Ep 1325 ｜ 'God Answers All Prayers' & Other Myths Christians Believe
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Summary
Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. God answers all of our prayers, and when necessary, uses words. You ve probably heard a lot of these phrases before, and maybe you even believe them, but none of them are exactly true. Today we re continuing our most misused series, and diving into the truth that the Bible actually shares for us.
Transcript
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Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.
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Preach the gospel and when necessary, use words.
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You've probably heard a lot of these phrases before.
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Maybe you even believe them, but none of them are exactly true.
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Today we are continuing our most misused series.
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This time we are talking about popular Christian sounding phrases that are almost true, but
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not quite, and diving into the truth that the Bible actually shares for us. This episode
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is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to goodranchers.com, use code
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Allie at checkout. That's goodranchers.com, code Allie.
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone has had a wonderful day, a wonderful
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week so far. If you have not listened to the episode at the end of last week with Ashley
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Sheets, sharing her testimony that ended up going viral, the post of her husband talking about her
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past, got so much backlash, even from Christian conservatives. You should go hear Ashley in her
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own words. Super, super powerful story of God's redemption. Just amazing. Also, just one more
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thing before we start, and I just don't want to forget to tell you this, that God's eternal plan
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of redemption is going off without a hitch. It is. It still is. Isn't that incredible? No matter
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what you have going on in your life, your particular circumstance, no matter what unforeseen
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situation you are in, it was not unforeseen to God. God is never surprised. He's never taken it
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back. He's never thrown off. He is never looking down, wondering how in the world did you get
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yourself into this mess? I did not see this coming. Oh my goodness. I don't know what to do.
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Let me put some plans together. Let me come down there and clean up the mess. Oh my goodness. Let
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to get together with my angels, try to figure out what's going on. That is so not God. God is
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suspended in the eternal now. He's not limited by space and time like we are. So he sees all of it.
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He knows all of it. And Romans 8, 28 promises us that all things work together for the good
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of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. That does not mean that things
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are going to work out the way that we think that they should, the way that we want them to here in
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this life, it might mean that healing for you, that restoration for you, that fulfillment for you
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only comes in heaven, only comes fully at least in eternity. We don't know that we are going to
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get all of the things that we pray for in this life, but we can trust that God is taking care
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of us, that he is good, that he does things for our good to make us holier, to make us more
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dependent upon him, to make us more satisfied in him. And in that we can rejoice. It's actually
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really freeing when we realize that we deserve no good thing. That if God only gave us his son,
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Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins, then that would be enough to call God merciful and
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gracious and good. And everything else is just icing on the cake. And the Lord gives and the
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Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And we can just thank God for that. And sometimes
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that's easier said than done. That is absolutely true. But we trust in God's character that Jesus
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Christ never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, Hebrews 13, 8, and that he
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is coming back and he will defeat evil once and for all. And one day there won't be any more
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cancer. There will be no more abortion. There will be no more disappointing news. There will be no
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more sin. You won't be tempted anymore. There will be no more failure. There will be no more
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disappointment. There will be no more bad news. There will be no more disagreement.
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Jesus will rule in perfect peace and we will be with him forever and ever. That's what we have
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to look forward to. So even when the burden feels really heavy, even when the social media feed
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feels toxic, even when the news seems really dire, even when there are wars and rumors of wars,
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there is a God who claims victory. And the day of victory has already been determined,
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just like the day of your death has already been determined. So we get to live not only in hope,
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but also completely boldly, knowing that we have a God who is sovereign over it all
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and promises to take care of us. So I always just want to comfort not only you, but myself with
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that. It's really important to preach the truth, not only to others in your life, to disciple your
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kids, yes, to encourage those around you if you're a pastor preaching to your congregation, but also
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to instruct yourself using God's word, using the truth of his word. We never graduate from that.
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We never graduate from the gospel. We never graduate from the fundamentals of the faith.
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God has given us these tools to rest in and to give us comfort and to give us wisdom.
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And in light of that, I am bringing back a form of an old series that we have done on Relatable called Most Missed, Most Misused, Most Misused.
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And today it is about three Christian mythical mottos, and I'm going to break them down and
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tell you what they mean in popular culture and why they are not true and what God's Word
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Number three, preach the gospel and when necessary, use words.
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So I came up with a long, long list of common misused Christian sounding mantras.
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And I thought, okay, if I only do one of these per episode, this series is going to last forever.
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So I'm going to try to knock out two or three per episode.
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We'll kind of do it here and there just like we have done in the past.
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Now, these particular phrases you've probably all heard before.
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Maybe you've even said these before because they sound really good.
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And in some sense, they sound correct, but each of these phrases actually range from
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And I want to go through each of them today to dig into what the Bible actually says about
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these ideas and why what scripture actually offers us in exchange for these trite sayings
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Words are really powerful, which is why mantras are powerful.
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They have a way of sticking in people's minds, especially if they rhyme or it's an alliteration.
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And it's why I have some mantras on my show that we've created over the years.
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Politics matter because policy matters because people matter.
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God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch.
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All kinds of things that we have said over and over again over the years to try to remind
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There is something that sounds really beautiful and even instinctively true in these phrases.
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but as christian thinkers we don't judge whether something is true based on how something seems or
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how it sounds or how catchy it is or what our instinct says or how something makes us feel
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that is true whether a politician is saying it or whether i'm saying it or any other
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advocate activist podcaster or someone in your life is saying it we judge whether something is
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true based on reason based on logic and most of all in the truth of god's word because god is the
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inventor of logic. He is the source of all truth, and he has given us this really clear guide to
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seeking wisdom through the Bible. Like I said earlier, the format of today's episode is going
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to be familiar to my OG relatable listeners, because you'll remember that back in the beginning
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years of the show, we did this series called Most Misused, where we went through some of the most
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widely known Bible verses that are often misconstrued and misapplied today. We discussed
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the misapplication. And then we would go more deeply into the text to answer the question,
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what does this really mean? So for example, Psalm 37, four, delight yourself in the Lord,
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and he will give you the desires of your heart. That verse is used in popular parlance to mean
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that if you are a Christian and you want something, you will have it. The idea that the existence of
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that desire is evidence of God's promise to give it to you. In reality, of course, if we delight
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in the Lord, He will give to our hearts desires that align with His desires. And in the context
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of that passage, which we've talked about Psalm 37 a lot on this show, we see that God promises
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that one day His people will have peace, the peace they desire, the victory they desire.
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And what we see over and over again is that the true interpretation of Scripture in any passage,
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but especially these most misused passages, Psalm 37, 4, Philippians 4, 13, Jeremiah 29, 11,
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And the true interpretation is always much deeper and much better than the popular prosperity
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I felt like I learned so much through them and was so encouraged.
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And even though that was several years ago, I haven't brought it back in so long because
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I felt like we'd gone through all the verses that are misused the most.
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But I want to now revive the series doing something a little bit different instead of
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using those verses, using popular phrases that Christians so often hear.
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and say that I believe are misstated or at least misunderstood and misapplied.
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And what we say and what we believe matters in Christianity a whole lot.
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We are saved by our beliefs, specifically the belief in Christ's sacrifice for us.
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And based on those beliefs, we are to say what is true,
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preaching the gospel, making disciples of all nations.
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Let's get into some of these popular phrases, how they're used, and what is actually true.
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Okay, the first one, Christianity is a relationship.
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especially when they are evangelizing to people
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who have maybe come out of legalism or they have no idea what Christianity is and they're confused
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about some of the rules and the standards. And you'll hear people kind of rush to say, well,
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you don't need to worry about those. It's not about a religion. It's about a relationship.
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And what these well-meaning people mean is that they want to push us away or push this person
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away from legalism and into daily conversation with and pursuit of Jesus. And there is part of
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that that is really true and really good, as we'll get into. But let me just give you some
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examples of this kind of being used by some popular teachers. Joyce Meyer tries to make
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this distinction, thought three. I don't want us just to think about a God way off in the sky
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somewhere, but he wants to have a personal, intimate relationship with us. The difference
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in religion and relationship is what I just said. Religion always looks for God somewhere and tries
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to get to God through works and effort and some certain kind of behavior.
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So she is correct there that Christianity is about relationship, but I would greatly
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contend with her definition of religion, which we'll get into in just a second.
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And then Johnny Chang, he's host of the Unlearned Wisdom podcast.
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He claims that there is a relationship to be had with Christ, but not a religion.
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If you listen to me, you can figure out what I am.
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I'm not a Christian, I'm not Catholic, I'm not Coptic
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I'm not Church of Assyria, Council of Nicaea, Nicaea
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Because under Christianity it's repulsive to people
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We are followers of Jesus who came to abolish and destroy all religions
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okay so abolish all religion i've heard that before people who say this say that that's what
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that's what followers of jesus do it's the abolition of all religion it's something totally
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radically different than religion so first let me talk about what is true in these statements
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on the one hand the underlying intent behind the phrase has truth to it what distinguishes
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christianity from every other religion is that it does not teach us how to get to god
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Judaism says, follow this list of rules and regulations and you can be right with God.
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Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, they all have things that you must do to climb your way
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Christianity and Christianity alone stands apart because Christianity says you can't
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They can't take a single step in the right direction.
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You have to be given a gift of faith that revives you, that makes you spiritually alive
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And this is given to you by grace, which by definition cannot be earned.
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All of that is explained perfectly in Ephesians 2, 1 through 10.
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And through this salvation, we are not only followers of Jesus.
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We can approach God's throne with confidence as his children and as co-heirs with Christ.
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A lot of religions hope to have a relationship with God in the afterlife if they've checked
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Christianity says that you can have a relationship with God right now, no matter what you've
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done or who you are by grace through faith in Jesus.
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Okay, so yes, Christianity is a relationship, but Christianity is also a religion.
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If you look at the roots of the word religion, you can go all the way back to the ancient use
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of the Latin word, which is religere. And I'm not up on my Latin pronunciation, so I apologize,
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but religere means to go through again, especially in thought or in word.
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I love this connection because it implies a routine, a habit, a discipline of repetition
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that turns an isolated belief into a pattern of thought that dictates a person's life.
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Then there is this other ancient Latin word, and that's religare, very similar, but a little
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bit different, spelled differently, which means to bind again or to tie back.
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So to tie yourself repetitively to the same stake in the ground.
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You'll notice the shared prefix in these words, which is re, R-E.
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It's the prefix that we see in repeat, rehearse, rebound, redo.
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Re means exactly what you probably already know it means.
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These roots paint a picture, for me at least, this is what comes to mind, of fastening a
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just this particular word but like the boat is on choppy waters it's tied to a secure post
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every day the knot must be tightened it must be rebound uh tweaked tied over and over again to
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the same post christianity is the practice christian religion is the practice of rebinding
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ourselves to the things of god i would not say rebinding ourselves to god because god binds
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himself to us because God holds us, not the other way around. Our salvation is entirely dependent
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upon him, and we do not have the power to wrest ourselves out of his grasp once we are saved.
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But rebinding ourselves through grace-filled effort, Holy Spirit-inspired effort to his wisdom,
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his ways, the good things of the Christian life. James writes this,
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if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart,
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this person's religion is worthless religion that is pure and undefiled before god the father is
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this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from
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the world james 1 26 through 27 so james does not use religion as a pejorative term and this
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makes it clear that scripture does not preach that our christian faith is not a religion rather
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it's the one true religion religion and relationship in christianity are not pitted against each other
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it is the one faith where our religion is actually fueled by our relationship and i've got more on
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first order. That's sevenweekscoffee.com, code Allie. Other faiths will say that a relationship
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with the divine is dependent upon our religious success. But Christianity says that your religious
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success is dependent upon a relationship with Christ, which you can't take any credit for.
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And there's another point that I think is missed with this whole, it's a relationship,
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And that is that everyone in the whole world already has a relationship with God.
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Through Jesus, we are not just being offered a relationship with God.
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We are being offered a friendly relationship with God, a loving one.
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Previously, our relationship with God was hostile.
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For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more,
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now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?
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So the problem was not that we did not have a relationship with God,
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it's that we had a hostile relationship with God.
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Reconcile, that word that we just read in that Romans passage, means to restore a union.
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And you notice that a lot in Christianity, reconcile, renew, reborn, resurrect, redeem.
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And you might ask, if you want to notice that pattern, like, what is with that?
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How can we do these things again if spiritually we've never done them before or we've never
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How can a person restore a reunion to God that they've never had?
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Well, at one point, mankind was united with God.
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One day, very long time ago, man walked with God in the garden in the cool of the day,
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naked and unashamed, under only one condition, that they would not eat of the tree of the
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knowledge of good and evil. Then deceit from the snake, temptation, sin, compromise,
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mistrust of the creator, and the desire for power and glory. Then shame, uncovering,
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the curse pain death so god sent jesus to restore that relationship so we could once again walk in
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fellowship with him so we could once again no longer be shackled by the burden of sin that we
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could once again be free that we could once again enjoy relationship reconciliation confidence in
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our friendship with God. And so that's the reason that you see that language of renew and redeem,
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because at one point, all things were right between God and man. And God loves us so much
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that he wants to bring us back there, that we get a taste of that in this life. But one day,
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we're going to experience it fully. Yes, when we die and go to heaven, but also when Jesus comes
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back, there's going to be a new heaven and there's going to be a new earth and nothing will be touched
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or harmed by sin ever again. So we are renewed. We are reborn in Christ. And that is the good
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news. That is not only what the relationship with Christ offers, that is the religion of
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Christianity. And that is what the religion of Christianity is tied to. Not a desire to earn
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our way to God or to reach up to God or climb up to the mountaintop, but a repetition of devotion
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to God, rebinding to the things of God because of that relationship that was given to us through
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Christ with God that we have now been reconciled to. Theologians throughout history have been
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talking about this. This is not a new discussion. There was a Scottish theologian. He lived in the
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17th century, and his name was Andrew Gray. And I loved this quote by him. A true believer looks
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on religion, not as a burden, which he must be forced to endure, but a privilege, which is his
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happiness to enjoy. Jonathan Edwards, he was an 18th century key figure in the great awakening,
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the reformed tradition. You've probably heard sinner in the hands of an angry God. That was a
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famous, very famous sermon that he preached at the time. But he also talked about this. He said,
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the religion of heaven, the religion of heaven consists very much in affection.
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There is doubtless true religion in heaven and true religion in its utmost purity and perfection.
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True religion lies very much in the affections. Without holy affection, there is no true religion.
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So religion, he's saying, is not really just about what you do. It is about whom you love.
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True faith involves both the relational knowledge of God and also obedient religious devoted
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practice that flows from that relationship. The New Testament, um, describes, uh, religion or
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obedience to God positively when describing what God pleasing expressions of faith and love look
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like. If you look at first John two, three through six, and by this, we know that we have come to
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know him. If we keep his commandments, whoever says I know him, but does not keep his commandments
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is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is
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perfected. By this, we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk
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in the same way in which he walked, which gosh, we can only do that with the power of the Holy
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Spirit because Jesus is perfect and none of us is perfect. All of us are going to fall and fail
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in sin. And that is why we need the grace of God to keep us going. But that love of God and
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relationship that we have with him is what motivates us to do that. Knowing God relationally,
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we read in scripture, is actually evidenced by our religion, by keeping commandments, by binding
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ourselves to him through grace-filled effort. Claiming a relationship with God without obedience
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actually makes one a liar. That's not my word. That's God's word. I also just want to note here
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So often Christians who emphasize the importance
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but not understanding or following the spirit of the law.
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That's what Saul, before he became Paul did, added all kinds of stipulations to the law
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that the average Hebrew couldn't follow so that they could elevate themselves as especially
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righteous-seeming, and they ignored the spirit of the law, which was to love God, honor him,
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Matthew 12, 9 through 11 is a good example of this.
00:26:12.120
Jesus went on from there and entered their synagogue, and a man was there with a withered
00:26:16.380
And they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him?
00:26:21.200
He said to them, which one of you who has sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath,
00:26:29.440
And then in Mark 2, Jesus explains the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
00:26:34.900
Sabbath to the Pharisees had just become about following another rule,
00:26:38.660
not about rest and devotion to God and compassion for other people.
00:26:43.280
So religion and Christianity and conclusion is good.
0.59
00:26:51.200
And importantly, and distinctly, it is built upon the relationship that we have in Christ.
00:26:58.580
All right, let's go to number two, which is God answers all of our prayers.
00:27:07.540
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Legacybox.com slash Allie. God answers all of our prayers. The answer just might be,
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no, we're told this a lot that, you know, I actually posted something the other day about
00:28:35.320
God not answering a particular prayer. And I got a lot of well-meaning messages from people saying
00:28:39.000
God answers every prayer. It's just that he might not always be saying yes. He might be saying no
00:28:44.220
or wait, but there is always an answer from God. Rick Warren is, or was, I can't remember if he
00:28:50.600
retired, but a pastor of Saddleback Church. He wrote Purpose Driven Life, so very prominent
00:28:55.880
person. And he said this, top five. God never leaves a prayer unanswered. Every prayer is
00:29:02.320
answered. It's not every prayer God says yes to. And there are many, many reasons for that.
00:29:09.900
There are a lot of examples in the Bible where God says no to great men and women of faith.
00:29:16.180
Prayers that were prayed by Abraham, God says no. Moses, no. Daniel, no. Job, Jonah, no. Elijah,
00:29:25.820
no. Peter, Paul, God said no to Jesus. Yes, even God's son, there are prayers that were
00:29:33.080
quote unanswered, meaning they weren't answered the way Jesus asked.
00:29:38.160
It is true that God says no. It is not true that God answers every prayer. The late pastor,
00:29:44.680
John MacArthur, talked about this a lot. He addressed this at length in his sermon. This
00:29:49.600
is from Grace to You. This has all of his past sermons and a lot of resources in connection
00:29:54.720
with John MacArthur, but he noted that there are many biblical reasons why God may not answer a
00:30:01.640
prayer. The Bible says that God does not answer the prayers of a few kinds of people. One, those
00:30:07.620
who have personal and selfish motives. We read this in James 4, 3, you ask and do not receive
00:30:14.760
because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. Number two, he says, those who remain
00:30:21.800
and sin and will not heed God's law. This is John 9 31. We know that God does not listen to sinners,
00:30:29.460
but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Also Proverbs 28 9. If
00:30:36.220
one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. There's also those
00:30:43.560
who suffer or sorry, those who offer unworthy service to God. This is Malachi 1 8 through 9.
00:30:50.800
very interesting. When you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you
00:30:56.880
offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Will he
00:31:02.220
accept you or show you favor, says the Lord of hosts. And now entreat the favor of God that he
00:31:07.420
may be gracious to us with such a gift from your hand. Will he show favor to any of you,
00:31:12.560
says the Lord of hosts. And so obviously we're not ancient Israel. We're not offering animal
00:31:17.260
sacrifices to try to please God. This is just another example of God saying, no, I don't even
00:31:22.580
hear the prayers of certain kinds of people. Another category, those who reject God's call
00:31:27.860
or have no faith. This is James 1, 6 through 7, but let him ask in faith with no doubting.
00:31:34.460
For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that
00:31:37.780
person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. Those who are violent,
00:31:43.520
Isaiah 1 15. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make
00:31:48.940
many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Those who are self-righteous,
00:31:55.780
the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus. This is according to Luke 18 11 through 14.
00:32:01.820
God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like
00:32:06.320
this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get, but the tax collector
00:32:11.840
standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breath saying,
00:32:15.600
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, Jesus says, this man went down to his house
00:32:20.140
justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who
00:32:25.900
humbles himself will be exalted. So John MacArthur says, this is an example of an acceptable prayer
00:32:32.900
to God versus an unacceptable one. And then the last category he says is those who mistreat God's
00:32:37.840
people. Micah 3, 2 and 4. You who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my
00:32:43.660
people and their flesh from off their bones, they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them.
00:32:48.420
He will hide his face from them at that time because they have made their deeds evil.
00:32:54.080
There are several other passages that we could go through that indicate that God sometimes does
00:32:58.540
not hear or does not respond at all to certain prayers due to a person's heart condition,
00:33:03.360
motives or relationship with him. There's Isaiah 59, 1 through 2, Isaiah 1, 15, Psalm 66, 18.
00:33:14.580
Psalm 66, 18 says, if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
00:33:20.420
So it's not only that the Lord doesn't always answer, it's that sometimes he does not listen
00:33:25.280
to prayers. Now, the believer has been sanctified. The believer has been justified. The believer has
00:33:32.900
been made perfect. We are coming to the Lord in total confidence because of our relationship with
00:33:40.160
Christ. Are there prayers that are not heard by God by the Christian? I think that's a really good
00:33:47.560
theological question. I simply don't know for sure that the answer is always that God is
00:33:56.680
responding to every single prayer that a Christian has. I'm not sure about that, but we do know for
1.00
00:34:04.280
sure that for the non-believer, it is not true that God hears and answers every prayer. God can
00:34:10.660
hear and answer the prayers of non-believers, but he doesn't have to. And there are various
00:34:15.440
categories in scripture where God clearly is not going to hear a certain kind of prayer.
00:34:26.720
One of the requisites of legitimate prayer is repentance, hence the common declaration
00:34:31.960
of scripture, that God does not listen to the wicked, that their prayers as well as
00:34:38.700
In Isaiah, he thus threatens, when you make many prayers, I will not hear.
00:34:48.320
You got to be right with the Lord before the Lord hears you.
00:34:51.440
Charles Spurgeon, 19th century theologian, in his sermon, True and Not True, he's talking
00:34:58.800
He says, it is true that God heareth not sinners.
00:35:02.580
That is to say, he will hear none of us, no sinner among us, and who among us is not
0.52
00:35:06.960
a sinner if we come to him in a wrong way or with a wrong spirit.
00:35:10.780
God does not hear the prayers of those who love their sins that are unwilling to give
00:35:14.880
So you could argue here that he's actually talking about Christians, Christians who are
00:35:19.580
not in a state of perpetual unrepentant sin, but in that moment are storing up sins and
00:35:26.180
idolatry in their heart and have not repented of those sins that are holding on to them.
00:35:32.480
He is saying that it is possible that God is not even listening to those prayers of
00:35:39.020
I think we can generally just say, though, that it is obvious from Scripture that God
00:35:44.180
is not answering every single prayer. And so it's just not true. I think the better answer for people
00:35:50.960
is that God is sovereign. God chooses to answer how and when he wants to, and God is good,
00:35:57.480
whatever he chooses. It's not that he cannot hear all prayers, but he decides which prayers to
00:36:03.940
listen to and which prayers to answer to through very clear principles that we see in the Bible.
00:36:09.260
All right, let's get to number three, share the gospel when necessary, use words. Let me pause,
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because Planned Parenthood lies to her and tells her, oh, it's just a clump of cells,
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Share the gospel when necessary. Use words. I've heard this. I've heard this on my very show of
00:37:44.840
people saying, you know, we preach the gospel by just how we treat people and really preaching at
00:37:52.680
people and trying to push religion down their throats is not something that's going to be
00:37:56.960
convincing. And here's an example of a podcast host. It's a life coach, Martha Back, on the
00:38:05.500
podcast called Bewildered, Sot6. The way you continue to live may turn out to inspire other
00:38:13.760
people. Inspiration is something we do by living, not by talking. There's a quote, I have to look
00:38:19.840
up who said it. I feel like it was like St. Francis or someone like that, who said, everywhere
00:38:26.060
you go preach the gospel only if absolutely necessary use words okay bewildered indeed
00:38:34.380
it is true that your life serves it as an inspiration it is true that what we do absolutely
00:38:41.100
matters and how we live our life is a testimony to what we believe 100 and having a misalignment
00:38:48.180
a lack of integration that means a lack of integrity between what we say and what we do
00:38:54.280
how we are in private and how we are in public, that can absolutely ruin your testimony. By the
00:39:00.660
way, this woman is correct. It is, well, it's attributed. I shouldn't say that she's correct.
1.00
00:39:06.660
It's misattributed to St. Francis of Assisi. She's correct that this is what people say,
00:39:11.160
or this is how they got this quote. But it's actually not from Francis. The closest thing
00:39:17.540
that he said to this was from his rule of 1221 chapter 12 on how the franciscans should practice
00:39:26.500
their preaching no brother should preach contrary to the form and regulations of the holy church
00:39:31.520
nor unless he has been permitted by his minister all the friars should preach by their deeds okay
00:39:36.760
well i that is not really similar to what people say that he said so we don't really know where
00:39:42.120
this quote comes from, but I really understand why people like it because it lets us off the hook
00:39:48.140
because talking about the gospel and sharing things verbally is awkward in an in-person
00:39:54.220
conversation with someone who disagrees with you. Smiling at the grocery store clerk is not awkward.
00:40:00.020
Asking about someone's day, helping someone out is hard. Like, don't get me wrong. The sacrifice
00:40:05.100
of your time and your energy, your convenience to help someone in need, like it is difficult
00:40:14.600
We are called to preach the gospel with our words.
00:40:19.400
If anyone could have preached the gospel only using deeds, it would have been Jesus.
00:40:26.100
Because Jesus perfectly lived out the gospel in his actions.
00:40:32.540
He did, but he constantly preached the gospel using his words.
00:40:37.220
Scripture repeatedly stresses the importance of speaking the gospel.
00:40:40.860
it is a word-based faith. Christ tells his disciples, go into all the world and proclaim
00:40:46.680
the gospel to the whole creation, Mark 16, 15. In his letter to the Romans, Paul emphasizes the
00:40:52.360
need for speaking the gospel, asking, how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
00:40:57.640
And how are they to hear without someone preaching? That's Romans 10. And he explains,
00:41:01.880
so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ, Romans 10, 17.
00:41:09.880
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
00:41:13.020
who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom,
00:41:17.060
preach the word, be ready in season and out of season,
00:41:20.040
reprove, rebuke, exhort all things you do with your words,
00:41:28.580
The Bible obviously strongly affirms that our actions, our love,
00:41:32.540
our holy living must back up our message and that hypocrisy undermines it.
00:41:37.020
and it also repeatedly emphasizes the gospel itself must be verbally proclaimed it must be
00:41:42.600
preached it must be taught it must be declared with words saving faith comes through hearing
00:41:47.500
the message about christ not through silent example alone and this is actually what distinguishes
00:41:52.300
christianity um distinguishes christianity from other faiths i mean buddhism puts a high premium
00:42:00.280
on silence. There is transcendental meditation that urges you to empty your mind. But Christians
1.00
00:42:07.720
aren't called to that kind of meditation. We are called to the meditation that fills your mind with
00:42:12.240
God's word. We are to meditate on God's law. We meditate on Christ's character, on who God is. We
00:42:18.780
fill our mind with good things, actually knowing that idleness and emptying of our mind makes us
00:42:23.660
vulnerable to temptation. It makes us vulnerable to lies. And so that's one problem, one of the
00:42:30.300
few problems that I have with practices like yoga and New Age meditation. In the West, we have this
00:42:37.820
sense of Western guilt that everything Western is bad, all Western medicine is bad, all Western
0.89
00:42:42.700
ways of doing things, all Western ways of reading the Bible. And we, for some reason, have this
00:42:49.160
sacred view of the East as if all Eastern things are good and right and better. And I think that
0.98
00:42:56.720
has also melded with the self-help industry in the United States to create this self-help
00:43:02.400
new age, weird therapy culture thing. I mean, that's what my first book was about.
00:43:08.940
You're not enough and that's okay because of how this message I think targets Christian
00:43:15.380
women. And part of that is this idea that if we live this pacifist, friendly life,
0.92
00:43:22.800
this humanitarian life, then that is good enough to show people who Jesus is.
00:43:28.800
But Jesus, right before he ascends to heaven, he says, go therefore and make disciples of all
00:43:35.020
nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit. And how are we
00:43:42.400
to do that. We are to do that preaching the gospel, teaching them, teaching them to observe
00:43:48.900
all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
00:43:57.220
I always love this aspect of Jesus. And I love to remind people of the logos, the logos,
00:44:05.100
the Greek word for logic, rationale, word. That is how Jesus is referred to in John 1.
00:44:13.200
And that logos, that word that indicates reason and the ability to have a reasoning capacity
00:44:19.520
was almost sacred in the ancient pagan world. And then Christianity came and turned it completely
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on its head, offering something deeper and better. Let me pause. I'll tell you more about that in just
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you'll probably heard me talk about this before but if you read the book when children became
00:46:52.680
people by owen backey he talks about the ancient greeks and romans having this idea of the logos
00:46:59.720
really signifying a person's full worth and only the adult free male had the logos had the ability
00:47:07.540
to rationalize, and everyone else was seen on a lower level because they didn't have the fullness
00:47:12.240
of the logos. And so all kinds of exploitation of different kinds of people was justified,
00:47:16.960
including the sexualization, the objectification of children, including abortion and infanticide,
00:47:21.560
all because children were not seen as having the fullness of the logos. Obviously, that changed
00:47:26.240
over time. Western civilization was forged, and within Western civilization was this idea that
00:47:31.620
every single person had rights. Every single person had rights just because they were human
00:47:36.500
beings. And actually, women and children and elderly, these categories that had been denigrated
00:47:42.040
previously, were seen as even more special and worthy of our protection. And so you had orphanages,
00:47:50.240
you had homeless shelters, you had entities that were dedicated to caring for those groups of
00:47:55.220
people that previously were seen as less than because they didn't have the logos. All of this
00:48:00.240
is because of Christians, because Christians came on the scene 2,000 years ago following this man
00:48:05.580
that they called God, called Jesus of Nazareth, who called himself the way, the truth, and the
00:48:10.400
life, and bizarrely, so unlike the Greek and Roman gods, at the time, he came to earth not as a
00:48:16.460
warrior, but as a baby, actually as an embryo, and was heralded by the kicks of a newborn John
00:48:21.920
the Baptist, was worshipped by the angels as a newborn, against the protestation of his disciples
00:48:26.880
said, let the little children come to me, for such as these belong the kingdom of heaven. This Jesus,
00:48:33.080
who came to earth just as a fertilized egg, who grew into a newborn baby that was birthed by the
00:48:40.920
Virgin Mary. This Jesus changed how the world saw children, changed how the world saw people and
0.98
00:48:46.180
his followers everywhere they went. They preached the gospel with their words. And they also said
00:48:51.260
the child sacrifice will end here. The exploitation of people, the oppression of the poor will end
00:48:56.980
here. And we are going to step up and do something about it. They were killed for it
00:49:00.620
and they were persecuted for it they were tortured for it they were fed to lions for it but over time
00:49:07.200
with the power of the holy spirit because the gates of hell will never prevail against the church
00:49:11.860
christians who followed this jesus changed how the world saw children and the beautiful thing
0.99
00:49:18.220
about this that just turned the scholarly justification for oppression and objectification
00:49:23.200
on its head this justification of well they don't have the logos who came to earth to dispel that
00:49:29.780
myth. The Logos. The capital L Logos. John 1 in the beginning was the Word. Christianity is based
0.95
00:49:38.700
on the Word. It is not based on our silence and hoping that people pick up on the fact that we're
00:49:45.020
polite and so we must know Jesus. Guess what? There are a lot of people who do not know Jesus
00:49:50.020
who are polite, who smile at the grocery store clerk. There are not people who will preach this
00:49:57.420
crazy sounding message to the world that this guy who is fully God lived a perfect life and died a
00:50:05.180
crucifixion, a death on our behalf and rose again three days later and is one day coming back,
00:50:10.080
not as a baby, but as a warrior. And he's going to make all things right. I mean, that's a crazy
00:50:14.400
message to the world to tell the world who believes that they are good inside, that they
00:50:19.360
are perfect the way they are, that they are enough, that you are actually dead in your sin and you
00:50:23.500
need a savior. If you don't preach that without shame, then there is a question about what we
00:50:31.900
really believe. Yes, actions matter, but actions are not the same thing as preaching the gospel.
00:50:38.460
Martin Luther, he is the central figure of the Protestant Reformation. Of course, most of you
00:50:43.080
know that. He stressed that the gospel must be actively proclaimed with the mouth as the means
00:50:47.560
God uses to create faith and save sinners. He said, where Christ is not preached, there is no
00:50:52.220
holy spirit to create call and gather the christian church that's from his large catechism 15 29 and
00:50:59.400
we read that again in scripture that in order to be believed it must be heard that's romans 10 and
00:51:07.100
in order to be heard it must be preached so we use our words all right that covers it the most
00:51:15.280
misused phrases we will have lots more to come and we'll be back here on wednesday