Ep 260 ｜ Terrible Meme-ology： Jesus and the Lost Sheep
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the recent riots in the streets of Minneapolis and other major cities across the country, and whether or not they are related to the Black Lives Matter movement. We also take a look at the biblical perspective of Jesus in relation to the riots, and see if these comparisons are correct.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Happy Monday. So today
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we are going to talk about a most misused that you guys have seen floating around on
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the internet in relation to everything that's going on right now. And that is Luke 15, three
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through seven. We're actually just going to talk about that for part of the podcast. And
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then we're going to talk about a few other things. We're going to talk about some biblical
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comparisons that have been made about Jesus in relation to the riots, in relation to Black
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Lives Matter. And we will try to take a biblical look at whether or not these comparisons are
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correct. And then if we have time, we'll also talk about just some things that have been going on in
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the news that you guys have asked me about. For those of you who listened to last Wednesday's
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episode, that was a whole lot of you. It seems like there was just a demand for a different
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perspective about everything. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you to the vast majority of
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you who sent me some kind of encouragement. That means a lot to me. But also, it also means a lot
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to me, those of you, you might not be listening to the show anymore, but those of you who listened
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and you disagreed respectfully. Now, unfortunately, the respectfully part does not characterize a lot of
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people who disagreed with me. There are just, there's a lot of anger out there, which is fine. Like
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I'm fine with anger as well. But for those of you who did email me, who suggested additional
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resources, who gave me a different perspective, especially from a Christian point of view,
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I just want you to know I not only respect that, but I appreciate that. I am going to check out
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the resources that people on the opposing side of the issue of police brutality that they suggested.
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And I hope that you would also, if you are someone who disagrees with me, that you will look into
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the resources that I suggested as well. There's a lot of people who have said we need to elevate
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black voices. We need to listen to black people about systemic racism and things like that.
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And I am more than happy to do that. The problem is the black voices that I elevate and that I
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suggest a lot of people on the other side are just unwilling to listen to. And in fact,
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they pretend like they don't exist. I don't see how that is any less bigotry than someone on my side
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of the issue, refusing to look at opposing resources. However, I do want to look at opposing
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resources. I have, I desire to have an allegiance to truth. I don't want to simply be partisan in my
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concerns. I want to have my assumptions challenged. And that's something that I've prayed about a lot
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in the past week or so is that I just pray that my desire to be right would be subject to my desire
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to honor Christ. And I think honoring Christ is being as truthful as possible. Now, unfortunately,
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there's a lot of people who think that compassion should be without truth, that we shouldn't be
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talking about facts, that we shouldn't be talking about statistics at all, that we shouldn't be
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talking about a counter narrative, that we shouldn't be pushing back against the idea or the mainstream
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narrative of social justice. And so they assume that someone like me, who has spent so much time
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talking about George Floyd being made in the image of God, the importance of treating all people
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equally as image bearers of God, someone who has tried to, by the grace of God, raise money for the
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people who are suffering in Minneapolis, people who are suffering in big cities. It doesn't matter,
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I've realized, to some people, what you do, what you say, how biblical it is, how much you share the
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gospel, how much you talk about people being made in the image of God, how many times you offer
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solutions, if it does not fit the exact leftist social justice narrative and the progressive
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definition of racial reconciliation, if the prescriptions that you offer, the solutions
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that you offer, the talking points that you give, the statistics that you give, if it doesn't fit into
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the leftist narrative of social justice, you are still going to get people who say that you're not
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a Christian, that you're not compassionate, that you're just hateful, that you're just a racist,
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as if, in order to reach this standard of compassion that I'm not sure who made up,
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you have to agree with only one side. I just don't understand how offering solutions and pointing
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to real problems that are disproportionately affecting a minority community's lax compassion
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simply because it's not the same, they're not the same problems and the same solutions that people
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on the left point out. That just doesn't, that doesn't make any sense. You can accuse me of being
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wrong. You can't accuse me of not caring. You can't accuse me of not caring. And if your narrow
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definition of caring is simply repeating the white privilege talking points, is simply having these
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kind of conversations about a very nebulous idea of systemic racism and not getting to the nitty gritty
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and not talking about the truth and not talking about the real problems, some of the real problems
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of many that are facing minority communities, then you don't really want to solve things either.
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Like, you're not really interested in solutions. It's interesting, the standard of the woke, that it is
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more compassionate, apparently, to post a black box on your Instagram and then never do anything ever
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again, never do anything ever again, than it is to actually talk about the things that are going on,
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to actually talk about statistics, actually talk about what the Bible says about justice,
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actually talk about the problems that are facing minority and poor communities, and actually talk
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about suggested solutions. Again, you can disagree with me on all of that, but you cannot accuse me
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of not caring. You can't accuse me of caring less than the person who just repeats the things that they
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hear woke activists say. It doesn't make any sense. But unfortunately, even the church has such a narrow
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definition of compassion that they completely exclude anyone with a differing perspective,
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including black people with a differing perspective. And again, I don't know how that is any less
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bigotry than anything that you are accusing conservatives of. Okay, so let's get into this
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meme that's going around. And if you're watching on YouTube, by the way, if you don't subscribe to
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YouTube, please do so. The episode comes out at 2 p.m. Obviously, the listening part of the episode,
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the kind that's on, you know, audio podcasts, so Apple Podcasts, Spotify comes out at 6 a.m.,
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YouTube comes out at 2 p.m. A really great way to share the podcast for people who don't have a
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podcast app or don't listen to podcasts and like to watch it. But we'll put this meme that I've seen
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going around up on the screen if you're watching on YouTube. And or it's really I've seen it in a lot
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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
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just describe it for those of you who are listening. So it is the parable in Luke 12,
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when Jesus talks about the 99 sheep, he leaves the 99 to go pursue the one lost sheep. And in the
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cartoon or in the meme, all of the 99 sheep are over there holding up little signs saying,
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but all lives matter. And the point of it is that, okay, yes, sure, all lives matter. But Jesus goes and
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pursues the one life that is stricken by oppression, which in this case, according to this meme is
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black people. And so that is what the point of the meme is. That's what the point of the cartoon
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is, is that even Jesus, sometimes he focuses more attention on those that are oppressed. And he has
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to leave the 99 in order to tend to or find the person who is oppressed. If that's confusing to
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you, that's because if you apply any kind of biblical thinking or critical thinking to this,
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it immediately falls apart. So let me just read you Luke 15. Did I say Luke 12 earlier? I meant to say
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Luke 15. Let me pull that up. So he's talking to you, it says Luke 15 one. Now the tax collectors and
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sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying the man
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receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable, what man of you having a hundred
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sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that
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is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he
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comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have
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found my sheep that was lost. So people are taking this passage and saying, well, this applies to
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black lives matter in all lives matter. And the problem is, is that we don't have to guess what
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this passage means. We don't get to apply this passage to current social issues. We don't get
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to apply a new meaning to this passage that isn't meant to be there. And I've heard people say, well,
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parables don't just mean one thing. They can, they can mean many things. I've heard a lot of people say
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that as if that's like a talking point that has been distributed out to people and people are just
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regurgitating. The problem with that idea, one is that it's, it's not true. So when we approach the
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Bible, we don't ask, what does this mean to me? Or what do I want this to mean? But what does this
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mean? Period. We've talked about this. If you want more information on that, you can read, or you can
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listen to my episode called reading the Bible from several months ago. And we talk about the importance
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of approaching scripture with the, with the thought of, okay, what does this mean? Not what
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does this mean to me? But what does this actually mean? To do that, you read the passage, you take
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the context, you can even look at the original Greek and Hebrew, but you try to get to the actual
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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
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lot of work to know exactly what Jesus means by this, that he's not applying it to a social issue,
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that it doesn't mean anything cryptic or mystic or anything like that. Jesus actually tells us
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exactly. He's so gracious. He is so gracious and patient that he actually tells us exactly what
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he means by this parable. So verse seven says, just so I tell you. So after he tells this parable,
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verse seven says, just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
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than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. So he's talking about repentance.
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The lost sheep is the sinner who repented, who Jesus saved. That is the point of this passage.
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And here's, here's a huge problem besides just the, the theological malfeasance here and the
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interpretive, interpretive malfeasance when it comes to reading this passage to mean that it is
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applying to some social issue. Here's, here's the real problem is that this is much better news.
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The real meaning of this passage is, is much better news than the sheep representing a member
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of the black community or a member of any kind of race or any kind of, um, uh, uh, oppressed group
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or marginalized group that only gets you so far, but this is about the gospel. This is about the gospel.
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This is much better news. And it's this news that offers the reconciliation and the peace and the
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unity that all of the people misusing this passage say that they want. I just am so confused why so
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many people believe that the gospel is not only insufficient, but is inappropriate. Like people
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don't believe, and I've said this, I said this last Wednesday, so many Christians are talking about
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white privilege and talking about all the problems that we have, which I'm fine with. Again,
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I might not disagree with all of your, um, with, with all of your prescriptions and all of your
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perspectives on that. And that's fine. You can talk about political issues. I obviously talk about
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political issues, but for the Christian to only talk about those things and to not talk about the
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gospel and to not point to the gospel as the solution is really troubling. Again, it's almost as if
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they not only think the gospel is insufficient, but they also think that it's inappropriate.
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And I also said last Wednesday, something that I'll say again. So you believe the gospel is
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appropriate for some people like white pastors talking to their mostly white congregants, uh,
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about the gospel. But when they turn to the black community, they only offer pity. They don't offer
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the gospel. They don't tell them, Hey, your biggest problem ultimately is my biggest problem. That one
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day we are going to stand before a holy God, Jesus Christ, who is going to judge the living and the
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dead. And our only justification is not our political stances, not our good works, but Jesus
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Christ himself. If you are not telling people of all races that including the marginalized, including
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the black community, then I have to really ask if you care about black lives again, again, we can talk
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about, we get, you can be a total social justice advocate and completely disagree with me on the
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social issues as a Christian and what the problems are and what the solutions are. But one thing we've
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got to agree on, one thing we've got to agree on as Christians, one thing that you and I have to be
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able to come together on at the end of the day is that the ultimate, the transcendent, um, really the
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only, the core solution to all of this is Jesus Christ. The only one who softens hearts, the only one
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who accomplishes the most important reconciliation, which is, uh, sinners, enemies of God to God
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himself, a wrathful, holy, merciful, gracious God. Uh, that is our greatest solution. That is our,
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our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is that we have souls that will live forever and will end
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up in one of two places. So for Christians to only, uh, to only preach, to only look at this passage
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as saying, well, this has something to do with the social issue that I'm talking about right now
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and not point to what Jesus himself says it means, that it's about sinners repenting and about how
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he saves sinners. He pursues sinners, not, uh, not a certain type of person in a social class, not a, a
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certain type of person with a race, but sinners in need of repentance, in need of salvation. If that's not
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what you're preaching, uh, I'm just, I'm confused. I guess I'm just confused of how much you actually care
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about the souls that you claim to care about and how much you actually, what you actually believe
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about the gospel. What, what purpose you think that Jesus serves. I mean, this is, you do not have
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to have very much biblical knowledge to know what this passage means. And I'm very troubled. I'm very
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troubled by the Christians that I hear saying, well, parables don't just mean one thing. Passages don't
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just mean one thing. Sure. There is going to be disagreement on interpretations between in good
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faith Christians or like we're disagreeing in good faith. And that is absolutely, that's absolutely
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true. Of course, there are so many people that I learned from that I have theological differences
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with who are very strong believers and who have had an incredible impact on my faith. And so I'm
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not saying there can't be any disagreement. I'm certainly not saying that my interpretation
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is the end all be all, but our desire should not be to extract meaning from a text that doesn't exist.
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Our desire is always to say, God, give me wisdom. Help me study this with the mental faculties that
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you have given me. Help me look at the context. Help me look at the meaning. How can I see God most
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be glorified in this text rather than applying it to something that it is not supposed to be applied
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to? That's not glorifying to God. No matter what passage that we use, no matter what passage that we use,
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whether you are on the right, there are people on the right that do this a lot. And there are people on
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the left that do this a lot. And it's not glorifying to God. Something that I'm doing this
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summer, Rachel Jankovic, a lot of you guys know her. I really love her. And she has had a really
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big impact on me, just the wisdom that she gives, especially about being a mom and being a godly woman.
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She is a part of something called Same Page Summer. It's really a Bible reading plan for women with her
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church up in Idaho. And there are thousands of women, a part of the Facebook group. And there's
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also a men's version too. And my husband is doing that. And so I really recommend that you do this
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with us, that you get into the word, that you read the Bible, that you go into the Bible every day and
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saying, okay, what does this mean? What does God want to teach his people through this? What is he
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saying about himself? What is the true context of this? What is the true meaning of this passage? So you can
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join that group on Facebook. I'll probably share about it on Instagram. I'm doing it. So we will
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be on the same page reading the Bible together all summer. That is my desire for everyone. Whether
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we land in the same places politically, my desire is that people read their Bibles. People read their
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Bibles. Sometimes I wonder, like this caricature that people create of Jesus, especially it seems like,
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is actually, it happens a lot on the right. They're just two different fictional characters.
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So there are people on the right who think of Jesus in a way that he is not as basically like,
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I don't know, like an American patriot or something like that. And then there are a lot of people on
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the left, and this is probably the more popular view and the more pervasive view, especially among
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young people, is that Jesus is just this hippie. He doesn't care about anything. He doesn't care about
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sin. He doesn't care about salvation, all that stuff that he says about sin and repentance.
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No, he just cares about social justice. He just cares about a social gospel. He just wants you to
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do you. He wants you to be happy. He wants you to love yourself. And he is just here to show you
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how to be a good social justice advocate. That's it. I sometimes wonder, every time I read the gospels,
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I look at Jesus and I'm like, how did people get this idea? The people who have this idea of Jesus as
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someone who doesn't care about the definition of marriage, who doesn't care about gender,
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who doesn't care about sin, who doesn't care about repentance or holiness or salvation or
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obedience, where the heck are you getting that idea? It's not from Jesus Christ himself. It might
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be from liberation theology, which is false theology, by the way. So many of you out there are repeating
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liberation theology in a social gospel about the idea that the responsibility that Christians have
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is to create this kind of socialist utopia rather than advance the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And it's a false theology. It's a false gospel. Let me just tell you for a second about James Cone,
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who is really the grandfather of black liberation theology, which is underneath so much of the false
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theology today. He himself was not a believer. He said that he doesn't believe that Jesus is the only
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way, the only truth, the only life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him,
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which is what Jesus himself said. But he said that he is okay with any religion. He can get on board
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with any religion that fights for the liberation, the so-called liberation that he fought for. And
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unfortunately, that kind of false theology, I encourage you to look into it yourself, is infecting
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and is pervading churches and theology today. And it's affecting how people read the Bible so that
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they read a passage like the one in Luke 15, and they draw a meaning from it that just isn't there,
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that Jesus himself says isn't there, because he says exactly what he means by that. And I think,
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if anything, we should be able to take Jesus by his word. Okay, there is this other meme that I saw
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going around, and it's about Jesus and all lives matter. So it goes through a list of, and we'll put
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this up on the screen again, it goes through a list of Jesus not saying all lives matter. So it says,
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Jesus didn't say all lives matter. He said Samaritan lives matter. Jesus didn't say that
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all lives matter. He said Jewish lives matter. Jesus didn't say that all lives matter. He said
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Gentile lives matter. Women's life matters. And so it goes through all of these things that Jesus
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didn't say that all lives matter, but he said that XYZ lives matter. Okay, I'm going to need us to just,
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I'm just going to need us to look at something super obvious. So you are essentially saying
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that Jesus did say that all lives matter, because you just listed every single category of life that
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Jesus says matter. He said that all of those lives matter. So because he didn't use, well, first of all,
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he didn't actually say any of those things. Like this meme quotes Jesus saying Samaritan lives matter,
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women's lives matter, blah, blah, blah. Well, Jesus didn't actually say those things. So those aren't
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quotations, but I understand the principle of what they're trying to do. And it lists all of the
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different lives that Jesus says matter. Okay, well, that is all lives. Like you've just listed all of
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the lives that Jesus says matter, and that is all of the lives. So I'm a little bit confused by the
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point of that. Basically, you're saying that Jesus said that all lives matter, but we still shouldn't say
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that all lives matter. Again, meme theology, bad theology. Okay, there's another thing that I saw
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something going around that Chance the Rapper shared, and that was Jesus was lynched. And it went through
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the comparisons between Jesus and the atrocities that the black people in the United States have
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unfortunately and tragically endured throughout American history of lynchings, of suffering, of
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injustice. Now, here's the problem. Again, it's the same kind of principle as we talked about in
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Luke 15. The problem with that is that you are actually minimizing what Jesus did on the cross.
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I actually, I have no problem with connecting Jesus's suffering to our suffering. I have no problem
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with that because the Bible says that he is a high priest that sympathizes with our weaknesses.
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He did become flesh, and so he has been weary. He has been tired. He has been flogged. He has been
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persecuted. He has been treated unjustly. He has been betrayed. So, so many of the things that we go
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through on earth, Jesus himself experienced like what a gracious gift of God that he did not have to give
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us. But for us to use terminology that the Bible doesn't use to describe Jesus's death,
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in order to make it synonymous with what has happened, with what has happened here on earth
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to any group of people that have received some kind of injustice, is actually to minimize what
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Jesus did. Jesus, his death on the cross was, again, reconciliation of an unholy people with a holy
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God paying for our sins and sacrificing himself on behalf of the debt that we owed. It is the grace of
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God. So it is much, it's much bigger. It's much bigger than so many of these social gospel memes and
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posts are trying to make it. And that's a huge problem with trying to, with trying to say or trying
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to claim that Jesus's life, that Jesus's character, that Jesus's death and resurrection is the exact
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same as something that is going on today. And that a certain group of people have an even better or
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bigger connection to Jesus because of the things that they've experienced. And no doubt that suffering
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brings us closer to Christ. And it actually is an imitation of Christ when we suffer for his sake.
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Absolutely. But we really have to be careful with not just making comparisons, but basically saying
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what happened to Jesus and what happened to people here on earth is exactly synonymous. It means the
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same thing. It accomplished the same thing. It demonstrates the same thing because that's not
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true of any group who has, who has unfortunately and tragically suffered through injustice. It's just not
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because Jesus's death actually accomplished something. It accomplished something great. It accomplished
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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
00:25:28.200
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.