WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:02:37.000 Does God command restoring predators to ministry? I know this sounds like a strange thing to say. That is the literal teaching of Rick Joyner, who has restored predators to ministry many times. There's a list of them that he has restored, and it seems as though he wants to continue doing that and believes, as I've just recently found out, that it's actually his commission from God. Why am I covering this as part of the, uh, ten Questions videos? Well, we ask questions about scripture, trying to learn to think biblically about everything in this series of videos. And the first question for today is, do these verses that Rick Joyner shares tell us that we should restore predators into ministry? As a policy, let's just walk through the verses as he shares them. I got four video clips I'll share. I want you to know that these video clips are back to back. Now, just so you know, if you've never heard of his name. Rick Joyner has been doing ministry for many, many, many, many years. He has restored many predators over those years. Yes, I'm confident that that is very, very true. And he's part of a group, uh, called Morningstar, Morningstar Church, Morningstar Ministries. And there are three kind of players that I've noticed coming up over and over again. And there's more, I could add, like, Jesus image more recently, but three that have, like, historically been really big in the last generation. And in regards to the fake prophecy and cover up culture and that sort of thing. And they're all different, they're unique. They all handle this stuff in different ways. But they are Morning Star, ihop, International House of Prayer, not the Pancakes, Bethel. Those three keep coming up. Now. There's other stuff you could mention as well. There's questions about how some other charismatics have been involved in this kind of coverup culture. I've been doing a series of videos covering this. If you're not familiar with them, you can check out my channel. Um, or just Google something and you'll find it, I'm sure. So this is one of the big players. Okay, Rick Joyner has reinstated people over and over again. But what I want to use as a teaching moment is the logic of how he reinstates. Because he doesn't just go to the congregation and say, hey, here's a bad guy. I'd like to put him in ministry in front of your children, alone with your sister. Like, he doesn't do that. Instead, what he does is he says, God has commissioned us. I have an interpretation of this passage and, oh, it's just shame. The Harm that is coming upon the church because they don't reinstate these guys. Let's listen in and you can hear it for yourself on these four clips. Here's the first one. 2 00:02:37.000 --> 00:03:18.000 You know, I'd like to read you one scripture that I was given concerning this that we have a lot to do with. Jesus said in Matthew 6:22 and 23, he says, the eye is the lamp of the body. So then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? 3 00:03:18.000 --> 00:05:35.000 That's the first step. Now these are four back to back clips. It's going to sound like they're not when I play the next one because you'll be like, how was that connected to the last thing he said? You'll find out as we go. He's building a case. And often, uh, you'll get this with guys in this circle, they don't just say, here's what I'm saying. They draw a path and they kind of like look at you like you're supposed to sort of follow the path. Um, the logic is not always very clear. That's not always a bad thing to do. I'm just saying it's a teaching style. Sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's not. Um, so follow along the logic. First, let's though look at Matthew 6:22 so we can think biblically about this stuff. It says here, Jesus says, the eye of the lamp. The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your body will be full of light. But if your eyes bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? Rick's going to do this. He's going to take this idea of light and darkness and he's going to interpret this, it seems, through implication, as those who won't restore predatorial pastors into ministry, put them back in ministry, that they have darkness in their eyes. Keep that in mind. Now, let's consider before we hear that, look at the context in Matthew. This is the gospel he chose. Let's just look at this context. Yes, darkness in your eye is a very broad statement. It could apply to many different things. And that's probably why he grabbed it and is applying it over here. Rick will present it as though he has the spiritual discernment that you have to follow to see the darkness that you can't See, but that's not clearly what Jesus is talking about. Failure to restore predatory ministers. That is not what Jesus is clearly talking about here. He talks about money, you know, and he talks about not laying up for yourselves treasures on earth, but to do it in heaven instead. Lay up treasures in heaven. Right, because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Then he has this lamp of the eye thing. And then in verse 24 he mentions money again. No one can serve two masters. He'll hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. This life versus eternal life, uh, temporary enjoyments or pleasures, uh, or materialism, all that kind of thing, versus eternal rewards and lasting benefits. This is the conflict Christ is talking about. Nothing to do with what Rick Joyner is talking about. Now let's listen to clip number two. 4 00:05:35.000 --> 00:06:47.000 You know, you've heard me lament, uh, a study I saw, it was over a decade ago of how America was once considered the most positive, visionary nation on the planet in the world. And um, the incredible accomplishments going on here have reflected that. But in the last study they did on the nations, America was dead last. And, um, in, you know, in vision and purpose and focus and uh, it had become and was called the most cynical nation on earth. Now I think that is the responsibility of the church. What we loose in heaven in the spiritual realm gets loosed on the earth. And what gets bound in heaven gets bound on the earth. And I think that is the res that was the result of the cynicism and all that had been released in the body of Christ. 5 00:06:47.000 --> 00:08:12.000 Okay, don't let your eye be dark. Be light right now. He says cynicism in the body of Christ is a major, major problem and it has actually hurt the entire nation. The United States, the whole nation has been drugged downhill, massively, spiritually by the church because of the cynicism of Christians. Rick has a solution for this and he's going to explain it in a second and how it is restoring predators back into positions of power and influence. I am not making this up. This is the real world we live in. Rick has restored predators back into ministry so that they might continue predating. I'm pretty sure that's a word, predating upon believers who are sincere people seeking to honor the Lord. Um, and it has to stop. So to shine a light on it helps it stop. Um, he also mentions binding and loosing. Tell you what, I'll link a video down below after the stream's over. I'll link a video about where I talk about what is the definition of binding and loosing. It's not what Rick implies. He's implying it's like sort of spiritual declarations, kind of word of faith type stuff. That is not the meaning there. Um, if you're interested in that, I'll link it down below. Um, but follow the logic here. Major problem, Dark eyes, whole nation brought down. The church is the issue. Here's the solution. And he's going to use Jim Baker, the fallen, disgraced Jim Baker as the example of this. 6 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:26.000 I think it began right on the property, right there at Heritage when, when a brother stumbled, he, he had trouble. He openly admitted it instead of getting restoration. 7 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:27.000 That's a lie. 8 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:33.000 We're commanded to do and in the scriptures to restore a brother if they're caught in any trespass. 9 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:34.000 We'll look at that. 10 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:58.000 Um, he got, became probably the most despised, ridiculed person on the earth. And I'm talking about Jim Baker. And um, well that opened the door to something really evil that got into the church and got into our country. 11 00:08:58.000 --> 00:16:54.000 The arrogance and pride. I want you to understand why I see arrogance and pride in this. Okay. Um, Rick is part of the, I will call it the elite because I think elitism is part of COVID up culture. It's a significant core issue. And the elitism is these special movers and shakers and influencers. They're just more important than normal people and they have a bigger influence than normal people. And so when Jim Bakker did uh, a lot of bad stuff, you might look into it when Jim Baker did a lot of bad stuff and was busted for it. Um, and he, let me give you some examples. Okay. So he was accused of a woman accused him of drugging and raping her. He admitted to having sexual relationship with her in some sense. And then he settled out of court with her for nearly $300,000, for nearly $300,000 and denied that any of those types of things happened. He had misuse of ministry money which he lied about. He went to prison because of many counts of fraud. Jim Baker, this was years ago. And uh, one of them I believe was, if I'm correct here, uh, over a million dollars of ministry money that they were proven in court to have used for personal expenses. That's um, a horrific crime, morally speaking. Um, and here's the thing. Jim went to prison and then came out and just started doing it again. He did get reinstated. Rick Joyner helps to reinstate Jim Baker right through his teaching through his influence, he's headed over to Jim's church, his old church, to try to continue his plan of restoring the church by restoring predators to the church. It's insane, but that's what he does. He thinks that scripture's on his side. We'll look at Galatians 6:1 in just a second. And, uh, Jim Bakker is still scamming people. He's still doing it for years after he got out of prison. He's still scamming people. He has a TV show. His influence has shrunk. Rightly so. He should be ridiculed. That's entirely proper and right. Satan should be ridiculed. Right. Hitler should be ridiculed. Should be reminder. Reminder Christians should be for modern times. This is important. Um, and please don't share your half eye open conspiratorial nonsense. Um, sorry, I should be more gracious, but, oof, the things I see. Um, uh, the ridicule is good. It's reduced Jim Bakker's influence significantly, and he doesn't hurt nearly as many people. But he's right now predicting the end times and the rapture and the second coming of Jesus, and he's selling people buckets of food that they would buy these revival supplies or not revival, uh, these end time supplies where they buy overpriced stuff, stack it in their garage, and then it spoils, um, and they have to buy it again. It's an end time scam that Jim Bakker is currently doing. Rick thinks it's great. He wishes Jim had a wider influence, had a bigger reach, had a bigger impact, because there is a darkness speaking, uh, of darkness in the mind of Rick Joyner. I say this because his influence is too big to ignore. And he'll talk about this in the next clip. But first, let's look at Galatians 6:1. This is the verse he uses to say that God commands us to restore to ministry. Jim Baker, along with Todd Bentley, along with Mike Bickle. Yeah, he thinks Mike Bickle should be restored along with. You name it, you name it. Um, Chris Reed, all these people, everybody who's been busted, unrepentant lying, continued ongoing predatorial behavior, they should be restored because of this verse. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Let me point out the obvious. For those of us who are just like, hey, let's just think biblically, I just want to know what scripture says. Um, this is Anyone, it's not leaders, meaning that the restoration of anyone, if it's going to be applied to anyone, it has to be a restoration that can't explicitly be referring to leadership positions. In other words, to put it another way, the restoration that Galatians 6:1 is talking about is restoring them from sin back to the Lord in their relationship with God, in their relationship with the church. It is not restoring them back to ministry positions of power. And the restoration of the biblical restoration is one that involves repentance, seeking reconciliation, restitution where possible, and then being restored in fellowship with God and with other Christians. That's restoration. Restoration to ministry is not really typically found in Scripture. As far as the terminology goes, when you see the word restore in ministry, it's not typically, uh, like an analogy or an application of someone being pulled out of ministry and then brought back into ministry. Um, I'm not saying it never happens. I'm saying the word itself does not have that technical meaning. The reason I highlight this is because inside Rick's circle, restore is often used recklessly, so that it means not just restoring you in your walk or restoring you in the fellowship, but it means restoring you into positions of power and influence. Further, there is not a requirement for real repentance and reconciliation and change, but God does have that requirement. When, uh, Paul talks about excommunicating and restoring people in 1 and 2 Corinthians, if they're in this ongoing habitual grievous sin and they reject appeals to repentance, all that kind of thing, the process is the following. You treat them as a tax collector, sinner. It doesn't mean you hate them. I don't hate tax collectors and sinners. I treat them as not part of the body. That's the message there. Not tax collectors spit on the ground as they walk by. No tax collector. Hey, you repent of this, uh, embezzlement you're doing and come to the truth. We want you over here, but you're not part of our group until you do. That's the excommunication thing. We tell you to leave and we ask you to come back the right way. Um, then when you do repent, you come back the right way. Now, if you don't repent, if you never repent, you can never come back. That's restoration. Standards of restoration. Todd Bentley. Grievous sexual sin, Grievous fake prophecy. Grievous speaking in God's name when he wasn't really the Lord. And I actually have inside info. I Cannot tell you. Deeply predatory sexual behavior towards women. I cannot share more details. Uh, be it on whatever trust you have for me personally, you can believe that or not. Um, deeply sick stuff. There's victims that don't want to be known. There'll be ramifications for them in a negative way that they don't deserve if they're found out. Um, sick, evil man. He left his wife, had an affair with his secretary, then he decided to marry his secretary, and he ends up going to Rick Joyner for restoration because other people don't want to touch him. Because even, even Bethel was like, ah, ah, we can't, we can't be connected with you right now. You're like, you, like, want to still live with and sleep with this woman who you just cheated on your wife with. And Rick's like, come on over here. That's the restoration he talks about. Mike Bickle, serial predator, fake prophet, evil man. Evil, disturbingly wicked man. Rick wants him restored right away. All right, now let's look at his last clip, the fourth clip. And notice so far he's used Matthew 6. 22. Wrong. He's used Galatians 6:1. Wrong. He's used, uh, binding and loosing. Also wrong. What's next? It is his special revelation of God's special mandate that it is actually his calling from God to do the restoration of predators back into ministry. This is cover up culture, right? It's guys like Rick Joyner. People feel like they can't call him out in the movement. They won't talk about him. But it's a responsibility of leaders in the movement. You have to call out this guy because he's a bad dude. 12 00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:10.000 Listen, the eye is the light of the body. In the scriptures, the prophets were called the eye of the body. And, uh, in the Old Testament, they were called the eye. 13 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:49.000 I'll keep playing this clip in a second. But just so we know, okay, the eye is the lamp, right? When he's going. Now, the prophets, elitism, the prophets are in a special place. They're the eye of the body. This makes no sense. Where does the Old Testament, it calls them, it uses the term seer. Not because they're the eye of the body. That's a relational term. It's just conflating ideas in ways that are not clearly true. Okay, so you see how he's propping them up as the important ones. Notice how he did that with Jim Baker? Boy, the body of Christ didn't respond well, didn't restore Jim Baker, and therefore the entire nation was Drugged down. So the prophets are the elites. They're the special, important ones. They're the eye of the body. 14 00:17:49.000 --> 00:18:08.000 They were called seers because they were called seers. Now, the Lord has given us a special mandate to help restore the prophetic. And we've given ourselves to that for total of almost 50 years, believe it or not. And I think we made some progress. 15 00:18:08.000 --> 00:19:20.000 I think we'll finish this clip in a second, but I gotta pause it. Uh, the I has to be good or else the whole body's messed up. The I are the prophets. The way that the prophets are the eye is good, is the prophets can be restored. Then he says, God has given us a special calling to restore the prophetic, by which Rick, obviously, by implication, means restoring prophets who others think are disqualified. He wants to put them forward and have them keep doing ministry. What has Rick done that he's ashamed of? It is true that this should be asked. I don't know the answer to these questions, but when people are serially restoring or covering for or hiding the disqualifying sins of others, it's because often there's their own issues that are currently hidden. Right. That they want to keep hidden. Um, sadly, this has been proven true over and over again in my research. I could give lots of examples. But let's listen on. Listen to how he finishes after he talks about. It's our mandate to restore the prophetic, by which we mean fallen prophets. Or at least it includes. Not exclusively, but it includes restoring predatorial people into high positions of leadership and chastening Christians if they won't do it. 16 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:40.000 I think we've accomplished some things. We're known all over the world for that. And, uh, and most of what we're known for is very good and we're very well trusted around the world in that area. 17 00:19:40.000 --> 01:09:00.000 Um, Morningstar, I mean, he may exaggerate around the world how far their reach is, but they do have significant reach and significant impact, and so does Bethel, and so does ihop, and so do other groups. Uh, the names I'm bringing up, if you were a charismatic, if you were in the movement, you would know these names already. If you're not in the movement, you don't know the names. They're new to you. Um, but the movement's very big. It's very big. I looked it up the other day. It was something like over, uh, how many hundreds of millions of 600 something. Million, 800 million. I forget right now. It's a lot of millions. A lot of hundreds of millions of charismatics or Pentecostals. So the movement's big and this is a big deal. Dealing with COVID up culture in the movement is significant and will also, I think, help cover up culture. That sometimes happens inside, like the sbc, which it has happened there too, but that has so much press. I didn't feel like I needed to cover it. Maybe, maybe I should have. I don't know. I was. I try to make good choices. I only have so much time in the day. But yes, this video was posted on rickrants, which, um, is Rick Joyner's like casual thing. He throws up on his YouTube channel. But he is the leader of a significant ministry and a lot of people do look to him as somebody they trust. And he's part of COVID up culture. He's one of the kingpins of coverup. It's just the way it really is. So, um, I'm gonna go to your guys. Questions. Let's go to question number two. Let me pull that up. Um, I didn't actually get it ready first. Um, so, yeah, my name's Mike Winger. If you're not familiar with my content. I try to help people learn to think biblically about everything. That's my agenda, my goal. Not perfect about it, but I try. And we're thinking biblically about accountability, responsibility, um, uh, how authority structures in local churches can be healthy. The type of thing where we keep predators from getting in front of our pulpits and controlling the church, which Satan loves. If you can't beat m them, join them, you know. So that's something I'm worried about recently. And I'm doing a series of videos on it. Just like I've done a series of videos on women in ministry or a series of videos on, uh, I have a few on Calvinism. I have a series on Romans, first Peter, um, Jesus in the Old Testament. I have various things I've done throughout the years. This is a series on cover up culture trying to restore biblical proper Christian accountability. Let me give you one quick example before I go to question number two, because I think it's relevant. Rick Joyner pulled out some scriptures that did not have anything to do with, with the issues at hand. Let me pull out a scripture that has something to do with the issues at hand. And it's in first Timothy three. This saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of an overseer, that could be like a pastor, overseer, bishop. To me, these are in English, synonymous terms in English. Don't argue with me about Greek. We're not speaking Greek. He desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach. The husband of one wife. Sober minded, self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. Not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert. People ignore this all the time. Or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. When we lift up guys that are too recently converted, we actually. We actually bring them pain. Uh, so for their own sake, we can't do that. Be patient. Uh, moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. Does Jim Baker fit these qualifications? Is he well thought of by outsiders? Is he, um, self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach? Is he all of those things? No. The guy's a lover of money, right? Yeah. Bad, unfaithful in his marriage, various things. So those are the actual biblical qualifications. Cover up. Culture ignores this stuff. They don't go to 1 Timothy 3. They go to Galatians 6 1. Restore such a one, even though that's not about restoration of ministry. All right, I will go to the next question. Question numero dos. It says here, Dark 16724 says, uh, how does someone answer the call to be a teacher or a pastor if they feel called, but are concerned about the warning in James that not many should become teachers? Um, well, the warning in James, uh, does two things. It warns some to not try to be teachers, and that's actually healthy. Okay. We don't want to scare away people God has called to teach, but we want to encourage people to realize that not many should become teachers. Why? Because we will be judged with greater strictness. Um, now, from people, you'll be judged with greater strictness. I get, you know, a lot of, um. I don't mean this to sound like complaint. It's not. I get. Let me start with this. I get a lot of people who. I get an exorbitant and overwhelming amount of encouragement and positivity from people. I also get a very large amount of criticism from people as well. It's the nature of stepping into, like, a teaching type role. Um, now online you get to see it, and if you're in your local church, you won't hear the criticisms yourself. Usually, but they'll be said about you when you're not around. That's always been a weird thing about being a pastor. Can I say, just knowing the things people said about me, that I'd find out this way, in that way it was. I had to remind myself of Ecclesiastes where he says, like, don't listen in if you hear your. They're not my servants. But Ecclesiastes says, if you hear your servants talking about you, don't listen in. You two have, you know, said bad stuff about people when they weren't there. And it's like a good reminder, like, don't be sensitive. Don't have. You have to have thick skin in ministry. You also have to have a soft heart. We often get thin skin and hard hearts reversed. Right. But this passage should cause you to have some pause, not fear, but wisdom. Um, there are probably some people who should be teaching and should be in pastoral type ministry who hold back because of insecurities, uh, or because of just a desire to sort of protect themselves. Because there's a lot of unpleasantness when you step out. Um, there's a lot of pleasantness too, but it goes both ways. So we don't like that. That's not healthy. That's not good. But there's people who have sought to become teachers for carnal motivations because they wanted to puff themselves up because they wanted to. They just. Their people. I've heard, I don't know how many pastors say that their sin is I'm a people pleaser, which I think maybe is why they got into ministry. Not only is it their sin they struggle with, it's why they got into ministry. I'm a people pleaser, which is actually a pretty devastating sin to have a pastor, because you will lack the courage to tell people what they need to hear. Because you will not have the ability to bring confrontation on those moments when it is needed. Because you will end up lying to people because you want to please them. So in private, you tell one person one thing, and then private, you tell a different person another thing. And now you have to juggle the different stories you're telling to people because you're a pleaser. You'll get up on stage and you will slightly distort what you see in the text of Scripture because you want people to be pleased with you. Those are obviously issues. Um, now, pastor is a people pleaser. You can change. You can grow some courage. Um, that would be good. You can get your feet firm on the ground and know that you have to be seeking to please God, not people, and that you can overcome that. But yeah, um, how would I encourage you? I'd say you have to go through this process without selfishness. Ask yourself, um, should I step into this? I think maybe one way to do this is you ask the other leaders around you, do you think that I am able to teach? Do you think I should do this? I don't know how to give you a three point answer. That gives you the answer whether you should personally teach or not. It's actually reckless. Dark 16724 Reckless for me to direct your life from a distance based off of one, uh, question. So I don't want to do that to you. That would be disrespectful to you. And that would be me puffing myself up like I'm going to pull out of the thin air, God's command for you right now. Um, weigh the pros and cons, set yourself aside. And then if you do step into teaching, let this passage in James cause you to be always teaching with trepidation. You're worried you'll get it wrong. And so it gives you a little bit of, a little more slowness, slowness to speak, a little more awareness that you might teach error unintentionally. And that awareness will keep you from a lot of error actually. Uh, let's go to question number three. Gabe Crawford. There we go. Gabe Crawford says, I am a 16 year old in an egalitarian church and I've been watching and studying your Women in Ministry series. How do I go about discussing this productively with my church leaders? Um, this is like a broad, in a sense, a broad question. Gabe. I've had this come towards me a few times. You know, how do I talk to my leaders about this thing I disagree with them on? And I'll give you some bullet points that I would process through myself. Uh, one is, um, Scripture says that when you go to correct somebody else, you should do like a self assessment first. We get this in two places. Jesus talks about it when he says, first pull the plank out of your own eye, then you'll see clearly to get the speck out of your brother's eye. Then Galatians 6:1 in the passage we actually just looked at earlier, it says, um, when you're restoring someone else, you keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. There's something when we bring correction. And I have to be keenly aware of this myself as well, because I could make this mistake. Maybe I have, uh, I'M saying, I don't want to claim I've done it perfectly. But um, when we bring correction to others, there is always a danger where we fall into some error of our own. Uh, so an example of this, this might seem like a self serving example, but it's the one that comes to mind. I think it's proper. Those leaders who participate in cover up culture, they have recently been going to their congregations, their podcast, their YouTube, to their different platforms to say that those bringing accusations, and these are many of them, are valid accusations with multiple witnesses and lots of evidence. They're saying that those bringing accusations are accusers of the brethren. You see, in their attempt to correct what they see as extreme, extreme stuff online, they have broad stroke fallen into a sin of accusing the innocent of being accusers. So they're the accusers, ironically, of the brethren. Um, this is something I just did a video on the other day. I'll link it down below. I'm trying to expose this cover up culture. So there's a few videos coming out. There's going to be a number of videos coming out still this year on this topic before I move back over to the book of Hebrews, which I can't wait for that. I will still teach Hebrews just a matter of time. So that is one example of how I'm seeking to correct error. But then I become blind to my own issues. So one thing you can do is you can become too one sided in your correction. Your correction is, um, it's like an all or nothing. I used to see this person in a balanced way and now all I can see is bad in them. It's the only thing I can see. You know, like Rick Joyner, he is in this area of restoring fallen leaders. He is a bad pastor. However, perhaps he's done wonderful for people when he's prayed for them. Perhaps he's been a very. Maybe he, I don't know his story. Maybe he's been a very generous guy. He's just given and supported other people in their time of need. Maybe he's gotten up in the middle of the night to drive to a congregant who just lost a baby and just spent with them and pray with them. Maybe he's done those things and if so, I'd say don't ignore that man. I'm glad he ministered to you in that way. That was a wonderful thing. Let's not get one sided. So don't get one sided in your critiques that you're bringing. Um, even if a Woman shouldn't be doing some of the things she's doing in your church based on Scripture. That doesn't mean that people weren't blessed and ministered to while she was doing those things. That's entirely possible. Um, and it's something that does happen. There's women pastors who biblically shouldn't be in that position, but that doesn't mean that God won't use them now. God using them doesn't mean that now they should be in the position. God uses Caiaphas, the high priest, who is, I don't know if you say should or shouldn't be in the position, but he's kind of a bad guy. But the Lord uses him to help orchestrate and organize even the crucifixion of Jesus. God uses Pilate, Pontius Pilate, who washes his hands and all this other stuff, and he uses him as well. So God uses all things, um, and many of them, in this case, women in ministry, uh, women who are doing ministry, maybe overstepping bounds that Scripture has given. There's a flaw in that. There's an error in that. That is significant. But there's still people getting saved, people being ministered to. And I'm not going to ignore that or diminish that. I would say hold on to that. Thank God for that. But let's try and get proper order in the church. The other thing I would say is have a real plan when you go to your leaders, um, about what you'll say to them. Because if you just start telling them how convinced you are that their view is wrong, that will not work. You have to convince them that their view is wrong. Does that make sense? You can't just share, I am so convicted you're wrong. That will probably not communicate well with the leader. Uh, rather give specific examples. Like you guys said, you claimed this, but here's the proof that that claim is not true. You claim this. Here's the proof that that claim is not true. I'd also recommend, um, giving encouragement and starting with, like, you know, where your gratitude is, like, how you're thankful for the church. Uh, if a leader hears you, correct them and they start suspecting, maybe because their own insecurities or maybe because some past things they've experienced. But if they start suspecting that you just are against them now, like, you're just sort of opposed to them on a personal level, they're not likely to listen to you anymore. It's just a human thing. Uh, now they should listen. Yeah, but it's Just less likely. So if you can start by encouraging them with the blessings you've received, your commitment to the church, um, how you feel about them personally, and then bring specific examples of exact teachings and evidence that those things are incorrect. That's how I would approach it, I think, on this topic. I don't know where it'll go. Okay. I don't know how that would go for you, Gabe. Um, if there's someone else you could even bring with you, since you're only 16, it might be helpful to bring someone who's older, too, just to add more credibility. If there's someone else who's kind of on the same side. But I pray the Lord gives you wisdom. I'm sure there's more that can be said, man. But I pray the Lord gives you wisdom and helps you with that. All right, Jason Yoder has a question. Says, are Paul's words in Scripture less important than Jesus's words? Great. Um, question, Jason. Uh, the answer is no. Um, so we have a. Let me give you a verse that progressive Christians really don't like. If I quote this one, um, second Timothy. Hold on, let me get it. 2 Timothy 3, 16. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. Sorry, I'm just fixing this. All Scripture, it's good for all those things that it applies to Paul's writings, it applies to Peter's writings, it applies to every single person's writings out there that are in the Bible because it's breathed out by God. So, yes, Jesus's words were breathed out by God. Now, there are some differences in the words that you see in Scripture. So they're all God breathed, but there are differences. So, for instance, when Satan's being quoted in Scripture, it doesn't mean this is Satan's inspired of God. No, it means that the recording of his words are inspired of God. Maybe it's a lie, but it's recorded properly because it's properly true. Now, when you get, um, the teachings of Paul, it's not like that. It's not like Satan. Paul is actually the author who God is using to communicate these truths. And he's making these statements and truths, declarations and all that he says. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, he writes in Romans, like, I'm giving you my knowledge of the Gospel. He explains, uh, in Galatians that his knowledge of the gospel was directly given to him through Christ. That it was affirmed by the other apostles. Um, anybody who tries to lower Paul's writings from Jesus writings is trying to lower Jesus communication through Paul. So they can sort of put in little bubbles, right? Here's what Jesus said, here's what Paul said. Let's separate them. And that way I can use the absence of Paul to construct a new interpretation of Jesus. But rather, Paul is telling us how we should understand Jesus when he writes, just as Jesus is inspiring Paul to do so. That's a biblical understanding of these things. And now some would push back, and they go back to this verse right here, and they'd say, yeah, but this is all Scripture. But guess what? The New Testament wasn't written at that time. It wasn't fully written. So it only refers to. This is one of the craziest objections I've heard to this verse. It only refers to the Old Testament. Um, there's two problems with that. One is, while Paul is writing second Timothy fairly late. Fairly late in his time, he's already written a number of other things that are seen as scripture. Currently, Peter talks about this in 1 and 2 Peter. Peter mentions Paul's writings, and he says in some of them, he writes things that are hard to understand, but he then puts them in a category of all Scripture. Right. He says he writes things that are hard to understand, which unstable people twist, uh, to their own destruction as they also do the rest of Scripture. So Paul's writings are considered categorically part of what Scripture is by Peter. Right. Because all Scripture is a category. If it is Scripture, whether it is written before or after second Timothy 3:16. If it is in the category of Scripture, then all Scripture is breathed out by God. Now, maybe Revelation was written after this, but it's still breathed out by God because it is in the category of Scripture. That's a. That's an objection I've heard to 2 Timothy 3:16 a few times. I thought I'd just throw it in there. Hope you find that useful. All right, let me go to the next question. Number five. This is coming from Benjamin Howard. Uh, my wife and I recently started doing premarital counseling for other couples in our church. What is some of the best advice we should give these couples? Thank you for your ministry. Oh, um. Um, some of the premarital counseling stuff, like I would think. Sorry about that noise. I would think to do, um, is my encouragement is. As you're doing premarital counseling, try not to lecture the whole time. Try to ask good questions that draw out of the couple the struggles that they're having that maybe they're not initially comfortable telling you about. And if they never want to tell you, that's up to them. That's their call. But try to create an environment where they can speak forward. Uh, and it's not a teaching session as much as a counseling session. Counseling involves a lot of them talking, not just me or not just you. So I'd recommend one thing there is do that. Um, good things to talk about in premarital counseling are like family history stuff. You ask things like, what was your family like growing up? What were your parents relationship like? What expectations do you have for your marriage? Um, I'm not sure what list of questions is good as far as family history goes. It's something I didn't do years ago when I did m more premarital counseling. And it was only in the past several years where I was like, man, we should have done more of that family history stuff. That would have been really good. Um, so yeah, I think that would have been healthy to do that. I'd look up some stuff on there. I like walking through the actual teaching of wives and husbands and trying to get people to understand them. One thing I want to do is I want to get wives personally. I want to get wives to actually research and study. Like read for themselves and take notes. What is God's calling on the wife? Don't research God's calling on the husband. Ladies research God's calling on the wife. Here's the verses, right? It's in. Was it First Peter 3? It's in, um, First Timothy, um, you're going to find. Or Ephesians 5. You're going to find, uh, several places where you can say, hey, grab these texts, read them and take notes. Maybe give them some questions they have to answer. Uh, but read them and take notes. Do the same for men. Men read God's commands to husbands, not his commands to wives. This will ruin your marriage. You ignore God's commands to you, you focus on his commands to your wife, you will become an abusive and hypocritical man. That's just going to happen. Same thing for wives. You'll become an abusive and hypocritical woman. Focus on God's command to you and really ingrain this. You do your part when they're not doing their part, because your command is from God, not from your spouse. These are types of things that I encourage with, um, because marriage is tough, marriage can be challenging. There's a few things I'll mention. There's probably a ton more that can be said. But I have to move forward for today because of this current schedule. I've got some big stuff going on later that you guys will not know about for a few weeks, but it's coming. Uh, Corey c. Says, uh, Philemon119. Why did Philemon owe a self to own? Excuse me? Why did Philemon owe his self to Paul? And why does Paul call it his gospel in quotes? His. His. Why is it Paul's gospel, not just the gospel? And then you give verses. Romans 2:16 and Romans 16:25 and 2nd Timothy 2:8. Thank you, Mike, for everything you've done for us. I'm very, very grateful, Corey, to just, just. I mean, you're like, you're a real person out there really listening. And I know that the ministry has had an impact in your life in some way. And that. That's amazing to me to think about that. It's, uh, amazing to me. We're just brothers. Like, we're just. Same level, 100%. No elitism here. How exciting, though, to get to be, you know, part of what God's doing in your life in some way. Um, okay, so Philemon, verse 19, um, on your screen. All right, I, Paul, write this account, write this with my own hand. I will repay it, to say nothing of your owing me, even your own self. So what does Paul mean that Philemon owes him? Philemon. Ah. We can take what we have clearly in Philemon in the text, in the book, the very short book. You could read it. By the time I'm finished answering this question, you could read it. Um, but, um, the context that's in there is that Paul brought the gospel to Philemon. He preached the gospel to Philemon. Paul, who made many sacrifices to do that, to preach the gospel. And Philemon gave his life to Christ and it totally changed his life. He. He's literally going to heaven as a result of Paul's ministry. Now, did Paul pay for his sins? No. But there's a sense of indebtedness that is there between Paul and Philemon, and Paul's aware of it. And this is something where. I'll be honest. I have never done this to anybody. I've never said to say, one of the people I've led to the Lord or to someone I've ministered to a lot. You owe me your own self. I would never say this. Now, I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm saying this is important. I'm not saying that Paul's overstepping or saying something Wrong. I'm saying that I can join with you in going. I'm having a hard time understanding this. It doesn't intuitively make total sense to me. I will say this. Paul's ideas in 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians of owing each other is mutual. So we might read this like Paul saying, um, you owe me. And that's the end of the story. Our relationship is purely indebted. You owe me. Paul offers himself to people. He gives himself to people. He labors and suffers and works for them and with them, and he prays for them. And I think he sees himself, maybe this is the way to understand it, processing it as I talk here. He sees himself as belonging to others, right? He spins himself for others. He talks about this in Scripture. And he also sees a mutual belonging because of his theology, our theology of what it means to be part of the body of Christ. We belong. We're members of one another. And so he's just highlighting to Philemon, yeah, you do owe yourself to me. There are some real ways in which you do. But indeed, he offers himself to Philemon. Um, and so maybe that's the meaning there. I'll just move forward because that's kind of what I'm thinking. But I'll probably think more about it later today and be like, oh, I should have said this. Romans, chapter 2, verse 16. Paul refers to his own gospel, his gospel. Um, now I've heard some people read, uh, this and then think that we're actually starting to, like, make a list of different gospels. So you've got Paul's Gospel, and maybe you've got Luke's Gospel, the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of Matthew, those titles we have, um, and you actually have different gospels. Peter's Gospel. This is definitely not the case. So Galatians talks about this explicitly. I'll go there in a second. But know this, that in the same book where he says, according to my gospel, right, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. That's just according to the gospel. The gospel is his gospel. So, um, let me just go Back to Romans 1, where Paul is talking about, um, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone. The gospel. That's what he's talking about. He goes on to talk about how there is only one faith. There's just one faith in Christ. So Paul, just when he says my gospel, he means, um, there's only one gospel. But there are things I know about that one gospel that God has commissioned me to communicate with you. So when they say according to my gospel, I mean, he means there's only one gospel. But these are things that I am preaching and I'm letting people know about. So he calls it his gospel. You could similarly say, um, if you heard me present the gospel, uh, you could say according to Mike's gospel. But if you use it in this biblical sense, it's not a separate gospel. Okay, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse. So let me just go to the passage. I think it's in Galatians 2. Um, I'll just read a section of scripture here. So Paul, 14 years of a delay, he speaks about here. He's doing ministry, he's preaching. And there's now some conflict arising, and there's debate. Is Paul's gospel the same as Peter's gospel, the same as James and all of the other apostles? Is it really the same gospel? So let's read this passage then. After 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately, before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles. The gospel he proclaims in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. This is a gospel issue. He, um, was saying, uh, you don't have to get circumcised and follow the law of Moses in order to be saved. Right. And so Titus was a test case. He brings Titus with him, and the apostles don't make Titus get circumcised. Proving that Paul's gospel is what, the same as theirs, yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so that they might bring us into slavery to them. We did not yield in submission, even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me, meaning added nothing to his gospel. They had no contradiction between his gospel and their gospel. These are the apostles. And then the people who were kind of in leadership or alongside them, on the contrary, when they saw that I've been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised. Just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel. Right. They're both entrusted with the same gospel, but to different crowds, to the circumcised. For he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised, worked also through me for mine, to the Gentiles. And when James and Cephas and John, who seem to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me. That we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. One gospel, different audiences, different crowds, one gospel. That's Paul's use of my gospel is he just means, hey, the thing I've been saying, the thing I'm communicating. He does not mean that there's like multiple different gospels out there. All right, let's go to the next question. Number seven. Uh, Tin says hi, Mike. Thank you so much for your ministry. You're very welcome, Tin. God bless you. It has been a huge blessing for me. I have a question about a worship song. Do you think it's appropriate to sing let your holy fire consume us? Um, I don't think there's a flat yes or no answer on that, personally. So I think cultural meaning, local, um, church understanding, and all those things weigh in. And this is why your local worship leader should be processing all this themselves. Let me give you a couple examples. Let's suppose that you are in a very, like, nar influenced church or a very hyper charismatic influenced church. And people, um, run around and they yell fire. And they swing jackets and knock people over and do that sort of thing. And there's a lot of fakery that's mixed in with the real work of the holy Spirit. And so when that congregation sings, let your fire consume us, Let your holy fire consume us, the context, the cultural context is something that is leaning towards, um, uh, ecstatic experiences that are often not genuine. Leaning towards, um, emotionalism that ultimately is not psychologically healthy for a lot of people. Some people can do it fine. It seems that a lot of people, it's not healthy for them. And it actually seems like it's leaning to, like, cultural things that are going on in your church that are bad. On the other hand, scripture does talk about God being a consuming fire, right? It talks about him doing that and the idea of him burning up the chaff or refiner's fire. Right? Um, that concept of, lord, I want your fire to consume me in the sense of purify my character, purify the things that are in my heart. Let me be as gold and precious silver. That kind of concept of fire that's entirely fine if I'm singing that. Lord, let your fire consume me. I mean, let my entire character be filtered through the work of the Holy Spirit. Let me die to my flesh. Let me walk in the spirit. Let me bring glory and honor to your name. Um, maybe. I mean that. In which case I'd be like, go ahead and sing it. That's fine. So what's the rest of the song? What's the culture of the local church and community? Um, all those things factor in, so I can't give a straight answer for those reasons. Uh, yeah, in some churches it would seem to be unhealthy, and other ones it would seem to be fine, depending on the culture and theology of the church. Number eight. Jimmy Reinstein says. Hey, Mike, what are your thoughts on annulments? Are they biblical and are they ever wise, or are people just trying to justify their divorce? Okay, well, an annulment, as I understand it, is when somebody says, hey, you know, that marriage we got, it didn't really count. We were never really married. I think the idea of an annulment was pushed forward significantly by, um, uh, church teachings that you can never get divorced. Um, and people who felt like they needed to get divorced and so they would try to get an annulment. Because then it would say that marriage never happened in the first place. Um, there are some circumstances where I can imagine an annulment being a legit thing. Um, I don't want to share the details. I'm sorry. I'm thinking out loud to process this. I shouldn't share that story in detail, but I knew of, um, some, uh, two very young people who. They were teenagers, and they, um. I shouldn't even share. I'm sorry. I don't think it'd be wise. So. This was a long time ago. It doesn't. Forget about it. Forget about it. Don't worry about it. Pay no attention. So I can think of circumstances where someone comes in and says something was wrong with that marriage. Uh, that person was mentally unstable, and they did this weird, impulsive thing. Um, the marriage happened under false pretenses. Uh, some guy. Here's a hypothetical. A guy, he's already married. He flies over to some country. He meets a girl, has a great weekend with her. They go and they get married. He lies to her. He doesn't realize that he has a wife and kids somewhere else. He marries her in this other country, and legally they're married. And then she finds out a week later that he lied to her and all that. Um, would I Consider annulment possible in that circumstance. I'm not saying I have a judgment on it, like, it's up to me, but I could understand how someone would go, hey, maybe this is like a that didn't count situation. Maybe this was. It was a deceitful, deceptive marriage. That's possible. But, um, I think a lot of people seeking annulments do so because they're trying to escape the idea that divorce is a mortal sin in Catholicism in particular. And when you get a divorce, there's two problems with that. When you get a divorce and you simply call it an annulment, but it was a valid marriage. Like, you're just labeling annulment. That's a technical point that means nothing. It's just a technical point that doesn't mean anything. Then the other issue is that the Roman Catholic teaching on divorce is not. It's sub biblical. The high value of marriage is awesome in Roman Catholicism. Very, very high value on marriage. But their treatment of it as a sacrament is not biblical. Um, nor is it early church history. Early, early church. Nope, not there. Um, and so this is like a weird intersection of human failings and sins combined with, uh, strict church teachings that don't derive directly from scripture or early church history combined with, you know, a way to try to find a way around that. So there's my thoughts on it. Now, do I have a biblical case for everything I just said? Let me say, um, uh, there are a couple examples that weigh in on this to some degree. So Jacob and Leah. And Jacob and Rachel. He wants to marry Rachel. He gets Leah instead. You know, he doesn't leave Leah. This is actually, this is interesting because I don't. I don't know what to do with this, but I want to be transparent. Right? Let scripture speak. Jacob marries Leah under a deception. He thought he was marrying Rachel. Could he have gotten an annulment? Could he have said, hey, last night, I married the wrong woman. I was tricked? Um, but he didn't. He actually kept her and he got Rachel too. Now, could he have just said, this didn't count. This was deceptive. It didn't count? I mean, I feel, and I'm putting this in quotes for a real reason here, I feel like he could have. I could be completely wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Lord revealed the truth here, but instead, what actually happened is he made a deal with the dad laban. And the deal was, hey, keep Leah. Because the younger has to be married first. If you keep Leah as your wife, if you fulfill her marriage week Then you can have Rachel and you have to serve me for seven more years. I think it is. Um, so he made a deal where he got to have Rachel, but he had to get Leah too. So I don't know if this weighs in on the issue or not. Um, we don't see any examples of annulment that I can think of in scripture specifically. And the closest thing I can think to it would be in Deuteronomy. I think it's Deuteronomy where it says that if a young lady makes a vow, she makes a promise and a vow. And she's young, she's still under her father's care and his authority. Um, and her father doesn't ratify or know about the vow. He has the ability to come and say, no, I undo that vow. I remove that vow because he has that role in her life. Now that could be applied perhaps to a marriage vow. And I say this is perhaps. I'm not really sure what to do with it. But it's the other thing that comes to mind. Um, otherwise we have a very strong teaching in scripture that marriage stays married. There are some exceptions, yes. Um, but marriage is. You get married, you stay married, you live married, you die. Now you're not married once you've deceased. That's the standard, the vast majority of marriages. This is what you need to do. Most people are not experiencing the exceptions. Um, all right, so let's go to the next question. This is question number nine. I have a series on divorce and remarriage. I'll link that below as well. I see that, uh, Alana, one of our, uh, mods has put it in the live chat too. You guys can find it right there. Why are these still in my ears? Um, Ben Maddox says my mother in law is old fashioned. What's your opinion about wearing hats in church? Uh, pastors preaching in them. Okay, I do have a six plus hour video on head coverings where I talk about this and other things. We uh, talk about hats and guys wearing stuff like that. So we'll link that below too. The head coverings videos. I got a bunch of videos I gotta remember to link later. Thankfully Sarah, my assistant, always sends me a list. Whatever I mentioned, she's on top of everything. Um, so Ben, um, how can I give a short version that doesn't sound like I'm not saying. Like I'm saying something I'm not trying to say? Um, it is still an ongoing cultural phenomenon in the US that many people find hats in church to be disrespectful. That is not just the past and it is not just old people. Many people feel this way. I think it is wise for us to not wear hats in church out of respect for our fellow Christians. Um, if you think 1 Corinthians 6 is applicable to all churches for all time in a very direct and straightforward fashion, again, I have a six plus hour video going through this in detail, then hats are definitely off for men. Men cannot wear coverings while praying. At least in church, maybe ever while praying. Now, I personally still have a habit of generally, uh, unless I forget for some reason, taking my hat off when I pray. I think it's a nice. I like showing the respect. That way I don't put as a requirement for others. If I'm with a group and someone starts praying their hats on, I don't mention it. I don't spend any time thinking about it. Okay. To me, there's a cultural intersection here where we should remind ourselves that we're not just individuals. We are in a group of people and we want to show respect to them and dignity to them. And if I go to a church where it's perceptibly, um, disrespectful to wear shorts and a T shirt, then I probably shouldn't do that. If I go to church in Hawaii, it's not perceptively disrespectful in any way, shape or form. It's just island culture. Don't worry about it. If you go to church in a California church right by the beach, people probably don't care that much. You go to a church in like, uh, Alabama, maybe they do care more. Um, so be loving, be kind, be gracious to the people around you. Show respect to them. If it was my grandma, I would never wear a hat in church anywhere near her because I would respect her and I wouldn't see her as oppressing me in this. It's like, how big of an issue is it wearing a hat? So a pastor preaching in a hat to me is even more obviously questionable because unless your church really is on the same page, why would you create this unnecessary stumbling block when even in scripture, the head covering issue shows that there, um, is a yielding to this cultural awareness? That is if my interpretation is correct, because I'm going to be super transparent here. I may be wrong on my final understanding of 1 Corinthians 6 and the head covering section, um, I may be wrong there. I may be wrong. I am not 100% on that interpretation. It's what I think is not what I know now. Most of the video is just stuff that's clear. The very end I get into the final interpretation. So if I'm incorrect, then it is actually a command from God. Men do not and women do. That's the head covering rule. Um, but God help us to honor him in these things. Any culture I was part of that had a head covering policy thing. I would absolutely follow it if I was in that environment. Uh, along with clothing, I would wear nicer clothes if I was at a church where people were wearing nicer clothes and not worry about as much if I wasn't. Alright, number 10, Cooper. Chappell says, or Chappelle says, how do I deal with not being satisfied in life? I feel guilty because God should satisfy me and be all that I need. But I don't feel satisfied or content. Yeah, let me give you a verse. It's going to probably not encourage you at all. Um, in Proverbs it says, sorry buddy, sorry buddy. Oh, hold on a second. Did not get there. Um, okay, I'll put it on your screen right now. Are you ready for this? Here's my verse for you today, my friend. Cooper. Take it as a buddy, all right? Because I'm with you. Feel the same way. Hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied. There is. Your spirit can be satisfied in God. Your flesh will not be. There's an aspect of you that will not be satisfied in God. Mhm. The eyes of man. And that applies to women too. Never like mankind, never satisfied. I will always want more. I will always want something else. I will always want another experience. Jesus describes my life following him as daily dying to myself. That description, daily dying to myself, means something. It means I am not sensing satisfaction at all times. Now there can be a part of me, my spirit, a part of me that is genuinely satisfied. But there is another part of me, my flesh, this old man that is in my life at all times, pulling at me, yanking at me. And it is in fact the desires of the flesh. That's how they're described, the desires of the flesh. Right, all those, that list of things in Galatians of these wicked, sinful desires that I have internally coming up and I'm not satisfying them. What I would encourage you is it's okay to not feel satisfied in God. And in that sense, and recognize that you are in the flesh. There's always a dissatisfaction. The flesh is not satisfied with God because God looks at the flesh and says, uh, you have to die. And it's like this does not satisfy me. So that's true. You will experience a battle there. Now if you would say, but even spiritually I'm not satisfied in God. I'm not really sure how to tell the difference. I just know having conflicts is natural. Um, in some sense we're satisfied in Christ. In other senses we're not. Because we are conflicted people with flesh and spirit both. And that conflict is an ongoing thing that we wage all the time. You will continually wage that conflict. Let me read to you Galatians, because, um, it talks about this and it will just be a good reminder for us about that issue. Um, let me find it. Galatians 5. Right. Uh, verse 16. But I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, so they won't be satisfied. It's your flesh not satisfied. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. There's an element of my flesh that wants a lot of that stuff. Even after you're a Christian and you have to fight against those desires and they will not be satisfied, right. Instead you lean into these things. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. These are the things we lean into. God help us. I don't pretend that fully answers your question. Maybe there's probably follow up questions you'd have you say. Okay, cool, I get what you're saying, Mike. There's this other thing I'd like to ask about that's the nature of a Q and A. It's the nature of just answering a question. Just know that I understand. I'm sure there's other stuff, but hopefully this gives you something useful. Um, I have one little bonus question. Hold on. I haven't read it yet. I don't read these questions. I only know question one when we go live. The rest I read. When you read, when you hear them, I guess. Um, Hannah Stout says, can you please give a shout out to my husband Michael, non believer, who started listening to you because I wouldn't stop talking about it. Please pray for him. Michael first. I'm sorry, Sorry about that. Um, uh, Michael, uh, God bless you, man. I'm glad you're listening. I hope that you're getting some benefit from this. And uh, if you're interested, check out my series evidence for the Bible. It's a significant. It's kind of a long series of videos, but I go through lots of evidence for scripture, like why you should believe it evidentially, not just because of preaching, but because of evidence. So I'll link that below too, just for Michael. I hope you check it out, brother. Well, you're my brother as a human. I hope you can be my brother in Christ eternally, uh, knowing God's grace and salvation and just trusting in him, uh, for the forgiveness of your sins. But I get it if you, uh, don't trust a lot of leaders and stuff you've seen in the past. But there's probably a good church somewhere that you might be able to be part of. All right, guys, thank you so much. It's been good. Let's pray. I'll let you know. I'm not wearing a hat at the moment, although I think I did that the other day and some people were upset. Sorry, just my bad. Father, um, we thank you for your word. Uh, we pray for your blessings on our lives that we would be able to learn to fight the inner battle, to die to ourselves, to take up a cross and follow Jesus for real. Help us, Lord. Any of us struggling with habitual, ongoing sin, things we've been dealing with on a regular basis, that we feel that, um, we're starting to believe that we can't say no. But your word says we can. Let us not fall in for that lie of believing that we can't say no just because we have chosen not to so many times. And we pray for empowerment in that, Lord, and for help and for clarity. And we pray that you bless Michael, who got that shout out, and that you'd, uh, show him your truth and guide him into the light. In Jesus name. Amen. All right, guys, that's all I got. Link a bunch of videos down below in case you just, you just want more because you feel like I haven't talked long enough. Mhm. Sam.