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Well, there is a lot. There is a lot going on. My, uh, friend Ben Shetler was attacked in New York City, physically assaulted. And we're on a manhunt looking for one of the guys that did it to him. And you guys can help with that. I'll come back to that in a little bit. Also, I'm going to answer the first question today, which is, uh, why I'm not going to be around for a while. So I'm going to be taking a long overdue sabbatical. Uh, so here's the story.

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Um, I'm going to talk to you guys like you're my friends, which is actually how I usually talk to you. But I was supposed to go on a sabbatical in January.

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It didn't happen. Um, because of this series on Cover up culture, because of the stuff I've been working on, that sabbatical did not take place. Um, I just was like, no, I really want to keep helping these people. I don't want to put it off. I don't want to make them wait months for me to do the work. So we put it off and put it off. Well, it's May, um, so I'm going to go on sabbatical starting June 1st. I'm just going to take a break. I'm not done with the whole series.

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Uh, unfortunately there's a few situations that I still want to cover that I just have to put on the for a while.

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I, um, need a break, guys. I am tired and as you can tell, so it's not even, that's not even like new information or anything like that. Hold on, let me see if I can fix my camera a bit. Um, but yeah, I'm just a tired dude, man. I've been working and I'm burning the candle both ends now.

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So I'm taking a break. Um, the break is probably going to be as far as me making new YouTube content. It's going to be like, and podcasts and all that stuff.

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Probably three months.

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I am a little bit nervous to take a break this long. Um, one of my, uh, board members for BibleThinker was telling me it should be longer, but I'm like, pretty nervous. Uh, part of it is so I can just take a true, honest vacation where I'm just not working for a while.

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But I'm also, and I'll announce to you guys, I'm also writing a book.

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So, um, I'm not going to give you details on it yet. Plus, it can change in the writing. Things can change.

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The title can change the concept of the book can shift.

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So let me get it written, you know, let me get the thing done. And when the manuscript's done, then maybe I'll give you guys more info about it or whatever the publisher thinks. But I've already signed with the publisher. It's already a done deal. Um, and I've been putting this off as well. I was supposed to give this book to them a long time ago. And I put it off because I'm like, no, I'm in the middle of this series. I'm in all these things I'm doing.

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So I really need to do that as well. Um, so force of gravity says, just take your break. So June 1st, I'm on break. I will not be making fresh video content for, like, three months, probably, unless I really just go, no, I gotta go back to it. For some reason, the plan is three months.

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Um, you guys, I don't know what that'll look like on my YouTube channel. We just passed a million subscribers, which is amazing to me. Doing the content I do. The fact that it even reaches this many people is, uh, just. Just amazing. Just amazing. I'm thrilled by it. The amount of ministry it is in your lives messages we get all the time from you guys. You know, um, I know I don't have to tell people about the impact of this ministry because you guys know it. And it's by all by God's incredible, incredible kind grace.

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So grateful for it.

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Um, but you got to Wonder as a YouTuber, right? Um, and I'll go to your guys questions. We'll do the Bible questions all today as well in their live chat. You just load the questions in, we're going to grab them, and I'll answer them all.

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Well, I'll answer 10 of them or nine of them. Um, but as a guy that's doing YouTube, taking a big break like this is a bit of a risk. I'm not 100% sure what that'll be like. And I know other Christian YouTubers who are burned out and tired, um, and who are thinking about taking their own break. So consider this a test case. Can you take a break and come back and, uh, do you suffer for it? We'll find out.

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Um, I know that YouTube has tried to change their algorithms such that they don't punish people for taking breaks like it used. It used to pretty hard. But, um, it will. It. What will it do in reality? I don't know. We'll find out.

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So that's kind of the update. Personal, uh, life update. I'm not taking a break because of any other issues. Uh, I don't know if people are like worried about me, like being under, uh, stress, like danger and stuff like that. Please don't worry about that. It's not the kind of thing you can worry about anyways. You just live your life. Um, but that has nothing to do with why I'm taking a break. I'm not taking a break for any reason other than I actually had one scheduled in January.

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I've got a book contract. I really want to honor my word and do, um, and I'm exhausted. I need some time off, as is apparent to those who know me well. Like you guys know, I've been burning the candle at both ends for a very, very long time.

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Been in ministry since I was a teenager, but not necessarily on staff or anything. But in my time in ministry, in all the years I've done ministry, I've never had a sabbatical. I've never had a significant time off. I don't consider it a rite, uh, but I'm very much looking forward to it.

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Um, very much looking forward to just taking that time off.

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And um, that will be nice. And then hopefully I'll double down on just my health and exercise and other things that I have a really hard time at the moment putting focus on because I'm working a lot. I just put out that video about Gary Morgan and that was like 12, 13 hour days, uh, leading up to that.

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Um, and I've got one more, one more video I want to get out. One more of the Coverup Culture series. I want to get out before June 1st. I don't know if that's going to happen. It's just a lot of work. But I'm going to try to work as much as I can between now and June 1st and get that thing done.

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Uh, I won't share more. Uh, it'll be a surprise. I mean, not like a happy birthday kind of surprise, but it'll be something you don't know until, you know. Um, I've realized I shouldn't announce those videos ahead of time because then people behind the scenes start doing, you know, basically bad guys start doing stuff to try to prevent videos from getting made or coming out. And I don't want to start, uh, people doing weird things because they call, you know, what they do. I'm just being honest with you guys, which, I mean, I shouldn't have to say that, but, um, I guess I'm telling you something I don't normally tell you is uh, they start calling people up who they know they've hurt, or they get someone else to call them up and they try to, like, say, you know, don't let Mike use your content. Don't let Mike use what you said. You know, oh, I repent. I'm so sorry. And it's a lot of manipulation and deceit and, uh, just narrative control.

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Um, and so by announcing stuff ahead of time, it can create a tension and pressure on someone who is a witness and a victim of a person who was victimized by somebody. Now there's all this focus on them because they know they can't stop me, but maybe they can get this person. And so I've learned better, uh, not to give too much details. Some situations I can, some I probably shouldn't.

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So you'll see. That is my quick update. But I want to also, real quick at the beginning, before I go to your guys questions, I want to talk about this I'm going to put on your screen right now.

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This is not okay. There's lots of things going on on your screen right now. But this post on, uh, X or Twitter is from Ben Shetler. So Ben, I would consider him a friend. We don't know each other well, but. But we do have a friend. I think a friend relationship. We've talked on the phone a number of times. Just I like the guy. Um, also, he's a Christian. He's an outspoken believer, and he goes out in the streets kind of like Charlie Kirk did. And he's just having conversations about topics that Christians care about, explicitly Christian stuff. He's talking about abortion. He's talking about things that Christians care about. You know, uh, what is the nature of justice? And how are Christians. Our cultural, social justice stuff is directly counter to the gospel of Christ. Uh, it just is like, it's counter to. Let me say that more carefully. It's directly counter to a biblical worldview. Um, the social justice angle of things. Um, the liberal side of things, to be clear. Right. Um, equal, uh, outcomes instead of equal, uh, treatment. That kind of stuff. So those kinds of conversations Ben's having, which are good conversations, and he's trying to represent Christ well, um, so he's out there talking to people and he gets assaulted in New York City because he's got a table out and he's having these discussions. He's a peaceful dude. He's just having conversations. He's not. He doesn't incite people, none of that stuff. Um, people would say he incites them, but that's because they're already incited because they're insane, because they're acting crazy, and they have worldview issues, and they think it's okay to be violent to people who they disagree with.

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So let me read to you, ah, this Twitter post. Because BIM was physically assaulted, multiple guys jumped him and took swings at him. He got hit in the head, like, three or four times.

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And Ben has had in the past a traumatic, uh, brain injury, which means caused, like, damage, caused, like, harm that he has to live with every day. And someone punching him is, like, a hundred times more dangerous than doing it to somebody else.

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So these guys assaulted him for no reason other than that they're hateful, evil bigots. That's the reality of it. And I want you guys to help us find this guy on your screen. So two things. One, um, not for revenge. No, no. This is for law and order and public accountability. And Christians are people of law and order as much as you might throw out. But forgiveness and grace, we're like, hold on. You need to go and look at those concepts more carefully in the scripture. Uh, when it comes to breaking the law, it's important to have swift justice. That is a biblical principle, or else it will breed more. So these guys that are attacking people for talking while conservative, they need, Biblically speaking, as a Christian, my Christian worldview says they need swift justice that is to be very quickly brought into the courts, very quickly, uh, you know, tested to make sure that they're guilty, but condemned as guilty if they are, and then very quickly and publicly sentenced to a just punishment for what they've done. And the more this happens, the less. The less this will happen that you're putting on your screen. So I won't show the video. It's on Twitter. It's on Ben Shetler's, uh, Twitter account.

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You can see the video of him being assaulted. But here he says, this is one of the men that attacked me in New York City. Police are still searching for him. Please share this photo. So I'm just sharing this so that you guys can, uh, see what he looks like. And maybe you know this guy, right? There's one look at his face, there's another look at his face. Winding up.

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Yeah, so Ben could use some support here. He could use some, uh, of us who will help identify this guy. And I hope he repents, and I hope he realizes that he was behaving in an evil and despicable and dangerous fashion here. Um, but he needs to be made an example of. That is a Christian view. I would offer the man grace while he is sitting in prison. That is appropriate. That's entirely, 100% appropriate.

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Um, so Ben is still recovering. We don't know if he's going to have long term damage from this. He's still waiting to see because his vision's still blurred. Long term, this isn't today this happened. His vision is still blurry and stuff and he's still got headaches and we're waiting to see how he's doing. Uh, so, Ben, God bless you, man. A lot of people are praying for you and we appreciate your courageous boldness. In fact, he also tweeted this. He says, I will continue to preach the Bible whether it's protected or not.

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Hear that? He's gonna do it whether it's protected or not. Buddy says, please protect free speech. These criminals must be brought to justice. And I say amen. So if you want to check him out, I linked below his YouTube channel. You can see some of the conversations that Ben Shetler has been having and let these guys know who assaulted Ben while he was out there talking that we're just gonna make Ben, like, way more famous and way more supported now than ever before. And every time you guys attack one of us, we're gonna do whatever we can to leverage that, to get our free speech going forward, to get our message out, and to continue peacefully proclaiming the truth and speaking what's right into a backwards and wrong culture. And the thing that's the right the most is Jesus is scripture, is the Christian worldview that people need. And if that makes you mad, um, we're just going to do it more.

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Um, so the point is that your terrorism is not going to work.

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It's not.

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Or you'll kill us.

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But those are the options, right? We're going to keep going or we're dead. Okay. I'm okay with either of those choices. I know that precious in the eyes of the Lord are the deaths of his saints. And I also know that I was called to take up my cross and follow Jesus.

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Um, so I'm proud of Ben. I'm proud of Ben. Good job, man.

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Keep doing what you're doing. I hope that you get more influence and more opportunities moving forward after this, um, violent, evil assault. That is not. I wish it was a fluke. I wish it wasn't embedded in our culture. When they said it's okay to punch Nazis, what they were really saying is it's okay to beat up and shoot conservatives who like to talk about the things they believe. That's what they meant all along. And it was not okay. Um, because they never were talking about Nazis.

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All right?

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This is the moment we're in, in our culture, in our lives. This is biblically speaking. Acts, chapter four. They're told, stop speaking in this name of Jesus. Just stop it. Okay? You can do other things, but don't go around proclaiming this Jesus rose from the dead stuff. We're going to come at you for this. They beat them and they sent them away with a warning. And in Acts 4, Peter prays and he says, lord, give us. Give us courage. Give us the courage that we need so that we can go forward and continue. And they were filled with the spirit, not so they could feel good, but so they could be bold and unflinching and willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel. And the book of Acts records them suffering for the gospel, just like Jesus said they would have to.

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So when I say I'll suffer for the gospel, I mean I'll suffer for my commitment to Jesus, not only for preaching the gospel itself, like this sort of, like, stripped down version of just what you need to know to be saved. I will absolutely suffer for that. But I will suffer because I. I take the entirety of scripture and I will push it forward into the world as the truth of God. And that is where I think we actually get in more trouble.

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And that's what Ben is doing, and that's what we should be doing more of, I believe.

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So we're gonna go to your guys. Questions. Um, I think I told you everything I wanted to about my little life update in the book. I'm looking forward to the break. Oh, I will have shorts. There will be like, we're gonna schedule a bunch of shorts that'll be popping up here and there, so you'll see those. I just won't be making new content. Like, as a rule, I'm gonna tell myself, don't you dare. Don't make any videos so that I can really take some time off. Um, although a lot of it I'll be working on a book, but that'll be refreshing work. It will be refreshing and life giving to me. So I'm grateful for that. And I apologize to those of you who I've talked to and who are waiting on me, who I've told you I'm going to make a video about this situation. I'm going to help you guys out. I'm sorry for the delay.

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I know none of you hold it against me. I'm just sorry for the delay.

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Okay, we're going to go to your guys. Questions? Uh, let me, uh, uh, let me pull him up. I didn't bring it up.

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I didn't bring it up yet. Hold on, hold on. I'm stalling. Oh, I'll tell you about the Maven podcast while I'm doing that.

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I don't do paid advertisements, so nothing here is paid. But, uh, Maven, I've known these guys for a long time. Uh, Maven, you might be thinking of a lady when you hear Maven, but no, it means like, someone who's teaching someone else. It's like someone who disciples others in some fashion or another. So the Maven organization, uh, they take teenagers onto. And what do they call that, that year you take off between high school and college? Some people take a year off, um, that season right when you're in high school or college or you're in that transition between the two.

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When you do that, that's when Maven grabs you and takes you on a trip, and they'll go take you to Berkeley or somewhere else, and they will expose you as a Christian to, uh, alternate worldviews. You will talk with the atheist professor. You will talk with people who have, you know, Mormons in Utah, people who disagree with your views and Maven's meaning to shape your mind to be like, a better thinking Christian. Now, I've known the guys over there because they're connected to stand to reason. I know the guys over there, um, for quite a while, and I think they're doing good work. And BibleThinker has supported their ministry behind the scenes because we believe what they're doing is good.

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So they sent me a shirt, and I was like, hey, if you send me one of those, I'll wear it on a Friday. So it gave me a thing to mention them. Down below, there's a link to their website, and if you want to check out their parenting podcast, I think it's just called Maven Parents Podcast, um, on Apple or something.

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All right, let's go to your guys. Questions. Question number two. I'll do this again.

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Two.

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All right.

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Uh, Donna, Grimms says the Bible doesn't condemn drinking alcohol. But the two types of people in the Old Testament forbidden to drink were the priests and the kings.

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Since we are now both, shouldn't that apply to us? Oh, that's a super interesting way to put it. Um, so let's follow the logic here. Let's unpack this. Um, Bible doesn't condemn drinking alcohol. Right.

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Um, but there's two categories of people that were Forbidden, which is priests and kings.

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So I would actually push back a little bit on that.

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I, um, don't think priests and kings were forbidden alcohol entirely. I think they were given. I think that the priests were said not they can't drink when they're in the service of the temple. Now, someone can fact check me on this because I. I haven't recently read that passage. But it's after Aaron's sons go in and they bring the strange fire, and they were drinking.

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Um, uh, and so there's something about they cannot be drinking when they're in the performance of their duties. That's my impression of it. I'll have to go back and double check the passage, though, to see if I'm right about that. Um, to my knowledge, it would be news to me, at least something I did not before know, if priests were somehow forbidden from drinking entirely. Um, but there's more than this. There's other evidence, I think, that would suggest they did drink, which is portions of the offerings that were brought were given to the priests, which would have included, in some cases, wine.

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Um, and so they were given that.

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Um, so, yeah. Um, then there's feast days where they're told, you can, uh, you can go buy what you want for this particular feast, take your tithe and actually use it to buy supplies so that you can celebrate this particular feast. And it says you could, you know, wine and drink and strong drink. It even says that they could enjoy at that feast. It, uh, doesn't imply drunkenness right now. Some people are like, what's the only reason to have strong drink is drunken. No, there's lots of guys that drink strong drink and don't get drunk. Um, but, uh, there's lots of guys that do the opposite.

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But, yeah, so I actually would push back a little bit on that. Uh, kings as well. The only place I know of where we read about that is specifically in, uh, Proverbs, where she's like, oh, king to her son, Lemuel's mom told him kind of stuff. I think that's where it is. And it says, um, it is not for kings to get drunk kind of thing. And, uh, of course, proverbs should be taken with wisdom. Proverbs should be taken thoughtfully and carefully.

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I don't think that that is a blanket prohibition on drinking for those who are rulers.

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Um, I don't think that seems consistent.

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Um, it also gets. This hypothesis gets even more difficult to sustain when you get to the New Testament, because now, let's pretend for a second it is actually Wrong. Priests and kings are never allowed to drink at all. Not just like, don't have a problem with it or don't do it while you're performing your duties or when you're on call. And you might, you know, you're the one who at any moment we have to run into the temple to do something like, no, don't drink. Then, um, like a doctor who's on call, he shouldn't be drinking when his pager might go off and he gets put into brain surgery. Right. That would be the same kind of principle. But let's suppose that it was true that they can't drink at all like that. And then we say, but we're priests and kings, so therefore we should not drink. There's, ah, several, I think, real problems with this logic. So first off, do you also think other things priests and kings do that we also have to do, or is it just this one thing? Like, do you go, oh, um, it's a principle what the priests and kings do Christians do? Is that my principle? No, this is like an ad hoc claim. Uh, I just, I just pick this out because I, maybe I have a problem with drinking. I don't like people drinking. And so I pick this out of the, out of all of the things priests and kings do. For instance, uh, the Levites didn't own land.

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They didn't own land. Uh, they didn't have their own tribal land in Israel. They had to have a place that was given to them from some other tribe. So like, do you, does that apply to you in some fashion because you're a priest?

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Um, kings rule, would control armies.

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So I'm a king. Should I control armies?

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As a Christian, should I be running? Should Christians run armies? Because we're priests and kings?

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There's all sorts of things that priests and kings did that we don't just transfer over to us automatically.

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Uh, kings would make decisions about the lives of others. They would rule. And then the priests sometimes would help in this actually, and the priests would help the judges because, uh, the priests were the ones who knew the law. So they would sometimes assist the judges as they were processing, like how to handle this case or that case.

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Would I say that as a priest and king, I should actually go and arbitrate over the courthouse as well? Christians, only Christians should do that. In fact, I already have the right. I can actually walk into a situation and go, I judge this. And now here's the penalty.

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So you see, it's like if you can't apply the principle consistently, then there's something wrong with the principle, and you got to refine it and go, okay, what am I getting wrong here? But there's more problems with it, which is that in the New Testament, they drank like people drank in the New Testament when they had communion, which was a regular occurrence in the early church.

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It was with wine.

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They did it with wine. And I know there's a lot of rumors and some of you guys are sending me websites right now maybe, but that say like, no, no, it wasn't really or was so watered down. It was like, I've already done that research. Like, that's not true. It's not that there's no truth to it. It's that they're taking some interesting facts of history, distorting them out of proportion, and then giving you a claim that's false. Right. The claim in the end is false. They were drinking actual wine.

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Jesus himself drank wine. And is he not the king of kings and the high priest? And he drank.

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Did he get drunk? No. Did he abuse it? No. So it's unsustainable.

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What we have here is a belief that drinking is always wrong. And we're trying to find a way to make the Bible say it. And it doesn't say it. It says something very different.

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Drinking. I, uh, like the analogy of drinking is like sex in this sense.

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Sex is beautiful, but it's very sacred and only meant for one specific situation, right? One man, one woman, one lifetime. Then it's a beautiful, wonderful thing.

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Now, alcohol is something that God actually intends as a blessing. That's the conclusion I came to when I did my full study on the topic of alcohol. I'll link the video down below. A lot of you have seen it. It's one of my most viewed videos. It's literally a verse just going through every verse of the Bible that talks about alcohol and just pulling out what is everything the Bible says about alcohol. And so I have that study, and you guys are welcome to check it out. I'll link it down below after the stream is over. And I actually physically can do it. Um, but my conclusion is that alcohol is actually meant to be a blessing. But like with sex or intercourse, what you have here is you have something that is also very dangerous.

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You don't want to take it away. You don't want to say forbidden, because that's wrong.

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But it's also dangerous because handling this thing wrongly has destroyed lives, it's ruined marriages, it's broken up families, it's caused fatherlessness, it's caused disease.

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I'm talking about sex here. This is. Handling it wrongly has caused so many of the ills of mankind. But you can't respond to that by then going, so forbid it entirely, because it's actually a blessing. And now it's more essential. That's, like, essential for human society and reproduction and for the full expression, uh, of love and marriage and unity and oneness. It's essential for those things. And so alcohol is not essential. You don't need alcohol in your life in any way, shape or form, and you cannot drink and you're fine.

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So I only say it's parallel because it is a blessing that is very dangerous. That's how I think we should look at it.

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Don't try to take away the fact that it's a blessing, but don't for a second minimize how dangerous it is. It will actually kill you. You misuse this stuff, you will die. You will die.

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You will do strange and weird things, things you're ashamed of. And the more you overuse, the more you rely on it, the more it gets control of your life and you become enslaved to it. That's the nature of alcohol. But at the same time, you go out with a buddy and you want to sit down and have a drink and talk and chat and have a great bonding time connecting with people.

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That's a blessing. That's a blessing. Um, it took me a while to come to that place because I didn't want to believe that because of my history and my past. But that seems to be what Scripture is very much teaching. And I'd like to try to think biblically about everything, even if it's within my own circles of church experience. That's an unpopular perspective. I think it's a Christian one.

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So let's go to the next question. Um, it's an anonymous question says, I struggle to trust God with my earthly life. I trust him with my soul and salvation. But since he never promised me comfort here, I'm unable to depend on him for my future, like finances or marriage.

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Um, yeah, so this is easier for guys like me because I'm, like, well into my 40s.

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And so it's different when you're like, say, if you're in your 20s. When I didn't know who I might marry, I didn't know what my career was going to look like. I was just doing a lot of volunteer ministry stuff. Um, yeah, I didn't know those things. You guys like m my cup.

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It's not hot enough for you to see the whole thing, but it's Mario.

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Classic. So, um, when you're at that younger age, it's perfectly natural to be nervous about marriage. I was nervous about marriage. I grew up seeing, um, there was a divorce from my mom and dad. And then, as I grew up, when I was a kid, it was not, uh, a good situation.

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Um, and the relationship that was there between my. I don't talk about this much, but between my mom and my stepdad was, um, pretty.

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Not good.

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And I got to the point where I just thought, I'm never going to get married. And I remember someone asked me, are you ever going to get married? And I said I was, like, 19, 18.

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And I said, uh, no, I don't think it's worth the risk.

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That was my honest view.

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Um, it was scripture that restored my hope in marriage.

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Reading Ephesians and seeing what it says about husbands and wives.

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And I thought about, like, if a marriage looked like this, it would be beautiful.

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Like, that would be a good marriage to be in.

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If it even tried to look like this, if they even attempted to emulate what's here.

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And I remember a moment in my life where I went, it wasn't that marriage was the problem. It's that they did it wrong. They didn't follow what this says.

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And, um, I know that may sound, like, simplistic, and someone's like, well, of course, Magda, you can say all that all you want. But I'll tell you what. I grew up a certain way, and then scripture changed my mind. And I started thinking of marriage as beautiful and wonderful, but also scary still. And I was very nervous about doing it well and setting up good patterns of behavior. So, like, we have rules. Like, and I'm giving you all this advice for a reason, to answer your question. But we have rules. We don't yell at each other. We don't call each other names. Those are two, um, very important rules that were not easy to sustain in the early years of marriage. Because that's when you find out that everything hits deeper than you thought, and you're more bothered than you thought you'd be, and things are harder than you expected. And that's the normal marriage experience for people, you know, and that's okay. And it gets better, and you grow more. Um, I mean, I've never had a bad marriage, thank God. But even if you do have a bad marriage, it can be redeemed. You just go back to Scripture and do what God says.

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Um, and you're like, well, I've tried that. No, you haven't.

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Not both of You. Um.

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So, um, I had my mind changed, and the Bible shifted my thinking on it, and it entered into. So when I entered into marriage, there was this. And this is what I've been getting at. There's this trepidation. I don't want to marry the wrong person. I'm afraid my marriage won't be successful. I'm afraid I'll be locked into something that is like a disaster.

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Um, and I've had friends, I have a buddy of mine who, he was on a ministry track, and he married somebody. And because of the situation, what happened with his wife and what she did, which was all, to my knowledge, at least, all on her, uh, it really derailed him. He was not able to be doing ministry, and a lot of things happened. Uh, he wasn't asked to step down. It's his story to tell. But I've seen those things where I was like, yeah, this could affect my whole life.

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And so it makes you nervous. And so what you do, and your career too, you want it to be successful. And it's scary because you don't know what's coming. And you look at people that are older than you and you're like, it's easy for you to be relaxed because it's already worked out for you. But I'm over here with the uncertainty of the future, and I don't have guarantees. And God has not promised me I'll have a healthy marriage if I get married. He hasn't promised me that I even will get married. He hasn't promised me that I'm going to have some decent career. I'll be able to own a home or just provide.

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Um, I will say that the one promise we can hold on to, and I have absolutely held onto this.

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Matthew 6:33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. I held onto that big time. That's why I'm in ministry. I remember I was at this crossroads where I was like, either I need to go get a normal job and get, like, start in a career path, or I'm going to keep pursuing ministry. But I have no. I don't see a career there. I don't know. I don't know how it was going to work.

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Um, and, uh, the Lord gave me that verse, Matthew 6:33. And so I just said, I'm just going to trust that you'll provide, Lord. And I didn't recklessly or foolishly pursue ministry, but I did pursue it. And the Lord blessed it. Uh, and I'm grateful.

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So I did trust that word. But all these things will be provided. Read Matthew 6, where he says, don't worry about your hair, what you wear.

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Read that section and then see for yourself that this is about basic, basic needs. God will provide your basic needs.

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This is not.

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I just got to throw it out there because there's always one person who's like. Basically you say you're all about ministry, but what you really mean is you like hanging out at church and you don't want to work. Um, that's not the same as being all about ministry, because ministry is about laboring for the Lord, not just hanging out at Christian type things all the time. That's not ministry.

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Um, so for the one guy, I'll tell you, you should probably just go get a normal job if that's you.

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For the person who's like, no man, I'm going to serve the Lord. I want to work my fingers to the bone for the Lord and say, well, he says he'll take care of you if you seek first his kingdom and righteousness.

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Um, but now I come to the conclusion. I'm going to read your question one more time to refresh everybody, because I've talked a lot and then I'm going to answer. I struggled to trust God with my earthly life. I trust him with my soul and salvation. But since he never promised comfort here, I'm unable to depend on him for my future, like finances or marriage.

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Um, there's a way in which you, in light of all that you commit to him, in that you're going to do it his way and then trust his sovereignty. That's not a promise for your success, but that is a faith of, I'm, uh, going to do it your way, Lord, and I'm going to trust in your sovereignty.

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So you don't go into marriage going, lord, I need to guarantee of success. What you need is, I'm going to do my part.

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Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

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That you do that nourishing and cherishing her. You do those things and then you say, regardless of what happens in my marriage, I will do those things because I will seek you first, Lord.

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I'm going to serve and work faithfully. Whether that's a ministry or a secular job or whatever job. I'm going to do it as if it's ministry unto the Lord. And I'm going to work well and thoughtfully and hard and skillfully. And if it's a career path, I'm going To tactfully move forward in that, as unto you, God and I will trust you with whatever happens.

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What we're learning in life, a lot of life is not guarantees for success, but it is faithful, regardless of my level of success. Um, that's a beautiful place to be, and you resign yourself to it.

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I hope that that's some encouragement to you. I think that Paul the Apostle, when he goes to Jerusalem and he's, like, bound. He knows there's, like, troubles are going to come his way. And he goes like, all I know is I believe based on the Spirit. I'm paraphrasing here. He's like, I need to go to Jerusalem. I don't know what will happen. What will happen to me there?

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And I'm like, man, that's such cool faith. I'm going to do this unto the Lord. I know some kind of trouble's coming, and I'm okay with it.

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And then he writes to the Philippians when he's in jail, and he's like, I rejoice. I rejoice that, uh, the jailers are all here to find Jesus and stuff. And it's encouraging.

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So prepare your heart to be okay with not having comfort rather than living in fear that you might not have it.

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Number four.

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Let's see. Hey, Mike. This is from Dawson Step.

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Hey, Mike. Thanks for your ministry. You're very, very welcome, Dawson. Uh, do we need to. Or can we reconcile Matthew 7, 15, 20, and 21:23.

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If a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, how can those with the appearance of good fruit be rejected?

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All right, let's read through the passage together. Matthew, chapter seven, verse 15.

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So, given my little announcement June 1st, that means there's only one more Friday stream, uh, before I go on break, and again, I'm going to try to have one video that comes out if I can swing it. That's going to be hard to get it done in time, but I'm going to try.

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All right. Matthew 7:15. He says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves, you will recognize them by their fruits. What am I supposed to recognize about them? That they are actually ravenous wolves.

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So when I see them, uh, doing things to enrich themselves, right? The carnality of their lives, the, um, inauthenticity of their ministry, that they are. Like when Paul says that there are people who are coming who will try to draw men away after themselves.

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Ah. So my goal, my intention, my ministry is focused on drawing people to me. Instead of pointing them to Jesus, drawing them to Jesus, uh, drawing them to Scripture where it's like, uh, yeah, I was part of their life and part of their journey, but their relationships with Jesus, I'm not drawing them after me. Uh, Catherine Crick is a great example of a wolf who draws people after herself.

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It's actually disgusting. Uh, the stuff I've seen videos of her people fawning after her, basically what looks almost like worship. Um, and somehow Bethel has promoted her. Chris Valentin has promoted her Charisma magazine. I'm so embarrassed of you guys.

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We're all embarrassed, ah, at, ah, you guys for what you're doing. Um, you've promoted, uh, actual wolves. Actual wolves.

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They've done it for a long time.

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So I guess it's not a surprise not everybody there is a bad person. I'm saying the magazine as a whole, sorry, um, just for those of you I've done the homework to be able to say these things. I've presented evidence in many cases. I think that we can live out the conclusions of these things and say, yeah, it's clear.

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Um, so that's an example of the wolf. Right? Um, you will recognize them by their fruits are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles.

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So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but diseased tree, uh, the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits.

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Now, here's where some people get a little off. I, um, want to say this. I think my opinion.

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Um, uh, the bad prophets, the false prophets, the abusive leaders, that kind of thing, they tend to actually bring sometimes good fruit into the lives of the people who follow them. What do I mean? I mean, they may say, man, that saved my marriage, or, I was addicted to this thing. And then the guy came and he said this to me and he told me this, and my life has changed. And what they do is they try to get you to examine your fruit instead of examining their fruit.

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So some people go, well, Mormons are really good people.

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Uh, and this is overstated, in my opinion. Um, not that they're not especially There are.

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Let me explain.

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Mormons are known for being people who have moral standards and family values. And that is a warranted thing. However, those moral standards and family values, they come from Christianity. They're not uniquely Mormon. There's nothing uniquely Mormon about them. Nothing. It's entirely what is existent within Christianity about fathers and children and all those types of things. Um, the PR campaign of Mormonism is often based upon their best followers and the good works that they do.

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Um, however, if you were to test Joseph Smith by his fruit, you would look at Joseph Smith, not Joe Schmoe, your neighbor who's a Mormon. You would look at Joseph Smith. What is his fruit? Well, he fabricated prophecies, he lied about God, he taught heretical theology, he secretly m married multiple women. He married lots of women. Um, he said he didn't want to be a polygamist. God made him do it. That's what he said.

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Do you believe that still Mormons, do you believe that? Do you believe Mormons are often bearing good fruit in their lives? Joseph Smith did not.

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So, um, I think that we should distinguish between the fruit of the, um, followers versus the fruit of the leaders, and we should test religions by their actual leaders. So Jesus wins this test every time. But if you look at like Charles, uh, Taze Russell, uh, you know, Jehovah's Witnesses, um, I think he's the one that was drunk. Uh, there's actually video of him being like intoxicated and stuff. Um, the, um, sexual perversions and abuses of Muhammad, um, marrying a six year old girl. Yep. This is in m Muslim sources. Marrying a six year old girl, um, reportedly sleeping with her when she was nine.

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There's his fruit compared to Jesus.

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Yeah, there's some fruit. You can know people by the disciples themselves. They laid their lives down for others. Paul the apostle was willing to suffer for those he served rather than just calling them to suffer for him. He laid his life down. Jesus laid his life down.

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Um, some would try to say Joseph Smith laid his life down. We're like, no, he was killed.

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He didn't lay his life down. There's a difference. Um, so, yeah, you look at the fruits.

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So verse 21, it says here, not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who's in heaven on that day. Many will say to me, lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you would depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

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Now, I did all that so that I could resolve the supposed contradiction immediately for you. What you've got here is you'll know them by their fruits. And then the example which could seem like a contradiction is there's people who will come to me and go, lord, look at all of our fruits. Don't you know us by our fruits? And he's like, I don't even know you. I never knew you. Get away. You're a worker of lawlessness.

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But these are claims about things they've done that impact others.

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Right?

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Uh, many will say to me, lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

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Those things are not the fruit that Jesus is talking about. What they actually were is workers of lawlessness. That is their sinfulness.

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That was the problem, their lives.

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So that, I think, resolves that. Um, you know what someone could see as a contradiction there?

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Number five. Um, hi, Mike. This is from Dan's Mans 01. Hi, Mike. I recently watched your Roman series and finished Romans 4. My question is, it seems Paul makes salvation through faith an obvious concept in the Old Testament. Then why did many Jews seem to miss it?

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Um, let's read what Paul says about that.

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In Romans 10.

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You will get to the chapter where he talks about this.

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Let me back up.

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Says, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them. That's Israel.

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This is Israel. And he uses the term Israel here.

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If you look at the chapter, uh, to refer to a lot of Jews that are not saved, still uses the word for them. Um, that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

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Ah. Uh, so here's the problem for being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own. They did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

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So one, there's an ignorance.

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What is the ignorance? They're unaware of God's righteousness. So then there's an action they take. They seek to establish their own righteousness. And the result of this is they do not submit to God's righteousness. What does all that mean?

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Well, God gives them the law and the law reveals that they are sinners. That's the nature of the law. It shows me I'm corrupt. But they're getting the wrong message from the law because they're being ignorant of how righteous God is. Even though the law shows you, right. If you looked with lust, right?

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This is the law saying, you are so doomed, you are a sinner, you can't make it on your own. You need to come to an end of yourself. Right? Like Psalm 51 where David did something which there was no sacrifice for. He said, deliver me from blood guilt, O God, because he had killed Uriah and slept with Bathsheba, and there was no sacrifice for it in the law provided for what he did. And he's like, lord, cleanse me with hyssop. And he's appealing directly to God apart from the law, for just forgiveness. And all he offers is a contrite heart.

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And David receives grace. So he's like a picture of God's love and grace that comes ultimately only through Jesus, sacrifice and your broken heart. But instead, they looked at the law and they thought, I think I can do that. And they thought, we're doing it. We're doing pretty good. In modern day Judaism, they've replaced, because they don't have the temple, they replaced sacrifices. And guess what their sacrifices are now. It's their good deeds. So if you have a Jewish friend who's an observant Jew and oftentimes around, like, say, the day of atonement, they're more generous and they're doing more good deeds because there's a tally. There's like, scales in their minds. They're like, well, I want to do enough good that I'm sort of outweighing, you know, the bad. Um, that was never the message of the law.

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So there was an ignorance of God's righteousness. What the text says here, the ignorance of God's righteousness is, I looked at the law and I thought, I think I can do that. I mean, even if I mess up, I can kind of make up for it.

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Um, that's not being aware of God's incredible righteousness to show me that I actually entirely fall short of the glory of God.

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Um, they miss it. They miss the Old Testament. They do. They just are missing it. There's lots of Jews that are actually Christians that actually believe in Jesus, that are Messianic, and they follow Yeshua, if you want to use, uh, Hebrew.

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Um, but for those who don't, there is a lack of awareness of how righteous God is because they think that his standard is attainable instead of unattainable, which is what the law was meant to show. Right? There's a.

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Don't eat of this. Oh, they fail the standard, okay?

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You guys just live good out there. Oh, you fail really bad. I'm flooding everything. Okay, then God calls a people, right? Well, then Babel happens. But then the next judgment is God calls a people. He judges Egypt, uh, for their gods and for oppressing his people, and he calls them out. And he gives them laws, and they violate instantly. They come before the mountain, and what do they do right after leaving Egypt? They build an idol, and they start worshiping an idol. And then Moses comes down. He throws the tablets down, and people die.

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They travel a little further, and now they're complaining and griping and grumbling against God. And eventually God strikes them, and he actually punishes them for it. And they fall short over and over again. They finally get to the edge of the promised land, and they don't do what God says. They don't enter in. When they finally do enter in, 40 years later, they enter in and Deuteronomy, they do a rereading of the law where they stand on either side of a mountain and they read the blessings. If they obey the curses, if they disobey, and. And they all agree to it, and they kind of walk through to the land. Um, they enter under this law covenant.

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They fail. They fail royally. They fail over and over again. And this is the thing a lot of Jews are missing. And that Jesus even pointed out, and that made them enraged when he did. I'll tell you where Jesus pointed this out in a second in the Gospel of Luke.

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So they go to the promised land, and there they fail. They don't really drive the people out. They don't really follow what God says. The Book of Judges.

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It's like, Israel's not in a great place in the beginning of Judges. By the end, it's even worse. And it just seems like it's sliding down the whole way. Finally, then they go to Samuel. They're like, we just want a king. Be like the other nations. And God's like, they're rejecting me as king.

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The history of the Old Testament as it focuses on Israel is, yes, of, uh, people that are chosen by God and still loved by God and still called.

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But also of a people who fall short at every step.

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So that, as Romans says, whether you are Gentile or Jew, you are condemned in your sins, and you need Jesus, and he's the only way for you.

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That's something they're missing.

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When Isaiah saw God, this is what the Jewish people need. When they saw God, when he saw God, he said, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips. Now, for a Jew to say they're unclean, he's realizing, this law hasn't cleansed me. It's only revealed my sins.

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That's the realization that everybody needs all Humans need Jew, Gentile, anything.

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We all need that.

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And when we realize our sins, and we realize we're lost in our sins, then we look at that cross and we know what it meant. That Jesus died for my sins, and that's the only way I can be saved. So they missed this. They missed this when the bronze serpent was held up in the wilderness, and. And they were going to die, and all they had to do was look at the thing and then they could be forgiven. They could be saved.

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They missed this.

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They missed it over and over again.

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So Jesus tells the story about the Pharisee, and he says, uh, he stands before the Lord, before the temple. He's bringing his offerings. I thank you. I'm not like this tax collector here. Whereas the tax collector, he's beating his chest, lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. And he says, that guy down there on his knees, the shameful one, he went away, justified, not this other guy who, what, thinks he has met the standard.

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That's the ignorance. That's the thing. You think you're meeting the standard of God and you're not.

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You're lost in your sin.

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Um, and it's the thing that. It's the simple gospel. It's one of the hardest things to communicate to people is what we mean when we're like, yeah, you're a sinner who will stand before God.

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It's like the seed by the wayside that the birds came and took away. That, like Satan stole the word away and wasn't understood. We get that all the time with people.

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Uh, they don't know the gospel. They've heard it five, six times. They still don't know it. Even sometimes in churches, they still don't know it. They still think they're good people.

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So that's the ignorance, according to Paul. So why are they like that? Because every human is like that. It's not a uniquely Jewish attribute to think you're a good person, uh, in spite of all the evidence.

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That's all of us. That's all of us. Um, I know that apart from Christ, I would justifiably be condemned to hell.

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Justifiably. God would be. This is Psalm 51, right? He goes that you may be right when you judge, justify when you condemn.

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Let's look at it. Let's look at Psalm 51.

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David says, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. This is after he kills Uriah, after he sleeps with Bathsheba, after all this stuff comes out.

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Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Again, there was no offering he could offer for this, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be. I love this. Justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

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A really repentant person, says God, you would be right to punish me for what I've done. You would be justified to do so. You would be blameless in the assault you'd bring into my life as a consequence of my sins, even eternally.

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There is a person who knows God's righteousness and that they fall short. He says, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, in sin. My mother conceived me. Did my mother conceive me? So he's going like, I've always been like, something's wrong with me, inherently wrong with me. Me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Like, he's getting understanding and revelation. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. That's what they would use to the hyssop. They would use to put the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts during Passover.

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Wow. What a picture of Christ.

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What a picture of Jesus. Right here.

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Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

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Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. This is essentially him saying, lord, I can't because there is no sacrifice in the Old Testament for this. I don't have a sacrifice I can offer. Lord, can you somehow provide me with the covering of blood that I need?

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Um, and he does. It's Jesus created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a, uh, right spirit within me. I always, always loved that phrase, renew a right spirit within me.

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Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy Spirit from me, which I took to mean David, his anointing to be king. And he's like, please don't remove me from that role. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. I love that, too.

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It speaks to all of us because we've all been here. We've all been in Psalm 51 at probably multiple points in your life in some way or another.

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Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God, of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. See, they're ignorant of God's righteousness.

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They don't see how glorious he is. They don't see how wonderful he is because they think that he's just like a good version of them in his morality and his goodness. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. He had nothing he could bring. You will not be pleased with the burnt offering. There's nothing in the law, there's nothing I can do to redeem myself.

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The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a. Ah, broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise that tax collector on the ground. Do good to Zion in your pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings, and whole burnt offerings. Then bowls will be offered on your altar.

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I mentioned I was going to give you Luke. Um, so in Luke, Jesus offers some examples to those in Nazareth. He's visiting his hometown. And, um, he says, like, oh, there was a lot of widows in the days of Elijah when there was the drought and the famine. And, uh, yet he only went to the Gentile widow. You know, there's a lot of lepers in Israel in the days of, uh.

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Is it Elisha who did this one? Uh, there's a lot of lepers in Israel in that time, but he only healed Naaman the Syrian.

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Why did he only heal the non Jew? So he gives like these multiple examples of how the needs were present in Israel, but they weren't receiving what God had because there was something wrong. They were rejecting it. And so there's this foreshadowing of the reality that the gospel was not received by the Jews who did not perceive their own need for Jesus, did not perceive their own need for salvation, and so went to the Gentiles who were desperate for it.

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And God willing, there will be a great revival amongst the people of Israel. Like Romans 11 talks about.

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Uh, there will be, I believe. I mean, my understanding of that passage seems pretty clear is that's coming and they're going to come to Jesus and that's going to be amazing because they'll realize, they'll look on the one whom they've pierced, you know, and they'll see him for who he is.

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All right, going to your guys. Next question, which is from, um, number six. It's from Aaron who says, is it true that in every example where the word church is used in the Bible, it refers to the local church. I've heard people say there's no such thing as a universal church in the Bible.

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I've never heard that claim made before.

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Um, give me a moment to process that. I like to think about things, and I've never thought about this one specifically.

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Um, so Matthew 16:18, Jesus says, I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

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So it'd be difficult there in that passage, to consider it a local church, wouldn't it?

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Which local church is Jesus referring to with Peter? I would ask this person who puts forward this idea, and I'd suggest you ask them, uh, what church is Jesus talking about here?

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Which church is Jesus church? Is it in Jerusalem?

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Is it in Antioch?

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Is it in Rome?

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Is it in Constantinople? You could go to the historical debates. Um, is it in Orange County, California?

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Which church is Jesus's church?

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Uh, yeah, I don't think it can be interpreted in that passage as referring to a local church. I don't see how that's possible.

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Um, Let me see. Then we have terminology. Let's see, Acts 8:1.

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We have terminology that pushes the other way.

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So if the word church only refers to a local church, I just wouldn't expect these phrases like this one. Um, there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

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That phrase, the church in Jerusalem, it just seems odd. If church always means local, why wouldn't you say the Jerusalem church? But you said the church in Jerusalem implying that the church in Antioch is part of the same church as the church in Jerusalem. They're just in different localities. So I could say the church in Jerusalem, the church in Antioch, the church in.

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You name it.

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Um, that's another, uh, way to look at it. When, uh, I have looked at the word church and its usage in the New Testament, I've seen it used to refer to local, uh, sometimes, um, the church that meets in their house.

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That's a reference we get in Romans. Say hello to the church that meets in their house.

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Um, that implies again that the church is some sort of larger transcendent thing, and it involves individuals and people. And then the locality is sort of incidental and the church is meeting in their house. But the church is the people, not the location.

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Um, now the people are in a location, sure. So, yeah, I would suggest that this seems unsustainable. And the way to check it is you just go to like blueletterbible.org or Bible Gateway or something like that, and you just type the word church and you read all the instances that you see the word church in the New Testament.

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I'd also say this, that the word church is not a uniquely Christian term in the New Testament. The Greek that's there is using normal Greek words that were used for all sorts of things. So if you were to get together, it's the word ekklesia in Greek. If you were to get together in ancient 1st century Christian areas, like say you are there and you're in Damascus and you go to church on Sunday. And what you mean is you go to a gathering of Christians, right? Well, that's what the word ekklesia means. It means gathering. But let's say after the gathering of Christians, there's a political gathering of some kind in Damascus and you're part of that political group. So you go to a little rally, a little political gathering. And guess what they would call that? They would call that an ekklesia. They would call that a gathering church. Now, we in English use the word church to refer to a specific kind of religious gathering. But in the Greek, it's not a specific kind of religious gathering. It means like a gathering. It is sometimes used in a very transcendent fashion to talk about like the body of Christ, you know, the ones who were gathered and united in Jesus. That is sort of like in a transcendent fashion.

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But I just want to keep in mind that these aren't the word. Church isn't a religious word. It's a normal word that has some religious significance in Christian theology. Significance in Christian theology.

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I hope that's somewhat helpful. All right, number seven, Caleb Del Marder says, um, is it okay to show as proof of the efficacy of your ministry, testimonies that you have not or cannot confirm entirely, such as healings via a prayer stream.

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Oh, that's a tricky one. That's a tricky one, Caleb. That's really tricky.

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Um, let's just talk it out, shall we? Um, we know as Christians, biblically speaking, we have a commitment to truth and integrity and honesty.

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Um, we know that we should never deceive or mislead people about ministry. That that would be, ah, a real moral line you're crossing. To deceive people about the nature of your ministry or the reach of your ministry, um, or the impact of your ministry. That would be a real moral problem.

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Um, so when you are sharing testimonies from people.

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Um, let me talk about non healing testimonies first. Okay, so let's suppose you've got a situation where somebody says, we get these all the time. You know, from. Hey, Mike, thank, uh, you for that Women in Ministry series. I was really struggling with this issue.

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I went through the series and I feel like it really answered all my questions. And I now have confidence about. And it's often, usually women. I now have confidence about exactly how I can serve the Lord. And I don't have to feel like I can't do this and I can't do that, But I know exactly where the boundaries are biblically, and I'm grateful. Um, that kind of message we get all the time. I would not tell anyone to hesitate to allow people to share that as if it was true. Now, I don't put those on my website. I've debated this. I've thought about putting a testimony thing on the website so people know the impact of the ministry. It just felt just as personal conviction. I'm not giving advice to other ministries. I go to other ministries and they have those. I never have a problem with it.

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I have, uh, um, but I'm going to follow my conviction personally on this issue, which is I don't really feel good about that. So I don't do that.

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When people donate to the ministry, I don't reach out to them and ask for money. We don't give them newsletters every month that are kind of asking for money. Once a year, I send one letter out to everybody. That's just a thing I wrote a little bit. And we do put some testimonies on there, but we don't do asks ever. I just, um, you know, not unless there was some deep need. I wouldn't do it then. I would, um, uh, but we put some testimonies there that we've gathered through the year. That's the only time I make it not even fully public. These are actual supporters or people who have poured into the ministry. So I want them to see the fruit. Okay? So I believe those testimonies and I publish them. And I don't call anybody to see if they're true, but only to, like, a certain number of people.

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I, um, don't put it on the website because my philosophy was, if my ministry's actually having an impact, I don't have to tell you, because if this ministry is really impacting your lives, you know, because you watch the content, you were like, man, I was really blessed by that. This is ministry to Me, like, you just, you know, you already know.

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Um, but it's different when it's healings. Okay, Healing's different because now we're claiming, like, you're not just saying, I got over something. I'm better now. Thank you for praying. But if you're claiming, like, God miraculously healed me, miracle claims seem like those are a bigger deal. I'm claiming a miracle. Um, it is inherently believable when someone texts you or messages you or puts a super chat or whatever they do, which I don't do super chats, but whatever they do and they say, I was blessed by your teaching that ministered in my heart, it's inherently believable. But when someone says, I had stage four cancer and then this happened and that happened and I got healed, and I'm now putting forward a claim that is much bigger, and it is a much bigger claim, and it seems like it requires more support because it's the kind of thing that the stakes are high. Um, so I don't want to say it's inherently less believable.

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Let me say this. It is, um, the kind of claim you'd like to have some verification for.

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And I feel the same way about my trust in Scripture. Uh, when I say that the Bible is the word of God, I want some justification for that claim. I don't just want to make the claim.

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I want to fulfill prophecy. The internal consistency, which is actually a really powerful argument for the divine inspiration of Scripture is the cohesion of it, the nature in which it is one work and not just 66 works.

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Um, uh, the resurrection of Jesus. I think there's actually some evidentiary support now. I would reject those who were like, well, I need extraordinary proof. Like, not just normal proof. Let's say you said my bone was broken, now it's healed. And you're like, well, you show me, you know, you've got an X ray from two weeks ago, then you have an X ray from today is totally healed, or you're jumping up and down and running around and you're fine now. Um, and that wasn't just adrenaline. It lasted for days and not just hours.

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Um, yeah, share the healing thing and maybe give me a little more details before I make it public.

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I guess that's where I would land. I would like, because I feel like it's too easy.

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You open yourself up to being manipulated or manipulating others with fake stories, and they are rampant in the movement.

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Right. Bill Johnson.

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I've used this example several times. The charismatic friends who I don't think it's ever landed.

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And I think that either I'm not explaining it well or. Or it's not landing because there's something that they're not grasping yet that I hope they will. So it could be either one, or I'm just wrong. I could always be wrong. But here's the example. Bill Johnson gets up on stage, seen this a number of times, and he says, um, uh, the Lord is healing kidney problems right now.

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And then he just says, raise your hand if God just healed you of kidney problems.

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And people raise their hands, and then everybody claps.

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And I'm like, that is. That is deeply irresponsible.

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Right? That is deeply irresponsible for a number of reasons. But it creates a moment, and it creates a reputation for a movement, and it creates money flow, and it creates attendance, and it creates conference gatherings, um, to do things like that.

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So you realize, like, this could be a very manipulative practice. So maybe we should validate something. Maybe we should make sure people are healed. And maybe I want to leave this testimony up. This person. Six months later, they may be dead for all I know. Like, how do I know this person's healed? I should at least have something to go on.

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So I recommend do some kind of testing. And then after you've done that, please share your healing stories.

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Please. We need more of that. We need more of those verified, real miracles being shared. Um, Inspiring philosophy, their channel. They recently shared a video, made a video where they talked about, like, a verified healing, that it looks like it really happened. There's evidence and support, and I shared it out because I'm like, this is awesome. Let's share more of these. But with the validation and verification, plus there is the backlash of your ministry getting a reputation for putting up these stories that you end up finding weren't accurate, and then that could really hurt your reputation. Justifiably. Um, something to think about.

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Number eight.

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Question number eight. And we have all ten questions. Obviously. Um, Lydiarm says, should you always pray before you eat? Um, no, that's my controversial answer. Um, there is no mandate in Scripture to pray before you eat.

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There's no mandate.

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Um, but it's consistent with what scripture says, so I wouldn't say you should. Like, it's an ought for all Christians. Every time before you eat, you're supposed to pray.

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But I would say it's good.

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So maybe not a should, but is a good and is consistent with Scripture. Probably the strongest passage I can think of is Romans, uh, 14. Let me see if I can Find it exactly. The verse, Romans 14, um, about eating and giving thanks and stuff.

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Let me do it this way.

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I don't want to skim the whole.

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The problem is I skim quickly and then I'm like, I'm skipping right past the verse I'm looking for.

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Yeah, verse six.

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So let's look at this.

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I'll back up a little bit here. Romans 14 is a little. It's one of those passages where Paul's writing. It's hard to follow sometimes. So I'm going to try to just keep us on track. I won't explain it in detail, but as for the one who's weak in the faith, look, let's say a guy who goes, oh, I can't, I can't drink that alcohol. I have a conviction about that. It's not an insult. They don't have strong faith in that area. It's not an insult. But that's the term Paul uses. Uh, as for the one who's weak in the faith, welcome him. But not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes that he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Maybe the stuff being eaten is, um, sacrificed to idols. You don't know and you don't want to take any chances, so you won't eat any of it. So you just eat vegetables. And this is the vegan verse for vegans. Also, the weak person eats only vegetables.

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That's for my sister, the vegan.

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I just like messing with her. I don't care if she's vegan. Okay. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains. And let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. All right, so it's okay to have personal convictions. You don't be, uh, vegan. Go ahead. I'll joke about it, but I don't really care. Just try and be healthy.

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Uh, who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. Alright, These, these are issues of convictions that are like, not gray areas. They're areas of permissibility. That's what convictions are about. Hey. Yes, you can eat that steak. No, you have some conviction. Why? You feel like you shouldn't? Okay, don't eat it.

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Problem solved. Don't make it a thing. Just get along.

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You're in the Lord. Don't worry about it.

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Um, verse five. One person esteems one day as better than Another, maybe they're going to the Passover in Jerusalem, or maybe they're thinking that Sunday gathering is important or Saturday gathering is important because Saturday is the original Sabbath. Um, or maybe they're, like, saying, no, no, the Sabbath has been changed to Sunday, which has always been a really weird theory, in my opinion. Um, I think it just doesn't matter what day you want to meet.

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You want to meet Saturday, Sunday, I don't care anyway. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

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This is not about subjective truth. It's about convictions. These are permissible issues.

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The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains gives honor to the Lord and gives thanks to God.

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This is probably one of two. The other thing is, um, when Jesus, uh, broke bread, he gave thanks.

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So he gave thanks. Broke bread and he says, take this and eat. So he gave thanks. Jesus himself gave thanks. Did he give thanks every time?

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Every single time? I don't know.

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Possibly.

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Do you have to? Probably not.

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Is it healthy?

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Oh, yes, absolutely. As long as you do it sincerely. Um, so one could say that this is the practice of giving thanks to God before you eat. Except it's a little hard to say that clearly because it also says the one who abstains abstains in honor of God and gives thanks to God.

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So you also give thanks when you're not eating.

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It just means that they're living their lives before the Lord and for the Lord and with a sense of gratitude to the Lord. That's what they mean specifically.

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So I wouldn't say it's, uh, a you must, you have to, or every Christian should, every time you eat, pray like it's a burdensome thing. Um, but I would say it's a good and healthy thing. And I do pray when I eat. But like me and my wife, we go to, like, a fair, and we get a little bit of food here and a little bit of food there and a little bit of food here and a little food there. We don't usually, in that setting, we don't usually pray over every time we have a snack because we'll get little snacks, we'll share something. Share something. Share something.

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Um, and so we'll pray, like, once while we're at that event, you know. But then if we eat lunch or we eat dinner, we pray over each meal. Do you have to do it that way? No, I just want to lower the stress and focus on the heart of it, which is giving gratitude to God. The cool thing about giving thanks is, like, you at every meal, potentially, or whenever meals you do this on, you are openly and intentionally directing your hearts in gratitude to God for providing for you. And it makes you a more joyful person. It's not the reason why you do it, but it makes you a more joyful person because you feel grateful. You don't take things for granted.

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Taking things for granted makes you miserable. Miserable people take everything for granted in their lives.

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Um, so being thankful to God and praying for the food and being like, lord, thank you for this juicy cheeseburger.

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Thank, uh, you that my teeth still work, that I can even eat.

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Thank you that I get to sit with my family while I enjoy this and spend time with them.

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Amen.

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Beautiful thing.

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Uh, very healthy for you.

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All right, question.

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Nuro Nueve.

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Ben Gibson says, how did evil enter the hearts of Adam, Eve and Satan, since all were created good and in perfect relationship with God, where did any inclination towards sin or evil desire originate? So, uh, this is part of, uh, what's called a theodicy. Theodicy. And, um, the origin of evil, you know, where did it come from? And people will answer this question differently. Um, I don't know where Scripture gives us a very clear answer. I think Scripture implies answers for us, and we can derive those from the text.

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But to my knowledge, there isn't, like, any clear passage of scripture that says, like, how did evil enter the hearts of Adam and Eve? I mean, if you were just to answer that, I know what you mean by it. But if I was to answer it very plainly, I'd be like, oh, well, the aid of the tree.

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That's how the sinful behavior is, how evil entered their hearts. And you're like, but wait a minute. But wouldn't there be evil in their hearts to start with? Or else why would they do this sinful thing?

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Um, what they had to start with. And this is my answer to the question, and it relates to both Adam and Eve and Satan. And this, I will call this conjecture. Okay? This is Mike Winger conjecture. Answering your question based upon what I understand of the passages and what I think of theology.

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Um, I think that the free will answer is the best one. And the free will answer goes something like this. And I say something like this because others would answer it differently. Um, it's not that they had evil in their hearts. It's that they had the capacity to make decisions and make choices and then they did make those choices. It was self driven, it was self willed. But they could have also said no. Right? So it wasn't like evil took over them and they did what they had to do, which was rebelling against God, Satan or Adam and Eve. But it was that, uh, they were at a crossroads where they were able to make a choice. They were given the ability to choose. And you go, why did they choose it? Why did they choose it? And I think that the answer with free will is it comes down to they chose it. Like the why is that they chose it? The nature of free will is that you were the chooser. Is that the decision making, it doesn't trace back. It's not turtles all the way down. It stops at some point. The decision making was done by you and your will. Does that mean your will was inclined towards evil or just that you had the capacity to make a decision and that decision was before you and Adam and Eve. In the passage we have in Genesis, there's one thing they were told not to do, just one. They were given the ability to do it. They were given the opportunity to do it. They were told not to do it. It represents the one free will choice that's available to them that goes against God's commands. And they chose to do it. Why did they do it?

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You can speculate in more detail, but as far as the origin, um, I don't think it was that they were sinners and that they were inclined to sin. I think it was that they just had the capacity to make that one choice.

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I know that that's not going to answer for some people.

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I would just want you to acknowledge, um, that Mike said that this wouldn't make you happy.

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Um, there's probably a better answer. There's probably more details need to be said or a better way to communicate it. That's my understanding of that particular issue. For whatever it's worth.

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Um, there's something more philosophical in the background, in my head at least, which is the nature of having an other.

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Um, when you, I don't even know how to explain this. Well, when you have just God, there is no conflicting of any kind. There is no tug of war of desires or anything like that. Um, when God makes things that are other than himself, just the existence of something other, I think opens the door to some things.

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And um, and I think that that ties into Satan. Personally. This is super out on the limb of what I think, think, think, not sure of. And I Think it's just something about the nature of otherness.

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Um, yeah. And that part of the. Part of the redemption we have in Christ is of becoming one with him, uh, not becoming the fourth member of the Trinity or some sort of weird teaching like that, but you know what I mean, the biblical sense of oneness.

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Yeah. I'm getting out on a limb to things that I don't even know how to explain well, so I'm just going to move on. Number 10, itchy cinderblock says, do you have any advice on implementing the spiritual disciplines?

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Um, uh, sure. Uh, my advice is regiment.

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I would suggest regimenting things.

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So Jesus gets up early in the morning and goes off to pray.

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Um, David says, like, I meditate on your words on my bed. Uh, early in the morning, I will rise and praise you. There's, like, times of day that are being set aside for spiritual tasks that we see routinely in scripture, and we, especially nowadays with smartphones, uh, and I'm totally guilty of this. We can take every extra space moment in our lives, and we can fill it with something on our phone. And so I remember when I would drive my car before smartphones were popular, before I had one, um, I would either be listening to Bible studies or worship, or I would be praying. That was just what I would be doing if I was driving and I was alone.

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And then now I have this constant stream of podcasts and even educational stuff that I can listen to and want to listen to. I'm trying to keep on top of all these things. Um, and it can just sort of drown out spiritual disciplines before the Lord.

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So what do you do? You regiment. You set aside time. This is the time. This is when it's going to happen.

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And for me, at least, um, that's only part of the story. What it really is, is, um, there's something in my will when I'm going to do something. Like, let's say I'm going to be in a workout routine where I'm consistently working out. I can plan that out all I want, and it doesn't happen.

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There's something in my will where I'm like, sort of, I have set my face to do a thing. There's a biblical term for you, set my face.

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Um, I have set my face to do a thing. Like, I am committed to this, and that's the task that I would first encourage you to work on the most, is if you want to do spiritual, don't. There's a difference between I want to have done spiritual disciplines in my life, like reading The Word and praying and, uh, being part of church and maybe serving in ministry in some capacity and deliberately ministering to people. I, um, want to have these things going on in my life. Um, everybody wants to have. Already have that stuff in their lives. But what you have to set your face toward is I want to be doing those things, not to have done that stuff. Like, I want to reap the benefits of doing it. But I'm not setting myself to the labor of doing the thing. And there's something about just setting your face to it that I would encourage.

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Um, Paul says he disciplines his body, right? That he might run with endurance, this race. Like, you can look at the text of Scripture here where Paul's talking about this stuff, and he's like, man, he goes at it hard, okay? He's serious about these things. He's serious about seeking the Lord. It's not like, oh, I didn't read the Word again. And I'm like, ah, ah. See, your problem's not your time. Your problem's not. Your problem is your face is set to something else.

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Get serious and committed. Because when I'm off track on those things, and I have been off track on those things, prayer, reading the Word, those things, I've been off track on that stuff too. It is the sort of iron will, set your face to the thing. I'm committed to this. I am all in on doing this thing. And you'll get it done.

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So, speaking of which, I've got lots of things I gotta go get done, and so do you. So let's pray.

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Um, Father God, I thank you. Thank you, thank you for your grace, for the food we eat, for the friends we have, the loved ones that are still with us.

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Thank you for the kindness that you exhibit in our lives, Lord, every single day, every minute that your mercies are new, every morning. We thank you for the guidance of your word, that it directs us and straightens, uh, our paths. We pray that you would. We pray, Father, that there would be, ah, great wisdom in our hearts, um, in our lives and our minds towards understanding what you're calling each one of us to do with our lives so that we can set our face to those things like it's a task, like we're on a mission from God in our lives. In Jesus name, Amen.

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Amen. All right, guys, next, uh, Friday is the last Q and A stream for three months. June, July, August, unless something changes. That's the plan. Um, and I'm going to have one more. I hope I can pull it off. It's going to be a lot of work. One, uh, more video. I've got like a little over a week.

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I've got like, I don't know how many days have I have.

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I have not enough days. Today's the 22nd. I got till June 1st, so I'm going to try anyway. Lord bless you and keep you. Thank you guys so much for the encouragement, the support you've done towards me and ministry. I know there's people praying for me every day the time. I m am amazed by that.

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Um, and I'm grateful and I know that God has answered those prayers in so many ways. So thank.

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Mhm.

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You.