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Voddie Baucham - A night with Dr. Voddie Baucham · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 1:03
  Speaker 1: When peace shall.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Over all the earth Its ancient splendor spread The whole
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: world give back the song which now the angels sing.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: There we go. Okay.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: Hey, welcome to Quarkish Fellowship. Great to be able to
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: host this character that I know you're here because you've
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: seen him on YouTube and stuff like that. Now you
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: get to hear him in person. And we're real stoked
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: to have Bodhi here. And we're not going to do
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: any preliminaries tonight. There's not going to be any music,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: dancing girls, anything else. It's straight to Bodhi. So let's
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: give it up for Bodhi, all right, as he comes.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Can I get a music stand or something to put there?
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: It's mechanical, so I don't know what to do.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: I know, right?
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Oh, really? Okay. No, I'd be broken. We'll let the
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: professionals do it, okay? Nice. Nice. Thank you, thank you.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Well, good evening. Aloha. It is good to
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: be here. I brought along a few of the members
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: of my crew. So that's Amos over there on the end.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: And Safia. And Elijah. Thank you. They're the ones who...
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Came along with Dad tonight. We have been in Hawaii
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: since last Tuesday, I think, if I'm not mistaken. It's
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: all running together. And we were on Oahu, and then
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: we came here on Monday. And so we're almost past
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: that jet lag that we've been dealing with. It's a
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: nice 12-hour time difference. And the trip over here was interesting.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: From Lusaka to Doha was a seven-hour flight. And then
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: we had a couple hours in Doha. And then from
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Doha to DFW was a 16-hour flight. And then from DFW,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: when we got there, we decided we'd spend the night
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: and then got up the next morning to do an
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: eight-hour flight to Honolulu. So yeah, between all of that
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: and the 12-hour time difference, our first several days, we
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: didn't know which way was up. But now we're sleeping
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: on the right clock, so that's good. Tonight, it's always interesting,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: we have one opportunity with a group of folks, and
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: that's my situation with you here this evening. And If
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: I have one opportunity, there's so many things that I
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: would like to do. And there's a passage of scripture
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: that's going to allow me to do a lot of
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: those things that I would love to do. One of
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the things that I'm always keen to do is to
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: help people understand and appreciate the scriptures. Amen? I think
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: that's incredibly important for us. to be able to understand
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: and appreciate the scriptures. But I also want to give
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: you some tools so that you can understand and appreciate
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: the scriptures on your own. The other thing is, I
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: want you to see the glorious good news that is
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: ours in Christ. Amen? And so, in order to help
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: you through all of those things, I want to turn
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: you to a familiar passage of scripture. love to do this.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: I love to go to familiar passages of scripture and
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: help people to look at them in fresh ways. Not
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: by being inventive or creative or anything like that, but
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: just by being observant. When it comes to understanding the Bible,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: one of the most important things for us to do
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: is to observe. And One of the hardest things for
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: us to do is to be observant when things are familiar.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: When they're familiar, we tend to fill in the blanks. Right?
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: You know, one of the things I do, I've written
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: a number of books. And my favorite quote about writing
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: is a particular author. It's been attributed to a number
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: of people, but I don't know who it was. It
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: doesn't matter. They asked him if he if he enjoyed writing.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: And his response was, I enjoy having written. And I
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: resemble that remark, right? The writing process. But one of
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: the most interesting aspects of the writing process is your
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: final edits. When everything has been done and they send
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: you the galleys and you have to read through the
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: galleys to make sure that everything's okay. And one of
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: the things that you do at that point is you
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: have several people reading through the galleys. You don't just
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: let the author read through the galleys himself because what
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: the author will always do. is read what's supposed to
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: be there right so it's always a couple of different
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: editors and this is after the editorial process even this
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: is when everything is you know printed about to go
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: to the printer you do your last looks and everything
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: by this time you've been over the manuscript so much
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: that as the author You are going to see what's
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: supposed to be there. And sometimes that's what we do
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: when we read the Bible, right? We see what we
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: think is supposed to be there. What we've always known
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: has been there. Another obstacle that we have is we
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: tend to read the Bible like you read your yearbook.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: And when you get your yearbook, what do you do?
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: immediately you go to the index and find the pages
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: that you're on. Don't act like that's not what you did.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: That's always what you do. You get your yearbook, you
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: find out what the pages are, you know, what pages
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: are mine, what pages are my friends on. You don't
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: just go, oh, page one, right? Let's read, no, I
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: want to see me. Oftentimes we read the Bible like
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: that as well. I want to see me. The difference is,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: that there are very few pictures of you in here.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: So what we tend to do is we tend to
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: read the stories in the Bible, find the heroes, and
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: put ourselves in the place of the hero. And oftentimes,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: that causes us to miss the message in the text.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: So we read without being observant because we're filling in
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: the blanks. We read as narcissists who are looking for
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: ourselves as the main character in the story. And the
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: end result is we often miss much of what's there.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Nowhere is that truer than in what is commonly known
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: as the parable of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: It's a perfect storm where all of these things come together.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: We read the story. We know the story. We read
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: what's supposed to be there. We don't pay attention to
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: the context. And we make ourselves the hero so that
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: the story of the prodigal son at the end of
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: the day is all about how much God loves me.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: How much my God loves me and runs to me
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: To embrace me. Because after all, in this story, I
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: am the redeemed prodigal. Right? Not so much. If that's
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: the way you read the story of the prodigal son,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: you've missed the point. But it's okay. You're not alone.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Most people miss the point in the story of the prodigal.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: It's really not the story of the prodigal. But I'll
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: explain that later. First of all, in order to understand
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: this story, we have to put it in its proper context.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: And here's where we do a little bit of that,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: giving you some tools to be able to interpret the Bible.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: In order to do that, we have to back up.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: And we have to back up pretty far. We have
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: to back up at least to Luke 15.1. So if
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: you have your Bibles with you, Usually we start in
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: verse 11, but that's a mistake. We don't want to
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: start in verse 11. Go back to verse 1. But
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: even before you get to verse 1, I'm going to
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: take you all the way back to the previous chapter
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: so that you can understand the significance of verse 1.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Go to 14.1. Go to 14.1. I'm sure that's what
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: we all do, right? When we read this familiar parable,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: we all back up all the way to chapter 14,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: verse 1, so that we can, yeah, all of us,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: young lady over here is like, that's what I do.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: So watch what happens. Luke 14, 1. One Sabbath, when
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: he went to dine at the house of a ruler
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: of the Pharisees, They were watching him carefully. So Jesus
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: is dining at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: and he's being watched carefully. Right? This is, this is,
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: this is, okay. Now go to verse 7. Now he
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: told a parable to those who were invited. Those who
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: were invited where? To the home of this ruler of
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: the Pharisees for this meal. Go to verse 12. He
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  Speaker 2: said also to the man who had invited him. So
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: now he's addressing specifically the man who had invited him.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Now look at verse 15. This is critical. When one
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  Speaker 2: of those who reclined at table with him heard these things,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: he said to him, blessed is everyone who will eat
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: bread in the kingdom of God. Blessed is everyone who
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: will eat bread in the kingdom of God. Just take that,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: fold it up, put it in your pocket. Hold on
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: to it, okay? These are Pharisees, leaders of the Pharisees, right?
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: They're reclining at table together, and one of them hears
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: these parables that Jesus is speaking, and as a result
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  Speaker 2: of it, he says, blessed is everyone who will eat
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  Speaker 2: bread in the kingdom of God. And we all hear that,
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  Speaker 2: and we say, amen. Now, verse 25. Now great crowds
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  Speaker 2: accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, Now
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  Speaker 2: we're no longer in the home of the leader of
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  Speaker 2: the Pharisees. Now we're no longer reclining at table at
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  Speaker 2: the home of this powerful and important man. Now Jesus
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  Speaker 2: is addressing the masses. Okay? So, So far, so good, right?
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  Speaker 2: Now go to 15.1. Now go to 15.1. Now the
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  Speaker 2: tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him.
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  Speaker 2: And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, this man
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  Speaker 2: receives sinners and eats with them. There's the umbrella under
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  Speaker 2: which everything that we're about to read resides. That's the
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  Speaker 2: key to this whole thing. 15.1. You can't understand the
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  Speaker 2: parable as the parable we know as the parable of
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  Speaker 2: the prodigal son. I'm going to argue that that's the
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  Speaker 2: wrong title for the parable. Because this parable is not
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  Speaker 2: about the prodigal son. But that's the key to it.
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  Speaker 2: Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him
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  Speaker 2: and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying This man
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  Speaker 2: receives sinners and eats with them. That's what Jesus is
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: responding to. That's who Jesus is responding to. He's responding
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: to the Pharisees who are upset because tax collectors and
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  Speaker 2: sinners are coming to him and hearing him. Verse 3. So,
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: because this was what was going on, so he told
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  Speaker 2: them this parable. What follows is three parables that must
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: be taken together in order to be understood. These three
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: parables are really all one parable. They all communicate the
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  Speaker 2: same message and they all get to the same point.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: And his audience is the Pharisees who were upset because
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: tax collectors and sinners are coming to him. Now, remember
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: back in chapter 14, verse 15, one of those who
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: reclined at table with him heard these things. He said
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: to him, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in
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  Speaker 2: the kingdom of God. Now, chapter 15, verse 1, they're
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: upset because the wrong people are coming to eat bread
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: in the kingdom of God. You with me? So, he
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: doesn't just turn to them and rebuke them. He turns
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  Speaker 2: to them and like a good rabbi, he gives them
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: a three-fold story. Right? Aristotle's not the only one who
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: understood the power of three or the rule of three. Right?
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: He gives them a three-fold story. He gives them three
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: parables that build on one another And he sucks them in,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: and it's masterful. So, total in this parable. What man
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: open country and go after the one that is lost
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: until he finds it? And when he has found it,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: my sheep that was lost. Now, in order for this,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: in order to get this, you have to like imagine
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: with me the Pharisees who have no idea what's about
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  Speaker 2: to happen. They're upset with him. He turns to them.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: He doesn't rebuke them. He just starts telling stories. And
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: he tells stories to these people, many of whom would
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: have been shepherds, right? Who would have had their own
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: flocks of sheep. A hundred sheep. One of them's lost.
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  Speaker 2: What do you do? You leave the 99 and you
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: go find that one. You've lost 1% of your sheep.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: What do you do if you lose 1% of your sheep?
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: You go find that 1% of your sheep. And when
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: you find that 1% of your sheep, You rejoice, and
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: you call others to rejoice with you. So at this point,
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: the Pharisees would be nodding. Yep, I get that. We
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: got some sheep. My family got some sheep. Sheep know
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  Speaker 2: how to do anything. They know how to wander off.
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  Speaker 2: You can deal with sheep. You got to go get sheep.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: You bring your sheep. Yes, I understand. If you only
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: got 100 sheep and you lose one of those sheep, yes,
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: you go get that sheep. Right. Right. Just so I
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: tell you that there will be more joy in heaven
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: who need no repentance. He's made his point, right? He's
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: not done. Verse 8. Or what woman having 10 silver coins.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: So we go from 100 sheep to 10 silver coins.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: If she loses one coin, by the way, these 10
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: silver coins, you've got to understand, think about these as
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: not in terms of like the coins that we carry around, right?
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: But think of these in terms of like Bitcoin. Everybody's
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: talking about Bitcoin now, right? One Bitcoin is now worth $ 101, 000.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: One Bitcoin. One Bitcoin, okay?
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: $ 101, 000. So don't think that this woman lost a quarter.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Think she lost a Bitcoin. What woman having 10 silver coins,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? Again,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: his audience is like, yes, absolutely.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: You know, if I had a, yes, I would turn
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: everything over in order to find that coin. Verse 9,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: and when she has found it, she calls together her
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with me, for I have
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: found the coin that I had lost. Same phrase as
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: in the first story. This is a rabbi using repetition
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: to make a point. 100 sheep. You lose one. You
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: lose 1% of your sheep. What do you do? You
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: go find it. When you find it, what do you do?
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: You rejoice and you call your friends to rejoice with you.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: 10 coins. This is all your wealth. You lose 10%
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: of your wealth. What do you do? You go find it.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: When you find it, you rejoice. And you call everyone
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: to rejoice with you. Verse 10. Just so I tell you,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: there is joy before the angels of God over one
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: sinner who repents. Same pattern. Third story. And he said. Right?
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Remember I told you you have to read these three together?
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: That phrase in verse 11 makes that clear. And he said.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: The Bible was not written with chapters and verses. The
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Bible was not intended to be delivered as though, you know,
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Luke gave us this much of, you know, his gospel,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: and then he gave us this much of his gospel,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: and he gave us, no. These were meant to be
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: read in one sitting. Now, it's difficult for us to
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: do that, right? But in order to understand something, The scriptures, rightly,
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: you have to understand them more broadly than just a
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: single verse or even a single story. It's great for
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: us to focus in on the lost sheep, right? We
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: love that, and it's great. Lost sheep, wonderful. But the
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: lost sheep is one of three parables that's meant to
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: be understood together. A hundred sheep. You lose one, you
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: go find it. Ten coins. You lose one, you go
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: find it. And when you find it, you rejoice and
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: you call others to rejoice with you. And in both instances,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Jesus says that pales in comparison to the celebration and
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: rejoicing in heaven over one lost sinner who repents. Now
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: he gets to the final story. And he said, there
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: was a man who had two sons, 100 sheep, 10 coins,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: two sons. You lose 1% of your sheep, what do
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: you do? Go find it, rejoice, celebrate with your friends.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: You lose 10% of your wealth, what do you do?
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: You find it, you rejoice. You invite your friends. So
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: what do you do if you lose 50% of your sons?
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: There was a man who had two sons. By the way,
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: he's going to milk this point. And you see it
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: in the description of the son who's about to be lost.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: The younger of them said to his father, Father, give
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: me the share of property that is coming to me.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: And he divided his property between them. By the way,
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: the property is coming to him when his father dies. Dad,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: when you die, I'm going to get a percentage of
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: your wealth. If you don't mind, I'd like to have
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: it now. This is an ungrateful son. This is an
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: impatient son. This is a selfish son. Not just one
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: of your two sons, but the one of your two
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: sons is ungrateful and impatient. Not many days later, the
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: younger son gathered all he had and took a journey
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: into a far country. This ungrateful son now leaves the
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: land of promise. And he leaves his father's house. He's
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: an unfaithful son. And there he squandered his property and
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: reckless living. And when he had spent everything, by the way,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: he's an irresponsible son. He's ungrateful. He's impatient. He's unfaithful.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: He's irresponsible. When he had spent everything, a severe famine
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: arose in that country and he began to be in need.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Now he's under the judgment of God. Famine in the
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: scriptures always points to God's judgment. So he went and
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Who sent him into the field to feed pigs. Now
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: he's ceremonially unclean. This little Jewish boy. Who's left his
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: father's house. Who's left the promised land. Who's now left
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: his faith. And he's ceremonially unclean. Feeding pigs. Because he's
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: under the judgment of God. And he was longing to
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. And
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: no one gave him anything. This is different than the
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: other stories. right because you have a hundred sheep you
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: lose one of your sheep you value your sheep you
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: lose one of your coins you value your coins but
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: coins are not sinners sheeps are not sinners but in
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: heaven they rejoice over the redemption of sinners You lose
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: one of your sons, and the son that you lose
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: is a sinner. He couldn't have made that point any clearer.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: By the way, your son who's a sinner is still
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: your son. Amen? But when he came to himself, I
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: love that phrase. When he came to himself, he said,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: how many of my father's hired servants have more than
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I will
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: arise and go to my father. And I will say
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Treat me as one of your hired servants. In other words,
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: he repents. He is a sinner. First two stories end
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: with what? Great rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: And then he tells a story that makes it clear
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: that the one son who's lost is a sinner who
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: now repents. In the first story, Lose it, find it, celebrate,
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: rejoice with your friends. Second story, lose it, find it, celebrate,
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: rejoice with your friends. Third story, lose it, find it,
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: let's see. And he arose and came to his father.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: But while he was still a long way off, his
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: him and kissed him. And his son said to him, Father,
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: no longer worthy to be called your son. Verse 22.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: best robe and put it on him. And put a
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: bring the fatted calf and kill it. And let us
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: eat and celebrate, for this my son was dead and
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: is alive again. He was lost and is found. And
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: they began to celebrate. So far, so good. Right? Same
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: pattern as the rest of the story. And then, verse 25.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Now the older son was in the field. By the way,
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: why did he tell the parables? Because the Pharisees were
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: upset because tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: and he was receiving them and he was eating with them.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: They're upset. He turns to them. He doesn't rebuke them.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: By the way, the audience of this story is the Pharisees.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: That's the audience. So the point of this story is
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: directed at the Pharisees. The message that he's trying to teach,
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: he's trying to teach to the Pharisees. And all along,
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: they would have been nodding their heads. Lost sheep. Find
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: the sheep. What do you do? You celebrate. You call
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: your friends. They celebrate with you. Yep, absolutely. Lost coin.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: What do you do? You find it. When you find it,
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: you celebrate. You call your friends. They come. They celebrate
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: with you. Lost son who was a sinner who repents.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: You find him. And what do you do? You rejoice
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: even more than the guy who found his sheep. You
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: rejoice even more than the woman who found her coin.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: You get robes and rings and fatted calves and you
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: call everybody together and you celebrate because this is not
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: a sheep. This is not a coin. This is your boy.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: This is your son. Now his older son was in
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: the field and as he came and drew near to
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: And he said to him, your brother has come and
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: your father has killed the fatted calf because he has
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: received him back safe and sound. But he was angry
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: and refused to go in. His father came out and
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: entreated him. But he answered his father, look, these many
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: years I have served you and I never disobeyed your command,
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: yet you never gave me a young goat that I
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: killed the fattened calf for him. Wrong answer. By the way,
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: he doesn't even have to make the point here. Because
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: the Pharisees who are following along with these parables know
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: exactly what he's saying. And he's saying, in case you're
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: wondering who you are in the story, that's you. You
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: are not the prodigal. This story is absolutely about you.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: But you are not the prodigal. You are not the
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: one the father runs to receive. You are the one
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: who can't even celebrate when your father's lost son comes home.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: That's you right now. Because that's who these people are.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: That's you right now. Because you said when I was
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: with you, when I was reclining at table with you,
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: when I was telling you parables, you were saying, blessed
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: is everyone who eats this in the kingdom of God.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: What a wonderful message this is. What a wonderful messenger
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: you are. But as soon as people you disapprove of
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: began to hear the message, you forgot God. You forgot.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: And instead of rejoicing because tax collectors and sinners were
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: coming to the kingdom, you became embittered. Jesus did not
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: tell this story so that we could be warmed and
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: filled by the idea that we are the prodigal son.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: Jesus told this story So that we can be rebuked
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: and warned because we are the elder brother. The message
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: of this parable is not God loves you so much
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: he runs to receive you. The message of this parable
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: is you are so blinded. You are so selfish. You
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: are so spoiled. that you don't even recognize that at
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: the end of the day, you're the lost son. The
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: other one's found. At the end of the day, the
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: elder brother is the lost son. Verse 30, or I'm sorry, verse... 31.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: And he said to him, son, you are always with me.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: And all that is mine is yours. It was fitting
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: to celebrate and be glad. For this your brother was
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: So what is this elder brother syndrome? First of all,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: the elder brother doesn't love what his father loves. He
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: doesn't love what his father loves. And because of that,
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: he can't rejoice when his father rejoices. His father loves
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: his son. And if the other brother really loved the father,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: he would love what his father loved. And he would
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: rejoice when his father rejoices. And there is a tendency
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: in every one of us to fail to love what
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: our father loves. And to fail to rejoice over what
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: our father rejoices over. It is a danger we all
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: face because we're narcissists who see ourselves at the center
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: of everything God does. We find it difficult, even impossible,
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: to look beyond ourselves and to celebrate what God is
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: doing in his kingdom and for his glory unless we
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: are at the center of it. That's elder brother syndrome.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: The second piece of elder brother syndrome is we fail
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: to appreciate the blessings that we have. We fail to
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: appreciate the blessings that we have. I can't believe this. You.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: You never give me anything to kill and eat with
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: my friends. And then this, this, this, your loser sinner
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: son comes home and you kill the fatted calf. By
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: the way, this boy was probably gone for years. And
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: in all those years, the elder brother never missed a meal.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: In all those years, I'm sure he consumed a lot
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: more than one fattened calf. In all those years, not
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: only did he have everything that was the father's, not
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: only did he live in his father's presence and experience
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: his father's blessing for all those years, but he still
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: had access to it. But he couldn't appreciate that. All
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: he could see is what somebody else was getting. All
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: he could see is what he didn't have. It's kind
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: of like Adam in the garden Right? When he says
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: don't eat from that tree, you know one way you
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: could respond to that? Wait. Wait, let me see if
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: I understand this. Like all these trees, all these trees,
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: I just go for it. Yep. And that one right
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: there is like the only one. Yep. God, you are
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: good Elder brother syndrome. Can't believe you won't let me
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: eat from that tree. He doesn't love the father. So
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, the father's not enough.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: And nothing the father gives will ever be enough. There
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: will always be the desire for more. There's the final
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: piece of this elder brother syndrome. And the final piece
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: of this elder brother syndrome is what we've already alluded to.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: He ends up being the lost son. He was alienated
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: from his father the whole time. His brother was just
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: open and honest about his alienation and eventually came to
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: repentance and ran home. The older brother had the exact
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: same attitudes He just expressed it in a different way.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: The younger brother said, you owe me. And I want
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: it now. The older brother says, you owe me. And
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: I want it all. And the sad reality is he's
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: the one who ends up in alienation. And that's what
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: Jesus is saying primarily to the Pharisees, but by extension
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: to all those who read this parable. Watch yourself. Lest
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: you become the elder brother. Watch yourself. lest you miss
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: the blessing that God has for you. And the great
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: irony is that Christ himself is the fattened calf who's
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: going to be slain on behalf of sinners who would repent.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: Christ himself is the one who has come to redeem
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: Those lost sheep. Christ himself is the one who has
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: come to redeem those lost sons. And lay down his
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: life in order to do so. You know John MacArthur
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: in one of his writings on this parable said that,
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: you know, if you follow it through, if you sort
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: of extend this parable and look at the fact that
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: the Pharisees are the ones who are at issue here,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: if you extend the story just a little bit, then
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: eventually what happens is the elder brother kills his father.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: Because eventually, that's exactly what the Pharisees do. The Son
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: of God comes to them, bringing not just the message
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: of their redemption, but the means of their redemption. And
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: at the end of it all, their response is, crucify him.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: But here's the good news. For you and for me,
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: the end of the story has not been written yet.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: Even if you and I find ourselves as the elder brother,
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: even if tonight you recognize this elder brother syndrome in you,
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: even if tonight you recognize yourself as one who is
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: ungrateful if you recognize yourself as one who does not
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: rejoice with God over what he rejoices. If you find
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: yourself as one who scoffs at God's good gifts and
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: instead just pays all your attention and all of your
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: energy to the things that you want but don't have,
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: as opposed to the blessing that is God himself. Even
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: if you're the one who can't get yourself out of
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: the center of every picture, the good news is you
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: can still come to your senses. You can still turn
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: from your sin. You can still run to your Father.
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: And your Father will still receive you gladly. And there
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: will be great rejoicing in heaven. And you might say, well,
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: that sounds good, but you don't know what I've done.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: That's one of the things I love about this parable.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: Is that when Jesus paints the picture of the son
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: as a sinner, he goes all out. Right? You don't
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: know what I've done. No, I don't know what you've done.
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: But it's probably something like being impatient and ungrateful and unfaithful.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: and irresponsible under the judgment of God unclean it just
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: about covers it doesn't it amen But here's the good news.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: Whatever you've done, it's not bigger than a dead Jesus.
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: The blood of Christ is sufficient. He can redeem even you.
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: Even now. Let's pray. Gracious God, our Heavenly Father, the
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bow
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: before you tonight and humble adoration as we contemplate your
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: goodness and your mercy and your kindness toward us. Thank
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: you for warning us tonight of that elder brother syndrome
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: that tends to lurk in each one of us. Pray, Father,
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: that by your grace, as we see that in ourselves,
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: we might repent of it and flee from it. But
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: we also thank you for reminding us tonight that you
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: are a gracious God who saves sinners. And that includes
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: any of us who come to you in repentance and faith,
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: turning from our sin and turning to you. And thank
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: you for reminding us tonight of the great privilege that
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: is ours of rejoicing with you over the redemption of sinners.
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: Grant by your grace that we might never grow weary
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: of celebrating when Christ indeed receives the fullness of the
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: reward for which he died. This is our prayer. And
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: this is the earnest desire of our hearts. We pray
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: these things and ask these things in Christ's name and
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: for his sake. Amen.
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: The vote is going to take a few minutes for
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: Q & A. This is your chance to ask him
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: everything you've always wanted to ask him.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: And again, this is just, you know, I'm here just
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: one night, you know, come all this way. I figure
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: we could spend at least some time just informally answering
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: your questions. Yes, sir. that's not a question. You want
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: my thoughts on something? We'll be here all night. I
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: need a question. Would I recommend putting your kids in
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: private Christian school? Sure. Yeah.
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: Listen, we're obligated to give our children a Christian education.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: And we're obligated to do that the best way we can.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: And so, yeah, I think all of us have to
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: figure out what it is that we can do, right?
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: What the best thing is that we can do for
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: our children. And that's not the same for all of us.
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: All of us have an obligation to give our children
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: a Christian education and to do that the best way
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: available to us. Back there and then up here. Yeah,
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: it's a great question. There's a couple of things that
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: we can do when we recognize that the scriptures have
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: become very familiar to us. One of the things is,
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: for me, reading the Bible through each year, having a
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: reading plan, right, where we're reading the Bible, reading from
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: different areas of the Bible. I like the McShane plan
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: you read four different sort of readings each day or
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: whatever I find that when I do that I'm always
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: seeing stuff that you know that I hadn't seen or
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: hadn't remembered or haven't thought of in a while especially
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: because you're reading all in the bible does regeneration precede
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: faith yes Yeah. The question is about what God used
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: to bring me to faith. And if that happened to
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: me as a young child. No. I never heard the
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: gospel until my first year in university. I was raised
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: by a single teenage Buddhist mother in South Central Los Angeles, California.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: I didn't grow up going to church. I didn't grow
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: up around Christianity or Christians. And so it was it
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: was a guy on my campus who was on staff
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: at a ministry there on campus who shared the gospel
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: with me, who spent several weeks with me talking to
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: me about the things of God and sharing with me
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: the message of the gospel from the scriptures. But yeah, no,
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: definitely not as a child. Yeah. Have I ever gone
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: through seasons of doubt, dark nights of the soul? Yes. Yeah,
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: most assuredly. I don't think any of us are exempt
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: from that. What I've learned is that some people experience
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: it to differing degrees and with differing degrees of frequency
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: as well. But yeah, that There have definitely been those times.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: I think about, for example, when we first moved to
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: Zambia a decade ago. That first six months was rough, man.
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: It was rough. And there were many a day when
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: we all just wondered, boy, did we make a mistake here? Yeah. And,
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: you know, in those times, just like at others, the
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: ordinary means of grace become extremely important, you know. Being
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: under the ministry of the word, staying close to the
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: people of God, staying close to the ministry of the
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: local church, staying close to brothers and sisters in Christ,
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: being reminded of those things that are true over and
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: over and over again being involved in those things that
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: lift us beyond our circumstances. Those are things that are
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: incredibly important, regardless of how deep the rut, how long
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: it lasts, or how often it comes. The question is,
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: what were we doing there? We went to Zambia to
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: help start a university there 10 years ago. the African
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: Christian University, the classical Christian liberal arts university there. It
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: started by the Reformed Baptist Church Association of Zambia. So
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: I went to partner with them and start that school. Yeah.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: It's ongoing. I don't have a life verse. No, I
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: don't have a life verse. I've had so many favorite
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: verses at different times in my life. But I don't,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: to me, picking a favorite verse is like picking a
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: favorite kid. You know, I got nine of them, you know,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: so I can't, you know. And yeah, but what I
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: find too is, For me, it's not even like verses,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: but at certain times, certain books of the Bible just
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: become so dear to me, you know? And right now,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy's just been so dear to me.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: At other times, it's been other, you know.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: Books or whatever, but yeah.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: Can I ask how your health is? How can you
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: pray for me? Yeah, my health. My health is good.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: You're probably referring to, you know, several years ago, I
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: ended up having to be rushed back here. I was
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: in heart failure and ended up at a Mayo Clinic
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: in Florida and having a number of heart procedures culminating
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: in open heart surgery and a quadruple bypass. So, yeah,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: I've got this nice little reminder that stays with me here.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: But the Lord was gracious, and I've been going back.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: At first, I went back every six months, and now
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: I'm going back, you know, every year, and my heart
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: is doing incredibly well. So, yeah, it's good. In fact,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: I will be there in January for another follow-up. which,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: Lord willing, will be the last of the sort of
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: once-a-year follow-ups since everything is kind of fixed and normalized
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: in terms of my heart.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: So it's good.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: And then we'll go back there. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: It's a great question. How do we balance and deal
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: with technology in our homes Our kids don't get phones.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: One of our kids has a phone at home. They
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: don't get them unless and until they need them. They
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: don't have unfettered access to computers and things like that. Yeah,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: we use accountability software on all of our devices and
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: things like that as well because Boy, that's just, yeah. Yeah,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: that's tough. So we're not Luddites. You know, we don't
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: eschew all technology. We're big technology people. You know, I'm
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: using my iPad here tonight. But we are very cautious
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: and very purposeful in the ways that we employ technology
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: and to the ways and the seasons at which we,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: you know, give that to our children. Of course, our
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: older kids, you know, they've grown and married and got,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: you know, grandkids, and they're dealing with that, you know,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: with theirs or whatever, but there's a number of them
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: still at home. So, yes, you hear in the red,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: and then back here, yes. how would I describe the
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 2: difference between the church in Zambia and American? So one
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: of the things, and I'm not being coy, but one
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: of the things that has changed for me over the
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: last decade is I don't talk in those terms. You know, even,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: and there's a couple of things that have sort of
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: done that for me. I recognize that as Americans living abroad,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: people are always asking what it's like in America. So,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's 50 states here, right? This one is
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: the most isolated landmass on earth. It's nothing like Texas.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: So when people say, what's America like? You're talking about
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: Hawaii or New York or Florida or Kansas? And so
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: having to answer that for people all the time And
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: then vice versa, when we come here and people ask
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: us about Africa, right, like it's a city, there's 55
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: countries in Africa, right? And just so incredibly diverse, you
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: can't answer, you know, that question. And so just me
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: having to deal with that so much, either when I
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: would be back here or when I would be over there,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: just sort of opened my eyes to the fact that
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: I had gotten used to talking about the church in America.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: And there's no such thing. I mean, church here on
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: Kauai is way different than church in Mississippi. And I
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: think we do a disservice when we try to explain
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: all of that with this whole idea of the church
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: in America, right? Same thing in Zambia. culturally, there are
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: some things that are very different in America, Western world,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: versus particularly Zambian culture. You know, Zambian culture tends to
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: be more tribal. Zambian culture tends to be more bureaucratic.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: It tends to be more... informal, you know, things of
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: that nature. I think one of the things that we
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: see a lot of in Zambian culture and in a
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: lot of sub-Saharan Africa is the rampant and rapid growth
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: of cults and even within Christianity, the most fringe Theological movements,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: especially stuff like word of faith, theology and stuff like that,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: you know, that's really huge. Another thing that I just became,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: you know, keenly aware of is, you know, arguably the
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: most persecuted Christians ever. Among the most persecuted Christians ever
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: in church history are Christians modern-day Nigerians. And living here,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: I was unaware of that. Living there, where you hear
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: constantly about, you know, Christians being martyred in Nigeria all
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: the time because of the Muslims in the north of
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: that country. You know, school children being taken into slavery
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: by the Muslims in northern parts of Nigeria. I was
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: not aware of that. Christians in America talk about being
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: persecuted because the media doesn't like us. Christians in Nigeria
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: talk about being persecuted because people will come to their
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: church service with AK-47s and mow them down. So that
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: was something that just a really stark difference. Another stark
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: difference is the level of access that we have to
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: theological training and education and um theologically trained people in
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: the ministry um it's just just something we just take
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 2: for granted you know um so i mean those are
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: some some really stark differences that begin to like stand
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: out for us, you know? Um, so yes, back there
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: and then up here. Yes. Yes. Um, I'm a, I'm
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: a pastor teacher. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: I like how you just answered your own questions. Right?
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: He's asking me, how do I balance, you know, nine
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: kids and, you know, ministry needs and financial needs. And
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: he's talking about, you know, spinning plates. And I'm like, yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: That's what it is. It's spinning plates. There's never an equilibrium, right?
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: And if you ever feel like you're at equilibrium... You're
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: not doing something right, you know? Or you're not seeing something.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: Somebody's going under the radar, right? But it is. I mean,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: it is a constant balancing act. And the other thing is, like,
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: our family goes through different things. One of the reasons
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: that we're moving back now is that at this season,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 2: our family needs to be back here. for a number
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: of reasons. And so there's a shift in equilibrium. So
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: what I find important is to just always have priorities
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 2: when it comes to the spinning plates. And for me,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: that always starts with my family. And the reason that
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: it always starts there is because that is the foundation
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: of my qualification for my ministry. If I fail in
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: my family, I'm disqualified for my ministry. So that always
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: has to be the priority, right? And then it's the
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: ways that I minister beyond and outside of, you know,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: my family, my household, and then other things, you know,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: after that. So as I'm spinning those plates, I just
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: try to remember that what the priorities are in terms
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: of their rank, right?
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: And then we'll go over here. I see somebody over here. Yes,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 2: you back there in the back. You're next. Yes. So, okay. So, okay.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: So here's the thing. We decided to have a little fun.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: I don't, People get onto me all the time because
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: I don't do social media. I use social media to
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: let people know about events, right? But I'm not, you know,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 2: people are always complaining. Why don't you do this? Why
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 2: don't you do that? Spinning plates, right? But what we
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: decided to do was just sort of have a little
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: fun as we were coming back. And there's this game
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: that we're doing on social media where there's 10 states
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 2: and we're eliminating, you know, one a week. until we
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: kind of announced where we're going. And she's asking what
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: it would take to get Hawaii onto that list. So unfortunately,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: the list is settled. And Hawaii was not one of
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: the 10 on that list. But in all honesty, we're
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: 90% certain where we're going. That decision's kind of already
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: been made, but there's really one more thing that I'm
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: in the midst of discussions about that is a remote possibility,
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: but it's still a possibility. No, not who has the
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: best jiu-jitsu, although that's on the list as well, right?
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: But yeah, no, that's... Yeah, it's interesting. It's so much
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: fun for us. And I had no idea that people
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: would respond the way that they have. But if it
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 2: was just us going, where would we just love to
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 2: wake up every morning? It'd be right here. Yeah, it'd
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 2: be right here. I've told people often, you know, we
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: haven't been to Hawaii in a long time. But Bridget
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: and I came here for the first time you know, 20,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 2: 25 years ago. I don't know how long ago. And
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 2: like everybody, you know, we went to Honolulu. And so
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: two or three times we went to Honolulu, and we
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 2: experienced all that stuff. And then somebody said, man, you
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 2: guys need to go to Maui. And so we went
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 2: to Maui. And then we were like, man, we'll never
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: go to Honolulu again. Forget Oahu. Why didn't they tell
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: us about this place, you know? So we went to
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: Maui a couple times, and somebody said, you need to
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 2: go to Kauai. And we were like, I don't know, man.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 2: We've got this Maui thing, but, you know, we'll go
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: over there. And then we came here, and we were like,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: I'm done. This is the place. So then after that,
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: people were like, well, you know, you haven't been to
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: the Big Island. You've got to go to the Big Island.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: So we went to the Big Island, and we went
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 2: to the Big Island. It was like, oh, yeah, this
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 2: is great. When can we go back to Kauai? But, no,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: we absolutely love it here. You know, we love waking
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 2: up here. Yeah. Yes, ma'am.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The question is if there's room for
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: more guidance for young people on moral and ethical issues
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: of our day. There's always, always room for more guidance.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: The list is almost endless, right, of the things we're
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 2: there could be more guidance. And one of the blessings
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 2: of our time, blessing and a curse, you know the
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 2: question earlier about social media and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: One of the blessings of our time is we have
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 2: access to more information in terms of being made aware,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 2: being equipped, being warned about all this. We have more
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 2: access than anyone could ever have imagined. And I'm just
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: becoming more and more aware of these things myself. But
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: there's a downside to that. The downside to that is
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 2: if we decide as a church, right, if I decide
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 2: as a pastor, as a church leader, that I am
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 2: going to, um, you know, double my efforts to focus
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 2: on this moral issue, that moral issue, that moral issue. Um,
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 2: there's no end to those things and we'll be playing
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: whack-a-mole and eventually there'll be mission drift, right? Um, and
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: so what we have to do is we have to respond, um,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 2: as and where it's appropriate for us, right? And, uh,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 2: Sometimes there are things that come that force all of
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: us to respond. COVID. COVID made everybody have to respond
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 2: in terms of the doctrine of sphere sovereignty. Right? God
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 2: has given us the church. He's given us the family.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: He's given us the state. Right? Given us those three spheres.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 2: Each of those three spheres has a particular sovereignty, and
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 2: they're not to usurp the sovereignty of the other spheres
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: in certain ways and whatnot. Well, most people weren't talking
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 2: about that. COVID came and all of a sudden people
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: had to, even if they didn't talk about it formally,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 2: they had to answer the question. how far can the
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 2: government go in its authority over what the church does
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: in worship, right? So there are times like that when,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 2: you know, we all have to, you know, have to
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: do it. But for the most part, that's going to
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 2: be different depending on where people are. For example, the
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: issue here, going back to the question earlier about Zambia
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: versus here, sub-Saharan Africa versus here, issues here about puberty blockers,
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: cross-sex hormones, and so-called sex reassignment surgeries, yada, yada, yada. Well,
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 2: you know, that's not a thing That's not a thing
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: in Zambia. Not because Zambians are morally impervious. It's because
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 2: nobody's got money for that stuff. Those are rich people problems.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 2: That costs so much money. And so developing countries are
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 2: not having to, you know, pastors in developing countries are
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: not having to talk to their people about, you know,
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 2: puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and sex reassignment surgeries. It's
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: just not a thing. Nobody's got money for that, right?
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, before we left.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: We were on a rotating load shedding schedule where we
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: would have schedule, we would have power for three hours
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 2: every 24 hours and then every 36 hours and then
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: every 48 hours. So 24 hours, then you get three
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 2: hours of power. Then 36 hours no power and you
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 2: get three hours of power. Then 48 hours no power
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 2: and then you get three hours of power. Nobody's getting
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 2: cross-sex hormones in that environment. So, you know, I say
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 2: that as an example of not everybody is going to
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: be dealing with all the same moral issues. That's going
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 2: to depend on sort of, you know, where you are
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 2: as well. All right, a couple more. Yes. yes each
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 2: time is repentance every time we sin we repent every
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 2: time we sin we repent regardless of what the sin
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 2: is in some sins we have to repent a lot
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 2: more often a lot longer but yeah every time yeah
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 2: every time whether it's you're addicted to drugs or addicted
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 2: to worry You know? Yeah. Did you have a? Go
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 2: for it. Do you think sports are beneficial for kids?
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 2: Do I think sports are beneficial for kids? Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 2: Sports are beneficial for kids. You know, and there's lots
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 2: of sports even mentioned in the scriptures. You know? Wrestling
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 2: and boxing and, you know, running. Yeah. Yeah. No, there
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 2: ain't no soccer in the Bible. Yes. Yes. We'll do
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 2: two more. Yes. Right there. Yep. Go ahead. And then
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 2: we'll take one over here. Yes. Say again now. Security
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 2: measures that we had to take. Um, It's interesting. Zambia
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 2: is an incredibly safe place. One of the reasons we went,
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 2: one of the reasons that we thought it was important
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: to help start ACU is because of how strategic Zambia is.
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 2: It's right in the center of South Central Africa. It's
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: a landlocked country. It's around a bunch of countries that
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 2: have a lot of problems, but it's the most stable
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 2: country on the continent. It's the most peaceful country on
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 2: the continent. And there's never been a civil war.
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 3: There.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 2: There's opportunistic crime there. But crime is not a real
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 2: big issue there. So yeah, we had to take a
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 2: lot less measures there. Especially because a lot of Zambians
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 2: are really afraid of dogs. And we had warbles. Borbals,
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 2: a South African mastiff bred to hunt lions. Yeah, we
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 2: had a couple of Borbals. King T'Challa and Atticus Finch.
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 2: And people didn't come around. So, you know. Yeah, got
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 2: a 150-pound lion eater. You tend to be safe. Yep.
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 2: All right. Was there... I thought I saw... Yes.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 2: The question is, what's a good way to reassure someone
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 2: if they're worried about the Bible because of how old
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 2: it is and it being retranslated so many times? Specifically
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 2: on the translation issue, I like to use an illustration
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 2: with people, right? And, you know, you play the game.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 2: They used to call it telephone or depending on how
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 2: old you are and how politically incorrect you are, call
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: it Chinese whispers, right, or something like that. And the
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 2: idea is, you know, you go to one person at
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 2: the end and you whisper something into their ear and
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 2: they whisper it to the person the next year and
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 2: so on until you, you know, get to the other end.
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 2: And then you ask the person on the end what
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 2: they heard and it's very different than, you know, what
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 2: you told the first person. And oftentimes, you know, people
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: will use that kind of as an illustration of Why
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 2: it's really hard to trust the reliability of the Bible
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: because of all these times that the Bible has been translated.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: And I tell them, what do you think the game
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 2: would be like if instead of me whispering into the
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 2: ear of the first person and then having them whisper
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 2: into everybody else's ear, I whispered into the ear of
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 2: every person. And then I whispered into the ear of
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 2: the last person. What's the last person going to get?
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 2: It's going to get the same thing the first person get. God.
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 2: Because it's the same source, right? So when the Bible
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 2: is translated, we're not translating from translations of translations of translations.
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 2: We're going back to the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic manuscripts
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: to translate. So each translation is going back to the
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 2: same source that the other translations went to, right? And
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 2: oftentimes when people understand that, It helps to sort of
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 2: dispel that myth. All right. This is good. I'm glad
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 2: we did it. applause