Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - June 08, 2020


Ep 260 ｜ Terrible Meme-ology： Jesus and the Lost Sheep


Episode Stats

Length

34 minutes

Words per Minute

181.45721

Word Count

6,276

Sentence Count

403


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Happy Monday. So today
00:00:18.180 we are going to talk about a most misused that you guys have seen floating around on
00:00:25.340 the internet in relation to everything that's going on right now. And that is Luke 15, three
00:00:30.820 through seven. We're actually just going to talk about that for part of the podcast. And
00:00:35.160 then we're going to talk about a few other things. We're going to talk about some biblical
00:00:39.340 comparisons that have been made about Jesus in relation to the riots, in relation to Black
00:00:49.580 Lives Matter. And we will try to take a biblical look at whether or not these comparisons are
00:00:55.440 correct. And then if we have time, we'll also talk about just some things that have been going on in
00:01:00.040 the news that you guys have asked me about. For those of you who listened to last Wednesday's
00:01:05.480 episode, that was a whole lot of you. It seems like there was just a demand for a different
00:01:10.940 perspective about everything. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you to the vast majority of
00:01:15.740 you who sent me some kind of encouragement. That means a lot to me. But also, it also means a lot
00:01:22.480 to me, those of you, you might not be listening to the show anymore, but those of you who listened
00:01:27.080 and you disagreed respectfully. Now, unfortunately, the respectfully part does not characterize a lot of
00:01:33.600 people who disagreed with me. There are just, there's a lot of anger out there, which is fine. Like
00:01:38.240 I'm fine with anger as well. But for those of you who did email me, who suggested additional
00:01:43.260 resources, who gave me a different perspective, especially from a Christian point of view,
00:01:48.900 I just want you to know I not only respect that, but I appreciate that. I am going to check out
00:01:53.640 the resources that people on the opposing side of the issue of police brutality that they suggested.
00:02:01.000 And I hope that you would also, if you are someone who disagrees with me, that you will look into
00:02:05.340 the resources that I suggested as well. There's a lot of people who have said we need to elevate
00:02:09.740 black voices. We need to listen to black people about systemic racism and things like that.
00:02:14.520 And I am more than happy to do that. The problem is the black voices that I elevate and that I
00:02:20.860 suggest a lot of people on the other side are just unwilling to listen to. And in fact,
00:02:26.140 they pretend like they don't exist. I don't see how that is any less bigotry than someone on my side
00:02:32.860 of the issue, refusing to look at opposing resources. However, I do want to look at opposing
00:02:38.940 resources. I have, I desire to have an allegiance to truth. I don't want to simply be partisan in my
00:02:46.500 concerns. I want to have my assumptions challenged. And that's something that I've prayed about a lot
00:02:51.500 in the past week or so is that I just pray that my desire to be right would be subject to my desire
00:02:59.620 to honor Christ. And I think honoring Christ is being as truthful as possible. Now, unfortunately,
00:03:04.980 there's a lot of people who think that compassion should be without truth, that we shouldn't be
00:03:10.180 talking about facts, that we shouldn't be talking about statistics at all, that we shouldn't be
00:03:13.920 talking about a counter narrative, that we shouldn't be pushing back against the idea or the mainstream
00:03:19.540 narrative of social justice. And so they assume that someone like me, who has spent so much time
00:03:25.540 talking about George Floyd being made in the image of God, the importance of treating all people
00:03:30.340 equally as image bearers of God, someone who has tried to, by the grace of God, raise money for the
00:03:37.240 people who are suffering in Minneapolis, people who are suffering in big cities. It doesn't matter,
00:03:42.780 I've realized, to some people, what you do, what you say, how biblical it is, how much you share the
00:03:49.360 gospel, how much you talk about people being made in the image of God, how many times you offer
00:03:54.560 solutions, if it does not fit the exact leftist social justice narrative and the progressive
00:04:02.080 definition of racial reconciliation, if the prescriptions that you offer, the solutions
00:04:07.440 that you offer, the talking points that you give, the statistics that you give, if it doesn't fit into
00:04:12.480 the leftist narrative of social justice, you are still going to get people who say that you're not
00:04:16.820 a Christian, that you're not compassionate, that you're just hateful, that you're just a racist,
00:04:21.300 as if, in order to reach this standard of compassion that I'm not sure who made up,
00:04:29.080 you have to agree with only one side. I just don't understand how offering solutions and pointing
00:04:35.340 to real problems that are disproportionately affecting a minority community's lax compassion
00:04:41.300 simply because it's not the same, they're not the same problems and the same solutions that people
00:04:46.280 on the left point out. That just doesn't, that doesn't make any sense. You can accuse me of being
00:04:51.160 wrong. You can't accuse me of not caring. You can't accuse me of not caring. And if your narrow
00:04:56.120 definition of caring is simply repeating the white privilege talking points, is simply having these
00:05:05.120 kind of conversations about a very nebulous idea of systemic racism and not getting to the nitty gritty
00:05:11.440 and not talking about the truth and not talking about the real problems, some of the real problems
00:05:16.860 of many that are facing minority communities, then you don't really want to solve things either.
00:05:22.620 Like, you're not really interested in solutions. It's interesting, the standard of the woke, that it is
00:05:29.620 more compassionate, apparently, to post a black box on your Instagram and then never do anything ever
00:05:35.360 again, never do anything ever again, than it is to actually talk about the things that are going on,
00:05:40.700 to actually talk about statistics, actually talk about what the Bible says about justice,
00:05:44.540 actually talk about the problems that are facing minority and poor communities, and actually talk
00:05:48.800 about suggested solutions. Again, you can disagree with me on all of that, but you cannot accuse me
00:05:53.700 of not caring. You can't accuse me of caring less than the person who just repeats the things that they
00:05:58.400 hear woke activists say. It doesn't make any sense. But unfortunately, even the church has such a narrow
00:06:06.520 definition of compassion that they completely exclude anyone with a differing perspective,
00:06:10.680 including black people with a differing perspective. And again, I don't know how that is any less
00:06:15.240 bigotry than anything that you are accusing conservatives of. Okay, so let's get into this
00:06:22.020 meme that's going around. And if you're watching on YouTube, by the way, if you don't subscribe to
00:06:26.100 YouTube, please do so. The episode comes out at 2 p.m. Obviously, the listening part of the episode,
00:06:32.420 the kind that's on, you know, audio podcasts, so Apple Podcasts, Spotify comes out at 6 a.m.,
00:06:37.960 YouTube comes out at 2 p.m. A really great way to share the podcast for people who don't have a
00:06:43.700 podcast app or don't listen to podcasts and like to watch it. But we'll put this meme that I've seen
00:06:49.060 going around up on the screen if you're watching on YouTube. And or it's really I've seen it in a lot
00:06:55.080 of different forms. So I've seen it in meme form. And I've also seen it in like a cartoon form. And I'll
00:07:01.160 just describe it for those of you who are listening. So it is the parable in Luke 12,
00:07:06.040 when Jesus talks about the 99 sheep, he leaves the 99 to go pursue the one lost sheep. And in the
00:07:14.260 cartoon or in the meme, all of the 99 sheep are over there holding up little signs saying,
00:07:20.740 but all lives matter. And the point of it is that, okay, yes, sure, all lives matter. But Jesus goes and
00:07:28.720 pursues the one life that is stricken by oppression, which in this case, according to this meme is
00:07:36.180 black people. And so that is what the point of the meme is. That's what the point of the cartoon
00:07:41.700 is, is that even Jesus, sometimes he focuses more attention on those that are oppressed. And he has
00:07:52.580 to leave the 99 in order to tend to or find the person who is oppressed. If that's confusing to
00:07:58.100 you, that's because if you apply any kind of biblical thinking or critical thinking to this,
00:08:03.380 it immediately falls apart. So let me just read you Luke 15. Did I say Luke 12 earlier? I meant to say
00:08:12.380 Luke 15. Let me pull that up. So he's talking to you, it says Luke 15 one. Now the tax collectors and
00:08:20.340 sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying the man
00:08:25.280 receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable, what man of you having a hundred
00:08:31.600 sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that
00:08:37.420 is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he
00:08:43.380 comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have
00:08:49.020 found my sheep that was lost. So people are taking this passage and saying, well, this applies to
00:08:54.860 black lives matter in all lives matter. And the problem is, is that we don't have to guess what
00:09:01.740 this passage means. We don't get to apply this passage to current social issues. We don't get
00:09:07.860 to apply a new meaning to this passage that isn't meant to be there. And I've heard people say, well,
00:09:13.720 parables don't just mean one thing. They can, they can mean many things. I've heard a lot of people say
00:09:18.500 that as if that's like a talking point that has been distributed out to people and people are just
00:09:24.720 regurgitating. The problem with that idea, one is that it's, it's not true. So when we approach the
00:09:30.020 Bible, we don't ask, what does this mean to me? Or what do I want this to mean? But what does this
00:09:35.600 mean? Period. We've talked about this. If you want more information on that, you can read, or you can
00:09:41.140 listen to my episode called reading the Bible from several months ago. And we talk about the importance
00:09:46.100 of approaching scripture with the, with the thought of, okay, what does this mean? Not what
00:09:51.580 does this mean to me? But what does this actually mean? To do that, you read the passage, you take
00:09:56.320 the context, you can even look at the original Greek and Hebrew, but you try to get to the actual
00:10:02.260 meaning of the text. And here, we don't have to do a whole lot of work. We don't have to do a whole
00:10:07.520 lot of work to know exactly what Jesus means by this, that he's not applying it to a social issue,
00:10:11.740 that it doesn't mean anything cryptic or mystic or anything like that. Jesus actually tells us
00:10:16.940 exactly. He's so gracious. He is so gracious and patient that he actually tells us exactly what
00:10:23.120 he means by this parable. So verse seven says, just so I tell you. So after he tells this parable,
00:10:29.220 verse seven says, just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
00:10:35.220 than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. So he's talking about repentance.
00:10:43.000 The lost sheep is the sinner who repented, who Jesus saved. That is the point of this passage.
00:10:49.980 And here's, here's a huge problem besides just the, the theological malfeasance here and the
00:10:56.580 interpretive, interpretive malfeasance when it comes to reading this passage to mean that it is
00:11:02.880 applying to some social issue. Here's, here's the real problem is that this is much better news.
00:11:09.900 The real meaning of this passage is, is much better news than the sheep representing a member
00:11:16.300 of the black community or a member of any kind of race or any kind of, um, uh, uh, oppressed group
00:11:23.700 or marginalized group that only gets you so far, but this is about the gospel. This is about the gospel.
00:11:29.840 This is much better news. And it's this news that offers the reconciliation and the peace and the
00:11:35.440 unity that all of the people misusing this passage say that they want. I just am so confused why so
00:11:41.400 many people believe that the gospel is not only insufficient, but is inappropriate. Like people
00:11:48.480 don't believe, and I've said this, I said this last Wednesday, so many Christians are talking about
00:11:52.900 white privilege and talking about all the problems that we have, which I'm fine with. Again,
00:11:57.180 I might not disagree with all of your, um, with, with all of your prescriptions and all of your
00:12:03.760 perspectives on that. And that's fine. You can talk about political issues. I obviously talk about
00:12:08.520 political issues, but for the Christian to only talk about those things and to not talk about the
00:12:14.800 gospel and to not point to the gospel as the solution is really troubling. Again, it's almost as if
00:12:20.800 they not only think the gospel is insufficient, but they also think that it's inappropriate.
00:12:25.340 And I also said last Wednesday, something that I'll say again. So you believe the gospel is
00:12:30.980 appropriate for some people like white pastors talking to their mostly white congregants, uh,
00:12:36.140 about the gospel. But when they turn to the black community, they only offer pity. They don't offer
00:12:41.220 the gospel. They don't tell them, Hey, your biggest problem ultimately is my biggest problem. That one
00:12:46.600 day we are going to stand before a holy God, Jesus Christ, who is going to judge the living and the
00:12:51.720 dead. And our only justification is not our political stances, not our good works, but Jesus
00:12:57.000 Christ himself. If you are not telling people of all races that including the marginalized, including
00:13:02.660 the black community, then I have to really ask if you care about black lives again, again, we can talk
00:13:10.820 about, we get, you can be a total social justice advocate and completely disagree with me on the
00:13:16.060 social issues as a Christian and what the problems are and what the solutions are. But one thing we've
00:13:21.680 got to agree on, one thing we've got to agree on as Christians, one thing that you and I have to be
00:13:26.400 able to come together on at the end of the day is that the ultimate, the transcendent, um, really the
00:13:32.360 only, the core solution to all of this is Jesus Christ. The only one who softens hearts, the only one
00:13:38.780 who accomplishes the most important reconciliation, which is, uh, sinners, enemies of God to God
00:13:45.620 himself, a wrathful, holy, merciful, gracious God. Uh, that is our greatest solution. That is our,
00:13:54.200 our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is that we have souls that will live forever and will end
00:13:58.760 up in one of two places. So for Christians to only, uh, to only preach, to only look at this passage
00:14:05.740 as saying, well, this has something to do with the social issue that I'm talking about right now
00:14:09.980 and not point to what Jesus himself says it means, that it's about sinners repenting and about how
00:14:16.700 he saves sinners. He pursues sinners, not, uh, not a certain type of person in a social class, not a, a
00:14:24.580 certain type of person with a race, but sinners in need of repentance, in need of salvation. If that's not
00:14:30.840 what you're preaching, uh, I'm just, I'm confused. I guess I'm just confused of how much you actually care
00:14:38.940 about the souls that you claim to care about and how much you actually, what you actually believe
00:14:44.180 about the gospel. What, what purpose you think that Jesus serves. I mean, this is, you do not have
00:14:50.840 to have very much biblical knowledge to know what this passage means. And I'm very troubled. I'm very
00:14:56.840 troubled by the Christians that I hear saying, well, parables don't just mean one thing. Passages don't
00:15:02.680 just mean one thing. Sure. There is going to be disagreement on interpretations between in good
00:15:08.620 faith Christians or like we're disagreeing in good faith. And that is absolutely, that's absolutely
00:15:13.120 true. Of course, there are so many people that I learned from that I have theological differences
00:15:16.860 with who are very strong believers and who have had an incredible impact on my faith. And so I'm
00:15:22.620 not saying there can't be any disagreement. I'm certainly not saying that my interpretation
00:15:26.260 is the end all be all, but our desire should not be to extract meaning from a text that doesn't exist.
00:15:33.020 Our desire is always to say, God, give me wisdom. Help me study this with the mental faculties that
00:15:40.760 you have given me. Help me look at the context. Help me look at the meaning. How can I see God most
00:15:46.000 be glorified in this text rather than applying it to something that it is not supposed to be applied
00:15:52.140 to? That's not glorifying to God. No matter what passage that we use, no matter what passage that we use,
00:15:58.000 whether you are on the right, there are people on the right that do this a lot. And there are people on
00:16:01.780 the left that do this a lot. And it's not glorifying to God. Something that I'm doing this
00:16:06.240 summer, Rachel Jankovic, a lot of you guys know her. I really love her. And she has had a really
00:16:12.180 big impact on me, just the wisdom that she gives, especially about being a mom and being a godly woman.
00:16:21.520 She is a part of something called Same Page Summer. It's really a Bible reading plan for women with her
00:16:27.920 church up in Idaho. And there are thousands of women, a part of the Facebook group. And there's
00:16:32.900 also a men's version too. And my husband is doing that. And so I really recommend that you do this
00:16:37.460 with us, that you get into the word, that you read the Bible, that you go into the Bible every day and
00:16:42.260 saying, okay, what does this mean? What does God want to teach his people through this? What is he
00:16:47.860 saying about himself? What is the true context of this? What is the true meaning of this passage? So you can
00:16:53.660 join that group on Facebook. I'll probably share about it on Instagram. I'm doing it. So we will
00:16:58.660 be on the same page reading the Bible together all summer. That is my desire for everyone. Whether
00:17:04.240 we land in the same places politically, my desire is that people read their Bibles. People read their
00:17:11.360 Bibles. Sometimes I wonder, like this caricature that people create of Jesus, especially it seems like,
00:17:18.780 is actually, it happens a lot on the right. They're just two different fictional characters.
00:17:23.280 So there are people on the right who think of Jesus in a way that he is not as basically like,
00:17:30.960 I don't know, like an American patriot or something like that. And then there are a lot of people on
00:17:37.100 the left, and this is probably the more popular view and the more pervasive view, especially among
00:17:41.580 young people, is that Jesus is just this hippie. He doesn't care about anything. He doesn't care about
00:17:46.520 sin. He doesn't care about salvation, all that stuff that he says about sin and repentance.
00:17:52.420 No, he just cares about social justice. He just cares about a social gospel. He just wants you to
00:17:58.420 do you. He wants you to be happy. He wants you to love yourself. And he is just here to show you
00:18:04.600 how to be a good social justice advocate. That's it. I sometimes wonder, every time I read the gospels,
00:18:11.840 I look at Jesus and I'm like, how did people get this idea? The people who have this idea of Jesus as
00:18:17.900 someone who doesn't care about the definition of marriage, who doesn't care about gender,
00:18:21.820 who doesn't care about sin, who doesn't care about repentance or holiness or salvation or
00:18:26.400 obedience, where the heck are you getting that idea? It's not from Jesus Christ himself. It might
00:18:31.360 be from liberation theology, which is false theology, by the way. So many of you out there are repeating
00:18:37.220 liberation theology in a social gospel about the idea that the responsibility that Christians have
00:18:45.180 is to create this kind of socialist utopia rather than advance the gospel of Jesus Christ.
00:18:52.200 And it's a false theology. It's a false gospel. Let me just tell you for a second about James Cone,
00:18:58.000 who is really the grandfather of black liberation theology, which is underneath so much of the false
00:19:03.660 theology today. He himself was not a believer. He said that he doesn't believe that Jesus is the only
00:19:09.780 way, the only truth, the only life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him,
00:19:13.480 which is what Jesus himself said. But he said that he is okay with any religion. He can get on board
00:19:18.520 with any religion that fights for the liberation, the so-called liberation that he fought for. And
00:19:24.420 unfortunately, that kind of false theology, I encourage you to look into it yourself, is infecting
00:19:29.440 and is pervading churches and theology today. And it's affecting how people read the Bible so that
00:19:35.460 they read a passage like the one in Luke 15, and they draw a meaning from it that just isn't there,
00:19:40.820 that Jesus himself says isn't there, because he says exactly what he means by that. And I think,
00:19:46.860 if anything, we should be able to take Jesus by his word. Okay, there is this other meme that I saw
00:19:54.400 going around, and it's about Jesus and all lives matter. So it goes through a list of, and we'll put
00:20:03.140 this up on the screen again, it goes through a list of Jesus not saying all lives matter. So it says,
00:20:10.040 Jesus didn't say all lives matter. He said Samaritan lives matter. Jesus didn't say that
00:20:14.860 all lives matter. He said Jewish lives matter. Jesus didn't say that all lives matter. He said
00:20:19.040 Gentile lives matter. Women's life matters. And so it goes through all of these things that Jesus
00:20:23.660 didn't say that all lives matter, but he said that XYZ lives matter. Okay, I'm going to need us to just,
00:20:30.640 I'm just going to need us to look at something super obvious. So you are essentially saying
00:20:37.380 that Jesus did say that all lives matter, because you just listed every single category of life that
00:20:43.740 Jesus says matter. He said that all of those lives matter. So because he didn't use, well, first of all,
00:20:50.220 he didn't actually say any of those things. Like this meme quotes Jesus saying Samaritan lives matter,
00:20:55.960 women's lives matter, blah, blah, blah. Well, Jesus didn't actually say those things. So those aren't
00:21:00.400 quotations, but I understand the principle of what they're trying to do. And it lists all of the
00:21:04.920 different lives that Jesus says matter. Okay, well, that is all lives. Like you've just listed all of
00:21:11.340 the lives that Jesus says matter, and that is all of the lives. So I'm a little bit confused by the
00:21:18.180 point of that. Basically, you're saying that Jesus said that all lives matter, but we still shouldn't say
00:21:23.400 that all lives matter. Again, meme theology, bad theology. Okay, there's another thing that I saw
00:21:30.960 something going around that Chance the Rapper shared, and that was Jesus was lynched. And it went through
00:21:38.740 the comparisons between Jesus and the atrocities that the black people in the United States have
00:21:44.880 unfortunately and tragically endured throughout American history of lynchings, of suffering, of
00:21:52.960 injustice. Now, here's the problem. Again, it's the same kind of principle as we talked about in
00:22:00.300 Luke 15. The problem with that is that you are actually minimizing what Jesus did on the cross.
00:22:07.200 I actually, I have no problem with connecting Jesus's suffering to our suffering. I have no problem
00:22:13.460 with that because the Bible says that he is a high priest that sympathizes with our weaknesses.
00:22:19.460 He did become flesh, and so he has been weary. He has been tired. He has been flogged. He has been
00:22:24.260 persecuted. He has been treated unjustly. He has been betrayed. So, so many of the things that we go
00:22:30.700 through on earth, Jesus himself experienced like what a gracious gift of God that he did not have to give
00:22:36.360 us. But for us to use terminology that the Bible doesn't use to describe Jesus's death,
00:22:43.460 in order to make it synonymous with what has happened, with what has happened here on earth
00:22:49.700 to any group of people that have received some kind of injustice, is actually to minimize what
00:22:55.180 Jesus did. Jesus, his death on the cross was, again, reconciliation of an unholy people with a holy
00:23:04.260 God paying for our sins and sacrificing himself on behalf of the debt that we owed. It is the grace of
00:23:13.020 God. So it is much, it's much bigger. It's much bigger than so many of these social gospel memes and
00:23:20.680 posts are trying to make it. And that's a huge problem with trying to, with trying to say or trying
00:23:29.440 to claim that Jesus's life, that Jesus's character, that Jesus's death and resurrection is the exact
00:23:35.480 same as something that is going on today. And that a certain group of people have an even better or
00:23:40.440 bigger connection to Jesus because of the things that they've experienced. And no doubt that suffering
00:23:45.360 brings us closer to Christ. And it actually is an imitation of Christ when we suffer for his sake.
00:23:50.960 Absolutely. But we really have to be careful with not just making comparisons, but basically saying
00:23:55.940 what happened to Jesus and what happened to people here on earth is exactly synonymous. It means the
00:24:01.320 same thing. It accomplished the same thing. It demonstrates the same thing because that's not
00:24:05.240 true of any group who has, who has unfortunately and tragically suffered through injustice. It's just not
00:24:14.340 because Jesus's death actually accomplished something. It accomplished something great. It accomplished
00:24:19.940 something eternal. It accomplished, it accomplished something beyond our comprehension. And again,
00:24:24.640 in these kinds of posts, we don't, we don't see any telling of the gospel. Like we don't see any
00:24:30.140 sharing of the gospel in the post that said Jesus was lynched. We didn't then say, well, this is what
00:24:35.640 Jesus's death accomplished. Here's what his crucifixion accomplished. Here's what happened when he died and
00:24:41.140 rose from the dead. This is what it means for you, sinner. It was strictly a physical comparison that can
00:24:46.940 only give you, uh, that can only get you so far, uh, that can't affect your soul, that can't change
00:24:54.120 your heart. Again, it's this idea that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not only insufficient, but
00:24:59.360 inappropriate. And it's a shame to see Christians act that way. Um, okay. A couple other things I want
00:25:05.880 to talk about. There's a lot of things I want to talk about actually. So I'm going to show you a little
00:25:10.640 video since we're talking about just the kind of manipulation and warped reaction that some,
00:25:16.460 certainly not all, and I'm not saying even all of the people on the other side of this issue than I
00:25:20.500 am, but, um, some Christians, the warped reaction that they are having to all of this. I just want
00:25:26.180 to show you, show you this video.
00:25:28.200 You brought the thunder and rain today, God, because Satan takes the L today. Father in Jesus name,
00:25:49.100 you get the victory. Father, we ask for forgiveness from our black brothers and sisters for years and
00:25:56.040 years of racism, of systematic racism. So as you saw, those are a bunch of white people kneeling,
00:26:04.580 hands in the air, and they are basically, it looks like a worship service. And this has happened
00:26:11.020 all across the country. There was actually a woman, an individual who was filmed. This video has gone
00:26:15.680 viral where she, uh, uh, a man approached her and said, Hey, you know, I'm a part of black lives
00:26:20.780 matter. And I was told to tell you to get down on your knees and apologize for your white privilege.
00:26:26.080 And she did it guys. This is idol worship. Like this is not humility. This is not godly. This is not
00:26:34.920 graciousness. This is not reconciliation. This is not something that Christians, that Christians need
00:26:41.820 to be a part of. Um, I've heard a lot of people say in this, that, um, we define justice, the oppressed
00:26:48.760 define justice, and everyone else just kind of has to go along with what they say justice is. Well,
00:26:56.220 no, for the Christian, that's not true. We align ourselves with, with God's justice. And look,
00:27:01.200 if you are a white supremacist and you are a racist and you have done something to someone because of the
00:27:07.080 color of their skin, or you have hated someone in your heart because of the color of your skin,
00:27:10.360 that is obviously a sin. And you need to ask for forgiveness and make it right. You need to
00:27:16.500 reconcile with that person. And you need to ask God to search your heart and to help you
00:27:21.200 not have those feelings of hate anymore. The Bible says we cannot love God and hate our brother. So
00:27:27.200 of course it's a sin. And if that is a sin that you have committed, if you have sinned against someone
00:27:31.580 in that way, then I agree. You should go before them. You should be contrite. You should show humility.
00:27:35.920 You should say you're sorry and ask for forgiveness and try to make it right. If you have not done that,
00:27:42.360 if you have not done that, then you don't have a responsibility or the ability, by the way,
00:27:47.840 according to the Bible, to ask forgiveness on behalf of people with your same skin color.
00:27:52.760 Like you're, you're not able to do that. God gives you no authority to do that. He doesn't give you the
00:27:58.460 obligation to do that. You are not able to ask forgiveness for a sin that you have not committed.
00:28:04.380 You're just not. Now you can empathize or you can try to sympathize with someone's pain and you can
00:28:09.780 listen to them and you can talk to them and you can say, I'm so sorry that that happened to you.
00:28:14.480 But unless this is a sin that you are actually a part of, which God knows your heart, then you
00:28:21.660 should not be obligated to, and you are not obligated to biblically apologize for that or pay back for
00:28:28.020 that or to ask forgiveness for that. You literally cannot. You cannot seek forgiveness on behalf
00:28:34.240 of people just because they have the same melanin count as you. You just can't. It's not biblically
00:28:39.380 or logically possible. So this is a lot of false humility. This is the hope of a lot of people
00:28:45.620 that they will be marked safe from the chaos, that they will be seen as true allies. But as we saw
00:28:51.600 last week with the black squares thing that happened on Instagram, allyship is problematic in and of
00:28:58.140 itself, even to black activists. So people put black squares on Instagram. A lot of people hashtag
00:29:03.700 Black Lives Matter. And then there were black activists who came out and said, hang on just a
00:29:08.420 second. We didn't ask you to do this. This was actually something that was supposed to start in
00:29:12.340 the music industry, unfair treatment against black people in the music industry. That is what it
00:29:17.040 started as. As so many movements do, it was hijacked. I was hijacked specifically by white people,
00:29:23.900 probably specifically by white liberals saying that we are going to be muted and listening and
00:29:28.040 we're posting all of these black squares. But then there were black activists who said,
00:29:32.280 we didn't ask you for that. We don't want you to do that. We would rather you speak up. We would
00:29:36.680 rather you give information. And again, I'm not on the same, necessarily the same side of the issue
00:29:42.020 as those people, but I understand their concern. Like it doesn't feel good. And it's not right when
00:29:48.680 people hijack your movement in order to feel like they are a part of something that maybe they're
00:29:53.780 not really a part of. And so I just want people to realize, especially Christians, one, that that
00:30:01.780 is not a form of activism, that that is not a form of righteousness, that that is not a form of
00:30:07.600 actually helping. Now, there's nothing wrong with talking about things on social media, and I don't
00:30:11.760 think it's necessarily a sin to post a black square, but you have to ask yourself, is what I'm doing
00:30:16.540 rooted in truth? And is it helpful? Is it actually helpful? And if that's certainly all you do,
00:30:21.780 which might not be true for most Christians, if that's all you're going to do, then I'm not sure
00:30:28.420 that that is the righteous choice to make. And just remember, like you'll never be woke enough,
00:30:36.420 Christian. You will never be woke enough. You will never be far left enough. You will never be social
00:30:41.940 justice enough. Like you will never say the right things. You will never do enough. It will never be
00:30:47.160 enough. It will never be enough. Even if you are prostrate on your face, begging for forgiveness
00:30:54.060 for all of the people that have ever been racist in the history of the world, it will never be
00:31:00.340 enough. You could give all of your money. You could give all of your time. You could give all of your
00:31:04.440 resources. You could give all of your Instagram posts, and it will never be enough because the
00:31:09.360 standards of the world are ever changing. They're ever changing. They are conditional, and they're not
00:31:14.660 rooted in the truth of God. What does the Lord require of you? To love the Lord your God with all
00:31:20.680 your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Go out there and serve the
00:31:26.800 people in these communities. Go clean up your neighborhood. Go donate time and money to the
00:31:32.280 people who have lost their businesses. People of all races, of all socioeconomic classes, who have lost
00:31:37.720 their businesses, lost their jobs, lost their livelihoods, lost their public transportation,
00:31:42.720 lost their ability to grocery shop at an affordable grocery store. Go help those people if you're so
00:31:50.180 concerned, which we should be concerned about those people who are affected, by the way. You can do what
00:31:55.180 I did. You can research into police brutality. You can research into racialized violence, and you can
00:32:00.460 propose solutions for the minority communities and the poor communities like I did last week. And again,
00:32:06.160 I understand that most people don't think that those are solutions, but unless you've got something
00:32:10.540 better, I'm telling you that a black box isn't going to do it. Nebulous conversations that never
00:32:15.960 solve any problems whatsoever, never talk about any specific solutions whatsoever, that's not going to
00:32:21.920 do it. You might not like my approach. You might not like what I have to say, but I tried my best to
00:32:26.900 offer tangible solutions that could actually happen, could actually be accomplished, and could actually
00:32:32.580 make some sort of difference for these minority and poor communities. Don't buy into the virtue traps
00:32:38.120 that say, unless you repeat these social justice talking points, you don't really care. That's not
00:32:43.560 what God tells you to do. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love
00:32:47.800 your neighbor as yourself. Find ways to tangibly do that, to tangibly love your neighbor, to take up
00:32:53.660 your cross, and to follow God. Share the gospel with the lady at the checkout counter. Ask if you can pray
00:33:01.380 for her. Talk to strangers in a way that's kind. Ask them if they go to church. Invite them to church with
00:33:07.520 you. I know this stuff is uncomfortable, but I can tell you from my experience, once you do it, once
00:33:12.420 you get the uncomfortable words out there of, hey, is there anything that I can pray for for you to
00:33:18.320 your waitress or to the lady at the checkout line or whatever? It's uncomfortable. They're uncomfortable,
00:33:23.600 but you do it and they appreciate it. Start doing those things. Start doing little things to share the
00:33:29.360 gospel if you want to make a difference. Too many people don't. Too many people don't. Too many people
00:33:35.340 just want to seem righteous and go with the flow because they're afraid of being called a bigot.
00:33:41.900 And it's unfortunate. That's not the standard that God holds you to. Love the Lord your God with all
00:33:46.060 your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus's burden is light and
00:33:50.680 his yoke is easy, and he's so much better to follow than the ever-changing standards of the world.
00:33:55.300 Okay, we'll be back here on Wednesday. I will see you guys then.
00:34:05.340 Bye.
00:34:06.020 Bye.
00:34:10.260 Bye.
00:34:10.940 Bye.
00:34:11.900 Bye.
00:34:11.960 Bye.
00:34:12.120 Bye.
00:34:16.060 Bye.
00:34:16.320 Goodbye.
00:34:16.560 Bye.
00:34:17.060 Bye.
00:34:17.760 Bye.
00:34:18.680 Bye.
00:34:19.120 Bye.
00:34:21.160 Bye.
00:34:21.740 Bye.
00:34:24.240 Bye.
00:34:24.500 Bye.
00:34:25.560 Bye.
00:34:27.060 Bye.
00:34:28.160 Bye.
00:34:28.960 Bye.
00:34:29.540 Bye.
00:34:30.500 Bye.
00:34:31.700 Bye.
00:34:32.800 Bye.
00:34:33.140 Bye.