The NXR Podcast - January 21, 2024


SERMON - Living In “Negative World”

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Hosted by
Mentioned
THE FRIDAY SPECIAL - The Lost Virtue Of Hatred w Andrew Isker & AD Robles THE INTERVIEW - Top 5 Mainline Denominations & Where They Compromised with RedeemedZoomer

Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 5 minutes

Words per minute

153.82

Word count

10,130

Sentence count

471

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

10

sentences flagged

Hate speech

34

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we continue our series on the Book of Ezra through the entire text of the book of Ezra. Today we cover the genealogy of the ancient Israelites, and the reasons why they were excluded from the priesthood.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month
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00:00:30 all right we are continuing our series through the book of ezra today is ezra chapter two if
00:00:35 you would please stand with me for the reading of god's word now typically i would say at this
00:00:41 point i'm going to read our text in its entirety i'm going to have to leave out that that little
00:00:45 prepositional phrase in its entirety um here's the deal i'm just going to be uh blatantly truthful
00:00:53 you need to read this entire chapter because all scripture is god breathed
00:00:58 but you can read it on your own and be embarrassed by yourself as you mispronounce
00:01:03 dozens of words. Instead of me being publicly embarrassed in front of you mispronouncing those
00:01:08 words, I would like for you to mispronounce all these names yourself, okay? So it matters. I'm not
00:01:14 saying it doesn't matter, but this is a large text. It's 70 verses, in fact, and so just the
00:01:20 amount of verses, period, is very large, and the difficulty of reading all of these Hebrew names
00:01:27 is immensely challenging. I've already got enough names I'm going to read just in the verses that
00:01:32 I've selected. But all that being said, we are doing the entirety of Ezra chapter 2. But there
00:01:38 is a large genealogy, a list of all these different Israelites who came up with the Hebrew leaders
00:01:46 from exile in Babylon to Jerusalem and Judah to rebuild the temple and the cities, to rebuild
00:01:53 the land of Israel. And so all their followers, all these Jewish families, I'm going to be skipping 1.00
00:02:01 that section of the genealogy. It matters. Read it on your own. I'm being completely honest. I 1.00
00:02:07 cannot pronounce the names. And I know, you know, guys will say, well, what you do is you say it
00:02:11 fast and you say it confidently. And that does work to a certain extent. But there will be some
00:02:18 who will catch you and I will get tons of emails. I'll get them anyway. So all that being said,
00:02:23 I'm going to focus on verse one and two, and then we'll pick back up. This is directly after the
00:02:29 genealogy with verses 59 through 70. We will get the main point of the text. By God's grace, I
00:02:36 promise you we'll get the main point of the text. So without further ado, here we go. Starting in
00:02:41 verse one and then two, and then moving forward, finishing out the chapter, verses 59 through 70.
00:02:46 God's word says this.
00:03:16 and Baanah. The following were those who came up from Tamela, Telharsha, Sherab, Adon, and Emer.
00:03:27 Though they could not prove their father's house or their descent, whether they belonged to Israel,
00:03:33 the sons of Deliah, the sons of Tobiah, and the sons of Nakoda, 652. Also the sons of the priest,
00:03:44 the sons of Hebiah, the sons of Hekaz, the sons of Barzillia, who had taken a wife from the
00:03:52 daughters of Barzillia, the Gileadite, who was called by their name. These sought their registration
00:03:59 among those enrolled in the genealogies, but they were not found there, and so they were excluded
00:04:06 from the priesthood as unclean. The governor told them that they were not to partake of the most
00:04:12 holy food until there should be a priest to consult Urim and Thuman. The whole assembly together was
00:04:21 42,360 besides their male and female servants of whom there were 7,337 and they had 200 male and
00:04:32 female singers. Their horses were 736. Their mules were 245. Their camels were 435. Their donkeys
00:04:44 were 6720. Some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the Lord that is in
00:04:51 Jerusalem, made freewill offerings for the house of God to erect it on its site. According to their
00:04:58 ability, they gave to the treasury of the work 61,000 derricks of gold, 5,000 minus of silver,
00:05:07 and 100 priest garments. Now the priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the
00:05:12 gatekeepers, and the temple servants lived in their towns and all the rest of Israel in their
00:05:18 towns. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated and let's begin. The first thing
00:05:24 that I want to note from the text is this. This is very clearly not fantasy. This is not fiction.
00:05:32 When you read fantasy or fiction, a narrative that's a story that's not actually history,
00:05:38 it's not actually real. When you read fantasy or just narrative in antiquity, old writers,
00:05:45 one of the things that you'll notice is a lack of detail. If you're reading just a story that's not
00:05:50 actually a historical account, it's not something that really happened, it's not real, then they
00:05:55 don't bother to tell you how many minas of silver there were. They don't bother to say there were
00:06:02 7,337 mules, or there were this many camels. That's just not the way it works. If you read
00:06:14 something like Beowulf, for instance. It's very old and it's also very, well, it's just very
00:06:22 vague. There's a focus on, you know, they're having a feast, but it doesn't tell you what
00:06:28 the goblets look like in the feast with exact detail and which kinds of jewels are used and
00:06:35 when these goblets were captured from another kingdom and the date and the names and the
00:06:39 province and it's just you don't need all that to get into the story the story is about slaying a
00:06:44 monster right that's that's the focus and that's the way fantasy has been viewed for centuries and
00:06:52 centuries and centuries until relatively recently so part of the reason it seems foreign to us is
00:06:57 because as moderns where entertainment has there's always been a place for entertainment in every
00:07:03 society and culture, but we are in a culture that entertainment dominates. It's a dominant
00:07:11 feature of our culture. And so because of that, when we think of fantasy or fiction, it is given
00:07:18 to extreme detail. So you watch a true crime detective show. It's not a historical account.
00:07:25 It's fiction. It's made up, but it's down to the precise details of, you know, like they're
00:07:32 consulting as they're even, you know, on the set shooting the film. The director and producers and
00:07:38 different guys are actually consulting actual detectives and consulting, you know, people who
00:07:44 work in DNA swabbing labs and this and that to get the exact details because they want it to be
00:07:49 as real, as believable as possible. And so my whole point, all I'm saying is that is a pretty
00:07:56 recent phenomenon the idea of fiction that is detailed right detailed fiction is a relatively
00:08:05 modern phenomenon but in antiquity and in times past if you have fiction it tends to be vague
00:08:15 the thing that's going to be emphasized and detailed is the story itself the monster the hero
00:08:22 but not necessarily exact places and this place was it precisely 7.6 miles away from this other
00:08:30 place right you're probably familiar most of you but the best guide over decades now I mean
00:08:36 centuries but especially in recent decades as as technology has developed the archaeologists
00:08:42 their best guide as they're looking in the old world Mesopotamia trying to discover ancient
00:08:49 artifacts their best guide has been for decades now the bible the bible has proven to be a bar
00:08:55 none i mean it's not even close it's not like the bible but then a close second is no no no it's
00:08:59 just the bible it is by far the most accurate textbook because it is real a history book of
00:09:08 saying this place is in this location which is this many miles away from this river and this
00:09:13 person was set up as governor at that time and and here's the genealogy of who he came from and
00:09:19 who they came so my point is this when we're reading the book of ezra and really when we're
00:09:24 any anything in scripture we are reading reality we're reading truth these are not stories they're
00:09:31 not mere narratives this is a historical account and that's one there are other reasons but that's
00:09:37 one of many reasons why genealogies matter. Genealogies matter because that's not what
00:09:44 a novelist, that's not how a novelist writes. That's how a historian writes. So when you read
00:09:52 a genealogy, at least one thing that you should take into account, if nothing else. It's difficult.
00:09:58 There's a lot of names, and a lot of them won't mean a lot to you. But as you're reading genealogies
00:10:03 in the bible one at least one thought that you should have is this is history the reason why
00:10:09 all these names in succession are listed is because this is history not fiction so all that
00:10:17 being said there's at least a couple other reasons so not just to say this is a historical account
00:10:22 namely true specifically detailed true but also there's a couple other reasons why this genealogy
00:10:30 is listed in Ezra chapter 2
00:10:32 as it pertains to the specific families
00:10:35 and households of Israel
00:10:37 that was currently in exile
00:10:39 as a province in Babylon.
00:10:42 They were in exile,
00:10:44 and now they're coming out.
00:10:45 There's a couple other reasons
00:10:46 why each of these names is listed.
00:10:49 Okay, so I've written in your notes
00:10:50 there were two primary reasons.
00:10:53 A record was kept
00:10:54 containing the families of Israel
00:10:55 who came up out of captivity from Babylon.
00:10:57 Number one, for their honor.
00:11:00 Number one, for their honor.
00:11:02 And number two, for their allegiance and fidelity.
00:11:06 So for their honor, to honor these families,
00:11:08 to list them by name in the scripture
00:11:10 that would be recorded and preserved forever,
00:11:14 that these names would be eternally honored.
00:11:17 But secondly, so that these individuals,
00:11:20 their posterity, that is their children
00:11:22 and not just their immediate children, one generation,
00:11:25 but their children's children's children's children's children,
00:11:28 all the way down their posterity that they would be able to look back and see their heritage see
00:11:35 their lineage their forefathers and by seeing their forefathers it was assumed that in seeing
00:11:42 their lineage their forefathers that that would utterly dictate for them their allegiance and i
00:11:49 want to pause there for a moment because this is something that again in a very it's a very modern
00:11:55 phenomenon, this shift for all of human history until approximately 15 minutes ago, right? This
00:12:03 is a very recent change. For all of human history, when somebody had a record of their ancestors and
00:12:11 they could look and see, these are my fathers. These are my ancestors. This is my family lineage,
00:12:19 my heritage it just was assumed that that would dictate for them what team they're on
00:12:26 that would outline for them just this is where my allegiance lies this is where my fidelity 0.70
00:12:34 lies i mean even for moses like certainly don't don't mishear me certainly god was moving on
00:12:41 moses heart right so i'm not discounting the divine factor right with everyone with all
00:12:48 christians you're not a christian unless god moves on your heart unless the holy spirit to be more
00:12:54 specific actually removes your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh a miracle has to happen
00:12:59 for you even to be born again but especially with a key figure in what god was doing in in the
00:13:07 redemptive timeline of all of scripture someone like moses of course there's the divine factor
00:13:12 God stirring up his heart to forsake the treasures of Egypt, as Hebrews talks about, to leave the
00:13:19 treasures of Egypt and not only the affluence and the treasures and the wealth and the comfort
00:13:26 and pleasures of Egypt, but to turn his back on the notoriety, the nobility that he had as the son
00:13:33 of Pharaoh's daughter, of a prince of Egypt, his status, all of these things. He was willing to
00:13:39 turn his back on that and to associate with Israel, even in the midst of Israel's captivity, 0.61
00:13:45 their slavery. He would rather have allegiance, pledge his allegiance to slaves than masters, 0.85
00:13:52 because the slaves were his people. Now, how did that shift occur? Well, again, all the way back
00:13:58 to what I was saying, the divine factor. God moved in his heart, of course, but also from a plain
00:14:05 reading of the text namely the first few chapters of the book of exodus the only thing that's that's
00:14:11 very clearly and practically detailed for us is that moses discovered that he was a hebrew
00:14:18 and as far as just looking at the text that was enough moses discovered i'm a hebrew
00:14:26 the slaves are actually my people okay i'm on their side
00:14:31 and that was about the extent of the thought process these are my people
00:14:38 and someone being your people has always mattered for 6 000 years in every place in every time
00:14:50 until the west in the last 60 years we are the only exception where heritage does not matter
00:15:00 that is a foreign concept that no biblical writer and no person whether in the christian faith or
00:15:10 islam or judaism or in any or hinduism or just paganism that there's no person in any nation
00:15:22 in any time period who has ever thought that ancestry, heritage, lineage was irrelevant.
00:15:33 Except, one exception, Westerners in recent decades, since World War I and World War II. 0.57
00:15:44 So, all that being said, what are the purposes, again, this is the first point I'm making from
00:15:49 the text today what are the purposes of saying here's the very first words verse one now these
00:15:56 were the people these are the people of the province who came up out of captivity from being
00:16:04 exiles in Babylon they're coming up out of captivity and they're willing to make the journey
00:16:09 to their homeland to israel for luxury no for really hard work to rebuild the ruins
00:16:19 it'd be easier to stay in babylon but they're willing to do this so what why are these people
00:16:25 why is ezra going to give us an exhaustive list not just the leaders i read the leaders
00:16:31 right you've got zerubbabel joshua uh nehemiah and i'm going to stop there etc dot dot dot
00:16:38 ellipses because I don't want to press my luck. Luck's not a thing. I don't want to press my
00:16:43 providence because I've already read these names once and I'll be, I'll just show my hand. I did
00:16:49 better than I thought I was going to do. I feel like it was fantastic. So you're welcome. And when
00:16:53 I finished reading the text, I thought, I kind of, part of me wants to take a bow, but then that's
00:16:57 actually probably not the thing to do. Instead, let's say, thus saith the Lord and give God the
00:17:01 credit. That's not a good move to be bowing in the pulpit. So I resisted that fleshly temptation.
00:17:06 I'm not going to read the names anymore because they're difficult. But the point is this. It's not what we skipped in the genealogy, namely verses 3 through 58. So 50 something verses. What we skipped was not just the leaders in Israel who led this journey back to Israel for this rebuilding project, but it was all the followers.
00:17:26 even the followers got uh an honorable mention right everybody gets a mention why one because
00:17:36 we're reading history it's detailed not fiction in antiquity which tended to be vague secondly
00:17:42 why did were they listed to honor them because what they're doing is not easy see we we think
00:17:48 captivity let me uh hit this point real quick because this is worth it's to honor them and
00:17:54 the reason why it's honorable is because they're choosing the more difficult thing. You have to be
00:17:58 aware of that. The Israelites who stayed in Babylon are not taking one for the team. They were all 0.97
00:18:03 released. The ones who chose to stay in Babylon are choosing not the more difficult choice, the
00:18:09 easier choice. Easier to stay. Because it is not as though, this is after 70 years, it's not as though 1.00
00:18:16 Babylon having conquered Israel, that the Israelites were in dungeons and chained to walls.
00:18:22 they are captives they are exiles but you should not read that as prisoners it's different than
00:18:30 Israel in Egypt even Israel in Egypt they were exiles there even in the land of Goshen right
00:18:37 when they first arrived with Joseph having favor as as Pharaoh's viceroy second in command of all
00:18:42 of Egypt they were exiles there they were underneath Egypt's authority Pharaoh's authority
00:18:47 but they weren't slaves not right off the bat it was after pharaoh died and a new pharaoh came to
00:18:53 power who did not remember joseph and israel began to multiply so much so that the new pharaoh began
00:19:00 to see what israel could actually overtake us therefore we've got to do something to to keep 0.99
00:19:06 them in subjection so that we can neutralize this potential threat and then they became slaves so 0.97
00:19:12 that's when all of a sudden they had a plight. That's when their status to be exiles in a foreign
00:19:19 nation became uncomfortable and painful. Well, Israel and Babylon as exiles, they're not
00:19:26 slaves. I'm not saying Babylon was like super nice about it. I'm not saying that there weren't
00:19:31 some difficulties. But remember, even Jeremiah speaking to Israel as God's prophet, speaking for
00:19:38 the lord to israel in this moment of 70 years of exile what does jeremiah say this is towards the
00:19:44 beginning of the 70 years but he says take off your hat and coat and stay a while that's essentially
00:19:50 what god speaks through the prophet jeremiah to israel he says uh plant vineyards so again don't
00:19:56 picture prisoners chained to a wall aren't planting vineyards prisoners in a cell aren't giving their
00:20:04 daughters and sons in marriage and building houses right so so you have to keep that in mind
00:20:10 life for an israelite at the end of these 70 years of captivity in babylon was a relatively
00:20:18 comfortable life going back to israel now that was hard that was the difficult choice because you
00:20:26 weren't going back to um your homeland in its prime you were going back to your homeland that
00:20:33 had been destroyed utterly destroyed it's a pile of rubble and you've got tons of work now you've
00:20:41 got to rebuild you've got to restore you've got to do all these things so the list of names why is
00:20:46 it there because it's history not fiction because they deserve to be honored because going back was
00:20:52 actually the harder choice than staying but then lastly for the sake of their posterity the names
00:21:00 of the heads of households not just the leaders but the followers who chose to take upon themselves
00:21:06 this rebuilding project going back to jerusalem their names are listed so that their posterity
00:21:12 generations down the line might be able to look to their ancestry to look to their heritage their
00:21:18 lineage their history see these names and say that's my team that's what team i'm on and again
00:21:28 means nothing to you means nothing to you and it means nothing to you because you live in the
00:21:35 united states and it's 2024 but that meant something to every person in the world every
00:21:46 time period every century until the west 15 minutes ago heritage mattered heritage told you
00:21:56 It was your jersey. It told you what team you were on. It dictated and outlined for you your
00:22:03 allegiance, your fidelity, your unity, where you belonged, who are your people. That's why it's
00:22:12 such a big deal. Now, I'm not saying that nobody ever switched teams, okay? So here's a little
00:22:16 disclaimer because people say, well, people change teams. Uh-huh, yes, some people change teams.
00:22:20 Ruth would be an example. She was on team Moabite. Not a great team. The Moabites were not a great
00:22:28 team, right? I mean, being on team Moabite is, you know, I mean, they were just, they were losing
00:22:33 constantly. They're not going to any championships anytime soon. They're not doing well.
00:22:39 But she switches teams. So people in the Old Testament would occasionally switch teams. But
00:22:44 let me tell you real quick what it looked like to switch teams. Ruth says, we quote it all the
00:22:50 time we all know the verse she says your people will be my people and your God will be my God
00:23:00 in other words she doesn't say hey Naomi mother-in-law I love you and I've decided to move
00:23:09 to the economic zone of Israel to stay in relationship with you and to have financial
00:23:15 and vocational opportunity because Israel really is just a set of ideas. It's not a place
00:23:25 and a people. No, nobody has thought that ever until 15 minutes ago. Nations are people
00:23:34 and places. Always have been, always will be. Acts says that God in his sovereignty
00:23:43 sets both the times and borders of nations. Nations are not man's idea to create invisible
00:23:51 borders because of prejudice. No, nations are a divine institution that God established
00:23:58 from the very beginning. This is naturally what would have occurred. In fact, the only instance
00:24:04 early on in Scripture that we have man resisting what would naturally conclude in nationhood
00:24:11 is Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel, and God puts an end to it. God says, no, no, no, no. You will
00:24:18 disperse over the face of the world as I commanded you. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
00:24:28 But what do they say at the Tower of Babel? They say, let us build a tower to heaven that we might
00:24:32 do two things. Make a name for ourselves and so that we might not be scattered over the face of
00:24:40 the earth. But God comes down and confuses their language, right? I mean, it was the WF, right? It's
00:24:46 the original world economic form, right? That's what Babel was. It's like, we're going to have 0.98
00:24:52 a conference here in Switzerland, and we're going to build a tower and talk about how nations aren't
00:24:57 a thing. Also, human rights aren't really a thing. I don't know if you saw that video that just came
00:25:02 out. Soros's right-hand guy saying, nations don't exist. You look from a satellite image. There's no
00:25:08 there's no boundaries and blah, blah, blah. This is an imaginary thing. Oh, also, you know what else
00:25:12 is imaginary? Human rights. That's scary. That tells you where they want to go. Where do they
00:25:19 want to go? No nations. One global order where you'll own nothing and be happy. And why will
00:25:27 you be happy? Well, you'll be happy because you'll be plugged into the matrix in a pod
00:25:31 and they'll be feeding you images that aren't real that make you think that you're happy.
00:25:37 or if you're not happy they'll give you enough drugs and chemicals until slowly but surely you
00:25:43 can't help but involuntarily smile it's a dystopian horror that we're living we are living in trash
00:25:50 world that is the direction that evil wicked men want to go but notice it's this is what i'm
00:25:56 trying to express it is not a coincidence there is a tie there is a correlation between the george
00:26:03 Soros villain. Just, just obviously bad guy. He's a bad guy. There is a tie between him saying two
00:26:13 things are imaginary. Two things we're going to get rid of. Human rights. Now that one's obvious.
00:26:20 We're like, yeah, that's a bad guy. He wants to get rid of human rights. But then notice he
00:26:25 immediately follows it up with, and nations. Let's get rid of that too. And that's where even the 0.95
00:26:32 conservative christian american it's like well that one i'm okay with getting rid of
00:26:38 yeah i mean i'm gonna stand my ground for human rights i'm a conservative
00:26:44 you know and i'll stand my ground for capitalism i'll stand my ground for our sacred democracy
00:26:54 but nations i mean who needs them i don't see the importance
00:26:59 that is not how the world has thought and that's not God's original design and you might say well
00:27:05 all this is is the result of sin though Joel okay so maybe it is God's design maybe Acts does say
00:27:11 that God sets nations their borders and their times and that he exalts nations and he brings
00:27:16 them low right God raises empires and he decimates empires all these things are done in God's
00:27:22 sovereignty that's God's sovereign will but that doesn't necessarily mean it was his moral will
00:27:27 especially his initial moral will
00:27:29 before sin entered into the picture.
00:27:32 And I say, no, it was.
00:27:34 If Adam and Eve had never sinned,
00:27:36 if sin had never entered into the world,
00:27:38 well, then what would they do?
00:27:39 If they're not sinning, they are obeying.
00:27:43 What did God command?
00:27:45 Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.
00:27:51 Eventually, Adam and Eve,
00:27:52 if sin had never entered the world,
00:27:54 would have had so many descendants,
00:27:56 children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and so on and so forth and their children's
00:28:01 children would have children and further and further and further the earth would be filled 0.99
00:28:05 but not just one corner of the earth not the babel situation let's build a tower to the heavens so 0.99
00:28:11 that we can make a name for ourselves and not be divided not be scattered no no adam and eve if
00:28:16 they had obeyed they would have by necessity spread out and in spreading out over centuries
00:28:22 I'm not saying it would happen in two or three weeks, but over centuries, what would happen?
00:28:28 There would be distinct ethnos, distinct cultures, distinct cultures, distinct customs.
00:28:38 They would all be obedient to God if this was an unfallen world, if sin never entered the picture.
00:28:44 So they'd all be obedient. But even in obedience, there would still be some variance in food.
00:28:52 cuisine, dance, music. There would be different cultures. And over centuries and centuries with
00:29:02 different cultures, they may even develop different colors. And all that would be good.
00:29:10 And my point is this. There would have been nations, even if sin never entered the world.
00:29:16 And post-sin entering the world, right? So from Genesis 3, that's where sin comes into the picture.
00:29:21 Genesis 11, after sin, there's still an attempt to be monolithic. There's an attempt at androgyny.
00:29:30 There's an attempt at sameness. And what does God do? This is what you need to understand.
00:29:38 God confusing the languages that causes the people at Babel to divide and spread out over 0.96
00:29:43 the face of the earth, that is not a judgment for their sin of hubris and pride trying to build a 0.72
00:29:49 tower to heaven and make a name for themselves. It is actually, it is a punishment. It is a
00:29:53 discipline. It is a judgment of sorts, but it's a unique, ironic kind of judgment. We might call it
00:30:00 a merciful judgment. It's a judgment on the one hand, and yet simultaneously a mercy, because what
00:30:07 does God's confusing of their languages accomplish? Does it derail them from God's plan, or does it
00:30:15 actually expedite work as a catalyst getting them back into god's plan more quickly it's that the
00:30:22 latter god's plan was be fruitful and multiply and spread out they're saying the spread out part
00:30:30 that part not going to do it we are going to rebel against god not just building a tower to heaven
00:30:37 not just exalting humanity, right? Not just attempting to attain to
00:30:43 transcendence and eternal life and plug, upload our consciences to the cloud. And I mean,
00:30:53 that was the equivalent of, you know, they came up with a, you know, it was a revolutionary
00:30:58 technology, right? We have silicon. They had bricks. But for the time, it was revolutionary.
00:31:03 we came up with a revolutionary technology that can allow us to be like god to make a name for
00:31:09 ourselves and to live forever really what'd you come up with straw and and wait for it mud
00:31:15 together in the sun over time the the most cutting edge technology the world has ever seen
00:31:24 and it was it was and we're still doing that we just have more developed technology but it's the
00:31:30 same ignorance. We're going to make a name for ourselves. We're going to be like God, and we're
00:31:34 going to reach the heavens. We're going to transcend. We're going to live forever. But that's
00:31:39 not the only thing that they did at Babel. It wasn't just hubris or pride, being like God,
00:31:46 or trying to somehow skip the curse of death that comes by sin. The wages of sin is death,
00:31:52 and they're trying to avoid that by ascending to heaven. It was also that we may make a name for
00:31:58 ourselves so that we might not be dispersed. Being dispersed was not the judgment. Being dispersed
00:32:07 was the original command. God commanded fruitfulness, multiplication, and dispersing,
00:32:15 spreading out. And through dispersion, over time, comes variety. God's design was not androgyny.
00:32:24 god's design was diversity diversity among different people in different times and different
00:32:32 places diversity is not the curse diversity was the plan pre-sin plan pre-babble plan
00:32:41 getting them back on to the plan when they tried to rebel against the plan with the confusing of
00:32:47 languages. It's the plan. But then Westerners come up with a different plan, very much like
00:32:55 Genesis 11 and Babel. Westerners say, you know what? What is a nation? Really? I mean, it's really
00:33:05 just an idea. It's really just a set of principles. Or, I mean, if it is, you know, has boundaries
00:33:12 as something that they're not physical certainly shouldn't have a wall but it's really just an
00:33:17 economic zone and that's the same thing that was happening in genesis 11 and all of a sudden what
00:33:27 happened for us is it heritage doesn't matter your fathers don't matter and and what what had
00:33:35 to be accomplished in order to execute this plan of rebellion because it is directly against god's
00:33:41 plan what had to be accomplished children had to be taught to hate their heritage and that's a
00:33:50 difficult thing to accomplish by the way that is i mean that's like there are different degrees of
00:33:55 that one is top tier to get a child to hate his father is a difficult task
00:34:05 but post-modernism found a way by golly they did it kudos i mean it's that's a tough thing to do
00:34:15 but they did it incredibly wicked men men they pulled it off so then so then what what do you
00:34:23 come to believe all your ancestors were bad the founders of this nation bad the crusaders bad
00:34:34 Constantine? Bad. King Alfred? Bad. Richard the Lionheart? Bad. All of them bad.
00:34:44 A revisionist history, hating your heritage. That is not how the world thought ever, in any place,
00:34:52 in any time. And when people did switch jerseys and change teams, because God does do that,
00:34:59 that's real and that's good but when it happened it was not i'm going to come with you naomi my
00:35:06 mother-in-law into the economic zone of israel and i will get a good job and help provide for us
00:35:13 and i appreciate you know israel principles and ideas no no no she came and said your people
00:35:22 will be my people. Your God will be my God. There was a forsaking of Moab. That's not my people
00:35:31 anymore. That doesn't mean I hate them now. I can always love them. I can always care. But I have
00:35:37 forsaken my identity as a Moabitess woman. They are not, in the ultimate sense, my people. Israel 1.00
00:35:46 my people and certainly the moabite false pagan gods are not my god yahweh is my god
00:35:54 what we've done in the west just can talk about immigration that's what i've been talking about
00:36:03 if you haven't picked up what is he talking about i'm talking about immigration what we've done
00:36:07 in the west is we have said you can come but you don't have to have the triune god as your god
00:36:17 and these people our people do not have to be your people you can come and not assimilate
00:36:26 not religiously not culturally not with language in fact we'll stop teaching our children latin
00:36:32 in school and we'll start teaching them spanish why because you don't need to learn our language 0.50
00:36:39 in our country we'll force our kids to learn your language from another country 1.00
00:36:46 do you understand how foreign that is to all of human history
00:36:50 do you understand how unique that is ruth awesome rahab awesome
00:36:59 people coming to America who love America and want to serve the Christian God because that
00:37:07 is our heritage don't let them revise the history they want to serve the Christian God
00:37:11 and they want to be on board in fidelity and unity with Christian people and American people
00:37:17 it's not just an economic zone but it's a place with soil and a place with people and they want
00:37:22 to belong to it. Amen. Awesome. That's great. That's great. We want Christians to be a part
00:37:32 of this heritage, this history. People who will say, you are my people. You're God, my God.
00:37:41 But to just go into England, for instance, to switch the analogy here to another country,
00:37:47 and to have a prime minister who's or or france rather and to have a prime minister who is not
00:37:56 french who historically has been the enemy of france for centuries you just you have to realize
00:38:07 that half of the world is laughing right now they're like we did it we did it
00:38:17 and you can almost hear like the involuntary question how how did we pull it off there were
00:38:24 700 years of crusades and we couldn't take out england we couldn't take out france we couldn't
00:38:30 take out spain ferdinand a spanish king king richard the lion heart all right duke gregory
00:38:37 and we could never accomplish it we could never outpower ultimately the christians how did we do
00:38:42 it. This is how we did it. We told them that they were mean and racist and told them instead of us
00:38:50 battling them, we told them to kill themselves. And they obliged. Isn't it funny? The most powerful 1.00
00:38:59 empire the world has ever known in the final analysis was defeated simply by telling them
00:39:09 that they're mean and for 60 years we've been working overtime to defeat ourselves
00:39:15 it's god forbid we be mean
00:39:18 that is sad your ancestors would be ashamed and i'm not just speaking about nationhood
00:39:29 but in the larger part here bringing it now to a spiritual new testament christian application
00:39:35 your name has been written in history in a book just as these israelites who are willing to take
00:39:45 upon themselves the task not staying with the comfort and familiarity of being exiles in babylon
00:39:51 but willing to go back to their heritage their homeland to rebuild the city of god you too if
00:39:57 you are in christ by grace alone through faith your name has been written down in the annals
00:40:03 of history, but not in this book. Your name has been written down in the book, the Lamb's Book of
00:40:12 Life. Why? For your honor. For your honor. By God's grace, you are going to be eternally honored
00:40:26 for saying, this is my team. Your God, my God. His people, Christians, my people. And it's one
00:40:35 thing. This is kind of bringing it to the final point here. It's one thing to pledge allegiance
00:40:43 to God and his people in times of prosperity. When God's people are faring well, when God's
00:40:55 people are being blessed, when they're God's people are in the chief seats, right? When they're
00:41:02 being, when they're receiving notoriety and influence and affluence and praise. You've heard
00:41:09 me say this before. I'll say it once more. John Bunyan, the great late Puritan Baptist who wrote
00:41:15 Pilgrim's Progress, the most read book outside of the Bible itself. He talks about one character
00:41:21 whose name is Mr. Byens in our more modern English. Read that as Mr. Fairweather. That's
00:41:29 essentially his name. And he talks to Christian and he says, my wife and I are very reputable
00:41:37 people. Very, of course, we're Christians, very reputable Christians. And we love to walk with
00:41:42 religion when she is praised in the streets. We love to walk hand in hand with religion when she's
00:41:49 wearing her glass slippers in dressed in fine apparel when the people applaud her but my name
00:41:56 Mr. Byens Mr. Fairweather I've always seen I'm paraphrasing I've always seen that that it doesn't
00:42:02 make any sense I just not that I'm a compromiser I'm just a man of common sense it doesn't make
00:42:07 any sense to go against the wind and why travel to the celestial city on a rainy day in the middle
00:42:15 of a storm. So when religion is praised, we walk with her. When the sun is shining, we're pilgrims
00:42:22 on the way. But in the middle of a storm, we stop. We pause. It makes no sense to go against
00:42:30 the wind, to go against the grain. That's how many Christians today, or I should say 1.00
00:42:39 professing christians those who pretend to be christians think today when religion is praised
00:42:47 when christianity is thought well of when it's dominant when it actually pays to be a christian
00:42:55 when your business gets more clients by publicly announcing that you are a follower of christ
00:43:02 well then you'll go with christ then you'll walk with religion hand in hand she's wearing
00:43:08 her glass slippers. She's dressed in fine apparel. But what happens when the world becomes hostile
00:43:14 towards the Christian faith? And it is. This is Aaron Wren, for those of you who are familiar. He
00:43:22 conceptualized this idea of a positive, neutral, and negative world. And he talked about how even
00:43:29 in recent times, within some of your lifetimes, we were still in positive world. Meaning that
00:43:34 not just christians themselves but those even outside of christianity in the west and particularly
00:43:39 in our country these united states of america would look at christianity mostly positive
00:43:46 they were viewed as mostly a positive good they'd have at least some respect i mean you can look at
00:43:52 statistics there was a time where where um just in terms of vocation and profession being a pastor
00:43:58 was viewed by the common person whether they were a christian or not it was viewed as either the
00:44:02 second or third most prestigious vocation it was it was like doctor pastor and then lawyer
00:44:10 and that's within some of your lifetime i'm not talking about 200 years ago i'm talking about
00:44:15 recently but then it shifted from positive world to neutral world where you didn't really stand
00:44:21 much to gain by wearing the jersey team christian pledging your allegiance to christ and his people
00:44:27 the church but you also didn't stand much to lose and neutral world here's in a nutshell
00:44:33 neutral world this is what you need to know about it it was brief neutral world was not a century
00:44:40 according to lots of guys Aaron Wren simply being one of them they would all agree it was like 15-20
00:44:45 years max done positive world the neutral world and now and I would argue since 2014-2015 and
00:44:52 And other guys would agree with this.
00:44:53 That's what Aaron Wren would say.
00:44:55 2014, 2015, what happened?
00:44:57 Think a burger fell.
00:44:59 So since that time, these last eight years or so,
00:45:02 negative war.
00:45:04 Meaning that it costs you to publicly announce,
00:45:07 I'm a Christian.
00:45:09 There's no benefit to be gained.
00:45:12 And in one sense, there's a mercy to that,
00:45:15 that now it's like, okay, well, it's easier to tell
00:45:18 that this person's actually on the team.
00:45:19 They're not just like Mr. Buy-ins, right?
00:45:21 Mr. Fairweather. 0.97
00:45:22 just walking with religion
00:45:24 because religion happens in this current moment to be praised.
00:45:27 No, this person is actually on Team Jesus.
00:45:29 They're actually one of us, right?
00:45:32 Because it's tested through adversity,
00:45:34 through tribulation, through suffering, through difficulty.
00:45:38 But there's also a lot of detriments
00:45:40 that come by not having Christian culture anymore.
00:45:44 There are detriments that come with hostility.
00:45:46 Like it's harder for a Christian,
00:45:48 especially a publicly outspoken Christian, 0.99
00:45:51 to be employed and feed his kids right people all the time nikki haley would be an example you know
00:45:57 i'm going to make social media i'm going to make it a rule if i i'm elected that uh everybody has 0.83
00:46:01 to you know be scanned in you know and have your picture and your name no no that's not helpful
00:46:08 number one that's not our heritage back to that point the founding fathers it was common not all
00:46:14 the time but many of them wrote under pseudonyms that is an ancient tradition and there are reasons
00:46:19 for using a pseudonym.
00:46:21 Why?
00:46:21 Because the truth
00:46:22 in that current cultural moment
00:46:24 that you might be speaking 1.00
00:46:25 will get you killed. 1.00
00:46:27 Because there's a regime 1.00
00:46:28 that hates truth and power.
00:46:31 Right?
00:46:32 People all the same. 0.77
00:46:33 And this is such ignorance. 0.93
00:46:35 It's such ignorance.
00:46:36 But even within the church,
00:46:37 people online,
00:46:38 you'll see them saying,
00:46:39 hey, you think you're courageous
00:46:40 speaking the truth,
00:46:41 but you won't even show
00:46:42 your picture and your name.
00:46:43 And people that,
00:46:44 you know,
00:46:44 the anonymous accounts
00:46:45 will respond and say,
00:46:46 oh yeah,
00:46:46 and you probably also want me
00:46:47 to share my date of birth
00:46:48 and my social security.
00:46:49 Of course I'm not going to share my name in a picture.
00:46:54 Because you will see to it, even you in the church, you Christian,
00:46:59 you will see to it that I can't even feed my kids. 0.66
00:47:03 It's not safe to share my name.
00:47:06 Not just because of leftists and progressives.
00:47:09 Not just because of Biden and Fauci.
00:47:12 It's not safe because of evangelical pastors.
00:47:16 You will cancel me.
00:47:18 You'll do an expose.
00:47:19 You'll see to it that I am unemployable
00:47:22 and that my kids starve.
00:47:23 That is negative world.
00:47:26 That's where you now live. 1.00
00:47:28 Trash world, clown world, negative world, 1.00
00:47:30 whatever you want to call it. 0.99
00:47:31 You need to know what time it is.
00:47:33 The sons of Issachar,
00:47:34 they knew the times and what to do.
00:47:38 And the sons of Issachar who knew the times,
00:47:40 those who were willing to take a stand
00:47:42 and push back against negative world,
00:47:45 they were worthy of honor and that's what's going on in the text today what we see going on look at
00:47:53 verses 61 through 63 also the sons of the priests the sons of habiah the sons of hakas the sons of
00:48:01 barzillia who had taken a wife from the daughters of barzillia the gileadite and was called by their
00:48:08 name these sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies but they were not
00:48:14 found there. And so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The governor told them
00:48:20 that they were not to partake of the most holy food until there should be a priest to consult
00:48:26 Urim and Thuman. What is this saying? It's saying all of a sudden, not everybody, some people want
00:48:32 to stay where it's comfortable in Babylon, right? Because right now it doesn't pay to walk with
00:48:36 religion. So some people want to stay in the comfort of Babylon. Others are saying we'll take
00:48:40 the task. It's going to be grueling and difficult, but we'll rebuild the ruins. We'll go on the
00:48:45 journey back to our homeland, back to our heritage. But then there were some, another subcategory,
00:48:50 that wanted to be about the project, but their names weren't listed in the genealogy. They
00:48:55 couldn't go. Or they could go, but you can't be a part of the priesthood anymore. And one of these
00:49:01 guys who couldn't be a part of the priesthood, the reason why is because he had transferred his name
00:49:05 to his or at least their ancestor he had transferred his name to the the maiden name of his wife
00:49:12 and that's why it wasn't in the genealogy anymore so he got to go with israel but he doesn't get to
00:49:17 be a priest look at what matthew henry says about it there were some that could not prove themselves
00:49:23 israelites a considerable number who presumed that they were the seed of jacob but could not
00:49:29 produce their pedigrees there were others that could not prove themselves priests and yet were
00:49:34 supposed to be of the seed of Aaron now we are told how they lost their evidence this is how
00:49:40 one of their ancestors married a daughter of Barzillia who was a great man whom we read of
00:49:48 in David's time he gloried and an alliance right so this is an ancestor of a certain priest family
00:49:55 their ancestor he married the daughter of Barzillia and he glory that is he he thought this is really
00:50:02 great. This is a huge advantage because Barzillia is well off and honorable and has notoriety and
00:50:09 great wealth. So he gloried in this alliance to that honorable family. But that family was out
00:50:14 of the priesthood. He gloried in an alliance to that honorable family and preferring that before
00:50:21 the dignity of his priesthood would have his children called after Barzillia's family rather
00:50:27 than his own and their pedigree preserved in their registers of that house barzillia's house
00:50:33 rather than the house of aaron and so they lost it they lost their lineage in babylon there was
00:50:41 nothing notice this there was nothing to be gained by the priesthood and therefore they cared not
00:50:48 about being akin to it but now that the priests had recovered their rights and had the altar to
00:50:54 live upon again they would gladly be looked upon as priests but they had sold their birthright for
00:51:01 the honor of being gentlemen and therefore were justly degraded and forbidden to eat of the most
00:51:07 holy things note christ will be ashamed of those who are ashamed of him and his service this guy
00:51:15 allegedly is one of the families within the priesthood he descended from aaron a seed of
00:51:23 Aaron, him and his house, but they were perfectly content, or his ancestor, I should say, backing
00:51:29 up multiple generations all the way to the time of David, were perfectly content to form a family
00:51:34 alliance with someone outside of the priesthood. And because that particular family was well-to-do
00:51:40 and wealthy and powerful and influential, he allowed his son to take the daughter's name,
00:51:47 right? This is just a brief lesson why feminism destroys, okay? So this is just one example. 1.00
00:51:51 took the took the chick's name right bad move there you go messed up took her name and now
00:51:58 everybody knew for multiple generations they still knew like of course but yeah we know this guy comes
00:52:02 from the the seat of aaron and they're part of the priesthood all that kind of stuff this is just a
00:52:05 technicality they took his name to honor that family but as centuries go by as generations go
00:52:10 by then they're in captivity then they're in babylon they don't even care to preserve their
00:52:14 pedigree because being a priest gets you nothing in babylon there is no altar for sacrifices and
00:52:19 meat that the priest could be preserved on and live on well then it's gone it's lost to history
00:52:25 it is no more when it finally comes time in the favor and province of god to go back to israel
00:52:31 and being a priest means something because the altar is going to be restored and sacrifices
00:52:36 will be made again and the priesthood would live off of the tithes and the offerings of the people
00:52:41 as they worship yahweh well all of a sudden guess what he wants to be a priest again now 0.97
00:52:45 but it's too late now you don't get to be a priest anymore because your ancestry your heritage your
00:52:54 lineage your fathers you despised you said that they don't really have value you decided that
00:53:03 in a moment of exile in a moment of living in babylon that your actual heritage doesn't matter
00:53:09 so bringing the all this together landing the plane at a spiritual level your heritage matters
00:53:16 and your lineage at a spiritual level as christians your lineage it is calvin it is luther it is
00:53:24 augustine it is athanasius it is richard the lion heart it is duke gregory which just for the record
00:53:31 this is all you need to know about duke gregory it is said by multiple sources including islamic
00:53:37 sources right so when when your opponent is even saying we got to give props this guy like this
00:53:41 happened this guy's crazy uh it is said that duke gregory he chopped a man in half with one swing of
00:53:47 his sword now that sounds impressive but that's not even the impressive part right if you hone
00:53:52 your skills you could aspire to one day chop a man in half with one swing of your sword and i think
00:53:57 that's something we can all agree we should aspire to it's a wonderful thing right so right that's
00:54:01 something that but he didn't just chop a guy in half horizontally but diagonally that's duke
00:54:08 gregory that and just for the record he's one of the good guys that's a champion that's a heritage
00:54:13 you don't want to forget that you don't want you don't want that to be lost in antiquity
00:54:16 that was a champion and for the record it wasn't just about land it was defending the christians
00:54:21 who were being martyred and slaughtered and starved and enslaved and that's at least i'd
00:54:27 argue the first four crusades that's what it was about it became a little bit more about the holy
00:54:31 land later on. Some of the later crusades, not quite as good as the original ones. But
00:54:35 from the beginning, these guys, they were saints. Think about this. Campus crusades for Christ.
00:54:41 Now they're crew. Think about that. How recently, right? We're not talking about hundreds of years
00:54:48 ago. How recently the crusades were viewed, not as perfect, but generally as something positive.
00:54:54 Something that our ancestors, our fathers, they fought for God's truth and God's people
00:54:59 to protect them that was viewed mostly positively for a very long time until very recently what's
00:55:07 one of the evidences that i would cite for that claim the fact that campus crusades for christ do
00:55:13 you think any parachurch college ministry today would name themselves something that has crusades
00:55:18 in the name in 2024 no way in fact campus crusades for christ took crusades out of the name
00:55:25 but that all happened within just a matter of a few years that's how quickly the revisionist
00:55:33 history works that's how quickly the the indoctrination works that's how quickly
00:55:39 a generation can be taught to abandon their heritage why are these names listed because
00:55:46 it's history not fiction why are these names listed because they deserve to be honored
00:55:51 and not forgotten.
00:55:53 But lastly, why are these names listed?
00:55:56 Because these are my fathers.
00:55:59 I belong to them.
00:56:01 And knowing my fathers,
00:56:02 it tells me my future.
00:56:04 Knowing my fathers tells me my allegiance.
00:56:08 It tells me what team I'm on.
00:56:12 If you're a Christian, 0.99
00:56:13 your fathers are the crusaders.
00:56:15 They are the reformers.
00:56:17 They are the ancients.
00:56:18 All the way back to Paul
00:56:20 and the apostles and ultimately Jesus Christ, who is your older brother, but also in Isaiah is called
00:56:26 eternal father. Because through Christ himself, many sons are born. Your lineage goes all the
00:56:33 way back there. Oh, you're not Jewish? Yes, you are. Abraham is your father. We can go back even
00:56:39 further. Noah is your father. Adam is your father. This is your team. Don't forget it. And don't let
00:56:49 anyone talk you into thinking that your team is bad your team's not perfect because it is a human
00:56:54 team and humans just like you just like me are sinners but it's god's team and god's grace
00:57:03 covers a multitude of sin i believe that as the church moves forward now living in the west in
00:57:09 hostile world negative world we're not neutral world we're not in positive world as we move
00:57:14 forward, two things will be pivotal for our survival. You will see many churches continue
00:57:19 to close their doors. And I'm not just saying close their doors because of, you know, a virus
00:57:23 that was, you know, in a wet market. No, it was manufactured in a lab. We all know that. We always 0.66
00:57:28 knew that. They're finally admitting it. You're allowed to say it now without being canceled. But
00:57:31 I'm not just saying closing your doors because of COVID. I'm saying, no, many churches will
00:57:36 close down because they'll just fade out. They'll just fizzle out. And it's because they're lacking
00:57:41 in negative world, it takes fortitude to survive. They're lacking at least two things. Positive view
00:57:47 of their fathers, positive view of the future. Positive view of your fathers, positive view of
00:57:53 your future. I think one of the things that's becoming vital right now for the church, for
00:57:58 Christians, is to be able to look back to Christian heritage and say, that's good. Imperfect, but on 1.00
00:58:06 the whole, good. Christendom was good. It was not a plague on the world. Islam, plague. Paganism,
00:58:16 plague. Secularism and atheism and humanitarianism, plague. Christendom, good. Perfect, no. Flaws, 0.97
00:58:26 yes. But overall, good. So looking back to your father's Christendom, good. Looking forward to
00:58:33 the future not just positive view of the past but a positive views of the future and saying
00:58:37 not only will jesus win by returning next thursday but jesus will win throughout real time in real
00:58:47 human history by restoring his church to the formidable force that it used to be that jesus
00:58:54 will actually win his body his hands and feet in human history the church on earth that the gates 0.92
00:59:01 of hell will not be able to withstand the offensive weapon of the church of the increase
00:59:07 of his government and his kingdom in real history there shall be no end i think that christians
00:59:14 today who are able to look at the past without the indoctrination of revisionist history that
00:59:20 says american founding bad crusades bad england bad king alfred bad the knights bad all if you
00:59:26 can look back and say flawed human but good overall good and then look forward and say hope
00:59:34 there's hope and it's not that we are fatalistically destined by god to get worse and
00:59:42 worse progressively until jesus returns and it's going to be relatively soon so it really doesn't
00:59:47 matter what we do that is not going to work i mark my words i don't try to make a whole lot of
00:59:52 predictions. This is not a prophecy. I don't have a crystal ball, but I will make this prediction.
00:59:57 This one is a pretty safe bet. People who look to the last 2,000 years of church history and say,
01:00:04 eh, they're oppressive and it was mostly bad, and look forward and say, Jesus is coming back
01:00:09 next Thursday and things will get worse until he does, you're not going to make it. You're not
01:00:14 going to make it. NGMI, right? That church, NGMI. You're not going to make it. You could make it
01:00:24 in positive world 30 years ago. You can make it a neutral world. Still have your big conferences
01:00:30 and go on a Ligonier cruise with the topic of the cruise being suffering and persecution. Did
01:00:37 you know that happened? It's been a while. It was 2015. It might've been 13, but the topic was
01:00:42 suffering and persecution on a cruise
01:00:46 with R.C. Sproul. God bless him. I love him, right? That's how you know that you're not
01:00:52 suffering and being persecuted, right? That's how you know you are not in negative world. Not yet.
01:00:57 That doesn't happen anymore. Not like that. Not like that. People are waking up and realizing,
01:01:05 oh goodness snap all the things that we were larping as we're larping as sojourners and
01:01:13 larping as aliens and next because we actually weren't we actually had power had opportunity
01:01:18 and we threw it away but now we actually are suffering now we actually are exiles now we
01:01:24 actually are the minority now we actually are being oppressed by a dominant group that hates
01:01:32 our history, hates our people, and does not love God. And I think in this moment, this historical
01:01:41 moment, sons of Issachar knowing the time, the thing that's going to get you through, so the
01:01:45 thing that's going to get you through, pastor, is the gospel. Stop Jesus juking. Stop it. Cut that
01:01:52 pietism right out. Yes, the gospel will preserve you. It's the tip of the spear. It is the greatest 1.00
01:01:59 offensive weapon we have that god through the preaching of sinful men might actually be pleased
01:02:05 by the power of spirit to convert other men's hearts and cause them to become a new creation
01:02:10 nevertheless but don't be so naive to think that it's not also more it is the gospel never less
01:02:19 than the gospel but it helps to know history and it helps to have hope to believe that christ
01:02:27 could restore chrysidom once more that the things that have happened in the past are not bad but
01:02:34 were good and that those good things are not merely behind us but also if god would be so kind
01:02:41 it is possible theologically possible that they could also be in front of us that they could be
01:02:49 in front of us and that we may be here for a while not just till next thursday so it is imperative
01:02:56 that we get to work all right let's pray father thank you for your word let us not be like the
01:03:04 priest in his household that made an alliance with a family for the sake of nobility and reputation
01:03:10 and ease giving up our heritage our name but let us rather be like the patriarchs abraham and isaac
01:03:20 and Jacob, who were willing to leave behind their own heritage, their own ancestry, their pagan
01:03:27 culture and pagan religion, their own fathers, to say, I belong to Yahweh. I belong to Christ.
01:03:36 Let us be like Ruth to say, your people will be my people. You're God, my God. And not just in
01:03:41 fair weather, but even when the world despises religion, when the world is hostile to the
01:03:48 christian faith and at a practical level not just the spiritual christian application but at a
01:03:55 practical level lord i pray that that each of us lord that find ourselves here in these united
01:04:01 states at this time in this place that we would trust that you are sovereign over all of it it's
01:04:06 not an accident and i pray that we would actually have a love and affection for this country our
01:04:14 founding, our fathers, and a hope and a diligence to work towards our future. America is unique.
01:04:23 It is a collection of multiple different origin points. Even within Europe, it's not all the same. 0.59
01:04:30 England and Ireland and Scotland, people from Canada, people from Mexico, people from here, 1.00
01:04:37 people from there but lord i pray that that a diversity of color and ethnicity would not 1.00
01:04:46 be a diversity of religion diversity of religion is not our strength 0.67
01:04:53 god i i unashamedly and unapologetically pray for a monolithic religion and devotion in our nation
01:05:04 to no god no king but christ that everyone who is here in this moment would say
01:05:11 your god is my god and your people are my people i may have a homeland somewhere else and i will
01:05:19 always maintain within myself a certain devotion and love affection for that country those people
01:05:25 but god brought me in his sovereignty here and so your country your founding your traditions your
01:05:32 fathers and most importantly your god the christian faith this is my jersey this is the team that i
01:05:39 am on and i'm going to view the history positively and view the future hopefully all for the glory
01:05:47 of god and the good of his people we pray this for christ's sake in his name