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Does it feel like Satan won't leave you alone? Let me read the question today. Question number one from Juan, who says the Bible says when we resist the devil, he will flee. James, chapter four, verse seven. We will look at this verse, we'll look at the context, we'll do all that good stuff. And he asks, so why does it often feel like spiritual warfare increases when we try to resist sins of the flesh, addictions, etc. When I resist, it doesn't feel like the devil flees. It feels like he tries even harder to, to get me to fail.

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Why is this so good? Uh, question from Juan. I want to know the answer to that question as well.

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Just starting off extra cheesy for you guys today.

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No cats on screen at the moment. Maybe Juan will join us later. My name is Mike Winger. I'm here to help you think biblically about everything.

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That's my goal. And that means not me telling you the answers to everything, but helping you, especially with the Q and A. Helping you with walk through the thought process.

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Me and my wife like watching, uh, game shows sometimes, and there's these quiz shows and we like them because we get to play along like we're answering the quiz questions to see how far we can get in the show.

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It's an audience participation show as opposed to mere entertainment. That's what the Q and A is. You're participating. What is your answer to this question? And then we're going to look at some scripture and try and figure out if we can get more insights on it.

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So what does this scripture actually say here in James, chapter five, verse seven? And we've got your guys. Um, uh, I don't think it was chapter five. It was chapter four, verse seven. We've got your guys. Questions coming in to the live stream. I'll be answering 10 questions today as I do on typical Fridays, and here it is on your screen. Submit yourselves therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

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Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. You double minded. Why do I read verse eight? Oh, uh, because you really. It's the counterpoint. You're going to submit yourself to God and here's how you're going to do it. You'll resist the devil, he'll flee from you. Then you'll draw near to God, and he'll draw near to you. One of them is fleeing from you, and one is drawing near to you. As the enemy flees, so God himself is drawing near as you are drawing near to him. Which is just a really beautiful encouragement because so many people think it's too late for me. I've blown it too many times, I've made too many mistakes. God won't draw near to me. But here's just a biblical promise where he's like, hey, you need to do this. God will draw near to you, but you need to resist the enemy. You need to submit to God.

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And why does it sometimes feel like this doesn't work? You're trying to resist sins, you're buckling down, you're holding off, you refuse the flesh and it just gets worse, it just gets harder. And I think that, um, there's probably a lot of answers I can give to this question. I'll run through some scriptures specifically here.

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So we have an example of Jesus doing this. In the wilderness, Satan comes to tempt him. And there, while he's being tempted, he is going to demonstrate for us exactly the things that the Bible is talking about here, that when he resists Satan, he rebukes him, uh, with scripture, he rejects his temptations and he won't do what he says. And it's a 40 day wilderness. 4T4 0 days of fasting and being tempted. Okay, that's an extended period of time. So if you thought resist the devil and he'll flee, it meant like 10 minutes. I should be better now. A weekend. I should be better now. It's not this instantaneous thing. Uh, I resist and he's gone.

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No, there may be an elongated time of temptation, but there's a promise that you can't overcome. In fact, that's going to be the bottom line, is there's a rule here that you can overcome when the enemy's tempting you. You can. You absolutely can. Why do we need to hear this so much? Because so often what we tell ourselves, maybe because it makes us feel better about our failures. I speak as one who tells myself this, and I have to say, no, that's not true. Because it makes me feel better about my failures. And I go, no, that's not true. But the thing we tell ourselves sometimes is, I can't help it. I couldn't help it. I have some excuse, some reason why I am powerless to resist Satan, powerless to resist my sinful carnal flesh, and therefore I couldn't help it. And I think what scripture does over and over again is it re empowers believers to say, you absolutely can resist this. You absolutely can say no to this, and you can pass this test.

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M First Corinthians 10:13. A great memory verse for you if you need a memory verse, right? God is not. He won't allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. But he'll with the temptation, provide a way of escape, that you may be able to endure it, that you always have the ability to say no, God is on your side already. So if you resist the enemy, he's going to flee from you. You draw near to God, he's going to draw near to you. That's the short answer. But why does it seem like it gets worse instead of better?

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I think the nature of it getting worse instead of better is just the nature of temptation. These are simply the tactics of Satan. He's using your flesh, your own desires, he's using the, the pressure of the world around you. And a great example of this is the Book of Job.

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So in the Book of Job, we hear Satan wants to tempt Job to curse God. And so he strikes his finances and boom, his money's taken out. And then he won't curse God, so he strikes his family. Boom, his kids are taken out, he won't curse God. So Satan strikes his physical body and he's got all these open sores, and he still won't curse God. And then he gets miserable comforters, his friends, who effectively make things worse instead of better.

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And he still won't curse God. Although he says some foolish things, he does not curse God. Right.

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He gets corrected later on for some foolish thinking he has. And it's good correction for all of us.

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Excellent stuff. You have to take the whole book of Job to understand it, not just any one chapter. But that being said, Job could have asked this halfway through his temptation. Why is it that when I resisted the enemy, not only did my crops and my animals die, but then my kids died? Why is it that when I resisted the enemy, not only did my kids die, but then I physically was attacked and assaulted and brought to nothing?

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Um, that's just part of Satan's tactics. You have to have long term endurance against the enemy. I have to have long term endurance against Satan and against my flesh. And I've noticed this arc in my own life. Have you? Where there's a sin that's ongoing in my life, I repent of this thing. And it's when I say I'm going to resist this, especially if it's anything you might consider addiction related, you're then going to feel an even stronger impulse to do it for a season. For a season. It'll be even Harder. But then as you establish new patterns of behavior, as you draw near to God and God draws near to you, all of a sudden the strength of that temptation suddenly decreases. And it may still be there, but it's not strong like it was.

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It's actually, you've come to, like a new plateau, a new normal state where. Where it's not as difficult because you've successfully resisted it.

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And my counsel there, just being a Christian, but, um, also having many years as a pastor would be, um, make sure that when you resist sin, you may feel like it keeps getting worse and worse and worse. And one of the reasons this could be why you never get over the hump. You never get to a place where, okay, I have some reprieve. It's as though the enemy has fled. Things have gotten easier. It can be because I've only resisted it in the outward expression, but I've harbored sin in my heart.

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So I'll give you an example. Let's say you're tempted with bitterness towards those who've hurt you in the past.

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And you think, I won't say a word against them. Someone brings up their name, I won't say a word. I'm going to resist that bitterness. But in my heart, I'm incredibly bitter. I'm ruminating, I'm going over it. I'm saying all kinds of words against them in my own mind. When I'm taking a shower, I'm having conversations about them with them, you know, or I'm, uh, telling them all the stuff I wish they knew. And I'm allowing that bitterness to be harbored in my heart. Or a man who says, I won't cheat on my wife, but he's then harboring lustful desires. Every woman he looks at. And because he's not really resisting sin, he's just resisting certain pieces of it, but he's still harboring in his heart. He could say, I resist and Satan won't flee. Well, ah, you're not really resisting. This is actual, um, actual biblical response to temptation is to die to self. Not just to limit how much control it has in your life. It's actually to die to self. As in, I won't do this at all. I won't allow it to have a place in my heart and life. I resist it. That's resistance resisting in that real sense.

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So, um, this idea that it gets harder before it gets better is not surprising. Um, that's what happened to Job. Jesus had an extended time of temptation, and then it wasn't like that. Was the only time he was tempted. When life gets hard, Satan may come at you even harder.

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That very well may happen.

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You're down, you're feeling depressed, you're going through hard times, you're feeling alone, um, a lot of stress. All of a sudden, that old temptation comes right back, fresh and new. And again you have to start all over, resisting again. Jesus had this happen to him too. He's tempted in the wilderness. He resists. Satan flees.

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Then when he's in the garden, he's tempted again. And he's very tempted to just rebel against the plan of the Father and not go to the cross. He's going to be going through this horrific stuff that's unimaginably difficult. Not only physically, emotionally, spiritually, in every way.

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And he overcomes again. So, yes, uh, you can still have another battle, another instance that'll come.

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But the encouragement, I think the main encouragement of James here is that you can, you can resist this. Now, if you want to look back at the context to understand the kind of stuff James is talking about, let's read more. So James 4, verse 1. What was the thing that James was like, hey, here's what you have to resist, he says, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? Right. Uh, you are being ruled by your desires, and they're not being filtered through the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, you desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you don't ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

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So carnal, uh, desire, selfishness and wanting to appease my impulses.

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That's the thing that's driving all sorts of problems that he talks about in James 4. And then he says, you adulterous people, he calls it adultery. It's spiritual adultery. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Uh, scripture says that covetousness, just being filled with desire for things that aren't for you, um, that is itself idolatry.

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And idolatry and adultery are parallel, spiritually speaking. And so he calls them adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity or hatred with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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Or do you suppose that it is to no purpose that the scripture says, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us, but he gives More grace. Therefore it says, now what's he say to the person who's caught up in spiritual adultery, full of passions, strife, bitterness, um, this is like serious sin that they're locked in because of their own desires. And he says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. And such an encouragement. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

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This is great encouragement. It means, however dark things have gotten, get back up. Draw near to God. Take your sins seriously. Yes, Be sorrowful. Yes. Be grieving. Cut it off. And God will draw near to you. And that stronghold Satan has in your life because of that sin you've been yielding to, that will be broken and you will achieve victory. But it's going to take time. So you're just experiencing the spiritual battle that all of us go through when you ask this question. All right, let's go to question number two coming from RememberTheRiver, who says, what is the biblical understanding of blasphemy? A Catholic online was complaining about how Protestants blaspheme. Mary, how do we biblically define blasphemy and what verses support this?

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Um, I mean, so we often have. See if you guys need to track with me on this, because I apologize ahead of time if I don't explain it perfectly well. So it's going to require you to really track with me on this. Um, we have what I would call theological definitions of terms.

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Then the Bible will often use those terms and it uses them in normal language.

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I'll give you an example. Um, so the Bible uses the term justification or justified, and it uses that term in a variety of ways. Now we have a doctrine, a theological doctrine called justification. And that's a very important doctrine. So when I say, uh, if I'm doing theology stuff, I go, hey, justification. You know, I mean the doctrine.

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I don't mean always what the New Testament means when it uses the term. Now, the New Testament teaches the doctrine of justification, right?

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It's taught, but it doesn't always use the word justify to imply the doctrine justification. So James 2 uses justify to mean, as I understand it, I've spent a lot of time on this. James 2 meaning proven true or proven right.

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Right. You're proven right. Ah. Uh, that, uh, justified his claim, your works justify your. Your claim of faith. That's a paraphrase. Okay, but that's, I think, how he's using the term. Whereas Paul uses the term justified sometimes in the very theological, strict sense. This is how you are made right with God. As in, your sins are washed away and you're given right relationship with God. Your righteousness, uh, is not the standard. It's Christ's righteousness, and you are then justified by him. And it's very theological.

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Okay, now let's transfer over to, like, a different word. So saved. The Bible will use the word saved to talk about physical salvation from suffering or pain or death. It will also use saved to talk about doctrinal salvation. Like how we have in a theology book. What does saved mean? We also have this issue with blasphemy.

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Blasphemy can be like a more theological term. How do we define blasphemy? I think that what blasphemy would mean in this sort of basic vocabulary of people writing the text is just to speak evil against something or someone against God. In particular, to speak evil against God M. Uh, in some way, it's a verbal sin.

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It's something you say or state. You, uh, could write blasphemy, I guess, but it's about communication. I communicated something that was untrue, that was wicked about God.

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And so you can't blaspheme, Mary. Uh, that's not possible if that's what it means. If it refers to God specifically, just the way have it in the New Testament, I don't think you can blaspheme, Mary. I think blasphemy, to my knowledge, is just something you can do against God.

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Let me read your question one more time, make sure I didn't miss something important there. What's the biblical understanding of blasphemy? A Catholic online was complaining about how Protestants blaspheme Mary.

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Um, how do we biblically define it? Yeah, so the way that you define it is you go to the term itself and you look at how it's used in context. Um, that's how you biblically define something.

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But you also recognize there's different authors, and different authors may use the same term, uh, in different ways, just like we do in English. Normally in English, we can do the same thing. So Paul and James using the word justify to refer to different things.

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Uh, let's see. I'm gonna think of a good example of this. Um, Paul talks about in Acts 26:11. Here's an example.

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Um, I punished them often in every Synagogue. This is before he was saved. He was persecuting Christians. And I compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. Now, what probably happened here is Paul went to Christians, he threatened them or tortured them or. Or worse, um, with the assistance of others. And then he compelled them to deny Jesus, to reject Jesus, to say false things about Jesus and the Gospel itself. So he was called this blasphemy because it was about God. It wasn't that they were.

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You can't blaspheme Paul. You can blaspheme God, you can blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you can blaspheme the Son.

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But that's just how I understand, how I understand the term and how it's used.

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Um, yeah, in relation to. I'm looking up here, uh, in bdag, where it talks about the term blasphemy, um, in the Greek. And it does have it used in different ways. So here's another way to look this up is.

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I'm just going to show you on screen. This is what research looks like in real time.

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Um, here we go. I think I got it. Where I can put on your screen there a little bit small, but a lot of you will be able to read it. If. Do you know if you're on YouTube, by the way, you can. You can actually zoom. Use your fingers on your cell phone and zoom in.

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Congratulations. For those who didn't know that, maybe it'll help you out. All right, so this is the same word, um, for blasphemy that we have in the Greek.

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And, um, blasphemous, blasphemeo.

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In relation to humans, it's slander, revile, or defame. That's how. It's how it's going to be translated. It's not usually translated as blaspheme in relation to humans because the English word blasphemy tends to have this God connotation to it in relation to transcendent or associated entities. Slander, revile, defame, speak irreverently and piously, disrespectfully or about you. Um, guys can read this bdag. What this does is it's a Greek resource that provides. I'll be real quick on this for those who are like, oh, you're killing me, Mike. Um, it provides a bunch of different sources of examples, times that it was used. So you could look at specific ones. In Diodorus, um, it's in this exact location. In Diodorus, in Philo, it's referenced in, um, the special. I think it's on your screen there. Yeah, it's showing up good. The special laws. You can see how he uses the term there. And this is how you establish the meaning of a Greek word. That doesn't necessarily mean that's what that author in the New Testament meant of it.

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Um, here's it being used of Christ in particular.

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Um, there's a different variation.

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And, um, I have to. Honestly, this is where I'd have to actually spend the time, like 20 minutes reading through it, looking up references and resources.

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So tell me what you guys think. In my view, blasphemy is usually used of God. I. If somebody slandered me or lied about me or reviled me, I would never call it blasphemy. Um, sometimes people think. Catholics often think we're attacking Mary, um, because we're not affirming the same doctrines they do about Mary. But that sort of assumes that those doctrines that they have are true.

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Think about this. If the assumption is that the Marian dogmas are all true, then the conclusion is you're slandering Mary by not affirming them. So if I say, well, I don't believe Mary was bodily assumed, and they can say, well, you're slandering Mary, or I don't think Mary has, um, any kind of role of intercession between me and Jesus in some ongoing sense and that she hears prayers and all that sort of thing, then, um, they might see us as slandering her. But if in fact those doctrines are not true, Mary would actually agree with us and go, yeah, and just maybe look at the Catholic and say, hey, stop making stuff up about me. That's not true.

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So it sort of assumes Protestants are false to then bring an accusation, um, about their wrong speaking. Anyway, we'll go to the next question number three.

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Philagape says, Mike, what are your thoughts on the dispute between Paul and Barnabas over Mark? Oh, this is super interesting. In Acts 15, were either of them at fault? What can we take from it? Thank you for your ministry. Um, yeah, I'm going to go to the passage and we're going to look at it.

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So in Acts 15, and we learned a little bit about this in Acts and then a little bit more, um, in one of Paul's letters where he mentions it. So by the way, for those who don't know, my shirt. This is rice. Or, uh, this is rice. This is. Sorry, this camera's backwards. It confuses my brain. We got rice on one side, we got fish on the Other. It's a sushi shirt. That's it.

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So she's good.

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All right. Now, Barnabas wanted to take with them.

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John called Mark, but Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had gone, not gone with them, to do to the work.

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What is going on here? Well, they were previously traveling. Paul's spent some time doing missions stuff. And at this point he's already traveled with Mark and he's seen people on the mission field where maybe they really thrive or maybe they get scared or they have whatever other issues Mark, it seems he drew back from them in Pamphylia is what it says. It looks like this wasn't just him getting sick or something like that, but it seems as though Paul thought it was some sort of a lack of fulfilling the duty that he had as a missionary with Paul and Barnabas, with the two of them. So he goes, I don't want to bring Mark with me. I don't want to take him on this next trip.

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He's not ready for this. Um, he's not committed to this, whatever it was.

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Barnabas, on the other hand, he disagrees. And a lot of people have pointed out that Barnabas is also one of the, you know, he's like this guy who it seems from the two examples we have of Paul and Mark, he goes after somebody who other people won't minister with and who don't and they don't trust. And Barnabas goes after them and he's like, trying to connect with them and build an opportunity for them to serve. And so he kind of has, like this, I wouldn't say restoration type ministry, but, um, a very hopeful type ministry. And his name, Barnabas, like, son of Encouragement, He's a very encouraging guy. Um, Paul, he doesn't want to go with Mark. Barnabas does. Verse 39. There arose a sharp disagreement. Okay, so it was significant.

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Ah, there's another translation that puts it slightly differently. Is it New King James? I think, um, the contention became so sharp they parted from one another.

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Oh, I'm thinking of the Acts. Is it Acts?

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There's another one where, um.

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Okay, I'm just thinking of a different verse.

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Sorry, uh, about that. So there rose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other. So they actually split up. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

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Now what indications do we have about who was right.

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Um, well, we don't have any clear indications about who was right here. We just know Mark really did withdraw from them in Pamphylia and he hadn't gone on with them to the work. And that Paul clearly thought, he's not fit for this next job. Barnabas thought, I do want him there. We know they split. We know the book of Acts follows Paul, not Barnabas. After this.

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I don't take that, um, I'm just throwing out the things we know. I don't take that as commentary. That therefore Paul was right.

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Because, um, it was, I think that if, if Paul had been wrong, Acts still would have followed Paul. Paul's the apostle to the Gentiles. The theme of Acts isn't going to shift because of this one dispute over Mark. Where all of a sudden Acts goes. Going to have to follow Barnabas now as Luke's writing, because it was really about commenting on who was right. On the other hand, you've got this encouragement. Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. This is certainly not negative commentary on Paul. This is positive commentary on Paul. Is it about his choice between Silas and Mark? No, it's about his ministry in general. His ministry is commended and he strengthens the churches.

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And all we have about Barnabas is they sailed away to Cyprus. We don't really even have descriptions of what they did there. We don't really know.

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So that to say in a subtle way, Paul is in a more positive light than Barnabas is in this particular passage.

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Now, here's a counterpoint to that. Let me add one more piece of the puzzle there. And this comes from one of the letters, um, of Paul, where he actually talks about Mark, um, and he says, sin. You know, I think it's sin Mark, for he's profitable to me.

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Can I find this passage?

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Um, There we go. It's second Timothy 4, 11.

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Okay, this is super cool. So this is years later. This is. This is chronologically coming after the events we just read about in Acts.

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And Paul writes to Timothy and he says, only Luke is with me. So he's feeling alone. He's feeling like he doesn't have very many people with him right now. And then he says, get Mark and bring him with you, for he's useful to me for ministry.

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That's so cool to me. Okay. I don't know if it means Paul was right or wrong, but it is just cool to me to hear that there's a guy. Paul goes, I won't travel with you, Mark. And if Barnabas insists, I'd rather split and have us go separate ways.

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Um, now you might be like, well, Paul was being bitter, or maybe Paul was being wise. I'm not going to make that assumption.

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But it's so cool to see that down the road, some time goes by and he's like, get Mark and bring him. He's useful to me for ministry. That would have been, like, such a powerful thing for Mark to hear and for others to hear about Mark. And it's an encouragement, I think. Even if you blew it in ministry in the past, even if you had to be sat down for some reason, it. It doesn't mean you can't be reinstated. Now. There's some people who are, uh. Like, there's a guy who was, um, abusing his ministry, saying he's a prophet so that he could do highly abusive behaviors. You guys know what I mean, towards people.

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Um, and he did this for like, 10 years. And then he gets exposed. I mean, I'm probably never going to trust a guy like that in the leadership again. But there's plenty of people who just. They blew it, man. They just got weary, they got beat down, they started getting carnal, and then they backed off ministry. And it was to the point where their own leaders were like, I don't think I can use that guy. And how cool that there might be a time in the future where they go, hey, bring him with you. He's useful to me for ministry. This would be a good thing. I want to see him around. The ESV puts it this way. He's very useful to me for ministry. I like that.

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That's exciting.

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So what's my commentary? Um, I can tell you how I've heard a lot of leaders talk about this passage in the past.

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I don't know who was right or wrong or if there is a clear right or wrong.

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Maybe, um, Barnabas was right because of his particular ministry. Maybe it was good for him to partner with Mark and be part of him kind of getting fixed. Maybe it was right for Paul because of his ministry. And he's doing this, like, spearhead evangelism, going out and hard plowing into new lands, planting churches. Um, he needed people who are very reliable and who don't need all that work. And so maybe it was right for Paul. Maybe they were both right.

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I'm not sure that either of them were wrong.

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It could be that Barnabas just has a different ministry than Paul and Then that led them to end up splitting. And this is actually how a lot of people have used this in the past.

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Some churches split and some ministries split because of major sin issues and major disagreements that are huge stuff that you can't overcome.

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There's other times where things split because they just have different visions.

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And now, um, I'm leery of saying that to people like, well, we just split because I had a different vision than them. A lot of people will use that vague language as a way of covering that something really bad did happen. Like, this guy committed adultery, and this guy said, I'll never do ministry with you. You haven't even repented. And then they split up. But people ask publicly, and they cover the sins of these guys in an unbiblical way. You're not supposed to do that. They cover it unbiblically. When a leader does something like that, you have to say it publicly.

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Um, and then publicly they say, well, God called him to a new thing, and we have different visions. That happens.

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So I'm not cool with how that happens, where someone's like, God called me, like Abraham to go to a new place. And the reality is he got fired for stealing, uh, ministry funds or something crazy that everybody should know about.

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On the other hand, there are times where people have different visions. You know, um, my ministry is different than my online ministry is different than my church ministry for the years and years before I was doing this. Well, I did both at the same time for a long time. But eventually this took over. And it's important that my online ministry is separate. Though I'm in submission to my church, it should be separate from my church because I do have a different vision than the church. My purposes are different, my methods are different. And so they should be seen as a separate entity and a separate thing. That's an important thing. That's just one example. Um, there's others I'm sure we could probably give. So maybe what we see with Paul and Barnabas is how there can be a complicated time where there's differences of ministry styles and allegiances to different people, and ministries just go their separate ways, but not in a way that is, I hope, divisive carnally, but is simply splitting up the ministry so they can pursue different visions. Even though it was messy, fully admit it was messy. So that's kind of how I've heard that passage used is to help people kind of wrestle with what are just the genuine complexities of ministry. Long term, short term. You don't have these stories, but do it for 20, 30 years, you get these stories, and life is complicated.

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And it's encouraging that the New Testament apostles dealt with some of that stuff, too.

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All right, we'll go to the next question. Number four.

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Um.

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Hey, Mike. Hey, atheist. Despite Romans 1:20, I, um, do not inherently see God in his creation. I choose to believe in God, but I feel like an ant lacking the capacity to contemplate my surroundings, let alone a creator.

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Yeah, Thais. Uh, let's look at the passage and then we'll talk about your comments. You didn't ask a question there, but I'm going to guess at what your question is.

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How do I reconcile not seeing God in creation with the fact that Scripture says I can?

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So how do I reconcile that?

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You're not remotely alone in that. I think the majority of people see God in creation, but not everybody. Um, talk about that.

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Romans 1:20.

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Um, actually, I'm going to back up a little bit.

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Okay, so I'll back up. I'll do verse 18 because I don't want to miss the flow of the actual passage here. It says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

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Who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. And then what are they suppressing for? What can be known about God? What can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

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This verse right here is the idea that, yeah, you know what?

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You can know God exists reasonably. You can reasonably conclude that God exists because God's already showed it to you. Verse 20. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so that they are without excuse.

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Now, this is the. There's so much stuff to talk about here. This is a passage that has led many to say that there is no such thing as an atheist.

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They clearly perceive it. They know that God exists, and they're just lying, saying that I don't believe in God. When you know God exists, you're just lying. Now, there are some atheists who do this. Um, just like there are some people who say, I believe in God and they don't really believe in God. But there are some atheists who will lie about this stuff. Um, however, I don't think that that is a fair thing to say to an atheist who goes, I don't believe in God. And you go, yes, you do. You know he exists. You're a liar. I don't think that that's a fair thing to say as a blanket statement about all atheists. And let's read more of the passage to understand why. So, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became what? Futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. This is not somebody who is knowingly lying. This is somebody who has had a darkened heart and is now subject to feudal thinking.

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Claiming to be wise. They are liars. No, claiming to be wise, they became fools.

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And they what? They actually exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

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Therefore, God gave them up.

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God allows them to fall into the lies. He gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. What did they do? They exchanged the what about God? The truth about God. And what did they get? A lie. Yes, there's a lie. But there's a lie they're believing. It's not just a lie they're telling. It's a lie they're believing and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who's blessed forever for this reason. God gave them up. And it goes on to talk about relevant, uh, issues. This is June, so if you're watching this later, this is Pride month, so there's a relevant verse. God gave them up to dishonorable passions, that is, the desires themselves are wicked, not just the actions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. So the Bible condemns both, um, homosexual and lesbian, uh, activities, or gay and lesbian, I should say.

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And, uh, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit. Here's why I'm still reading. They didn't see fit to acknowledge God. God gave them up to a debased mind.

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You can go on. Uh, it does go on. Other sins, other issues. And this is why God's wrath is justifiably coming on man. Why? Because you all know God exists, or at least you should, and you reject him. You go into sins and you experience the darkening of your minds.

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Now, am I saying all of that is true of you?

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Uh, no. Uh, let me have, hopefully, a thoughtful answer for you here. Thais, you do believe in God.

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Um, but you look around and you feel like you still aren't perceiving him in creation.

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Here I will say there is in some sense, while I would not accuse you of everything in Romans 1, here there is some sense where there is some overlap, some partial overlap of what we read in Romans 1 and what's going on in your mind, and that is that there are lies about God that God has given people over to. And some of those lies are still present in your mind.

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I'll give you an example. When you look at a cloud and you look at the stars and you see a majestic mountain, or a dolphin jumping out of the water and going back in, or just a beautiful wave crashing, you look at like a baby being a newborn baby, I'll say, um, and you see these things and you don't think to yourself, it's obvious God exists.

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That's because there is darkness in your reasoning on these issues.

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It should be obvious to you that God exists when you see these things, when you look at creation, it should be plainly obvious. Now, I could offer arguments, and if you haven't heard these arguments at Theus, I'd encourage. Now I'm giving you my assessment. Okay. This is not a personal insult. I'm going to pause for a second.

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There are many who would think that by me saying there's something, there's a darkness over your mind, that they would think I'm insulting you on this. And I'm certainly not. Uh, that's. That's not a personal insult. M. I'm trying to assess how your thought process deals with the reality of what scripture has said and the reality of what creation itself declares.

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And we are certainly all capable of having darkened minds in a variety of ways. I've been there myself many times.

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Um, and someone telling me that I was experiencing darkness there in my head is only helpful to me because they care. Yeah, but here's where I would say, um, you can have the common sense thing where you just sort of walk out and you look around and you go, obviously there's a God.

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There's a being that is incredibly intelligent, incredibly powerful, and that is simply not part of this creation, but is the one who made all of this creation. Like, you get the realization that there's a God. You feel that morality is true. And I don't mean emotionally, but you sense, you perceive that morality is true. You have moral perceptions. And therefore you go, there must be a good moral authority, a moral source, an ultimate God who is powerful, who Is creator who is moral, who is all those things.

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And that should be something you can tell just by looking around. Now, does that mean everybody does? Um, no, plenty of them. What happens is in these different cultures, they look around, they see that there's a God and they redirect that to creation. Now, m. In our modern times, this is where you redirect it to perhaps not idols, perhaps you redirect it to naturalistic causes. Oh, well, maybe the universe just popped into existence out of nothing. Oh, well, that sounds silly. Yes, but didn't Stephen Hawking say something super smart about black holes that I didn't understand? But maybe that explains it.

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Or maybe, maybe the universe is rubber banding and time just goes forward and backwards and forward and backward. And what caused it? We have no idea. We have no explanation.

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This is darkness on the mind. When I go, not God, but this other thing that's just a random theory or has no true full support.

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Um, if I was to really understand it, well, that is what replaces the clear evidence of God in our minds in our culture nowadays. A lot is this idea. And oftentimes they just push it back one step. So they'll go, um, well, what made the universe? Then they go, oh, well, the Big bang made the universe. They go, okay, you didn't answer my question.

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What caused the big. Where did all this stuff come from? Why did it blow up?

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And how did it just happen to land in this perfect way in which it landed for human life? You didn't answer my question. They go, well, we got lucky.

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Okay, that doesn't make sense.

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How about, well, the universe exploded into existence and all this. But you know what? Here's my explanation. There's a multiverse. There are trillions and gazillions and bajillions of universes out there. There's so many universes that surely one of them would have got really lucky and we would have ended up with life permitting situations and we ended up with actual life on Earth. Um, and you're like, wait a minute. To explain one universe, you have now invented unlimited infinite universes. Do you see how you've made the problem worse and not better?

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This does not explain God's universe.

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God's place in the creation of the world doesn't replace him in any way, shape or form or, uh, others. I knew a young guy back in the day who was telling me he believed in string theory. He goes, well, I think strings vibrated everything into existence. And I listened to him and I thought, I don't think he understands string Theory very well. But it's one of those things where you hear a little bit about it, you get fascinated, and then you find a scientific thing that becomes like a magic wand. Um, uh, quantum physics is the current one. Well, quantum.

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Quantum physics, it's the magic wand that just does whatever I think I want it to do. Maybe the whole universe is a quantum fluctuation.

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What does that mean? I don't know. I don't know. But I don't need God if I say that.

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Um, so, you know, he says string theory. And my response was like, what do you think? Where do you think these strings came from? And how is it that they have the ability to create everything in existence?

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And he did. He had no idea. He had never even thought of the question because he'd arbitrarily stopped his search for, um, a creator or for an origin of all things write its strings. I'm just going to stop there. I'm going to stop at a multiverse. I won't even ask where that came from.

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Um, or how you get all these different universes going over and over again.

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And it's just.

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It's obvious God exists. It's scientifically obvious God exists. It's common sense obvious God exists.

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And if you don't see it, this doesn't mean you're in conscious rebellion against God. But you do live in a world where there is a bunch of lies and oppression and deceit flying around because you've interacted with humans and lived and sat under their teaching teachers. You don't even remember who planted seeds that may have you keeping you from being able to see God in creation.

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So I would ask you to, uh, spend more time thinking about it. You're in a safe place. You trust in God. But I would say pray that the Lord will help you to see how creation shows his glory. Because it's a wonderful thing to look at creation and go, God is amazing and just be overwhelmed by it. I like that song, um, how great Thou Art, you know? And he says, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed. And then it sings my soul, My Savior God, to thee, how great Thou art. When you see that thunder is giving reverence and majesty to God, and you see just the wiggling of tree leaves and the wind, and you go, wow, God is amazing.

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Um, it leads you to a place of worship that is beautiful and wonderful. So I hope you can get there.

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Kate Emerson says, can you share some advice on how to approach church leadership with concerns regarding what appears to be false theology creeping into my church. Specifically a lot of hillsong or elevation songs, uh, TPT references, etc. All right, Kate, I'm going to give you several tips really quick, and I hope they help. Okay.

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First, um, thing is, church leaders will often feel, uh, very on edge. Um, they tend to feel more offended and threatened if you don't go first to them privately. So if it's part of your own fellowship, go to them individually, Go to them as quietly as possible where you haven't talked to a bunch of people about it yet.

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And I would also say go with the olive branch out, which means you're going to have the greatest amount of optimism you can possibly have in the first meeting where you're like, hey, I love you. In uh, fact, I would preface it with genuine thanks. I love you. I appreciate you, and I have so much trust for you and respect for you. I have some concerns I'd like to bring to you because I think that you can work through this, and you're just trying to build a bridge for them that helps them not get their.

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They're back up against the wall. Because the second that happens, it's over.

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Um, when you bring these types of concerns, what often happens is someone goes to a church leader. Here's another piece of advice.

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Take it or leave it. But when someone goes to a church leader, what they often do is they'll come and they'll just start sort of almost rambling their complaints out. Now, the problem with that is that you may have, you know, 20 minutes of things you want to say, and you only get the first two minutes out before they start responding, if you even get that far. And that first two minutes was you just sort of warming up.

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You're like, we have these worship songs that are compromised in our church. And, um, this is the reason why Christians aren't grounded in God's word. And you're saying these things that to them sound like these unfounded, extreme accusations against them and their ministry and the people they love in the church.

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So instead, what you should start with is evidence, not claims.

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Start with the evidence. Start with a demonstration of, here's. Look at this, look at this, look at this, look at this. Here's things I want you to look at. I would consider bringing a printed packet where you can actually show it to them and maybe even start the preface it by saying, this may be uncomfortable. I don't want it to be, but will you give me, like, five or ten minutes to fully explain the things that I'm Concerned about. I really want to hear what you have to say about it.

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That's a great bridge building way of doing it.

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Then you start with the most important evidence and stuff first.

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Right? So it won't just be these worship songs are too lovey dovey about God. Okay? That is not the most important thing to put first. If you have a worship song that actually has false theology, then you front load. Here's a false theology issue. You try to also draw a bridge. So specific evidence. Here's the lyrics, I printed them out for you. Here's the text of scripture that was used. Um, there maybe show them how it's affecting people. Because a lot of leaders, they just don't think that deeply about those things. And so then they don't think it's affecting anybody. They think you're just making a big deal about it. So instead what you can do is say, I spoke with so and so in the church and they were telling me that they are now looking into mysticism because of this book that we recommended from the pulpit. You give specific examples, you try to help people understand why it's relevant.

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All this is because the leader, if the leader saw these problems the way you do, you wouldn't have to bring them up. So your agenda with the leader is to try to help open their eyes to it.

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You can always ramp up your concerns later. You can always be more loud and aggressive if you have to later on. But initially you're looking for things to be fixed. But I would also caution though, for those of you, um, who have leaders who are good at um.

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Whenever you're in, here's a symptom. Whenever you're in one on one discussions, they agree with you about everything.

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But then they never actually teach that stuff from the pulpit. That's a symptom, a sign that you are not being led, you are being handled, that you're being agreed with. Because some leaders get really good at that. Whenever you're one on one with them, they agree with you about everything.

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And then in public you see them doing other things and you think to yourself, oh, well, they're just softening it because they really agree with me. But they're softening it because they don't want to offend those people. And then those other people also had their private conversations and the leader agreed with them about everything. And so the leader is just trying to hold this slightly deceptive group of people together, slightly deceived group of people together.

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The reason I bring this up is because if you bring real major concerns and the church leader agrees with you. But then there's no real world impact, no change.

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That video wasn't taken off the website. There was no statement made to the body to help them process this stuff. They're still going to keep doing the same stuff, same songs that might have been really problematic.

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If those things, if it doesn't turn into real world change, then you may have just been handled.

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Um, and then you have to deal with another issue altogether.

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All that being said, uh, Kate, I am on the receiving end of all kinds of criticism. I know what it's like to be in leadership, and I was on staff at a church for years and years and years, and I know what it's like to be in a leadership position and to get, uh, used to people sort of ignorantly attacking you. That doesn't mean everybody is, but you get used to that. And then when someone has a legitimate concern, our pride can make it very hard to even notice that what they're bringing is legitimate. It just feels like the same more ignorant attacks.

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So just, you know, God give you wisdom. God give you wisdom.

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I hope some of that advice helped. Um, yeah, there's a lot more that can and should be said. Pray that the, uh, last thing I'll say is, uh, you know, Galatians, it says, uh, I'll read it to you. There's. I could actually go to several different verses for this, but I'll. I'll go specifically to Galatians 6.

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If anyone's caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. This is what you're going to try. Your initial attempt is all is going to be, I want restoration. I'm not just trying to expose. I'm trying to help fix. Hey, let's. Let's make this better. I got some ideas how we can fix this.

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Um, and then it's in a spirit of gentleness. So I'm not coming as harsh as I can.

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Oftentimes, like, I'll make a video sometimes that might be, like, say, the Ta White video I did was pretty harsh. That's because this step has been tried over and over and over again. Um, and then the last thing I want to say is, keep watch on yourselves, lest you, too, be tempted. Test your own heart. Make sure that the enemy is going to use your love for God and your love for his word and your love for good theology.

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He will use this to try to get you to have bitterness towards other believers in a way that's unhealthy. So you got to keep watch on yourself, too.

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Satan uses everything he can.

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All right, let's go to question number six.

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Six. Oh, yeah, sorry. That was for Kate Emerson, the last one there. Sorry, I think I did something wrong there. Said the wrong name briefly because I scrolled my thing around.

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Um, okay. Spos Canal says, hey, Mike, if AI keeps developing to where society at large starts to call it sentient, would we as Christians have to stand in opposition to that? Thanks for your work. It's a blessing.

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I don't, I don't know the answer to this question. Um, if AI could become sentient, do I as a.

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Or at least appear to be sentient? Um, do I, as a Christian have an automatic obligation to oppose it?

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I don't think I know enough about AI to weigh in on this that well.

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Um, I, you know, I'm. I'm more like normal people in this regard. Um, I spend some time thinking about AI. I know that there's like, actually AI YouTube channels. Like, for instance, there was a Voddie Bakam. And this isn't the only one. There's others, too. There was a Voddie Bottom channel that had AI videos of Voddie Bakam on his voice, right? All AI stuff. And he was teaching things that Voddie Bakam doesn't actually teach. And the guy was just uploading constant videos because with AI, you can, you can mass produce content. It's crazy.

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And so it was a bunch of fake videos. Um, it was evil, wicked stuff. And eventually someone will do this with me and we'll do this with, with everybody. It'll be somebody you don't like, your boss, and then, boom, you punch some prompts into AI and all of a sudden he's, ah, in video form, or he has a whole social media page where he's saying things that get him fired. This is just going to happen.

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Um, so I'm concerned about those types of things with AI. I'm concerned about pastors being lazy and not doing the work of trying to understand scriptures and just letting AI write their scripts and write their sermons for them. But that's no different than a pastor who just purchases his sermons online. Anyways, um, it's just, it's a concern. It's just going to get easier and easier. So it will happen. Some of you listening now. Your pastor's sermon this Sunday will have been written by AI. Um, which I have several problems with. I'm not just being a prude. There's a bunch of problems with that.

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But at what Point. Do I just go, AI's too smart. I have to oppose it? Um, I don't really know where to draw the line there. I have some of the same questions you guys do on that. Um, I'm afraid to give counsel on something and have it not be good counsel, because I just don't know what I'm talking about. So I'm going to skip over that one and go to the next question. Nick Kimbrough says 1 Chronicles 25 and 2nd Samuel 21:19 seem to disagree with each other.

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How do you deal with this thinking biblically? Oh, well, I'll look it up, but, uh, I may or may not have an immediate answer, because that depends more on my memory and whether I happen to have studied this particular one.

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Um, so let's see what I can do for you.

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Uh, first Chronicles 25, I went to second.

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Um, there was again a war with the Philistines. And Elhanan the son of Jair, struck down Lami, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

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Um, I'm trying to. This is super familiar to me. I know I've seen this one before, but I don't remember the details. 2nd Samuel 21:19.

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And there's war with the Philistines. And Elhanan the son of Jair, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. So I guess the real question is, why does it say Goliath here and not Elhamn? We know that, you know, David, uh, struck down Goliath.

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Um, let me go back m.

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Oh, Elhanan the son of Jair, struck down Lami, the brother of Goliath the gittite. So why does this one say he struck down Goliath the gittite? That's. That's the question.

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And, um.

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Man, it's been a long time. I have looked into this one in the past.

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I do not remember the answer.

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Um, some of the things that occur to me when I read something like that. Let me see if I can get. I might have a resource that has something on this. But, um, some of the things that occur to me on this is questions like, um, uh, are there textual issues here? Is it a question of the reading? Um, perhaps originally it said the name of the brother. Um, and then in the manuscript that they used to translate, it didn't have it there.

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Uh, 2 Samuel 21:19.

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So here's a article on Tyndale House.

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Who wrote this one? Do I know this person?

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Caspers Azolans? I don't know this person. Oh, this is a long article.

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A puzzling text.

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He looks at the Hebrew word. He offers three possible answers, and he says in his.

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Since I can't remember my answer on this, it's been forever since I looked at it. Um, three answers. Number one, Lami really was the name of the Philistine Giant. Therefore, the Bethlehemite has later crept into the text of Samuel.

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Meaning, um, that.

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Here, I'm gonna put it on your screen again, that this word Bethlehemite.

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Um, I think what he's getting at is that where it says Bethlehemite, this was like somehow, ah. Of a corruption of Lami turn into Bethlehemite. It shifted over and it actually did originally have the name of the person, and then God preserved it in the first Chronicles passage for us. And so we have it there as confirmation. That's one answer. I think that's where he's going with it. I'll link this article down below for you guys here. I'll put it in the live chat right now. You can check it out yourself because I can't read the whole thing. It's too long.

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Um, but I like Tyndale House. So, um, Elhanan really was a Bethlehemite. Therefore we have a scribal error at Chronicles, and Lahmi wasn't the name of the Philistine Giant. Okay, so it could be a Chronicles issue, or both are true. The third answer is Elhanan was a Bethlehemite and Lahmi really was the name of the giant he slew. Um, and then, uh.

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But then I wonder how he explains the Goliath terminology in there.

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Uh, I'll let you read the article. That's one source to get you going, because here's the thing I'd like to encourage.

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Doing your own research is really good. I want to answer all the questions I can.

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What I would do typically with something like this, I read the passages carefully, I look at them, I check a different couple, different translations. You can do this online. You don't need resources. Then I would go and look for resources. You could actually find free ones on blueletterbible.org, free commentaries. I'm sure they'll address this issue. At least it seems likely to me that they will. Then, uh, I also. In addition to that, the third step is I'm going to go look up multiple different people and how they've answered this question. Okay. Do they have a good answer? Does it seem solid? Do I agree with it. I would check out this article I just posted in the live chat. I would check out the, um, uh, Got Questions has. Has been a very good resource. I'll bet you they have an article on this, that sort of thing. Every time I've done this, and I've done this, like, so many times, um, I've been satisfied with the conclusions. I go, okay, that makes sense. Yeah, it doesn't. It's not an inerrancy issue. Every single time, I end up being satisfied.

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So some of you, you're going to be like me when I was younger and you're going to see this and go, I'm nervous. I'm worried about this and really nervous about this. It's only that I've done this so many times that I'm not. I don't feel that way anymore. Okay. I feel very confident. I know. I've looked into this one too. I just can't remember the answer. Anyway, that's something.

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Go try that process and see what you come up with. I'll, uh, bet you'll probably be pretty satisfied, too.

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So, anonymous question says, how do you keep yourself from legalism? I'm breaking an addiction right now, and it feels like I'm doing it to be saved instead of because I'm saved. It's also been hard to rely on God lately.

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Um, I would strongly encourage you to go meet with a leader in your church or a godly person in your church and talk with them. That is the best advice I could possibly give to you. I say that for a few different reasons. After reading your question, go and sit down one on one with somebody in your fellowship. Doesn't have to be a pastor. It can be. But look around and ask yourself, who has wisdom? Who around me has wisdom that I might want to connect with someone of the same sex, hear that important part, and sit down with them and tell them the things that you're experiencing. And here I'm going to give you some counsel as to why I would say that. Uh, first off, any answer I give you here is going to feel invasive and it may be presumptive. I may be assuming things about you that aren't true, and it could feel like I'm insulting you as I answer your question.

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That's a big caveat I have to have because as a counselor, what I would do is I would say I would ask you, like, 30 questions. Then I would give you advice, and you need that person to listen to you.

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So you say, how do you keep from legalism? I Could do a whole thing with you on, like, what do you mean by legalism? What do you think legalism is? Um, then you. Because legalism really is this idea of working for my salvation. But a lot of people in the church use legalism as a term for that guy's too strict, and I don't like it. So he's legalistic. And this I don't like that. I don't use the term that way. Uh, if someone's overly strict, good for them. Be as strict as you want. If you're forcing it on everybody else and you're overly strict. Now, Romans 14 comes in and says, hey, stop it. But I don't even call that legalism, because I think legalism is the law gets you saved. What, uh, works save you. That's a really big issue.

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But the next thing you say is, I read through your question again. It says, I'm breaking an addiction right now, and it feels like I'm doing it to be saved instead of because I'm saved.

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Um, that's where I feel like you want to. I think you want to have counseling on that.

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When you're breaking an addiction, the mind, and this may or may not apply to you. Feel free to dismiss it if it doesn't. But our minds are so quick and our hearts are so fast and good at finding justifications to get right back into the same sins again. And one of those justifications could be, sure, I'm breaking this addiction, but I don't feel good about the way I'm doing it. And so I'm going to get right back into it. I feel like I'm getting into legalism. I was going to stop doing this thing, but now I feel like I'm getting legalistic. And this could be your heart's way of deceiving you into getting back into the sin.

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That can be very presumptive. I could be completely wrong, but it's something that I would want to pursue and ask a few questions about if we were in counseling together. And I think that whoever you talk to may help you work through that.

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Um, if you know that you are not saved except by the grace of Christ, then breaking this addiction is not going to threaten that in any way, shape, or form.

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I would be more concerned about this being the way the enemy gets you to get relaxed on the things you need to do to overcome this thing and to walk in holiness and godliness in your life.

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Never should a Christian fail to live a holy life because they're worried I'm becoming legalistic. Now, that's not a biblical category. It's not live holy unless it feels legalistic. And then compromise. That's not something we want to do. Again, maybe that doesn't apply to you. Right?

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Not making judgments on you. I'm just trying to cover the bases for someone who might ask the kind of question you ask.

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And you said it's been hard to rely on God lately. Understood. Understandable. That's how you learn to rely on God. This is how you learn. Um, easier said than done. It sounds trite when I say that, but I've had my times too, where it's hard to rely on God. I've had mine too.

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And I can still say that's how you learn to rely on God is when it's hard, when it's difficult, when you are weak, then you're strong. It is when you are brought to the end of yourself that you find yourself landing fully upon Christ. And now you're really relying on Him. So when you say it's hard to rely on God, um, sometimes what we can mean by that is, I have so far been relying on God, but I've also been a fairly capable person. But now I'm running out of my own capacities, my capabilities are running dry, and I'm finding it hard to rely on God. And the response there is, uh, it was always hard to rely on God. You just didn't. You never had to rely on God this hard.

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That's the difference.

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Trust in him, wait on Him. This is how you grow in Christ.

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I love this analogy. I heard this before, and you guys can confirm if it's true. So the analogy is great, even if it's not accurate botanically.

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But I've heard that, uh, trees, um, that when they go into a dormant state, um, there are times where there's drought in the land and the tree will stop growing. The leaves are withering, and the tree just looks like death.

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But during that same season, the roots may still be growing. There may actually be growth just underground that you can't see where it's pushing its roots out. It's searching for water, and it's going deeper in order to access water it couldn't access before. You see, before the water was close enough to the surface that it could access it more easily. Now the water's further down, and it has to go deep to get it.

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Sometimes times of drought spiritually cause us to push our roots down. And then when you come out of that time and when God refreshes you, you now have deeper Roots in Christ, because you learned to rely when it was really hard. So this is just par for the course. Even though I don't say that to make it sound trite. It may be the hardest, most grueling thing you've ever experienced, but it's also the thing that God's using to draw you closer to Him. And even if it doesn't feel like it, you just have to be patient. Wait on the Lord and He will renew your strength.

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Invictus MMA has a question and says, is participating in MMA M m wrong? I'm a new Christian and I'm conflicted and want to do right. I've just signed with a big promotion, but now I don't know what would. Please God, please help.

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So, um, I've given this some thought, and probably not as much thought as I should. I put that caveat out there.

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Um, let me back off MMA for a second and let's ask a question about just doing martial arts at all.

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I mean, real martial arts. Like, we're actually training to fight, not where you're just doing, like, katas, which is fine if you want to do that. But who could object to a kata? It's a dance move. Like, who's going to object to that? Um, sorry if I feel like I'm diminishing something someone did. I didn't say it's easy, but I'm saying it's not fighting. It's disciplined. Its composure, its skill, it's a lot of things, but it's not fighting. So it doesn't have that connotation. But what if you're doing training for actual combat? Um, is that right or wrong? And my thought here is that I cannot say it's wrong. As a Christian, first off, I'm not a pacifist. I don't think Christians are supposed to be pacifists. I have spent many hours on that subject. I've read some of the best pacifists out there, and I don't think they have a biblical case.

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I think we're supposed to be pacifish, as in, we avoid violence when possible.

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You only do it when it's fully and highly justified. That's true, but who doesn't agree with that? Um, but if we're not supposed to be pacifist and nations have a right to defend their borders, which is true. Biblically, that's actually a biblical reality. Nations have to have a trained military to do that. You know, David, when he fought Goliath, he was a young guy, he was a small dude, but he was also a guy who had experienced, literally training with a sling for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours throwing that sling. And he'd gotten good at hitting things with a sling.

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He'd used it to defend his sheep before.

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So he trained himself in violence, and he'd used violence in good things, and he finally used it on Goliath.

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I think that in principle, military training is justifiable. Now, does that mean all military actions are justifiable? No. Horrible atrocities happen because of militaries, um, but also wonderful goods happen because of militaries. It's a mixed bag. Now, on an individual level, I also think that self defense is something that Christians can do.

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You have to be careful how you do it, when you do it, and all that stuff. It's a complicated, challenging thing. Life is complicated and challenging. But I think that self defense is biblical. Okay, so since I believe that, since I believe self defense is biblical and military defense is biblical, um, how can I tell somebody that they can't train in martial arts? That would equip them for those very tasks.

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I also think it's biblical to defend the innocent. I think if I saw a woman being assaulted, I would see it as my automatic duty to just go and thrust myself into that situation, potentially being incredibly violent to stop it from happening.

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I think that that's my moral duty as a Christian.

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So knowing that to then tell somebody you can't train to be good at the thing that you know is morally okay to do, like that would be irrational.

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Okay, now let's move over to mma, which adds other elements to it, because MMA is not just a mixed martial arts, it's a sport.

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Can I take this training I'm doing to do self defense and turn it into my hobby, which, where I get really good at it, where I'm actually sparring with people and all that sort of thing, um, I don't see the moral obligation to not do this anywhere. Biblically speaking, I don't think. You know, when you do mma, you are not merely violently attacking a foe. What you are doing is you're having an agreed on sports bout with another person as a way of not only practicing and demonstrating skills, but, but as a way of, um, testing yourself. And it's a sport.

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It's like competing in a game. It's just a game. There's different levels of how violent they are. There's tennis over here and football here, rugby here. And then you've got MMA over here, which is much more violent. There are limits. You're not actually intending to cause, uh, well, you shouldn't be intending to cause lasting, permanent damage to the people. There's some rules to try to keep certain things from happening.

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I think a Christian could do MMA is what I'm saying. Um, now maybe I'm wrong as I've tried to work through some of the moral m questions and how I answer those, um, in my perspective as a Christian.

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But I think that MMA brings with it a lot of carnal risks.

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Uh, mma, first off, you've got a very arrogant, proud, um, and carnal sort of culture that surrounds mma. And so you'd have to be a very stalwart and strong godly character Christian who's not going to engage in that kind of stuff. You have to be a man who is going to fight your spiritual battles the way you fight your MMA battles. You're going to be very serious about it.

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Um, that sort of thing is there. The carnality with which some contenders want to go out and destroy and kill and, you know, they just want to hurt somebody. I think that that's wrong.

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The only thing I think left, it's a little bit of a hanging question to me is, uh, but I guess there's one. The showmanship of it all and the money of it all. I don't really know how to think about all that. I'm just being honest. I'm not really sure. I haven't really processed it enough. But the one thing that I think hangs there is this, um, just the actual intensity of mma. So you go to those fights and it's a fight fight. Um, it's like very close to a no holds barred fight on one end. If you don't train for that sort of fight, you will never be ready for that sort of fight in real life. So what kind of military training or martial arts training is there if you're not training for an actual fight?

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That's been the big selling point for mma. Right.

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Um, on the other hand, the tendency for carnality and brutality to enter into it in a sinful way, I think is very much present. So something you have to be very aware of. So I think my thought is, I think a Christian could do it. I think they could do it and honor the Lord in the way that they do it.

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But, um, I think it'll come with temptations, just like any sort of well known sports person would have a lot of temptations associated with their involvement in those things.

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Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I've processed it. Working back from the idea of self defense or military defense to training for those things, to engaging in those things in a sport, fashion.

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Yeah.

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Hope that helps. All right, number 10, uh, last question.

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Uh, Huns Hurt says, what role should perceived physical attractiveness play in choosing a partner? I mean, well, there isn't. So we don't have a hard and fast rule about how much of a role. But there is definitely some guidelines in scripture we can use. So there's in the Old Testament. We have more romance language in the Old Testament than we do in the New. Um, which is fine. It's not because there's less romance for Christians than there was for Jews or something like that. It's just different purposes. It's already written, doesn't need to be redone. We clearly have a celebration of the physical attractiveness of romantically interested partners in the Song of Solomon. Like, that's clearly there.

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Look at the way she looks, the way that he looks. That's something that they're excited about, and that's a good thing. You can enjoy that. Uh, well, you'd be careful what I mean by that. You can't be lust going around lusting. But yes, you want to look at this person and think, I am attracted to them.

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Now, there's something that happens, pragmatically speaking, when your heart becomes committed to a person, they tend to become more attractive to you. And so there's like, something that happens there where you don't just need to find the most attractive person. You need to find someone who's attractive to you. That's a healthy part of the marriage relationship. It is a physical relationship. Physical attractiveness matters.

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Um, but you can't use this to disqualify, like, later on, time goes by, you get older, of course, you get less attractive.

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Happens to everybody. Okay? Nobody at 90 looks like they did when they were at 25.

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And not remotely.

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Uh, and you still have to be committed to them. But it's a good thing that you want to encourage and you do want to find in marriage. But then there's the balancing of this out.

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So Proverbs, it says, like, um, uh, actually, let me find the verse for you. I want to read it to you.

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Um.

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Um, I'm trying to think how to find this verse. Um, so Proverbs 11:22.

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It says the following.

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As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.

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This sets a priority on discretion or character that is greater than that of physical beauty.

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So I would rather marry the less attractive woman who has discretion than the really attractive woman who lacks it. Uh, which also means I'd rather date the really, uh, less attractive woman who has discretion and integrity and character than the pretty girl who thinks that her physical attractiveness is going to cover up for her lack of character, which is the case a lot of the time, sadly. Um, I almost feel like some girls have been cursed with attractiveness. They would have developed character had they not been so pretty.

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Just being honest. I've lived life long enough to see that.

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And we're to say, hey, your beauty does nothing like putting a gold ring in the nose of a pig. It's not going to make it any better. Your beauty is not going to make this any better. It just isn't going to happen. Um, there's one more verse. I'll share in this to help balance it out. Proverbs 31, 30. Here we go. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is passing. But a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised. She shall be praised.

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Charm is what? Deceitful.

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She's charming. He's charming. Yeah, but that can be deceitful. You get to know them better, and you find out that the charm was an act they put on Beauty is passing. Ah. Uh, yes. So, yes, I do want to.

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The attractiveness that's there in the opposite sex. You're attracted to them. Not everybody else is. Who cares?

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And then I recognize that it's going to pass, and I recognize that character matters more.

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So going back to your question, what role should perceived physical attractiveness play in choosing a partner? Um, it should play a role, but not the highest role. So it's part of the enjoyment and the goodness of it all.

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And you do have a physical. Now you spend a lot more time not being physical than being physical. That's just the reality of time in a marriage relationship.

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But you're going to be doing that. Of course. That's going to be an important thing.

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Um, you want to have a face you want to kiss, ideally.

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But that attractiveness can shift. It can grow and can change.

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Because you've loved the person and you care about them, they become more attractive to you over time. That actually does happen, especially if you're not looking around at other people. You'll find them even more attractive still, but it can't replace the greater concerns for godliness and character and that sort of thing.

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Um, okay, so I have a bonus question from Helene, who says, how many funny shirts does Mike Winger own?

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Too many.

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Too many. I just open. Listen, we have this thing we first got married, we would go shopping together, and I hated it. Um, and I just would rather not. Right after a time, my wife started, she would, like, go shopping, and then she, like, send me a picture. Like, how about this shirt? How about every once in a while, she'd still do that? How about this shirt? How about that shirt? And I loved it because I thought, oh, I'll just be like, yes or no. But here's what happened over even more time. I realized, I don't care.

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I don't care what shirts she gets me. So my wife will just put clothes in the closet. Now. I don't know where they come from.

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I don't care. It's a goofy shirt. Fine. That's why I have shirts with cats on them. I would never have bought one of those. But she has bought me shirts with cats on it because she likes them. And it's a price I'm willing to pay to not have to pay to go out and go shopping for my clothes. It's a beautiful thing. It's a wonderful, wonderful partnership in our marriage.

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There we go. That's the deal. Um, I have no idea how many funny shirts I own.

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I don't know. I mean, I have to go count them, I guess.

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Uh, but, uh, I don't wear them every day. I wear them for Fridays. I don't wear them everywhere every day.

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All right, that's about it, you guys. Here's a quick update on what's been going on, um, behind the scenes. I'm finishing up. We're just doing the last touches on a video that's going to be, um. Regarding Shambles defrauding.

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How do I put this more carefully? Shambles giving a false prophecy to a man, faking prophecy to a man who then spent eight years of his life and basically his whole retirement, um, to invest in a project he thought God was calling him to do because Sean said it.

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The same man was connected at Bethel, reached out to Bill Johnson, reached out to others, reached, uh, out to Chris Vallison, I should say, and Dan Fairley, leaders there.

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And they had the opportunity to warn him and tell him that they had good reason to believe that Sean was lying to people in God's name. And they didn't do it. Instead, they ended up just adding more harm to his life. So this is a story that's going to be told coming in a very soon video, I hope.

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I sent the draft of it over to him since we did our interview together, and he's just confirming that everything's okay. And I can finally release it. Um, it's been a long time coming. So that's where we're at right now with that. I hope that it serves to bring positive change into Bethel and into other churches as well. Because one of the things on my agenda here is to help create a new culture in churches where there's proper accountability for leaders when they fail. And especially when they're found to be abusers and liars and manipulators, when they're found out to be, hey, you fake prophecy in God's name. Everybody has to know about that. We're not sweeping this under the rug. We're not just going to quietly separate from you. We're going to warn everybody so that everybody knows that the people we put on stage have been lying to you in God's name. And if it hurts our movement, fine, it hurts our movement.

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They have to have that kind of mentality, not Bethel's mentality where they make things as quiet as possible.

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They need to change. So if they had, this video would not be coming. So, anyways, that's it. That's coming soon. Um, and there's other stuff, I guess, but I'll just stop there. So let's pray.

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Um, Father, we pray for wisdom, uh, for our own lives to be able to walk in integrity and godliness, for help in the struggles that we each have. As those of us who watch or will watch this video later, we pray. Help us with our struggles, Lord.

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Help us to know of the grace of Christ, to feel courage and hopefulness about even our sin issues, and to stand our ground against our flesh and against the enemy that he would flee. And we pray for Bethel Church, and we pray for Morningstar, uh, and IHOP and all the different charismatic churches in Jesus image, and, uh, all the different groups where there's a significant amount of compromise and abusive or predatory or otherwise wrong behavior from leadership. We pray for change to happen and for it to happen from the grassroots up, and that it would be lasting. In Jesus name, amen.