BONUS EPISODE - The Gospel Coalition & Public School ｜ “Love Your Neighbor, Hate Your Kids”
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 2 minutes
Harmful content
Misogyny
10
sentences flagged
Toxicity
6
sentences flagged
Hate speech
44
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode, Pastor Joel Webin discusses the Good Faith Debate with Jen Wilkins and her argument that Christians can place their kids in the public school system. In fact, there are many reasons why Christians should place their children in public school.
Transcript
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Many of you are unable to financially support this ministry because you're spending your
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take the time to do so. Thank you so much. God bless. Hi, welcome back to another Monday live
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video with Right Response Ministries. I'm your host, Pastor Joel Webin. We do this every Monday
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at 2 p.m central time every monday 2 p.m central time if you want to keep up with all of our
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content the easiest way to do that is to simply watch our three primary videos everything else
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that you'll find on our channel is a short form clip of one of our full length videos we have
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three that air each week on the lord's day at around 5 p.m we have the full length sermon on
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the Lord's Day around 5 p.m. Central Time, the full-length sermon from the church that I pastor,
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Covenant Bible Church, north of Austin, Texas, in Georgetown, Texas, Williamson County. The next is
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our Monday Live every week, about an hour, hour and a half at 2 p.m. Central Time. That's what
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we're doing right now. And then lastly, we have our flagship show. It's the interview form show
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that i'll host guests from all over guys who are like-minded and faithful in their doctrine
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and theology that show is called theology applied and that's tuesdays every tuesday at 2 p.m central
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time so sunday the lord's day full-length sermon at 5 p.m central time the monday live video where
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i discuss current events and topics as well as take questions from the audience live that's every
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Monday at 2 p.m. Central Time, and then Theology Applied, our interview show, on Tuesdays at 2 p.m.
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Central Time. For today, I'm going to be taking some questions here in just a moment, but first
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I want to discuss a little bit more in depth. I've already done one video on this. I'm following up
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now with a second, but I want to discuss the good faith debate that the Gospel Coalition hosted
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with Jen Wilkin arguing the position that Christians can, that's her position, that it's
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permissible, they may place their kids in the public school system, but there are certain
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points in the debate where she actually goes beyond that position and seems to suggest,
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if not outright say, that not every Christian is morally obligated because there's a host of
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different variables and factors that are unique to each family. But all things being equal,
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seems to be her argument, all things being equal, if you can, a Christian not only is permissible
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in placing their kids in the public school system, but they actually should for the good
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of the community in order to love their neighbors. Because if Christians all take their kids out of
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the public school system. That's going to hurt the public school system as a whole, which I would
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give a hearty, praise God, let's destroy it. But that's going to hurt her argument, the public
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system as a whole and the community as a whole and all the children that are left behind. Here's a
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clip from that debate hosted by the Gospel Coalition, where Jen Wilkin shares some very
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foolish thoughts with us. One of the things I would love to have entered into this conversation
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is that while I cannot tell you to put your children in public school, and certainly never
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would because there are so many factors that are at play, that it is important for us to understand
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that our decision regarding this and even our demeanor toward this has an impact on our
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community. It doesn't just impact our family. The most common phrase I hear thrown out in these
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conversations is, well, I just need to do what's best for my family. And I think that's something
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that as Christians we have to push back on. Philippians tells us each of you should look
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not just to your own interests, but to the interests of others. And there's no such thing
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as a decision that's made just for our families. In fact, even having the gift of the decision at
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all means that you're a person with more choices than some people. And those who don't have a
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choice of where they will educate their children will be impacted by your presence, your adult
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parent presence not being in the public schools because you've chosen to go somewhere else.
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We can look back in not too recent history on this and see the impact of when a large number
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of Christian parents decide to opt out of the system and how it impacts those who are left
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behind. And so I do think it's very important for us to understand that while yes, we do what is
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best for our families, we don't do so in a vacuum. We understand that what we do for our family
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always impacts the community around us and that we should look to the welfare of the city in which
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we live. All right. Here's the basic sentiment that we've heard for a number of years now from
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Big Eva, ivory tower, sophisticated winsome types like the Gospel Coalition, like Jen Wilkin.
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the basic sentiment that we hear ad nauseum is this love the world hate your country
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love your neighbors hate your family love the lost hate your local church
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what we see and i believe it is theologically and in terms of just basic reality in the world
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that god made it is a false dichotomy it assumes a zero-sum game that god created a world where
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there are limited resources that cannot be multiplied the pie cannot grow that essentially
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whenever you take right or build or grow or whatever keep certain resources and then disseminate
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those to your wife and your children or your local church and fellow Christians or your countrymen
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as a United States citizen or whatever country you happen to be a citizen of. By helping some,
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you are hurting others. That's the sentiment again and again and again, right? You're called
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to love the globe have a global worldwide affection and devotion and allegiance but not really a
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devotion towards your country in fact if you have any kind of allegiance or pride and not pride in
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the sense of arrogance but but a good pride in being a citizen of a particular country
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If you espouse that or think that we should have certain public policies that are America first because that's the nation that you've been sovereignly placed in by God, that this is selfish, that this is a lack of love for your neighbors.
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This is really, it's hatred towards your global neighbors for the sake of selfishly benefiting
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and loving to the exclusion of others, loving your national neighbors.
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However, you know, one of the ironies is that it's perfectly permissible, you may have noticed,
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in the TGC church planting world to be in and for your city.
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Nobody says, well, if you have a sign on your church that says, we're a church in and for
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the city of Seattle, well, then that must mean that you have a particular or even greater
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love for people in Seattle than you do people in other places or other cities, and that's
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That's not really loving all of your neighbors.
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That's loving some neighbors at the exclusion of other neighbors.
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because everybody understands the sentiment we understand what is meant by a church a local
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church or an individual local christian saying that i love my city i'm proud of my city i am
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uniquely committed to my city because i'm a finite creature and god in his providence has placed me
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here to be good to my neighbors but part of the neighbor love commandment the second greatest
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commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself, it assumes proximity. See, that's another thing
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that people just, they don't understand in a biblical way. Think of the Good Samaritan.
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The Good Samaritan. Why is it in that parable that Jesus tells, right, there are two other men,
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men of status men of esteem religious men that pass over they pass over this victim who has been
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beaten and robbed and left to die and they pass over they go around him on their way to their
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their personal affairs and they neglect and ignore his suffering and do nothing about it
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Not only are, it's not just two men on the other side of the world who are unwilling
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to go out of their way in order to help an individual, but rather this individual who
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And it actually requires that they go out of their way to avoid helping him, to ignore
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So it's not just the refusal to inconvenience themselves to help the individual, but they're
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actually willing to go out of their path in order to avoid him. And then there's the Samaritan
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who is of another culture, another nationality, another tradition where there's traditionally
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and historically a sense of hostility and enmity between these two people groups. And the Samaritan
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is the one who chooses to care for him. And Jesus, what he's saying in this parable is that the
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Samaritan rightly, he's not wrong, but he rightly recognizes that this individual is his neighbor
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and he's not his neighbor and therefore he's morally obligated and bound to care for this
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man's needs. And he's not his neighbor in the sense that they share the same ethnicity. He's
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not his neighbor in the sense that they're both members of the same church or that they're united
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by blood, that they're kin, that they're family. It's none of those things. It's proximity.
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it it's location it's you're there you're there and therefore you have an obligation
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to do something in our culture today it's completely reversed our our politicians as
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an example are more concerned about people in ukraine than they are about people in east
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Palestine. Our politicians are more concerned about the citizens of other countries than they
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are about their own citizens and their own country. And that doesn't even begin to get into
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the ramifications of the debate that could be had in regards to an America first policy actually
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being best, not only for America, but for the rest of the world. America last, not only does
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it do a disservice to Americans, but I would argue, and it can be fairly easily argued, that it
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actually does a disservice to the whole world and all these other countries as well. But the point
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remains, proximity is a major factor in determining moral obligation to our neighbors. Now, work that
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within the individual Christian family or household. A father and a mother, but a father at a greater
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in ultimate degree as head of his household, he has a unique and unparalleled moral obligation
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to provide and protect for the members of his household. We think of Titus. It says,
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you know, if a man is not willing to provide for his family and the members of his household,
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he is worse than an unbeliever and has denied the faith. Now, this text doesn't say if he's
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unwilling to care for everyone in his village, or if he's unwilling to care for the people who
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are suffering in the village next door, or if he's unwilling to care and provide for certain
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citizens in another nation across the globe, that he's denied the faith and worse than an
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unbeliever. No, it's starting at home. It's starting with proximity. Who are closest? Meaning
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he has a greater obligation to care for his own than he has to care for others. If a man neglects
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to do good to all, there may be certain practical, reasonable explanations for that. There also may
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be sinful explanations for that. It may be that he's neglecting to do good to someone of some
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other affiliation that he's not you know directly connected to and and maybe he's failing maybe he
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should do something but the bible reserves its strongest indictment its strongest rebuke for a
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man not who doesn't care for the stranger somewhere else but the man who doesn't care for his own
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household, his own family. As Christians, that sentiment that Jen Wilkin expresses,
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that Christians are asking the question about what's best for their family,
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let me unequivocally say that is a good sentiment. Father, mother, who's listening to this video
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right now, if you are earnestly seeking wisdom from the Word of God and praying and receiving
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counsel from brothers and sisters in christ in your local church setting and counsel from your
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pastors that you are earnestly pursuing what is best for your family good that's good you have
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nothing to apologize for you don't have to go to sleep at night and uh and worry about the fact
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that your children are in beds instead of on the floor, that they're warm and clothed in their
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little jammies and tucked in under their blankets with their heads on their pillows with full bellies
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because they ate dinner that night, that is not sin. In fact, the Bible says that to do otherwise
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is sin. To not provide for the members of your household, to not do everything you possibly can
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to make sure that your children, not everyone's children, but your children first, you start there.
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You start with proximity. You start with the members of your own household, the people at home.
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It is your moral obligation to ensure that they are not hungry, that they are not naked,
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that they are cared for, protected and cared for. I want to play the clip one more time for people
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who are just now tuning in. This is a clip from the debate that Jen Wilkin had with the Gospel
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Coalition hosting, arguing for it being permissible for Christians to send their kids to public
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schools. And at this certain point of the good faith debate, she goes beyond the position of
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merely arguing for the permissibility of a Christian utilizing public schools for their
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children, but that in some cases, maybe not every case, but at least in some cases,
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it may be something that the Christian not only may do, but that the Christian should do.
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One of the things I would love to have entered into this conversation is that while I cannot
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tell you to put your children in public school, and certainly never would because there are so
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many factors that are at play, that it is important for us to understand that our decision
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regarding this and even our demeanor toward this has an impact on our community. It doesn't just
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impact our family. The most common phrase I hear thrown out in these conversations is, well,
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I just need to do what's best for my family. And I think that's something that as Christians,
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we have to push back on. Philippians tells us each of you should look not just to your own
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interests, but to the interests of others. And there's no such thing as a decision.
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The sentiment of, I just need to do what's good for my family. As Christians, that's something
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we need to push back on. No, it's not. No, it's not. Let me give you a few verses. Galatians
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chapter six says, as often as you have opportunity, do good to all, but especially the household of
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faith right there again you see an order of loves an order of of commitment that there is one group
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that you are more committed to and another group that if you have the means and ability to do so
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you can reach and meet their needs but you are less morally bound to them to one group than you
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are to the other. As often as you have opportunity, do good to all, but especially the household of
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faith. Now, right there implicit in that particular text, we need to recognize that our opportunity,
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as often as you have opportunity, do good to all, our opportunity is limited because we're finite.
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People are creatures. We're creatures. And as creatures, we are finite. That doesn't mean that
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God created a world that's a zero-sum game where the pie cannot grow. I reject Marxism and all of
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its tenets and neo-Marxism and all those things. I do believe that the world that God created in
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the cosmos, in a larger picture, that the pie can grow. That God is the only capital C creator who
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creates out of nothing, ex nihilo, but that as his image bearers, even us, even human beings,
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since the fall, post-lapsarian, since the fall, with the doctrine of total depravity being as it
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is, even in that case, the image of God in man has been tarnished, yet the vestige of this image
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remains intact. Because of that, reason, rationale, moral compass, even on the unbeliever, God's law
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being written on their hearts in all these ways, we are not capital C creators creating out of
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nothing but lowercase c creators able to multiply the resources that god has baked into the world
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we can grow the pie by the grace of god and unbelievers by common grace can do this as well
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we can multiply resources this is what we've seen throughout human history time and time again
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lifespans have increased we've seen global hunger statistics go down we've seen a basic
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ailments and diseases virtually eradicated not just in first world countries but in third world
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countries as well as we've developed certain technologies certain medicine certain ways of
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growing food and all these things come with complications there's ways of growing food that's
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not particularly healthy and that introduces a whole host of new problems but the point remains
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that man is able to subdue the earth and fill it, that man is able to exercise a God-like
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dominion as image bearers of the living God, and we are able to meet the needs not only of
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ourselves but of many others, yet all those things being as they are. Each individual person is
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finite. We are a creature nonetheless. We are not the creator. We are a creature, and therefore
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our resources are finite. Can we develop those resources, multiply those resources,
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everything that I've already stated? Yes. But at any given moment, at any given moment,
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when there's an immediate need, we have to determine whether or not that need is something
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that we personally can meet. And in determining that, one of the ways I've said this in my
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preaching, I think it's helpful for myself and for others, there's a slavery of sorts
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of being forced to only be able to do one thing,
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that comes by having virtually limitless options,
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One of the difficult things that every believer
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has to be able to determine on a day-to-day basis
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especially those of us living in the 21st century in first world countries and western societies
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that are developed with technology that have a basic sense sure we're throwing a lot of it away
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right now with rebellion and apostasy and crazy leaders that we have but still a basic sense of
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prosperity at least by comparison to the rest of the world we have many many options many options
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and one of the ways on a regular basis daily basis that we can determine which of these options we
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say no to is by first determining what we should say yes to you could say it like this we determine
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our lower nose by first determining our higher yes now the highest yes is to love the lord your
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god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind with all your strength
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then the next yes is to love your neighbor as yourself now the reality is that each of us
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currently have approximately 8.2 billion neighbors within these 8.2 billion neighbors
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is there a hierarchy of commitment is there an order of moral obligation and the bible clearly
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answers yes. We know from Titus that a man is uniquely, he is uniquely responsible for protecting
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and providing for the members of his household in a way that he is not as uniquely required
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to provide for others. We also know from Galatians chapter 6 that a Christian is uniquely morally
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obligated to providing for the household of faith at a higher degree than providing for all. Do good
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to all as often as you have opportunity, but especially, that is, prioritize the household
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of faith. The very existence and presence of the stipulations and qualifications for the list of
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widows that the Apostle Paul gives to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5 makes the point, right? That Paul,
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why have a list of requirements for which widows receive help from the church? Why not just say,
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help them all. And why stop with widows for that matter? Why not just say, hey, anybody who's
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hurting, anybody who's hungry, anybody who needs shelter or housing or whatever it might be,
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let's just, you know, if somebody has a lack, the church meets that lack. That's not what the
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apostle Paul says. Rather, what he says is that there are very specific criteria and stipulations
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that need to be considered by the leaders of the church when determining which individuals we help.
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The first is just the particular mention of widows. So it doesn't just say the church should
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help the poor, but the first stipulation is that the church should help the helpless poor. Not just
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the poor, but the helpless poor. A widow. And what kind of widow? A true widow. Someone who is
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actually a widow a widow indeed right there's an age requirement she must be of 65 years
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of age and she's not an effective widow an essential widow she's an actual widow she's
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not a widow because she's had you know seven different husbands and she's been adulterous
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and had affairs and been caught in adultery and been divorced by men for reasonable cause they
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were right to divorce her and these kinds of things and now she finds herself in her old age
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having no one committed to her because she's burned every bridge over the course of her life
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but she's still a widow no that's not what first timothy five says she has to be of a certain age
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she has to be someone who was married previously and her husband has died beyond that does she
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have any sons or a brother or another member of her family outside of her husband that can meet
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her needs? If so, then let her family do it so that the church would not be financially burdened.
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That's what the text says. So first it establishes the physical requirements and the practical
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category. Is this person truly helpless? Not just are they poor, but are they poor with good cause?
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Are they poor and it's not due to any fault of their own?
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Then Paul goes even further and begins to establish a spiritual criteria.
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So one, is this poor individual helpless, practically speaking?
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Has she washed the feet of the saints? Has she raised up children? Or is she all alone because
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she's, you know, a blue-haired feminist who, you know, recorded TikTok videos when she was in her
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40s about how awesome it was to have no children? Well, then she starves. And not because we're mean
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and not in a vindictive sense from the church, but she starves because Christ, who is God,
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is infinite, and he is head of the church, his body, but his body here on earth, the church
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militant, the hands and feet of Christ, although Christ, the head of the church, is infinite,
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the church is finite, practically speaking. And the church has an obligation of priority,
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of whose needs it should meet first so that if the church has resources and it's able to do so
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great but often it will not at least often enough to where paul felt that it was prudent to write
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to timothy a list of criteria and qualifications so that he and the leaders of the local church
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could prioritize and discern who to help and who not to help all of this insinuates and implies
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that the church was limited. There were more poor people than the church had resources to help.
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This is right in line with what Jesus says. You will always have the poor with you.
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So to take this back to the debate about public school, you're always going to have the poor with
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you. You're also always going to have bad policies with you in varying degrees and in varying ways,
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but you're always going to have poverty. You're always going to have injustice in some measure.
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You're always going to have bad school districts or bad education options. You're always going to
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have this. You're always going to have that. Why? Well, because you're always going to have until
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Christ returns, until his final return, his final physical return at the end of the gospel age,
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you're always going to have sin. Poverty is rooted in sin and it's not always directly rooted
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in sin. It doesn't mean that each individual poor person is poor because of their direct
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sin, their individual sin. There are people who are poor in North Korea who didn't necessarily
00:29:22.800
do anything wrong, but it's still always tied to sin. It's either your sin or perhaps somebody
0.87
00:29:29.500
else's sin, oppressing you and causing you to be poor. But either way, poverty can be rooted to
00:29:36.460
sin. Bad education can be rooted to sin. Wokeness and CRT is rooted in sin. It all stems from sin.
00:29:47.500
And so long as we have a presence of sin, we're going to have a presence of suffering in the
00:29:52.780
world. And the Christian's obligation is to push back against that suffering, first and foremost
00:29:59.980
with the preaching of the gospel and the making of disciples. But in making disciples, fulfilling
00:30:04.320
the Great Commission, we also teach them to obey all of Christ's commands. And Christ's commands
00:30:10.160
have practical daily life implications, like loving your neighbor in all these different ways.
00:30:17.700
But even then, with loving our neighbor, there is an order priority.
00:30:22.040
And I believe that at first it begins with multiple factors, but a major one is the argument
00:30:32.160
You cannot love the children of your community at the expense of loving your own children.
00:30:39.120
So go all the way back now to the argument that Jen Wilkin is making.
00:30:43.760
She's saying that if you pull your children out of the public school district, then you're
0.89
00:30:53.640
And somehow what she's implying, at least by way of implication, is that that's a moral
00:31:02.260
She gives the caveat, the disclaimer that this isn't a universal application across
00:31:08.320
there are multiple factors but she's at least implying that for some families
00:31:13.100
some christian families in their case to not have their kids in the public school system
00:31:21.280
would be to to morally fail in meeting the needs and loving their neighbors of other children
00:31:28.440
in the community at large that's not a biblical argument that's simply not a biblical argument
00:31:35.520
because what we're discussing here is not again it's not i have the ability to thoroughly and
00:31:45.380
perfectly love my own children according to the law of god and what he commands and how god defines
00:31:51.680
love and in god's generosity he has bestowed upon me sovereignly enough resources enough talents
00:32:00.180
and time and energy and wisdom and treasure and all these things that I can thoroughly love my
00:32:08.120
children as the Lord would have me and have something left over to love other children in
00:32:13.580
the community as well. And yet I'm just choosing not to. See, that's kind of the framework
00:32:20.500
that she's building. That's just the very premise is false and absurd. That's not what we're
0.54
00:32:31.940
talking about. We're not talking about the ability to meet all the requirements that God has for
00:32:37.840
fathers and mothers for their children, and then just simply willfully refusing to meet the needs
00:32:44.160
of other children as well that would cost your children nothing. Now, in this particular scenario,
00:32:49.680
What we're discussing is actually willfully doing something with your own children that
00:32:58.640
would be to their detriment in order to seemingly, and the case isn't even proven, but just for
00:33:06.620
the sake of argument, humoring Wilkin for a moment, seemingly benefiting someone else's
00:33:13.660
I'm going to willfully make a decision for my own children that will be to their detriment
00:33:19.540
for the sake of benefiting someone else's children, that even this, benefiting someone
00:33:25.500
else's children, is not definitive, but really just a hope. Maybe. Possibility. So I'm going to
00:33:34.980
make this decision that will certainly harm my children to possibly benefit someone else's
00:33:44.620
children. My question would be chapter and verse. I need Bible for that. What Bible verse,
00:33:56.880
Jen, are you going to use to make that argument to Christian parents, that they have a moral
00:34:03.480
obligation in the category of the second commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself,
0.81
00:34:11.720
to willfully make a decision to the detriment of their own children if it might possibly benefit
00:34:19.340
someone else's children. Essentially, that is the argument that's being made, and it's a fallacious
00:34:26.940
and absurd argument. Let me show you just a few pictures of these public schools that Jen Wilkin
00:34:35.140
would have you put your children in. These are pictures that were taken this week, and I want
00:34:41.480
you to see, this is not two or three pictures. This is picture after picture after picture.
00:34:47.740
He said that the school, every square inch in the true Kuyperian way, except from the devil
0.99
00:34:55.120
himself instead of Christ, but every square inch of the school was saturated in LGBT affirming
0.89
00:35:04.180
rhetoric and emblems and flags and symbols. Black lives matters. Be curious, not judgmental.
0.83
00:35:14.840
The sexual agenda, all these things. Let's go through the pictures one more time,
00:35:19.960
just a little bit slower. I want to point out a couple things. Right here, you see black lives
00:35:24.740
matters um multiple you know equality um and you know all all these things uh in uh inquires it's
00:35:34.320
hard for me to read some of the handwriting here i trying to be creative but you see the the flag
00:35:39.740
there that has the you know the the gay rainbow and transgenderism and non-binary and all you
0.50
00:35:45.280
know the ugliest flag that's ever been invented by man you see the coexist symbol there right you
0.90
00:35:50.860
see the cross and all these other symbols from other false world religions. There you go. Let's
00:35:57.040
move on to the next one. There you go. Rainbow flags, trans flag, all these things. Let's move
00:36:02.680
to the next one. That's in the library, of course. Here you go. AISD pride, right? I think that's the
00:36:10.140
school district, but basically saying that the school district is formally in support of gay
00:36:16.560
pride. That's clearly what this rainbow sticker is conveying. Let's move on. There you go. Another
00:36:22.960
rainbow flag. You have the American flag, which is kind of really just the backdrop for the flag
00:36:28.420
that really matters, that supports our new pseudo constitution that we've been following for quite
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00:36:33.220
some time now, which is the Homo Jihad right there, front and center. Let's move on to the next.
0.67
00:36:39.820
There you go. Austin Independent School District. There's your rainbow flag. Let's move on.
00:36:46.560
pride black lives matter let's move on be curious not judgmental what do you think that's referring
00:36:55.840
to the scientific method i don't think so i don't think it's saying hey you know what let's be
00:37:02.280
innovative and let's invent new things in the realm of mathematics and science no it's just
00:37:09.260
more indoctrination about a moral ethic, primarily in regards to sexuality, that is antithetical to
00:37:17.260
what the Bible teaches about a sexual ethic. Let's move on. BLM is every month. I don't know
00:37:25.500
what the rest says. There you go. If you pan out with that picture, it's a black girl. There's a
00:37:32.660
school bus in the background, basically implying a Rosa Parks situation. Okay. Yeah. Where is that?
00:37:42.700
My question, where is that happening in 2023? Where is a young black girl being told that she
00:37:50.260
has to sit on the back of the school bus on the way to school that therefore morally mandates
00:37:57.240
the necessity for this picture being drawn and hung up in a public school. Let's go. Next one.
00:38:09.420
Here you go. More rainbow flags on top of the door right there by the classroom.
00:38:15.580
I assume that a teacher put that there. And I think that's probably it. Maybe there's some more.
00:38:20.640
here we go call out sexism call out homophobia call out bullying let me just say something about
00:38:27.860
that for a second call out bullying sure but we know that bullying is being defined by the first
00:38:32.940
two statements sexism and homophobia so what is a bully in this context a bully is somebody who's
00:38:38.540
homophobic a bully is someone who's sexist well i would say as doug wilson and others have
00:38:43.540
profoundly said before um let's uh let's recover let's seek to recover the lost virtue of sexism
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00:38:54.140
but i i don't i don't want to avoid sexism i want to make sexism great again
00:38:59.760
um i yeah there are two sexes and they are different and there are things inherent to males
00:39:07.860
and things inherent to females. And we should treat one another, not the same, not androgyny.
00:39:15.160
We should treat one another distinctly with distinctions in our way of life and our interactions
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00:39:22.620
with the male versus our interactions with the female, because a woman is different than a man.
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00:39:27.900
And a man is different than a woman. He has made us male and female, distinct, different,
00:39:33.860
and we should treat one another in different ways. There is one way in which I am raising my
00:39:40.260
daughters. There is another way in which I plan to raise my son. It's not the same. Some things
00:39:47.220
are universal to humanity. Others are distinct between the two sexes. So, you know, call out
0.71
00:39:54.700
sexism. No, thank you. No. Call out homophobia. Well, we know that that's going to be loosely
00:40:05.160
and subjectively and unjustly interpreted as what is homophobia. Simply saying that homosexuality
00:40:13.000
is a sin would be defined by most today as homophobia. Although I don't think that that's
00:40:19.460
homophobic. I think that that's simply what the Bible teaches. I'm not afraid of those who are
00:40:25.380
sodomites. I'm not afraid of those who are transgender. I don't have any fear associated,
1.00
00:40:31.820
but I do hate that sin because it's an abomination to the Lord. It's perverse. It's wicked. It's
00:40:38.700
gross. It has not only an effect on individuals who choose to sin against their own bodies in
00:40:44.080
that way and commit indecent and unnatural acts with one another, but it also has a harmful and
00:40:50.480
eroding effect at a general level for societies as a whole. And so in that sense, I absolutely hate
00:40:56.380
the sin and I'm not afraid of it, but I do have, I wouldn't say fear, but I would say that I
00:41:02.000
believe there's a proper reaction of disgust. If a Christian is in a movie theater, for instance,
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00:41:10.520
and sees two men in the row in front of him, and they kiss one another. And your first reaction,
00:41:20.320
your first instinct is, ugh, gross. I think that that's a proper reaction.
00:41:29.020
I don't think that that's a sin that needs to be repented of. I don't think that that's
00:41:33.820
harmful, derogatory, unnecessarily mean or rude. I think you should exercise self-control. You
00:41:43.700
don't necessarily have to express that out loud. You don't need to be unnecessarily offensive.
00:41:49.460
You don't need to try to get a rise out of these two individual men. You don't need to cause a
00:41:54.240
scene in this public space. But for you to have this private reaction of disgust to a public
00:42:01.160
display of homosexual same-sex affection and to say yeah my first instinct is that
00:42:09.480
that's gross that's unnatural that's not homophobia and that's not even non-christian
00:42:19.200
i think that that actually ironically is a very christian reaction and then hopefully by the grace
00:42:24.280
of god that instinct is quickly followed up with with perhaps a prayer god would you grant them
00:42:29.800
repentance, that they would turn from their sin, that they would turn in personal faith to the
00:42:33.420
Lord Jesus Christ and receive salvation by grace and seek to put this sin to death and that they
00:42:38.840
would pursue that which is holy and righteous according to your immutable standard found in
00:42:43.960
your wonderful law. Because this is gross and wrong. Sin is gross. Sin is gross. All sin is
00:42:53.660
gross, but there are degrees. There are degrees. All sin is gross, but there are some sins per
00:43:00.100
Romans 1 that are particularly unnatural, that are grosser than other sins. This is not homophobia.
00:43:08.760
This is the Christian sexual ethic. So all these things being said, there's a little picture of
00:43:15.040
the public school that Jen Wilkins says, hey, I would never say that every family, every Christian
00:43:20.020
family, you know, giving her the benefit of the doubt, using her words. She did say that. She
00:43:24.060
made this disclaimer, but she said, I would never say that every Christian family should put their
00:43:29.140
kids in public school, but I think maybe some should, you know, because the question that a
00:43:35.540
lot of Christians, you know, are asking is, you know, what's best for my family? But that's not
00:43:40.900
really the way that we should think as Christians. We shouldn't think in exclusive terms of what's
00:43:45.660
best for our family. The last thing that I want to say is this. I just reject the basic notion and
00:43:56.060
concept that what is best for your individual household is going to be somehow contradicting
00:44:05.220
or pitted against what's best for society as a whole. See, that's the beauty of God's law
00:44:12.820
is that it's not all subjective, that it's not guesswork. It's not, Jesus says, all who are
00:44:24.040
weary and heavy laden, come to me and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy, my burden
00:44:31.660
is light. Elsewhere in the scripture, it says that the commandments of God are not burdensome.
00:44:37.480
It's not just that there's a rest and relief in the triune God because of his mercy and
00:44:49.020
But the Bible also says that even the law of God, there is a sense in which the law
00:44:54.140
of God is not only the morally right thing, but it's also that which is beneficial and
00:45:02.520
He doesn't just acknowledge it and begrudgingly pull himself up by his bootstraps and submit
00:45:08.780
to it because it's morally right, but he delights in the law of God.
00:45:16.540
Not just holy and right, but also good, that which brings prosperity and flourishing, that
00:45:23.020
which is beneficial for individual image bearers of the living God and societies as a whole.
00:45:30.380
The law of God, not just the gospel of God, but the law of God is a breath of fresh air.
00:45:39.220
I believe it was G.K. Chesterton who said that if we will not have 10 commandments,
00:45:47.660
I mean, think of just all the different rules and guidelines over the last three years that
00:45:52.960
we've experienced in virtually every single country on the planet in regards to the branch
00:45:58.880
COVIDians. And we come to find out in hindsight that many of these were arbitrary. Why six feet
0.53
00:46:08.720
apart and not five or not 15? Do masks actually work? Well, okay, maybe only one type of mask
00:46:18.880
works, but how come I can wear a different cloth mask and that suffices in terms of the legislation,
00:46:26.260
the requirements for entering this building or these premises. And then you come to find out
00:46:31.800
that it's statistically proven that this type of mask actually does nothing, right? Well,
00:46:38.580
you need to do this. You need to do that. You need to stay in your home. You need to stay in
00:46:42.480
your house two weeks to slow the spread. You need to shut down schools, shut down this, shut down
00:46:47.240
that. If man will not have 10 commandments, he will have 10,000 commandments. The law of God
00:46:54.000
is in its first use, it condemns because it reveals to us the holiness of God and by way
00:47:01.420
of contrast, our sinfulness and therefore our need for a savior. The first use of the law of God
00:47:06.820
is that it drives us to Christ. Charles Spurgeon said, a man cannot appreciate the beauty of Christ
00:47:12.600
unless he first come to see the necessity for Christ. The law of God shows us our necessity
00:47:17.800
for Christ. So in the first use, this is the reformed traditional view, the first use of
00:47:22.940
God's law is that it does show us that we're crushed, that each of us is a transgressor,
00:47:28.400
that each of us is underneath the just condemnation of God, children of his wrath,
00:47:32.700
and that we are without hope in the world, that we need a savior. We need a substitute.
00:47:38.580
And so the law of God leaves us crushed, but it drives us to Christ, who's the balm,
00:47:44.240
the healing balm, who mends our wounds. But that's not the only use of the law of God.
00:47:53.780
It has, in the first sense, first and foremost, it has a crushing effect.
00:47:58.700
But the third use of God's law is that it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our
00:48:03.880
It functions not just as a mirror revealing our sinfulness and that we're under the wrath
00:48:08.240
of God apart from saving faith in Christ, but in the third use of God's law, it's a
00:48:15.700
It directs us in the way in which we should live, not just the way in which we should
00:48:19.920
live that is pleasing to God, because none of us will be progressively righteous enough to ever
00:48:25.520
merit God's saving favor. But it shows us the way in which we should live that is pleasing to God,
00:48:32.740
not saving. We're only saved by Christ's perfect law-keeping, not our own. But it shows us what
00:48:38.360
is pleasing to God, and by obedience to the law of God, it not only honors God or brings glory to
00:48:45.640
God, but it does good to man. That which is bringing glory to God, obedience to the law of
00:48:52.180
God, also is that which is good for man. All that being said, what is God's law as it pertains to
00:49:00.320
fathers, chiefly mothers as well, but fathers predominantly in their moral obligation to their
00:49:07.000
children? Ephesians chapter six, fathers do not exasperate your children, but raise them up in
00:49:14.280
the knowledge and instruction of the Lord. Train them up in the paideia of the Lord,
00:49:21.480
the Christian worldview, the Christian curriculum. Raise them up in the paideia of the Lord,
00:49:29.180
the knowledge and instruction, the fear of the Lord. And the point is this,
00:49:35.160
God makes it really easy on us. We don't have to get out a whiteboard and have 67 different
00:49:44.080
sub points and drawing a pie graph and all these different things. We don't have to be
00:49:49.060
masters of trigonometry and quantum physics in order to be able to figure out what the will of
00:49:55.720
God is. We know the will of God. The will of God for fathers and mothers is that we would instill
00:50:01.100
in our children. Our job is to indoctrinate our children in the things of God. Indoctrination,
00:50:10.800
It's which curriculum are our children going to be indoctrinated in?
00:50:24.220
Someone will instruct them, and they will instruct them with one curriculum or another.
00:50:31.040
And what the Bible clearly tells us is that Christian fathers and Christian mothers have
00:50:35.660
an obligation underneath the law of God to instill in their children a distinctly Christian
00:50:43.360
education, that nothing is neutral. We have learned over the past three years that politics
00:50:49.400
is not neutral. Culture is not neutral. We've learned that art is not neutral. We must also
00:50:57.720
come to realize that education is not neutral. It is either a curriculum that affirms and delights
00:51:05.620
in the universal truth of the triune God, or it is a curriculum, an instruction
00:51:13.720
that is antithetical to the Christian worldview, that is God-hating on its face.
00:51:22.120
The public school doctrine, it's not enough just to say, well, there are Christians in the public
00:51:26.620
school system, not just Christian children, but there are Christian teachers and Christian
00:51:31.120
faculty and Christian administrators. Yeah, but what curriculum are they required by the state,
00:51:38.340
by law, to instill in your children? I don't want a Christian teaching my children a non-Christian
1.00
00:51:46.620
curriculum. There is no neutrality. Our children will either be raised to fear the Lord,
0.99
00:51:54.300
they'll either be raised in Christian doctrine, and not just Bible class for 35 minutes,
00:52:01.000
as their first subject as they then move on to the neutral realm of education no nothing is neutral
00:52:07.220
it is it is a christian bible class christian chapel christian psalm singing christian liturgy
00:52:14.200
but then it's also christian math and christian science and christian literature and christian
00:52:21.760
arts or the other way that you could say it is math science literature and arts because that's
00:52:30.340
the only kind that there really is. Anything that is not Christian is not good art. It progressively
1.00
00:52:36.960
becomes ugly. Anything that is not Christian math, it becomes not math. It becomes two plus two,
1.00
00:52:45.420
in some cases, may equal five, because mathematics and algebra, as we've come to know them,
00:52:52.300
is really just a symptom of white oppression. Do you see, your worldview, morality, is baked
0.74
00:52:59.800
into everything. Nothing is neutral. And so it's not just that we want to avoid all the gay flags
00:53:07.960
in the public school system. We do want to avoid that. We do not want to subject our children to
1.00
00:53:14.600
that context for 15,000 hours, 40 hours a week from the age of five to 18. We don't want to do
00:53:22.420
that. But it's not just what we're commanded by God to protect our children from, but what we're
00:53:28.620
commanded by God to provide for our children. The chief role of a father could be summed up in those
00:53:34.160
two categories, to protect and provide. So there is this satanic, God-averse, God-hating curriculum
00:53:43.580
and context, and sadly even people that we want to protect our children from. But then there's
00:53:50.100
also the paideia of the Lord, Christian education, that we're called to provide for our children.
00:53:56.800
And I submit to you, brother or sister in Christ, that you cannot sufficiently, as God would have you, thoroughly and effectively provide a Christian education for your children, 15 minutes a day, on the back end, sometime in the evening in your family worship, on the back end of the 40-hour-a-week satanic indoctrination that you've subjected them to in the public school.
00:54:23.760
so all that being said not only are you called to protect your children from lies and false doctrine
00:54:32.440
and perversion but you're also called to provide for your children a thorough christian instruction
00:54:41.420
which will not be accomplished in 15 minutes a day right that the public school system knows that
00:54:48.980
no kid goes to public school for 15 minutes a day what do they require eight hours a day
00:54:55.060
because they recognize they're right about this they recognize that if we're truly to thoroughly
00:55:01.720
instruct a child and shape them in their formation as they're becoming an adult if we're going to do
00:55:09.440
that it's going to require copious amounts of time it's going to require 15 000 hours from the age of
00:55:16.560
five to 18. That's what it takes. And I would submit to you again, Christian father, Christian
00:55:22.520
mother, that's what it takes to provide for your children a Christian education. If they're in
00:55:28.940
public school, it's not just that you failed to protect, but you also, by way of just practical
00:55:34.620
consequence, you have also failed to provide. A child being placed by their Christian parents
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00:55:41.560
in a public school, those Christian parents are failing to protect their children from wickedness
0.93
00:55:46.960
and by subjecting their child committing to 15,000 hours of pagan indoctrination,
0.85
00:55:52.540
they have just eaten up the bulk of time available to provide a Christian education. So,
00:55:59.360
they're failing to protect and they've decided effectively to fail in their provision. They're
00:56:05.860
failing to provide righteousness and they are failing to protect from wickedness.
00:56:11.780
So the answer is abundantly clear. It's quite clear in regards to what is best for our children.
00:56:19.600
And that's the beauty that the higher yeses, they answer for us. They dictate in many cases for us
00:56:28.740
all of our lower no's, right? So how much commitment should I have towards my neighbor's
00:56:35.000
children? In what way should I be concerned about them? What do I need to be doing? Well,
00:56:39.800
start at home. What does God command me to do with my children, with my household, my family,
00:56:46.660
my wife and kids? What am I called to protect them from and to provide for them? I need to
00:56:53.500
protect them from a certain set of things and provide for them a certain set of things. Okay.
00:56:59.060
Now, if I'm committed to that first as an order of priority, which you should be, if
00:57:05.500
I'm committed to that first, then what can I do in addition to that without neglecting
00:57:12.020
What can I do over here that won't come at the expense of the first thing that I've been
00:57:19.400
Well, if you're called to protect your children from pagan indoctrination and to give your
0.89
00:57:24.280
children, a 15,000-hour Christian instruction and paideia curriculum, then one thing that
0.84
00:57:31.220
immediately is answered as a no is, well, we literally can't put them in public school.
00:57:38.000
And that's where I would make the argument, again, I don't believe that the Lord is pitting
00:57:44.720
our love for our children against our love for other people's children.
0.57
00:57:49.140
I believe that if Christians do what is best for their children and that they don't
0.98
00:57:53.980
determine what's best for their children subjectively or emotionally but biblically
0.75
00:57:59.160
and there is an answer people don't like it it's not complex it's just not popular
00:58:05.740
the answer that christians should not send their kids to public school that that's that's not an
00:58:11.740
answer that christians are are hesitant to come to because it's it's complicated it's simply
00:58:18.240
because it's hard. Obedience to Christ, it's not complicated. It's not complicated. It's like
00:58:24.140
chopping wood. Chopping wood isn't complicated. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to chop
00:58:29.300
wood, but you're probably going to sweat a little bit. Something can be simple and hard.
00:58:35.960
It can be simple, not complicated, but still hard, not easy. The answer to whether or not a
00:58:42.900
christian can put their kids in public school is is a simple answer no you cannot no you cannot
00:58:49.980
and all the ways in which we want to love other children in the community outside of our immediate
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household will be determined will be determined by first determining okay this is what i must do
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with my kids and if i'm faithful to do what i must do with my kids then there's a certain set of
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things that I may do in regards to others. And the way that we work out, again, this proximity
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argument, this order of loves, our priority of commitment, you start at home, love your wife,
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love your children. Beyond that, love your church, not just the universal and invisible global church
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of Christ throughout all ages, but start with your local church, the one that you're a member
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in. Start loving your church. As often as you have opportunity, do good to all, but especially
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prioritize. Start with the household of faith. So love your family, love your church, and then see
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what ways, what resources, what time, what talent, what treasure do I have left over to love others?
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What opportunity do I have for the all now that I've first sufficiently and obediently loved the
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people that God has first commanded me to love. And as I seek to love over here, it cannot come
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as a contradiction or at the expense of loving the people right here on my living room couch.
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Can't be doing that. Can I be frank with you for just a second right here at the end? Look,
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some of you guys, you're financially supporting this ministry. And from the bottom of my heart,
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I say thank you. I cannot thank you enough. However, some of you, you just, you can't afford
01:00:38.160
it. In fact, some of you, you shouldn't afford it. Let's be honest. I mean, we're living in Joe
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Biden's ridiculous economy. Our nation and our totalitarian political elites lost their minds
0.99
01:00:53.440
over the last three years due to COVID. We have written checks that we simply cannot cash.
01:01:00.240
It doesn't matter if people change the definition of a recession.
01:01:04.560
We are living in a recession right now regardless.
01:01:08.880
Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of eggs at the grocery store.
01:01:13.820
You cannot support financially this ministry at this time, nor should you.
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I am asking you, please, if you're willing to do so, take one minute of your time.
01:01:27.880
Leave us a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform, iTunes, Spotify, whatever that
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might be. This is the way the system works. We want to be innocent as doves, but shrewd as vipers.
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We need to be strategic. You leave us a five-star review, and our podcast shows up for more people.
01:01:48.920
And the Word of God and courageous theology applied in practical ways to every realm of life
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gets out there. Help us get it out there. Thanks for tuning in.