I feel like I don't maybe have, um, a blanket policy or rule that I could just drop on top of every scenario and have it be valid. So how do I find the balance between kindness and tension?

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I'm like, you struggle with the same issues. Someone comes up and you're thinking, do I be harsh to this person and just, do they need the harshness or they need the gentleness? I think that there's one blanket thing we can drop down on. This is to say, um, God gives grace to the proud, and he gives a different treatment. Grace to the proud, grace to the humble.

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Strike that. Reverse it. He gives.

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I think I quoted Willy Wonka just now.

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Grace, um, to the humble, but he's going to give judgment or harsher treatment to the proud. And so that can be, in a sense, a model for us is to say, hey, if the people I'm confronting or the people I'm dealing with, as long as they're walking in some measure of humility, I'm going to come a lot more nice and gentle. But when they are exhibiting pride, I may need to come stronger against them because of that pride. Now, I'm afraid to use that as a blanket rule because there's probably situations where somebody's full of pride and you come at them so gentle that it changes their heart. They're like, wow, that was so gentle. I feel like such a jerk. But there's other guys that will just be empowered. Your gentleness will be interpreted as affirming their arrogance and pride.

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So, in a sense, I want to back up to the scripture in Proverbs that says, answer a fool according to his folly, uh, lest he be wise in his own eyes. And it says, don't answer a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him.

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There's a danger in that. When you're confronting others and you're advocating for somebody, it's just risky. It's risky stuff. Who knows if it will actually work out? There may not be a perfect way to do it. There may be a righteous way to do it, but as far as a perfect way to do it, um, successful way to do it, now, in many cases, there just isn't one. Jesus himself confronted people, and he did some things gently. And by modern American standards, he did a lot of things harshly, by our standards. So do the apostles.

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So if you're going to be harsh, it's understandable. But my struggle for me personally, is I need to be harsh. Then when I have to be harsh, I'll be harsh without my pride, without my arrogance, without my sinfulness getting in there. That's my goal. I do not always succeed. I certainly don't. Um, but that's a good assessment to make. Jesus says, first, get the plank out of your own eye. Then you'll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. And the agenda, the goal behind it, when you're advocating for yourself or others, should be restoration, um, and help and aid and protection for other people as much as possible. And that will help guide you in what you do. Sorry, Andrew. I feel like my answer is just totally insufficient. Some pointers, some things I hope, help you out. But big question. Good question. Hard for me to feel like I've answered it really, really well.

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Anonymous question. Here we go. Hello, Mike, do you have any advice on how to become disciplined in life, such as in the realm of Bible study, sleep schedule, and working efficiently? How do I learn to force myself to do things?

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Um.

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How do I learn to force myself to do things?

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Um, I'll give you one piece of advice and probably a lot. I would say keep asking this question. Ask it of other people. Look online, how to create disciplines in your life. See what other people have come up with that might be helpful. But I'll give you one thing that's helped me a lot. Um, make commitments, obligate yourself to other people and to things. So you want to do better in Bible study?

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Commit, um, to specific. I'm going to study the Bible at these times, for this length of time. Maybe commit to actually being in a small group where you guys are going through the Bible and you're going to talk about it. So now you kind of have to. And maybe you're taking turns. Maybe you and three other friends get together and you're going to. You're each going to take a chapter of the Bible and share some insights about it each time you gather. And you'll rotate through. And this forces you to get in there and read the word because you have to share it with somebody else. Obligations can be a way of getting us to be more serious about things like that. Because sometimes you just don't do it if you feel like it's just for you.

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That's one thing that I think helps me. Being obligated to teach others makes me work a lot harder. It does me being obligated to, um, serve in different capacities in church, um, or in any way at all. You being obligated to do things is a huge motivator. You mentioned sleep. Um, yeah, I have insomnia, so I'm not sure if I'm the best person to ask on that. So, sleep schedule. What I used to do before I had this problem is I just. You just get up and start your day right away. Get up, hop in the shower right away and get going with your day. And because you're setting that alarm and getting up every day, you end up falling asleep earlier because you're tired.

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But, um, insomnia kind of changes the formula a bit.

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All right, number nine. Anonymous question here.

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Wait, that was number nine. This is number ten. Titus Crane has a question. Titus Crane. Crane. Hi, Mike. As your influence grows, how do you personally guard against the temptations of greed and the misuse of power, like the corrupted leaders you're revealing? Um. Okay, let's talk about it. How do I guard against greed? Um, I don't, uh, I don't take money to make videos. I don't, I reject every offer.

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For me personally getting paid to make videos or make content or promote people. Um, my Ministry is a 501c3 and the YouTube ad revenue that comes in goes into the ministry. It does not affect my paycheck and I don't think this would ever happen. But if my YouTube ministry made a million dollars of just ad revenue, which would mess uh, up even our 513 status if it happened. But if it did, it would not raise my salary. Um, so my salary is independent. My pay is independent of things like that. So that's like the greed thing. Um, there's a board that actually sets my pay, I don't set my pay and that kind of thing. You notice I don't sell things. I could sell stuff.

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Um, so I'm not opposed to like a guy writes a book and he's going to sell it and things like that. I don't think we should muzzle the ox as it treads out the grain, so to speak. But these are things that guard against greed and financial stuff and that stuff's huge. Um, I don't create content because I can't. Like, if I do a video and it does really good, I don't receive any difference in my salary. Like nothing changes there. So then the way we've set up my ministry, that removes the motive I would have for selfishly creating content to get clicks and views so that I would get more money. That's a real problem. Okay, That's a real problem that exists for many Christian YouTubers. And that was my solution for dealing with that.

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Set up a non profit and then make it so that my salary. Now you can do it other ways too probably. Maybe you set a salary and you donate money that comes in. If it's beyond that amount or something, I don't know.

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That's one thing. You also mentioned, um, misuse, ah, of power, man. How do you guard against the misuse of power? I think I just remember all the times that I was powerless. I think the best thing for me to do is this is going to come off like, um, it's false humility on my part. Oh, well, I don't know. I don't know how else to answer this without sharing this. I remember the times in my life when I didn't have power, which is most of my life, right, where there were leaders who were making decisions that sometimes were not to the benefit of the people that they were leading. And I would just see this happening and had nothing, no recourse, no way to fix it or do something about it. I've seen this many, many, many times. Um, I remember that I've served underneath others. Most pretty much. I've always been underneath people in my time in ministry, others with more authority, more control than I have. And in a sense, that's healthy for me because I didn't forget what that was like. And I don't want to forget it now. I don't want to forget it now.

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Remember those stories, remember those times, remember those frustrations. And don't start seeing yourself as the leader who is now in charge, but see yourself. I think what I want to remind myself to do is see yourself almost from an outside perspective, as if you can look at yourself now with the influence you've got, and you can see yourself as if you were still that person that didn't have any of that influence. That perspective can help some people remember where you came from or something. I don't know. That's kind of weird language, but that can help. Um, misuse of power. I have a board. I've gone to the leaders in my church. I've gone to the elders in my church, multiple of them. I didn't go to every single one. Um, I'd be happy to, but I didn't think it was needed. But I went to several of the leaders and I said, hey, my ministry's parachurch. I know that I'm doing all this stuff, and sometimes it's going to be things that you guys might say, hey, Mike, I feel like maybe there's a problem with what you did there. I said, look, I'm not looking for you guys to be responsible for all the content I make, but I'm submitted to you. And if you see a problem with my character or you see something I'm doing that you think is out of line, please come and talk to me. Confront me. I submit to you. You're my elders, my leaders. Um, so I've had that conversation with those leaders, the multiple of them, because I didn't want this sort of weirdness to be there where they felt uncomfortable coming to me. And shortly after this, one of them came to me and said, actually, I saw something on your videos. I thought this was kind of weird. And I was like, yeah, I think you're right. Here's why I did it. But you made a good point that was a little inappropriate. So that's one way. Um, yeah, those are some of the things.

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But am I safe? No, no, no, no. I am not safe. I have to die to myself every day. And the people who have more influence and more power are going to be more potential danger. You can bring more good, but you can also bring more harm. That's why there's greater accountability for us.

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I'm seeking to expose leaders. I mean, it's not really what I'm seeking to expose. Leaders. It sounds weird to say it that way. I'm seeking to help, uh, create accountability where there needs to be to protect those who've been harmed in leadership by leaders. Um, and there's a lack of accountability and a lack of proper handling of those situations and stuff. And I feel that I should, to some extent, get involved.

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That's all kinds of ground for my pride to come in and arrogance to come in and carnality and bitterness and evil motive.

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All kind of opportunity. I just have to try to fight against it, and I may not succeed.

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Maybe I'm not safe. Maybe I'll be someone down the road and you guys go, man, he really went south. I mean, there's always people online who will say that about me, whether it's true or not, but it could actually happen.

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God help me. God help me. So we all need to take a look at the abyss where we see people who once were doing well, or at least seemed like they were doing well, who are now lying at the bottom of the pit because of their pride and their unresolved sin issues. And we have to go. That's where I'm headed to.

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That is exactly where I'm headed to. Unless I am very serious to deal with my own issues, we're all going to go down that path. It's crazy how many people end badly.

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So on that note, um, here's a quick update. I am going to continue making some content over the next couple months. This stuff takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of time behind the scenes to make even one video. Interviewing witnesses, gathering data, confirming things. And I do intend to make more. I understand that Todd White has come out and asked people in his. Students in his school. After my video went up yesterday on Todd White. You can search for it. You'll find it easy. Um, he went and asked students in his school. This is what I've heard from what I think is a credible source. He, um, asked students in his school to go to the video and comment on it in order to, like, fight against what I'm saying. Like, so to, like, cast judgments against me. For what I've done in making the video. This is interesting because in the past he's told people not to watch videos that were made about him, but this time he's actually asking people to go and, uh, reportedly actively do this. That's different. I think this is a sign that this video is making a big difference, a real difference. And I take that as a positive thing. So that's all I got for you guys today. I do have to go, so thanks for joining me. Um, no predictions about what's coming up next, but there's a lot more. There's so much more. Oh, man.

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I, um, laugh because it hurts. There's so much stuff.

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Um, I appreciate your prayers that I would do it well. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for your love and your grace upon us. We pray that you can help all of us. Um, especially I pray that you would help me find the balance between exposing shining light on things versus graciously covering sins, dealing openly with abuses versus, um, trying to create an atmosphere for healing and for restoration. We just pray for wisdom and all that. Lord God, may you be glorified. May you help me to do this well. And we pray that for leaders that you want to expose, if it is in fact your will to do that, we pray that you would give people boldness and courage to step forward, become witnesses, and even share evidence and testimonies so that they can protect others from more of the same harms. In Jesus name, Amen.

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Mhm.

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Sa.