The NXR Podcast - February 12, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - Big Eva Exploits The Faithful To “Empathize” With The Faithless ｜ Hebrews 13_1-3

Topics
tyranny in families remembering Christians in prison hospitality
Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
Hebrews Paul John MacArthur Martin Luther John Calvin Joe Biden Jezebel Joel William Tyndale Auntie Rachel Jesus Christ Sympathy Eleanor Abraham Ruth
QUESTIONS - How Do I Start A Christian Podcast On Politics？ DAILY TRUTH - Is There A Law⧸Gospel Hermeneutic In The Text Of Scripture？

Episode Stats


Length

56 minutes

Words per minute

151.31

Word count

8,513

Sentence count

651

Harmful content

Misogyny

13

sentences flagged

Toxicity

18

sentences flagged

Hate speech

62

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In this episode, Pastor Ken teaches on the concept of adoption and how it relates to the Bible's teaching on the doctrine of the "adoption of children" by God's own children. God bless!

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 all right listen guys i get it many of you are unable to financially support this ministry
00:00:04 because you're spending your cash and your lives on raising young children in the fear and admonition
00:00:09 of the lord praise god for you and that endeavor however algorithms are a thing shadow banning
00:00:16 sadly is a thing and one major way that you can help to expand the reach and effectiveness of
00:00:23 this ministry that doesn't cost you a dime is by spending just a few moments leaving us
00:00:28 a five-star review. Also, perhaps even more effective than that, you can share our podcast
00:00:35 with a friend. We hope you'll take the time to do so. Thank you so much. God bless.
00:00:58 depending on how many two-part sermons I end up doing.
00:01:03 Spoiler alert, today may be one of them.
00:01:05 Okay, let's go ahead and stand for the reading of God's word
00:01:08 to show honor and reverence to God
00:01:11 and how he has chosen to reveal himself in scripture.
00:01:14 I'll read our text in its entirety.
00:01:16 When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say,
00:01:18 this is the word of the Lord,
00:01:19 at which point I would appreciate very much
00:01:21 if you would respond by saying, thanks be to God.
00:01:25 One more time, our text for today is Hebrews 3.
00:01:28 13 verses 1 through 6, the Bible says this, let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show
00:01:36 hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who
00:01:44 are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated since you also are in
00:01:50 the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God
00:01:58 will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money and
00:02:06 be content with what you have. For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can
00:02:13 confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? This is the word of
00:02:22 the Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's go ahead and begin with the first verse of our text,
00:02:31 short and sweet. Verse 1 says this, let brotherly love continue. In your notes, I've written the
00:02:39 following. In Hebrews chapter 13, verse 1, we are not merely commanded to continue in a universal
00:02:45 love for all people, but in brotherly love. That is for our fellow believers. Let me pause here for
00:02:55 a moment. You've heard me say this many times, but there are, by God's grace, new people every week
00:03:01 that perhaps are unfamiliar with this indisputable biblical truth. The truth is this.
00:03:08 the Bible does not teach that everyone is a child of God. I'll say it again. The Bible does not teach
00:03:17 that everyone is a child of God. And certainly the Bible does not teach that we are born into this
00:03:26 life, into this world, physically born as children of God. If everyone started this life as a child
00:03:33 of God, then what is the Bible talking about when it goes to such great lengths to speak
00:03:39 of the doctrine of adoption?
00:03:43 For those of you who don't know some of my personal story, I was adopted as a child by
00:03:49 my parents who are members of this church, also gone this way.
00:03:52 Mom is gone.
00:03:54 Meemaw and Papa are gone.
00:03:56 Uncle Connor and Auntie Rachel are gone.
00:03:59 Go crafts.
00:04:01 And watch it. 1.00
00:04:02 You girls are doing great.
00:04:03 Olive, Ruth, Eleanor, doing great.
00:04:05 Keep it up.
00:04:06 So I was adopted as a baby.
00:04:12 And here's something that I know.
00:04:14 I'm not an expert on adoption.
00:04:16 I think it's pretty cool.
00:04:17 I think it's a beautiful picture of the gospel.
00:04:20 But one thing that I know, it's kind of a common sense knowledge,
00:04:24 is that, you know, my parents, they went to the courthouse.
00:04:28 They had a court date.
00:04:30 They had their lawyer.
00:04:32 I had my lawyer, which is kind of funny.
00:04:34 The baby has a lawyer.
00:04:35 So I have my lawyer.
00:04:36 The adoptive parents, they have their lawyer.
00:04:39 And there's this court hearing, and we have a judge and all those things.
00:04:44 And if I was biologically my parent's child, if I was biologically their child,
00:04:51 and they went to a judge and hired a lawyer and all these things,
00:04:55 we would like to adopt our biological child.
00:04:58 I think the response would be, well, I think you might lose your child because you don't have the
00:05:04 intelligence required to raise one. This is already your kid. What are you doing? What do
00:05:10 you mean you want to adopt your child? This is your child. Well, likewise, in the scripture,
00:05:15 in Ephesians, in Romans, in multiple places in the scripture that speaks of being adopted.
00:05:22 The Bible is not talking about God adopting children that are already his children.
00:05:28 the very presence of the doctrine of adoption, that God adopts us as his children, what that
00:05:36 assumes is that we start this life as those who are not his children. The Bible does not teach
00:05:46 the universal fatherhood of God. The Bible teaches the universal creatorhood of God.
00:05:52 And there is a moral obligation for all human beings made in the image of God simply as God's creatures and God being their creator.
00:06:03 All men, whether they're Christian or not, have a moral obligation to God because he's their father.
00:06:09 No, because he's their creator.
00:06:12 He made them.
00:06:14 And he has rights over the creature.
00:06:17 And the creature has moral obligations to the one who made him.
00:06:24 The Bible teaches universal creatorhood, but not universal fatherhood.
00:06:30 And likewise, as we see in our first verse, let brotherly love continue.
00:06:35 The Bible teaches universal neighborhood, but not universal brotherhood.
00:06:43 So vertically speaking, our relationship to God, God's relationship with man, universal creatorhood, but not universal fatherhood.
00:06:53 Horizontally speaking, our relation with our fellow man, universal neighborhood, and there are biblical commandments to how we treat our neighbors.
00:07:03 Love your neighbor as yourself, but not universal brotherhood.
00:07:07 everyone is your neighbor not everyone is your brother god is everyone's creator but god is not
00:07:16 everyone's father let brotherly love continue primarily what's in view in the first verse
00:07:24 of our text is this let us the church these hebrew christians that the author is writing to
00:07:31 under the inspiration of the holy spirit he is saying brothers and sisters fellow believers
00:07:36 Christians, continue. Do not grow weary in doing good. Continue in love for, first and foremost,
00:07:45 the church. Brotherly love. Continue in love. Be diligent in love. Endure and persevere in love
00:07:55 for believers, for the household of faith. Let me give you a couple other verses that help to
00:08:04 substantiate that point so that you see that it's not just something that I may be eisegeting into
00:08:10 this verse. Think of Matthew chapter 25 verse 34 through 40. It's a common text that many of you
00:08:19 are probably familiar with, but there's a phrase in this text that many Christians often gloss over.
00:08:25 It says, the king will say to those on his right, this is right after Jesus told a parable of
00:08:32 separating the sheep from the goats. Speaking of the final day of judgment, the king will then say
00:08:39 to those on his right, come, you are blessed of my father. Take your inheritance. The kingdom
00:08:45 prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.
00:08:53 I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed
00:09:00 clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came
00:09:07 to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?
00:09:15 When did we see you thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and
00:09:23 invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to
00:09:31 visit you? The king will reply, truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these
00:09:40 brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. How often the evangelical church has taken
00:09:50 the least of these out of context. 0.97
00:09:55 In a nutshell, this is what Big Eva does. 1.00
00:09:58 I'll give you their playbook. 0.90
00:09:59 It's pretty simple.
00:10:00 You probably know.
00:10:02 Big Eva says, 1.00
00:10:04 we're going to milk the faithful 0.99
00:10:06 to benefit the faithless. 0.99
00:10:10 We're going to break the backs 1.00
00:10:12 of the faithful 1.00
00:10:13 to benefit the faithless.
00:10:16 And that's it.
00:10:17 That's a play.
00:10:19 Free car wash.
00:10:20 food drive
00:10:22 hallelujah party for Halloween
00:10:26 trunk or treat
00:10:28 whatever it is
00:10:29 but what's the goal
00:10:30 the goal is always
00:10:31 to serve the unbeliever 1.00
00:10:33 it's always for the unbeliever 1.00
00:10:36 do you know what Paul says
00:10:39 in 1st Timothy chapter 5
00:10:40 he says
00:10:41 when it comes to the church
00:10:43 and its ministry
00:10:44 and moral obligation
00:10:45 because it is obligated
00:10:46 under God
00:10:46 to serve the poor
00:10:49 There's actually a criteria.
00:10:52 It's not just a blank canvas for your creative license and freedom.
00:10:55 You don't get to define love.
00:10:58 Empathy has no place in Christian faith. 0.91
00:11:03 Sympathy does.
00:11:05 Compassion.
00:11:06 Empathy does not.
00:11:08 The world is being destroyed right now in the name of empathy.
00:11:14 You need to be aware of that.
00:11:18 Now, what the Scripture teaches, the Apostle Paul, 1 Timothy 5, writing to a young man who is a pastor in a church,
00:11:26 he gives criteria and guidelines for helping the helpless.
00:11:31 He talks about helping the widow.
00:11:35 Right there, we already have an assumed criteria.
00:11:39 because we're starting with 24-year-old, single, able-bodied young men who just don't want to work
00:11:47 a job, right? No. Do you know what help that man gets? Starvation. That's the help he gets.
00:11:56 That's the help he needs. That's the help that loves him and pleases God. Yes. The Bible commands
00:12:05 that. If any man will not work, let him not eat. And when we override that, whether we do it
00:12:13 individually in the name of Christian love, but with bad theology and interpretation of scripture,
00:12:19 or whether we do it federally in the civil sphere through laws and legislation,
00:12:25 taking people's money at gunpoint, aka taxes, and then creating a welfare system that only
00:12:33 incentivizes poverty and makes it worse. In either case, the point is, it is unbiblical.
00:12:41 It is unbiblical. Paul says that first you start with the widow. Now, the widow is someone who
00:12:48 needs help and is themselves also helpless. It's not just helping the poor. Now, the Bible, what
00:12:56 it says time and time again is that there's a call not just to help the poor, but to help
00:13:00 the helpless poor. To help the poor that cannot help themselves. That's the first qualification.
00:13:09 But then the next, as Paul goes further and says, just to ensure that this widow really is helpless
00:13:14 and therefore should be added to the roster of the list of widows of the church, become the church's
00:13:20 obligation to care for her and her needs, just to make sure. First, she needs to be a widow. 0.98
00:13:25 her husband has died. But secondly, she needs to be of 65 years of age. If she's younger, 0.65
00:13:35 Paul says she should remarry. But if she's older and past the age of marrying, at least the 0.99
00:13:42 likelihood of marrying, especially being able to marry and produce children, then she's for
00:13:48 consideration to be added to the roster, to be cared for by the church. So she needs to be a 0.94
00:13:55 She also needs to be 65 years of age.
00:13:58 But then he goes further and says,
00:14:00 does she have any other family members?
00:14:03 She's a widow, so she doesn't have a husband that can care for her. 1.00
00:14:06 But does she have sons? 1.00
00:14:09 Does she have a brother? 1.00
00:14:10 Then let them care for her.
00:14:14 So that the church will not be burdened. 0.97
00:14:16 But if she doesn't have a husband and she doesn't have sons
00:14:19 and she doesn't have a brother, she doesn't have an uncle,
00:14:21 she has no one in terms of her extended family
00:14:24 They can bear that burden because the family would be obligated morally first before the church.
00:14:30 Did you know that?
00:14:31 People always say, well, yeah, okay, the church does a bad job or the government does a bad job with welfare,
00:14:37 but that's because the church has dropped the ball.
00:14:39 Nope, it's because fathers have dropped the ball.
00:14:42 It's not the church. 0.99
00:14:44 Get rid of that language. 1.00
00:14:45 I hate that language.
00:14:47 That is such a misconception.
00:14:49 Look, very clear.
00:14:50 God set up three divinely instituted spheres, home, church, state. Each one of them have certain
00:14:56 moral obligations under God. The state, their job is to kill, right, sword, to kill bad guys 0.99
00:15:05 and praise good guys, and maybe, and even this, I'm suspect, maybe build some roads. 0.99
00:15:14 That's it. Even that, I think we could privatize and get it done better. That's it.
00:15:19 That's the state.
00:15:21 And for the record, one of the reasons why your taxes are so high is because government is so big.
00:15:29 Government's training your children with public schools.
00:15:33 They're in education.
00:15:34 They're in welfare.
00:15:35 They're in everything.
00:15:36 And because they're in everything, well, it's going to cost more money.
00:15:39 As a good rule of thumb, God demands for his church a tithe.
00:15:46 That's 10%.
00:15:47 Caesar should never rival God.
00:15:51 So whatever Caesar should get, it should be less than 10%.
00:15:54 I believe that's the biblical model.
00:15:57 9% cap.
00:15:59 Okay, so that's the civil realm.
00:16:01 Their obligation.
00:16:02 Very simple.
00:16:03 Carry the sword as God's avengers.
00:16:06 A deacon of God.
00:16:07 Servant of God.
00:16:09 That's a correct reading of Romans 13.
00:16:12 Shut down your church and stay inside is an incorrect reading of Romans 13. 0.91
00:16:16 just for the record. Just clear that up. All right. Next, the church. The church is a ministry
00:16:22 of word and sacrament. Word and sacrament. The church can do many things, but primarily what
00:16:31 the church does is worship. The church gathers the saints on the Lord's day for the right preaching
00:16:39 of the word of God and the right administering of the sacraments, the Lord's supper and baptism.
00:16:45 John Calvin said, wherever the word is rightly preached and the sacrament rightly administered,
00:16:51 there a church of God exists, even if it swarms with many faults.
00:16:54 And many of the Puritans that I would agree with have added maybe one more qualification to Calvin's statement,
00:17:00 which would be this, preach, sacraments, and church discipline.
00:17:05 Church discipline, rightly administered.
00:17:08 There a church of God exists.
00:17:11 But wait a second, that can't be it.
00:17:12 what about their programs can't be a real church unless we've got 17 midweek programs and what
00:17:20 about the committees pastor joel i was raised in the southern baptist church if you're if there
00:17:25 aren't 29 different committees most of them without anyone seated on the committee right
00:17:29 you have whole empty committees that haven't been used in like 14 years but if there's not at least
00:17:35 in the 20s of committees and then 17 midweek programs then i mean is that a church of god
00:17:41 really? Does it preach rightly? Does it administer the sacraments rightly? And as needed, according
00:17:49 to God's word, does it practice biblical church discipline? There's a church. But I'd like it to
00:17:56 do more stuff. You know what I'd like? I'd like for dads to do more stuff. See, we're very, very
00:18:07 aware that the state can be a tyrant. But the evangelical church has been a tyrant for about 0.91
00:18:13 60 years in America. And what I mean by tyrant is I don't mean a tyrant in your typical
00:18:20 Machiavellian totalitarian sense. I don't mean that. What I mean is a tyrant in terms of time.
00:18:29 your time is being stolen from you on both sides the state is taking your time
00:18:39 by virtue of making you work more hours to cover their large taxes
00:18:44 and then they take your time by taking your kids which you give to them for the record
00:18:50 but they take your kids and not only do they take 40 hours a week
00:18:54 but then how many state programs are your kids enlisted in you've got one act play
00:19:00 you've got football you've got basketball you've got debate you've got all these different things
00:19:10 year round one sport ends another one starts and that's just at the state level and the public
00:19:17 school falls under that category state and then you got the church you got wednesday night
00:19:24 maybe there's a thursday night there's a mom's prayer meeting and some of those moms are kind
00:19:32 of judgy if i don't show up there's this and there's that there's that there's this
00:19:38 and then the pastor has the audacity
00:19:41 to correct the dads in the room
00:19:45 for not leading their families
00:19:46 in family worship?
00:19:48 Pastor, you stole all the time
00:19:50 from that father to lead them
00:19:52 in family worship.
00:19:54 You took family worship time.
00:19:58 And you made the father
00:19:59 outsource it to the church
00:20:01 instead of doing it
00:20:02 with his God-given authority
00:20:03 in the home.
00:20:06 Our church, we have Sunday.
00:20:09 And then we also have Sunday.
00:20:11 and then this one's exciting one week later you'll have another sunday that's it
00:20:20 the lord's day not the lord's hour the lord's day which that one's going to be a challenge
00:20:27 today it's football day huh
00:20:30 some of you won't come that's okay it's all right but i do encourage you
00:20:38 Sunday morning, Sunday evening.
00:20:40 God has sustained in his providence and sovereignty,
00:20:43 he has sustained his church for 2,000 years of church history,
00:20:46 predominantly through the Lord's Day gathering of the saints.
00:20:49 And not just for an hour and a half, but a full day.
00:20:52 A full day.
00:20:53 Did you know that only in this last 2,000 years of church history since the cross,
00:20:58 that only the most recent 500 years, so 25% of that 2,000 years,
00:21:03 have we had the Bible in languages that we could read?
00:21:07 And men, as you probably know, gave their lives for that.
00:21:10 William Tyndale, Martin Luther, he didn't die for it, but got close.
00:21:16 People went out of their way at very great cost,
00:21:19 even at times the cost of their lives,
00:21:21 in order to translate the Word of God out of the Latin Vulgate,
00:21:26 which is the Roman Catholic monopoly on the Scripture,
00:21:29 breaking up that monopoly, that Catholic empire,
00:21:32 and translating it in the vulgar tongue, meaning the common language,
00:21:37 And then, of course, teaching people to read.
00:21:40 Primarily the ability, just the notion that children, every single child, boy, girl, from a very young age, should know how to read.
00:21:51 That's a Protestant notion.
00:21:54 Roman Catholics didn't come up with that.
00:21:56 Roman Catholics, it's in their best interest that you don't know how to read.
00:22:01 That's why they still, they've expanded their horizons a bit. 0.67
00:22:05 you know but they really like the latin mass did you know the term hocus pocus
00:22:10 whoo magic you know where that comes from i'm going to mispronounce it disclaimer but something
00:22:17 like hocii pocii or something like that it's latin which is why i mispronounced it but it's
00:22:25 what the priest would say right before transubstantiation turning the bread and the
00:22:30 wine into the literal body and literal blood of Christ. And the people thought it was magic
00:22:36 back in the day because that's what the Catholic church said, right? They had more interest in
00:22:42 robes and tassels and imagery than in content, right? Because in a nutshell, both Roman Catholicism 0.55
00:22:52 and Eastern Orthodoxy, I might add,
00:22:56 faith comes by seeing.
00:22:59 But for those who have a Bible and can read it,
00:23:01 faith cometh by hearing,
00:23:04 and hearing the word of Christ. 0.60
00:23:07 Protestants are word-centric. 0.85
00:23:11 Always have been. 0.97
00:23:13 Whether it be the Puritans or before them, 0.99
00:23:16 the Reformers, within the Protestant tradition,
00:23:18 what you have is the table of the Lord
00:23:20 in a subservient position to the pulpit.
00:23:25 And the pulpit has nothing to do
00:23:28 with the man who stands behind it.
00:23:29 It has everything to do with this book preached.
00:23:35 In a Catholic church, it's the table.
00:23:38 And what's more important 0.93
00:23:39 is the waving of the hands
00:23:41 and the robes and the garbs.
00:23:44 And if they could do it, 0.98
00:23:46 they would keep it all in Latin
00:23:47 so you don't understand anything.
00:23:49 you don't understand a single word who cares if you comprehend just take their word for it
00:23:56 but the point is this any of these three divinely instituted spheres home church state any of them
00:24:05 can be a tyrant you see we're we're in america in 2022 three we think in terms of tyranny
00:24:17 we immediately think the state.
00:24:19 And even that's somewhat novel.
00:24:20 We wouldn't have thought that a few years ago.
00:24:22 We should have, but we didn't.
00:24:24 But when we think tyranny, we think government.
00:24:28 But if you don't think the church can be a tyrant,
00:24:32 look at Roman Catholicism. 0.84
00:24:36 That's what it was. 0.93
00:24:37 And God used that wild boar, Luther, 0.98
00:24:40 digging up, destroying the Lord's vineyard, the Pope's vineyard, to free Christians from the 0.80
00:24:52 tyranny, ecclesiastical tyranny, church tyranny of Roman Catholicism. Lastly, the family can be a 0.96
00:25:00 tyrant too. Now, I don't think that's our problem right now. And what I don't like is when guys
00:25:06 preach the footnote as though it's the headline. That's what big Eva does. That's another classic 0.99
00:25:11 big Eva play, right? So, so that one of the big plays would be this, and you'll see it all right
00:25:16 now, right now you're going to see a ton of it because of the situation with John MacArthur.
00:25:22 Some of you are not aware of some of you, you know what I'm saying? I don't have time to go
00:25:25 into all of it, but being accused of being complicit with an abuse case that happened 20
00:25:33 years ago? And here's the deal. I don't have a position, an official position. MacArthur might
00:25:39 be wrong. Believe it or not, I know it's hard for reformed Christians to hear, but MacArthur
00:25:46 might be wrong. He might have made a mistake. MacArthur, I'm grateful for him. He's been faithful
00:25:53 in many regards, but he might have made a mistake. He certainly made a mistake a couple decades ago
00:25:59 when he sided with police officers
00:26:00 against Christians trying to save the unborn.
00:26:04 Definitely made a mistake then. 1.00
00:26:07 You can check the record.
00:26:10 So MacArthur is awesome.
00:26:11 He could be wrong.
00:26:13 But here's the point.
00:26:14 Whether this is just another hashtag me too case
00:26:18 that's being twisted and perverted
00:26:20 to make Grace Community Church look bad
00:26:24 because they've been faithful for so long,
00:26:26 because they have overall immense faithfulness
00:26:28 from John MacArthur. Praise God for him. So whether it's they're lying and slandering and twisting
00:26:34 things, or whether MacArthur actually covered something up and should have done a better job
00:26:37 and should now publicly repent, I don't know. I don't have a position on that. I don't know.
00:26:42 I don't know all the details. But this is what I do know. What I do know is that when you look
00:26:47 at Twitter, or when you go to the average sermon at the average church, what you hear would make
00:26:56 you think that there's an epidemic of men abusing women in the church. That happens.
00:27:07 But right now, if we're honest, that's what you call a footnote. Do you want to hear the real
00:27:12 headline in 2023 in the evangelical church? Feminism. That's the headline. The headline is 1.00
00:27:21 not abusive patriarchy. It's not. You know it's not. That can happen. It has happened. It does
00:27:29 happen. That's not the majority report. The majority report in evangelicalism in the church today
00:27:37 in America is not abusive patriarchy. It is godless, pagan, wicked feminism. 0.99
00:27:44 them. It's Jezebel. She's the problem. And we need men who are not cowering, not vulnerable to her 1.00
00:27:57 tactics, like the eunuchs in the Bible who picked her up and threw her out the window so that she
00:28:03 could be eaten by the dogs. That's what we need. By God's grace, he's raising up such men who do 0.98
00:28:10 not bow to Jezebel because they have a God in heaven that they fear more than men. It is sad
00:28:17 when we compromise to fear men more than God. It's pathetic when we compromise to fear women 1.00
00:28:23 more than God. And that's not just where America as a nation is. That's where the American 0.98
00:28:29 evangelical church is. We've been there for quite some time. So my point is to say this.
00:28:40 The state can be a tyrant. Think Joe Biden. The church can be a tyrant. Think the Pope.
00:28:49 The Pope. Families can be a tyrant. Think about the mafia. What do you call tyranny
00:28:58 in the realm of a family.
00:29:01 He called a mafia.
00:29:04 And in past times where the state was weaker
00:29:07 and the church was weaker,
00:29:11 it was godfathers and families that ruled.
00:29:17 Don't you dare cross him.
00:29:19 He's got a whole pile of dead bodies
00:29:22 that have crossed him.
00:29:24 He rules this city with an iron fist.
00:29:28 The point is, any of these three sovereign spheres
00:29:32 that God has instituted can be tyrannical.
00:29:35 They can overstep their jurisdiction.
00:29:38 Families can, states can, churches can.
00:29:43 But we need to remember the headline.
00:29:46 And the headline for right now, I believe,
00:29:51 is that the state is a tyrant.
00:29:53 The church, in terms of how much time and programs,
00:29:57 to a lesser degree than the state,
00:29:59 but at a certain degree, 0.84
00:30:00 the evangelical church is also a tyrant. 0.87
00:30:03 And the one sphere that's being choked to death 0.91
00:30:07 in 2023 in America is the family,
00:30:12 particularly fathers.
00:30:15 If you want to be persecuted,
00:30:19 be a dad.
00:30:22 There is no role in all of society
00:30:24 more despised and hated,
00:30:27 belittled at every single turn,
00:30:29 maligned and lied about,
00:30:31 slandered than fathers. 1.00
00:30:37 And the church should be doing
00:30:38 everything it can
00:30:40 to come alongside fathers.
00:30:43 Not saying,
00:30:44 hey, we'll be a dad for you
00:30:46 so you can be a deadbeat 0.89
00:30:48 because you can't do it.
00:30:49 We'll do it for you.
00:30:50 No, that's what the government
00:30:51 already does. 0.99
00:30:53 No, the church should come
00:30:54 and strengthen fathers and say,
00:30:56 you are the pastor of your home.
00:30:58 I'm not going to raise your kids for you.
00:31:01 No, I'm going to disciple you on the Lord's day
00:31:03 with preaching and sacrament, word and sacrament,
00:31:07 and you're going to raise your kids.
00:31:09 And you can do it.
00:31:10 By the grace of God, you can do it.
00:31:15 All that being said,
00:31:17 1 Timothy 5, caring for widows,
00:31:21 the first sphere responsible for provision
00:31:27 is fathers, it's families.
00:31:31 Oh, the government's doing welfare
00:31:33 because the church dropped the ball.
00:31:35 No, the government's doing welfare
00:31:37 because families dropped the ball.
00:31:41 The church's ministry,
00:31:43 it can care for physical needs.
00:31:45 And we have biblical texts that talk about that
00:31:47 and the criteria for that,
00:31:49 Like 1 Timothy 5 and the criteria for the church helping widows.
00:31:52 But predominantly, predominantly, the sphere that God has divinely instituted to care for physical needs is not the state and it's not the church.
00:32:05 It is the family.
00:32:07 Fathers provide for their children and wives.
00:32:12 Period.
00:32:13 Period.
00:32:14 you. And if the church is picking that slack up, there better be a biblical reason for it.
00:32:20 It better be that the father is dead. The Bible essentially says two things when it comes to
00:32:26 helping the poor. You help widows, aka the father's dead. And then if the father's alive,
00:32:31 but unwilling to work, let him not eat. That's what the Bible says.
00:32:37 in matthew 25 verse 34 through 40 what everyone glosses over whatever you did for the least of
00:32:44 these and what do people think immediately what they think is whatever people group whatever
00:32:51 identity group is currently most popular to sympathize with or empathize with in the culture
00:32:59 of that day so the least of these the church should care for the least of these because that's 0.88
00:33:02 what Matthew 25 says. And who are the least of these? Well, the least of these are illegal
00:33:07 immigrants. The least of these are LGBT, LMNOP. The least of these is... No, no, no. The text 1.00
00:33:16 tells us who the least of these are. Why don't we read the text? Whatever you did for one of
00:33:23 the least of these brothers and sisters of mine. In other words, when Jesus separates the sheep
00:33:34 from the goats and puts the sheep on his right hand and says, to you is the kingdom. It's your
00:33:40 inheritance. What's the determining factor between the left and the right? Right? The goats and the
00:33:47 sheep. It's those who did loving things for Jesus. Well, Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of his
00:33:55 father. How do you do something loving for Jesus? You do it for the least of these, his brothers.
00:34:00 You want to love Jesus? Love the church. You want to love Jesus? Let brotherly love continue.
00:34:10 That's what it is. It's caring for the church. It's caring for brothers and sisters in Christ
00:34:16 for the very fact that they bear the name of Christ.
00:34:21 And when it says the least of these, my brothers,
00:34:24 what that means is those who are brothers and sisters in Christ
00:34:28 who are currently being persecuted.
00:34:31 When it says you visited those in prison,
00:34:35 it's not saying, and I'm not saying you can't do this,
00:34:37 I'm not saying this is immoral,
00:34:38 but what's in view here in this text, Matthew 25,
00:34:41 is not predominantly a Christian ministry to serial killers
00:34:46 preaching the gospel to them in prisons. 0.77
00:34:48 You can do that,
00:34:50 but that's not what this text is talking about.
00:34:53 When you visited me in prison,
00:34:55 to visit Jesus in prison 0.82
00:34:57 is to visit the least of these Jesus brothers in prison.
00:35:01 So what's in view here
00:35:02 is not having a prison ministry
00:35:04 where you preach the gospel to people
00:35:06 who actually committed atrocious crimes.
00:35:08 Not saying you can't do that,
00:35:10 but that's not what's in view here in this text.
00:35:11 What's in view here in this text
00:35:13 is going into the prison
00:35:14 when Christians have been placed there wrongfully
00:35:17 and ministering to their needs
00:35:21 and caring for them
00:35:23 for the very fact that they are a brother in Christ.
00:35:27 You do it because they belong to Jesus
00:35:29 and thereby doing it because they belong to Jesus
00:35:33 in the mind of Jesus
00:35:35 is the same as doing it to Jesus himself.
00:35:38 That's what the Bible teaches.
00:35:41 But evangelicalism says
00:35:43 let's actually abuse
00:35:44 our brothers and sisters in Christ
00:35:46 take advantage of our brothers and sisters in Christ
00:35:49 so that we can do more events
00:35:51 for people who hate Christ
00:35:53 because then maybe they'll come to our church
00:35:55 and we'll get to put up bigger numbers
00:35:59 Paul literally says
00:36:02 look Galatians
00:36:04 chapter 6 verse 9 and 10
00:36:07 as often as you have opportunity
00:36:08 do good to all
00:36:09 but prioritize the brothers
00:36:12 the household of faith. Christ is infinite, but his body
00:36:17 here on earth, the church, is finite. Meaning
00:36:21 that the church has a finite amount of resources. And what does Jesus tell us about
00:36:25 the poor? You'll always have them. You'll always
00:36:29 have the poor. You know why you'll always
00:36:33 have the poor? People don't like this one. You'll always have the poor because
00:36:37 until Christ finally returns, you'll always have sin.
00:36:42 And that does not mean that every person who is poor is poor because of their sin.
00:36:47 I'm not drawing a direct correlation.
00:36:51 What I am saying is that everyone who is poor is poor because of someone's sin.
00:36:56 Now, I would argue that in this country, even though certain freedoms and liberties are being eroded,
00:37:03 still in this country, because of our founding and some of the privileges that we have legally under the law, 0.97
00:37:10 most individuals who are poor in this country, it's because of their sin.
00:37:17 However, I would not say that 0.55
00:37:19 of those who are poor in North Korea. 0.96
00:37:22 I'm going to say North Korea has a bunch of poor people because they're just lazy in North Korea. 0.79
00:37:27 Or there's a tyrant in North Korea. 0.96
00:37:32 Right? But here's the deal. One way or another
00:37:35 it's rooted in sin.
00:37:36 poverty is simply a lack is simply a lack of needs there's only a couple options here either
00:37:47 god told us to be fruitful multiply but created a world that didn't was not able to actually support
00:37:54 people obeying god's command so god commanded us to do one thing be fruitful multiply and then on
00:37:59 the back end behind the scenes he was i've commanded them to do the very thing that's going
00:38:04 to lend towards their demise because I strategically created the world in such a way that it does not
00:38:09 have the resources to sustain their obedience to my command. That is a bad view of God.
00:38:16 The world is not too populated. That's not our problem. We have more people on the planet today
00:38:21 than ever before, and we have less hunger and poverty and disease than ever before.
00:38:27 The world is not overpopulated. Hashtag postmill, whatever you want to call it. The world is not
00:38:32 overpopulated. The only reason we still have poverty in any degree at all is because we still
00:38:37 have sin. And Jesus said you'll always have the poor among you because until he returns, we'll
00:38:42 always have sin. And people are poor because of their sin or not always their sin, but people are
00:38:50 poor because of their sin and unwillingness to work or somebody's, somebody else's sin against
00:38:54 them. There are moms and children who are poor because dad's in jail. It's sin. And so the point
00:39:06 is that when we want to love the least of these, there are a whole host of identity groups that at
00:39:13 any given moment in the culture, on Twitter, in the legacy media, it's cool and hip to care about
00:39:22 them. Now, nobody does, right? They just, they just change their Facebook image. They just put
00:39:29 out a tweet, right? They don't actually help, right? BLM, buy large mansions. That's what it
00:39:36 stands for, right? Because that's all they did. That's all they did, right? So it's, it's not
00:39:41 actually helping, but it's, it's the thing that you're going to talk about, right? Like it's,
00:39:47 it's shameful to have an American flag, you know, because this country is oppressive, but I got a
00:39:51 Ukrainian flag on my front porch? Are you kidding me? It's ridiculous. Absolutely ignorant.
00:40:00 But here's the deal. There's always going to be a group of the least of these that the culture 0.99
00:40:03 labels as the least of these. But that's not what the Bible talks about. The least of these,
00:40:08 my brothers. Do good to all, but you're finite, so prioritize the household of faith.
00:40:15 Or, back to our first verse,
00:40:17 let brotherly love continue.
00:40:21 Brotherly love.
00:40:23 Our first obligation, brothers and sisters,
00:40:25 we're always going to have the poor
00:40:26 because we're always going to have sin.
00:40:28 Poverty is a black hole.
00:40:30 You can pour as many trillions of dollars you want into it
00:40:33 and it'll never be full.
00:40:35 It won't.
00:40:37 It'll just take more and more and more and more.
00:40:42 But what you can do,
00:40:43 speaking to fathers again, what you can do is you can make sure that your kids
00:40:49 are fed, warm, clothed, sheltered, educated with a Christian education and not indoctrinated by
00:40:58 the state. You can start at home. Charity begins at home. Provision begins at home.
00:41:07 Beyond that, once we've taken care of our own household, then we can begin to look at the
00:41:12 household of faith, starting with our local church. How can I care for other families in
00:41:19 these churches? Come alongside other fathers who are trying to provide for their wives and children,
00:41:23 but maybe struggling because of this or that. That's where we can start. And honestly, you
00:41:29 could spend your whole life and every waking hour and every bit of your strength and every dime in
00:41:36 your account on just providing for your own family well and the household of faith in your local
00:41:41 church where God has sovereignly placed you, and you won't get it done. So just do that.
00:41:50 Spend your time, spend your effort in the way that the Bible tells us to do it.
00:41:55 Let brotherly love continue. All right, I've preached one verse,
00:42:01 but it was a four-word verse, guys. It was long, right?
00:42:05 okay let me just preach real quick verse two and three i promise real quick please please
00:42:16 let me have a chance um verse two and three because it relates to verse one and i've let
00:42:23 i've provided the theological framework now so i can do this quickly here we go do not neglect
00:42:27 to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares think of
00:42:33 Abraham, three shining ones that appear to him, and one of them is the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank
00:42:37 you, sir. And then we also, I can think of Lot, for instance. Lot has angels come, and he takes
00:42:45 them into his home, right? So it is possible, and we do have biblical examples of actually exercising
00:42:51 hospitality to people we don't know, strangers, and those strangers being angels, all right?
00:42:55 That's verse 2, at least the second half of verse 2. Now verse 3, remember those who are in prison
00:43:01 as though in prison with them, as those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
00:43:07 This is what we've already looked at. This is why I wanted to look at Matthew 25, verse 34 through 40.
00:43:15 Because Jesus mentions the least of these, he gives several examples, those who are naked and
00:43:19 need to be clothed, hungry and need to be fed. But one of the examples he gives is those who
00:43:24 are imprisoned. And it's the very thing that we're seeing in verse three of our text. Now,
00:43:27 Remember those who are in prison.
00:43:29 The thing that Jesus told you to do in Matthew 25,
00:43:32 you guys make sure to remember that and do that.
00:43:34 Remember those who are in prison.
00:43:36 Primarily, what's being said here?
00:43:39 Remember the serial killer in prison?
00:43:42 You can, right, as often as you have opportunity, do good to all.
00:43:46 There is nothing in the Bible that says we can't do good to unbelievers.
00:43:50 Don't mishear me.
00:43:51 I'm not saying that.
00:43:52 But what the Bible says is that you can do good to unbelievers,
00:43:56 but you are commanded to prioritize the household of faith. And my common sense advice here,
00:44:04 not commanding you, this is under the banner of the authority of counsel, not command. 0.99
00:44:09 The authority of command is do good to everyone, but prioritize Christians. My counsel is that
00:44:16 there's enough work to be done among Christians that if you do it faithfully, you won't have any 1.00
00:44:20 time or money left. That's my opinion. Okay. That's counsel, not command. So don't, don't 1.00
00:44:28 walk out of here and say, Joel said that can't, we can't help non-Christians. Well, I did say that 1.00
00:44:32 technically, but through the authority of counsel, not command. And only because I just think there's
00:44:38 so much work to be done with Christians. And the Bible definitely says that. Prioritize a household 1.00
00:44:42 of faith. Now, all that being said, remember those who are in prison. So again, I think what's being
00:44:46 said here is Christians in prison because Hebrews we've already seen this this concept in the letter
00:44:51 to the Hebrews is um you're suffering you're being persecuted right that's what he that's what the
00:44:56 the very previous chapter was all about Hebrews 12 was what it said don't don't grow weary right
00:45:03 when you're being disciplined by a father and remember it goes further it says um you have not
00:45:10 yet been persecuted to the point of shedding your blood okay well then what way have you been
00:45:14 persecuted. Well, not shedding your blood, not martyrs, not yet, but imprisoned. So the apostle
00:45:21 was writing to them saying, you guys are being persecuted. And one of the ways you're being
00:45:24 persecuted is you're being wrongfully imprisoned. So remember, remember those fellow Christians
00:45:31 who have been wrongfully imprisoned, care for them, love them, and remember them as though you
00:45:38 were in prison with them. Because what's the temptation? The temptation is this guy got caught
00:45:44 He's being wrongfully treated.
00:45:46 He's being wrongfully persecuted and imprisoned.
00:45:49 If anything, I want to distance myself from him
00:45:51 because I don't want that to happen to me.
00:45:54 But the apostle is saying, don't fear man.
00:45:57 Remember them.
00:45:58 Don't forget them.
00:45:59 Don't distance yourself from them
00:46:01 in the very moment where they have the most need.
00:46:03 But remember those who are in prison
00:46:05 as though you were in prison with them
00:46:07 and those who are mistreated
00:46:09 since you also are in the body.
00:46:13 The last thing is this.
00:46:15 There are two possibilities for that phrase, in the body.
00:46:20 One is the very thing that I've been teaching this whole time.
00:46:22 In the body, namely the body of Christ.
00:46:25 Treat them as though you're in prison with them.
00:46:28 Regard them as though it were you yourself.
00:46:30 Because you're not atomized, individualistic, autonomous beings.
00:46:35 You are a corporate body of Christ.
00:46:39 So love them, even though it's not you.
00:46:42 act as though it was you, as though you were right there in prison with them. Why? Because
00:46:45 even though you're an individual person, they're in prison, you're not, you're still part of one
00:46:51 body, since you too are in the body. If I had to bet, I'd bet on that one being the accurate
00:46:57 interpretation. But here's another plausible interpretation as well.
00:47:03 Care for those who are in prison, remember them as though you were in prison with them,
00:47:07 and those who are mistreated
00:47:08 since you also are in the body,
00:47:09 meaning since you are not currently
00:47:12 the church victorious,
00:47:15 the church triumphant.
00:47:17 You are still this side of heaven
00:47:20 in the physical body,
00:47:23 meaning you are still the church militant.
00:47:27 Church militant here,
00:47:28 church triumphant there.
00:47:30 And since you are still in the body,
00:47:32 meaning you have not yet
00:47:33 gone to be with the Lord,
00:47:34 you're still alive
00:47:36 in the physical body here on earth,
00:47:37 you're the church militant.
00:47:39 And the reason why you should remember
00:47:40 those who are being persecuted
00:47:42 is because you're still in the flesh
00:47:43 and you're not invulnerable.
00:47:46 And the very persecution that's happening to them,
00:47:48 it could easily happen to you.
00:47:51 And wouldn't you like to be remembered?
00:47:53 Because it could be you
00:47:54 and it might end up being you.
00:47:59 How do you want them to care for you?
00:48:01 Those are the two possible translations.
00:48:03 I said the last thing.
00:48:04 I got one more thing.
00:48:05 I forgot this.
00:48:05 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.
00:48:08 Here's the very last thing.
00:48:09 If you're not careful, you can read the first half of verse 2
00:48:12 as an immediate contradiction to everything that was said in verse 1.
00:48:19 Verse 1 is, continue not in universal love, but brotherly love.
00:48:24 Prioritizing the household of faith.
00:48:26 Verse 2 is, don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers.
00:48:31 See, you might say, well, Joel, I feel like the Bible
00:48:34 disagrees with you, brother, because you preached a lot of stuff on four words there in first verse
00:48:41 one. And I think it might be eisegesis because your whole point was that we should prioritize
00:48:47 love for fellow Christians. But the very next verse is that we should exercise hospitality
00:48:51 to not brothers, but strangers. Well, here's a little, a little, a little slap down from John
00:48:59 Gill. Okay. John Gill for anyone who would play that counter say, no, no, no, no. We don't need
00:49:04 to prioritize love for brothers. We should love everyone. In fact, we should bend over backwards
00:49:09 to love strangers and strangers means unbelievers. Those who are not brothers, those who that we 1.00
00:49:15 don't know who are unbelievers. John Gill would disagree with you. And he's right. This is what
00:49:20 he says. Strangers by whom are meant not unconverted men who are strangers to God and
00:49:26 Christ. It doesn't say, hey, don't neglect to show hospitality to those who are strangers to God,
00:49:33 those who are enemies of God, those who are unbelievers. No, it is not meant unconverted
00:49:38 men who are strangers to God in Christ and the covenants of promise, nor saints. It's also not
00:49:45 referring to saints in the sense that we are currently pilgrims and strangers in this world,
00:49:49 in the Christian life, but such as are of another country. What John Gill is saying,
00:49:56 and I believe that multiple other commentaries agree with him.
00:49:59 This is what he's saying.
00:50:00 The stranger in reference in Hebrews 13, 2
00:50:03 is not the unbeliever who's a stranger to Christ.
00:50:06 And it's not just any old believer
00:50:09 because we're all, in a sense, strangers in this world,
00:50:12 pilgrims in this world.
00:50:13 No, it's the stranger who is a brother
00:50:16 in falling with what was just said in verse 1,
00:50:19 brotherly love. 1.00
00:50:20 But they're a stranger in the sense that they're a foreigner. 1.00
00:50:23 They're from another land. 1.00
00:50:24 but such as are of another country and are unknown.
00:50:29 And even though wicked men, and this will upset some of you, right?
00:50:33 What? Foreigner? 1.00
00:50:35 The Bible's calling them wicked. 1.00
00:50:37 It's not politically correct.
00:50:40 Even though a wicked man, a Bible, it's John Gill, close to the Bible, but not yet.
00:50:46 And even though wicked men, right?
00:50:48 They're from an unknown country.
00:50:50 And even though wicked, they are not excluded. 0.97
00:50:53 though such as are obliged to quit their own country for righteousness sake are chiefly
00:51:00 designed. All right, let me stop there. This is what he's saying. When he says a wicked people,
00:51:07 foreigners from another country, wicked people. Keep in mind, this is John Gill. He is exegeting 0.96
00:51:13 a letter of the Bible written to who? Hebrews. So what he's saying is this. You guys, yeah,
00:51:19 you're Christians, but you're Hebrew Christians, which means you've spent your whole life,
00:51:23 multiple generations, your father, your grandfather, your great grandfather, that you guys are the
00:51:28 people of God and that you're the only people of God and that God made a covenant with you
00:51:33 exclusively and that nobody else is a part of it. And because of that, one, that's your mindset.
00:51:38 But two, there is some truth in that. And what's happened is all these other Gentile nations in 1.00
00:51:44 many ways, because they haven't been under the old covenant, because to them was not given the 0.70
00:51:49 law of Moses, to them was not given all these different things. A lot of these pagan nations 0.87
00:51:53 are just that, pagan. They're wicked. They're really wicked. And what ultimately is being said 1.00
00:52:00 is this, show hospitality to strangers, not meaning unbelievers, strangers to God, and not meaning just
00:52:06 any old Christian, because we're all strangers and pilgrims in this world, but strangers, meaning
00:52:10 this person is a brother, let brotherly love continue, but it's a brother from another land,
00:52:16 a foreign brother but a brother and they are forsaking yeah they're a gentile and yeah they
00:52:23 have pagan roots and all this they don't have the patriarchs the covenants the prophets all the rich 0.80
00:52:28 theological background that you have but listen they're leaving and forsaking their pagan country
00:52:33 to be a part of you this body they want christ so treat them like a christian brother they're a
00:52:42 stranger in the sense that you don't know them. You don't know their heritage. You don't know
00:52:47 their culture. But you should exercise hospitality. You should welcome them, again, because they are
00:52:54 a Christian. So the way that we fulfill verse 2 of our text is like this. And trust me, we have
00:53:01 lots of opportunities to fulfill it. We will continue. We have seen this. We will continue
00:53:06 to see this. And it's a wonderful thing. We will continue to see people come to our country
00:53:11 and come to this city in Texas from far off places.
00:53:18 Because as much tyranny as we have here, it's worse in other places. 0.99
00:53:23 And anybody who comes here, whether it be from New Zealand,
00:53:28 whether it be from Uganda, whether it be from Canada, wherever it may be,
00:53:33 anybody who comes here seeking a better place, a better refuge for their children,
00:53:40 and they come here as a brother, a Christian.
00:53:44 That's the very person that verse 2 of our text is saying
00:53:47 we should exercise hospitality towards.
00:53:50 It's not saying, hey, brotherly love, love Christians.
00:53:54 Oh, by the way, immediate contradiction, love strangers,
00:53:58 a.k.a. strangers to God, people who are not Christians.
00:54:01 No.
00:54:02 Brotherly love, not universal love, brotherly love,
00:54:05 prioritize in love the household of faith
00:54:08 and don't neglect in love,
00:54:13 showing hospitality to those
00:54:14 who are in the household of faith,
00:54:16 but from another place.
00:54:18 That's the stranger.
00:54:20 Okay, there we go.
00:54:21 Verse one and two and three.
00:54:23 Lord willing, we'll finish it next Lord's Day.
00:54:26 Let's pray.
00:54:26 Father God, we thank you for your word.
00:54:28 We pray that you would bless it to your people
00:54:29 and that as we seek to believe your word
00:54:32 and obey your word,
00:54:33 that you might be glorified in all the earth.
00:54:35 We praise these things in Jesus' name.
00:54:37 Amen.
00:54:38 And can I be frank with you for just a second, right here at the end?
00:54:41 Look, some of you guys, you're financially supporting this ministry, and from the bottom
00:54:45 of my heart, I say thank you.
00:54:48 I cannot thank you enough.
00:54:50 However, some of you, you just, you can't afford it.
00:54:54 In fact, some of you, you shouldn't afford it.
00:54:57 Let's be honest. 0.91
00:54:58 I mean, we're living in Joe Biden's ridiculous economy. 0.78
00:55:02 Our nation and our totalitarian political elites lost their minds over the last three years due to COVID.
00:55:12 We have written checks that we simply cannot cash.
00:55:16 It doesn't matter if people change the definition of a recession.
00:55:20 We are living in a recession right now regardless.
00:55:24 Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of eggs at the grocery store.
00:55:28 You cannot support financially this ministry at this time, nor should you, but you could still
00:55:36 help us tremendously. I am asking you, please, if you're willing to do so, take one minute of your
00:55:43 time. Leave us a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform, iTunes, Spotify, whatever that
00:55:50 might be. This is the way the system works. We want to be innocent as doves, but shrewd as vipers.
00:55:57 We need to be strategic.
00:55:59 You leave us a five-star review, and our podcast shows up for more people.
00:56:04 And the Word of God and courageous theology applied in practical ways to every realm of
00:56:11 life gets out there.
00:56:13 Help us get it out there.
00:56:14 Thanks for tuning in.