Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Ep. 298 - What Does It Mean to Be a Friend of Sinners?

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Ep. 298 - What Does It Mean to Be a Friend of Sinners? · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Well, he says while women weep as they do now, I will fight.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: While little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: While men go to prison in and out, in and out as they do now, I will fight.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: And while there is a drunkard left, while there is poor, lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I will fight and I will fight until the very end".
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: So he has this compassion upon the people.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Without the compromise, at the end I'm gonna give them the gospel.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And this is the right balance, and this is the lack of balance that we see today.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I had a rough night the other night, friends.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: So what did I do?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I did what any sensible man would do, of course, I texted my three loving, caring, compassionate, sympathetic co-hosts.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: And what was the response?
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Ray Comfort yes, with three exclamation marks.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Mark Spence cool.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Oscar Navarro crickets never responded.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: What was it that you texted?
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I don't even remember.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: That I had a rough night.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was saying yes, cool.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: No, there was something else there that.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I said, but that doesn't matter.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, there you are.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Well, you caught yourself comfort and repented shortly thereafter.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Oscar ignored me.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: No, I don't think so, oh, you totally ignored me.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: I'm looking back right now.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Oh no.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: I'm used to it by now.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: What I'm not used to, though, is Mark Spence's mustache.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: I did respond.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: You did not.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what did he?
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: say one, you did not.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah say.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: He said cool, he said he's.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: Ray said yes, mark said cool, and I said none cool, not one you did too, see thank you, which is as good as ignoring.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I forgot oscar.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I repent for falsely back to the mustache.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Thanks for making yourself look worse.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Mark your mustache has anyone paid you back with those one-liners about mustaches?
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Yet what makes you a mustache?
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: What makes you know.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: It's so important that you have to underline it.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Every time you bring it up, he gives this look.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: What is that called?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: When you do that, it's like a cop look Stupid.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Explain the look Mark.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Explain the look Mark.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: What is this?
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Well, my friend Matt Holmes has a mustache and we were going over to his house for dinner and I thought you know what?
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Let's give the old clean shave.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Well, guess who didn't like it?
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Eddie Roman said well, now we are going to lack consistency on the television program so I have to grow back my regular facial hair.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: You're becoming more like Ray Mark.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Do I look like a 70s police officer?
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: You look like a fireman.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I always associate mustaches with firemen.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: For some reason, I look like a 70s police officer.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: You look like a fireman.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I always associate mustaches with firemen.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: I see police officer, you look like a sophisticated English aristocrat.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: You may speak more Comfort.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Aristocrat, who was the man that first grew a mustache?
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: That said let's get rid of all the other glorious facial?
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: hair.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Mo-han, mo-han, stashman yeah.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: Why do you keep calling him Moose-stache?
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: Moose-stache it is, isn't it?
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Jesus had a moustache.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: Jesus had a moustache, it would not be an Abraham Lincoln beard.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: It's not a moustache.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I do call it a moustache.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not like a cow has a moustache.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: That's a moustache.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: It's an Arab thing.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: What does a cow have under its nose?
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: A mustache.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: It's an Arab thing.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: What were you saying, Ray His?
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: sophisticated English aristocrat especially when it raises the eyebrow.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: That's what it's about Sophisticated huh Ray, what did Kirk used to say to you about your mustache?
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Oh yes, the 80s called they want their mustache back Exactly when I think mustache.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I think Tom Selleck.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, but that was jealousy with Kirk and it's all come out.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: He's grown a beard like mine now too, oh yeah.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Kirk's all bearded up now.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, by the way, speaking of having rough nights in BC, did you guys ever fake being sick, like as kids in school?
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Every time I call him sick.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Here I'm faking it.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: I did put the thermometer on my hot water bottle.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: I did put the thermometer on my hot water bottle and my mother couldn't believe 165 degrees.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: Celsius, I never had to.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: You're always sick.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: I was just.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: I just didn't go to school.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: If I didn't want to go to school, no one cared enough to say no, truly, we've talked about this.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: I didn't have a parent that was like, hey, you gotta go to school today.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: So if I woke we've talked about this I didn't have a parent that was like, hey, you gotta go to school today.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: And so if I woke up and didn't go, I just didn't go.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: That sounds great I need therapy.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: You guys remember Ferris Bueller's Day Off?
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, that was one of my favorites.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: That's an 80s movie, yeah it's been a while, since I've seen it, it's probably not the cleanest from what I.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: I was going to say people are going to go watch it now.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: You recommend a movie and then later on I did that with the.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Goonies.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I put on the movie the Goonies with my kids.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: That was really bad, wasn't it?
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I had to turn it off.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: It was so blasphemous.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: Same movie, same situation.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: We're like a few minutes into it and I was like what is happening?
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: Like I don't remember this?
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Crushed my childhood.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, goonies, but no, ferris Bueller's Day Off.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: That's what made Ben Stein famous, wasn't it?
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Bueller, bueller.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: And then you had His advertisements where he had no personality was just so Clear eyes.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right, you did the Clear Eyes, but what is it that attracts us to that?
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: It's like humor.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: It's the last thing you expect, but it makes you pay attention, do you?
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: remember the show when.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: It's like you, he's in your personality everyone listens.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: It's because of my dumbness.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: Do you remember his show when Ben Stein's Money?
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember a little bit of it.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: Is that?
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: a game show.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: We met Ben, didn't we?
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: We did remember a little bit of it.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, is that we met?
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: We met ben, didn't we?
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: We did?
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, uh, ex hollywood expelled.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, that was good.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was good.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: All right, friends, time for a cool, classy comment.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: This is from maria ramos just received my box.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever been so excited to open a box.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: I've loved Living Water.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Since the American Gospel documentary came out, the Lord has used this platform to convict, comfort and grow in understanding of God's Word.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: God bless you.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Brothers, I had to record myself opening the box.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: I was so excited to show my family that's been listening and watching as long as I have.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I want to share with you all as well.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Don't mind my son.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: I think I hyped him up with my video.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Much love, maria Ramos.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: You all are hilarious.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Is that the one we saw?
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: It's a video I sent you guys.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Yes, wasn't that cool.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: We watched it.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, that was so, so encouraging.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: And then someone else sent a video of them unpacking.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Yes, there was another, another one that was posted online too.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: So, maria, we loved the video, loved your, uh, your, your son in the background and uh, excited that you were excited.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: So, thank you so much and now erratically wait a minute.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: It's new.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: What is this?
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: It's easy to put up.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: This one's simple and so you finally got the brilliant idea to get something new.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: No, Yale purchased it for me.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Oh Yale.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Yes, yale cares for me.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Thank, you Yale yeah.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: You are a true friend, but this one.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: I can work on.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: The whole world will thank you now.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: So if it drops.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: No excuses, right Yale, I'm just going to warn you now don't be offended.
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: When he breaks it, he will break it, he will.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Just accept it ahead of time.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right now.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: A radically revolutionary resource.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by how to Make Sure God Hears your Prayers book.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: Ray, I drooled through my finger this morning.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: No Good for you I took a picture of it, sent a really bloody picture to Sue Ray.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Is that?
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: How Are you kidding?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: No, put it up again it stopped bleeding, which is good.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: You ever see what Ray does when he hurts his fingers?
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: A great example.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: He'll limp as if his leg is hurt.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Sympathy.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: I like to get sympathy Ray.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: What happened, Tell us.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: I was drilling something and it slipped and went into my finger.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: What were you drilling?
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: A hole on his back.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Look at the guilt on his face.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: What were you drilling?
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: What were you drilling?
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: I was in the chicken coop.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: I put a camera in the coop so Sue could see the chickens laying eggs.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Oh, no.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: And she didn't?
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: It was a surprise for her you seriously actually did the drill in your finger.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was actually the screwdriver drill thing.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: Seriously, actually did the drill.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was actually the screwdriver drill thing.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: You just really wanted a holy finger.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: What kind of camera goes inside of a chicken coop, tell me?
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: I thought there was one of you.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: A Ken Ham from Hen Cam.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: No, it's a Hen Cam, hen Cam from Ken Ham.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: We've got four cameras, security cameras.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Do you have?
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: them in the coop.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: Two of them in the the coop, oh Ray.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Comfort, to document your tragedy.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: The employees of El Pollo Loco keep trying to sneak over there.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: You should donate to El Pollo Loco, right?
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: So check it out, friends.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: How to make sure God hears your prayers, ray.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Anything about the book?
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: It's wonderful.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's very well written.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: God hears your prayers.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: All right, don't forget the Living Waters mug, and they have a study Bible at livingwaterscom.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: I was wondering what are you going to do with that?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Rebellion.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: He could do that.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: All right, friends.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: You tried to sound stupid, didn't you, but it didn't work.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Today we are talking about.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: What does it mean to be a friend of sinners?
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: You're looking at it?
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we got it here.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: I'm a friend of sinners, I know what it's like personally, you know, I think the verse that this would be based on, if any, would be Luke 7, 34.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: What is it?
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: Ray Pharisees mocked him and said you're a glutton and a winebibber.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the son of man has come eating and drinking and you say look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Where does the publicans come in?
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: The Republicans, republicans, the Republicans You're a friend of.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Republicans and Democrats yeah, tax collectors.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: From the perspective of those who were mocking him which is where mockery begins, obviously, with words like this, they were looking at it as an insult, but for us, on this side of things, as Christians, we know that this was the greatest sorry my throat blessing imaginable that Jesus decided to be the friend of sinners.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: What they meant for evils meant good for millions of Christians down through the ages.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, thank you Lord.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: It's beautiful.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and a part of that, and we're going to be talking about that on an upcoming podcast, but the part of that is the arrogance and the blindness of man not realizing, not understanding the true depth of his own sin.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, let's jump into this.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Take us away, Oscar thoughts, me, you.
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: There's a couple times that's more direct experience, and when someone calls him a friend of sinners.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: But you've got Matthew 9, matthew 11,.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: Luke 7, luke 15, luke 19.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: Over and over again, jesus shows himself to be a friend of sinners.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: And I love where you started because, truly, actually, I was reading God's word this morning in the back of my mind, knowing we would be talking about this, and I was reading about Jesus calling people towards him and reflecting on the ragtag group of people who he called and it got me emotional to realize, man, if he wasn't a friend of sinners, I'd be doomed, because I am that sinner that needed that friend, the capital F friend, the friend of friends, the one who would lay his life down.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: So before, I love that you started there Easy, before we talk about what it means and the implications on how we are to live in this world, we have to stop humbly and praise the Lord that, yes, he is my friend.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Amen, yeah, and you know again, there's this blindness that is part and parcel with the sinful nature, you know, and it's not just I think it's not just so much saying I've never sinned, it's seeing our sin against the backdrop of other people, against the backdrop of our own standard, rather than against the backdrop of a God who is infinitely, impeccably holy and pure and Ray.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: A lot of people see it as a bad thing to confess that they're guilty sinners.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: It's your like profession.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Just think, your full-time profession to get people to say that they are.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: It's a good thing.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Friends, friends, friends of sinners.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: He's a friend.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: That's where it comes from.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, friends, friends of sinners.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: That's where it comes from, friends of sinners.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: You know I was studying during the night and I got onto one of Spurgeon's sermons.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: I used to type in friend of sinners, spurgeons and Puritans to see what quotes would come up and I found a sermon by Spurgeon that so humbled me and so encouraged me.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: It was just called Friend of Sinners and I thought what's he going to talk about?
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: And the whole sermon was nothing but pleading with his congregation to repent and come to Christ.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Because he was talking about people standing in the balconies, got this image of the whole place, the Metropolitan Tabernacle being packed out, and Spurgeon, instead of going to great theological arguments and whatever, he just pleaded, it was almost embarrassing.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Chapter after chapter, or sorry, paragraph after paragraph, it was him saying stuff like this Come as you are, come as you are.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Every fitness is legality.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Every preparation is a lie.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: Every getting ready for Christ is coming the wrong way.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: You're only making yourself worse while you think you're making yourself better.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: You're like a boy at school who's made a little blot and he gets out his knife to scratch it out and makes it ten times worse than before.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Leave the blots alone, come as you are.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: If you're the blackest soul out of hell, trust Christ.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: That act of trust shall make you clean.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: And it just went on and on and on Same thing, on and on and on, where modern pastors, we'd preach a sermon on deep theology and just at the last moment, while every head bowed, eye closed, raise your hand.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: Nothing like pleading with a lost one, and that's what a true friend of sinners does.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: I love that Pleads with a lost, because that's the greatest show of affection you can give to a stranger is to plead with them to get right with God.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Oh Ray, that's so good man.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: You know people will talk a lot about Jesus being love and he just was so kind and all these things, which obviously, of course he was.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: But do you really need to look to those things to validate the reality of sin in its extreme form versus, like you know, jesus was nice, he doesn't care about sin To look at his mission like leaving heaven, god of all gods, from all eternity, in indescribable splendor, humbling himself and coming into the form of a man.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: For God to do that there was a massive reason.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: It's called sin and he came as a friend.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was the epitome of having compassion without compromise, right.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: That compassion towards the state of the people where they're at.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Remember that I'm butt dust I mean, how many times have we echoed that to the Lord?
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Remember that this is who I am, that I am prone to wander from the God whom I love.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: And yet he did not compromise truth, right?
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Remember in Mark, chapter one, when all of the town wanted to see Jesus and the apostle said so, you know, let's go and all the people are waiting for you, mr Miracle Worker.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: And what does Jesus say?
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Let's go into the next town and preach the gospel.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: It is for this reason I have come.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: He would not compromise the truth and at the same time he would have compassion on the people.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: In Luke 5, it says those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: And here's Spurgeon.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: He says there is no saint here who can out-sin the grace of God.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: And I think that I came across in my prep for this a good example of this in William Booth right.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: He's the founder, as we know, of the Salvation Army and he had a good balance between compassion and having no compromise.
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: He's also the founder of Toll Boots, Toll Boots and Phone Boots which is before your time.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: His mantra was soap, soup and salvation.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: You know that.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Soap, soup and salvation Clean them up, feed them up, get them saved.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Wow, he was behind the soup kitchens, right?
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: No, he used to work there.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: Yes, he was behind the can at the soup kitchen.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: What's he doing behind the soup kitchens?
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: He's out the back looking for something.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Well, he says While women weep as they do now, I will fight.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Fight.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: While little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: While men go to prison in and out, in and out, as they do now, I will fight.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: And while there is a drunkard left, while there is poor, lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I will fight, and I will fight until the very end.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: So he has this compassion upon the people, without the compromise, at the end I'm going to give them the gospel, and this is the right balance.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: And this is the lack of balance that we see today in so many places like the Salvation Army, and that they're trying to help without giving the gospel, which is no help at all in the long run.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: Speaking of that, I can't tell you how consoled I am with the thought that you guys are so Christ-centered and have such a concern for the lost, because I've noticed in denominations and even in ministries it doesn't take long for them to lose their vision.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: Salvation Army Booth talking like that.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: Look where it's gone.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Methodist Church started by Wesley the most fiery guy ever on a horse being chased by his wife and no, he wasn't being chased by his wife.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry what I thought it was to see who was listening, and no one was listening.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: He was.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: He got chased by his wife.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: He's going to attack him while he's preaching.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's thorn in the flesh.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: Anyway, just took time for them to lose their fire.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: But I am thankful when I die I'm going to be with the Lord.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: I've got confidence that this ministry is going to stay on course.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Confidence, yes.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Confidence, confidence.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, ray, it's called mission drift, mission drift, and all of us here at this table are resolute in making sure that doesn't happen with Living Waters.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: And look, friends, those of you listening hold us to that.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: We touch on a lot of different things as a ministry, but the heartbeat to our calling is to reach the lost, and if we lose that, we're dead as a ministry.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: A prime example of that is your book, which is currently in sixth place.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: But the point is, you wrote a book, a Bold Biblical Battle Plan for Fighting for Sexual Purity.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: You wrote a book, a bold biblical battle plan for fighting sexual purity, fighting for sexual purity.
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: You wrote a book on fighting for sexual purity and yet in it is a clear proclamation of the gospel.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: It is evangelistic in nature, which I absolutely love.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: You know what, oscar?
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: That was one of the joys for me.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: The book has been selling unbelievably well.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: It's one of the top books on Amazon right now, which is just crazy.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Right, they have 32 million different titles, which doesn't sound like humanly possible, but it's true, and so I'm blown away.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: But the thing that thrills my heart when I'm thinking about men getting this book is that there are going to be a lot of false converts reading the book.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: But I have almost an entire chapter dedicated to the gospel and encouraging men to examine themselves to see if they're in the faith.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's the joy for me.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: And in the book too, I have a chapter where I deal with evangelism as being one of the remedies to sexual sin, because when you're engaged in proclaiming the gospel, you're a partaker of it.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: It's not likely you're going to go and indulge in sin.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: It's a protecting sort of element.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: You know when you're doing that, so that's exactly.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Fight like a man, a bold biblical battle plan for personal purity.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: What Ray Out now?
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: I don't know what I was going to say.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: I don't know it's nice.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah Well, look, when you think about what that word means there, the one particularly in Luke 7, 34, about Jesus being a friend of sinners.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: The word is philos in the Greek you know, that's where we get the word Philadelphia from as well like brotherly love type of thing.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: But it means to be friendly to one, to wish him well, and it carries with it the idea to be actively fond and it has attached to it the sense of someone being dear to you.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: So this is what we're talking about.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: When Jesus was referred to as a friend of sinners and I love that word dear Sinners were dear to him.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: Jesus was a friend of Nicodemus, a friend of the woman at the well, a woman who couldn't act of adultery.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: He was the friend.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: But he was a friend of the Pharisees and the Sadducees because he took the time to rebuke them If he didn't care he wouldn't have bothered.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: So when he said why aren't you snakes, you vipers, who's warned you to flee?
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: And all that sort of stuff?
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: The motivation was love and concern, and that's what we must have for sinners.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's what we must have for sinners.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, mark, I love how you touched on that balance.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Compromise or compassion does not equal compromise, right, I mean, and that's what's tied in with that friendship it's like you know, you hear that saying they are the least likely of friends.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I can't think of that being more appropriate than when referring to God and man, the least likely of friends, I mean as opposite as you could possibly get.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: But compassion toward those who are lost doesn't equal compromise, yeah and we are to reflect that with people, and a great example of that is we are called to be salt and light right, so salt preserves, light exposes.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: We want to expose where people are maybe drifting off of the right way to go.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Without compromise.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: We are going to not laugh at things that we shouldn't be laughing at.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: We don't partake in things we shouldn't partake in and at the same time we want to season it just right.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: We want to come along and have a word that is fitly spoken at just the right time Matthew 3,.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: It says you are the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Matthew 5, 13 through 16.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Excuse me, it says you knew a reference, ray.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: Yes, Wait what John 3, 16.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Where was the hmm?
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Where was the hmm.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: I'm more excited.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: I 316.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Where was the hmm?
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Where was the hmm.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: I'm more excited.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: I couldn't find the M for Matthew 3.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: You do pay attention sometimes.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: And then it goes on to say let your light so shine among men that they may see your good works, and it brings glory to your Father in heaven that we are to continually overflow with good works towards people that we like and people we don't tend to get along with too well.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Rich in good works, charles Spurgeon.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: He said the greatest kindness we can show to any man is to lead him to Christ.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: If that is not our end goal, our aim, in our secular relationships, I think that it always needs to be there, at least on the back burner.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Of course we're rich in good works, but we have this aim, this thing that's just kind of like, always nagging us.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: We're always trying to find that inlet to share the gospel with those who oppose the gospel right, and so we're using good works to do so.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: We're letting our light shine, and that is what we need to do continually so.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Ray, I'd love you to open this up for us.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Obviously, we're talking about the fact that Jesus didn't compromise.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: He spoke truth, he dealt with heavy things.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: But then it says in Mark 12, 37, and the common people heard him gladly.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Why do you think that is?
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Why did the people hear him gladly when he was being promised, he was handing them in the gift cards?
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Common people aren't puffed up like university students.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: Common people aren't rich like the arrogant rich people who love their money.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: So they were open to them.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: And I just dealing with this whole subject, taken back memory-wise to when I was in Christchurch this may have been in the mid-1980s, when you were little toddlers or teenagers there was a group called the Mongrelrel mob that used to hang around in Christ.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: I saw a video of the mongrel mob.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: Yes, they're the guys that had the fight with the black power With the axe.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: Some dude hit the guy with the axe, yeah, yeah with the axe, that's the mongrel mob and they used to hang around and listen to me preach day after day.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: And when I say hang around, they had a special way just lean on a war.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: It was like I'm tough kind of look Like one of us.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah and they were dressed with little skulls hanging from their belts and just tattoos and just dirty clothes.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: So I went over to a group of them once and said I'd like to buy you lunch, and they all came across to lunch with me about 12 of them, and I never feel more Christian than when I do something like that.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: It just gave me great joy, so I took two of them home for dinner.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Oh no, you always take it a step further.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Ray Comfort yes, Consequences.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: And that was a great joy, although your wife, little Rachel, was about eight or nine and all she could see was a skull hanging from the belt of this mongrel mob.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: That came home, but they were very polite and they never forgot it, and when I went and preached to them while they were in jail, they all listened.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Get in jail.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Ministry to the mongrels.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: Well, the whole story is that I told my cameraman when we were making my movie my friends are dying to go into the square to film people standing around listening.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: I was going to feed it in this B-roll as though someone would listen to me, and a fight broke out behind them between two rival gangs over a woman believe it or not and Black Power and the mongrel mob.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: People that gathered around thought it was some sort of drama that they were doing, because that axe isn't nice, but they really were fighting.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: A guy put an axe into a guy's head and we got it on camera.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: But his hair was so thick and greasy.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: It went down into his shoulder so it did go into his head and just slid to the side.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: Anyway, the footage was seized by the police, what's called sub judice evidence at the Supreme Court.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: It was such a big case so I couldn't release the film for a whole year.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: What yeah?
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: In any way.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Very, the film for a whole year, what, yeah, and anyway, so Great comfort away, neil.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: This is why he has PTSD for a while it was horrific.
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: So I said to my cameraman I said did you get the police arriving?
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: He said no, no, I just got them fighting.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: I said well, that's sad because that would look good on our film.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: So I called the police and I said would you do it again?
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: That was a reenactment on the movie.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: They said you scratched our back by giving us the footage, We'll scratch yours.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: So they sent a squad car into the square.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: It came screaming up to where I preached.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Two police officers jumped out and ran at nothing.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, wait a minute.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: I don't know if anybody caught this Ray.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Did you say you went and preached the gospel to them?
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Who, the gang, the mongrel?
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: gang.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: You said that, when I visited them in the yes, yeah, yeah.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: And did they know that you were the one responsible?
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's why I was very nervous.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: There was a bar that separated you, which gave you confidence.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: No, no, there wasn't.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: There was so many.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: We took the movie to show it in the prison and it was such big news because 2,000 people came out to the premiere.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: It was such big news.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Wow, it's big in New, zealand, yeah it was huge and a Christian film too.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: When we showed it in the prison they had to have three sessions because the room I was in was packed Wow, and I thought these guys are in here because of my film.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: And did they know that?
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: And I thought, boy, this is going to be heavy.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: And I thought, boy, this is going to be heavy and they were still all friendly, which was wonderful.
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: They listened to the gospel.
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: The next time you tell that story about inviting the Maguro mob over to your house, you have to end it with and that's how I met Yale.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: I knew Yale was part of the mob.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: Anyway, the whole story is out of the comfort zone.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: It's far more complex and interesting.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: That's great, Ray, but I love what you said though.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: That's great Ray, but I love what you said, though you gave these guys lunch when you look at Mark 6, the mm-mm, the mm-mm.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Mark, I can't stop looking at your mustache.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: Please get rid of it.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: There's the eyebrow.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: William Booth had a mustache.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Oh no, it's true.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but Mark 6, that's what Jesus did, right, it said he saw the multitude, he had compassion on them, he stood up and began to teach them and then, after that, he fed the multitude, he gave thousands of them lunch, one lunch, one big lunch.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: But that's the thing, though, right, it's like you see the extremes.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: You get people that speak to sinners, but they won't tell them the truth.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: It'll be all fluffy stuff.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: You'll get people that feed or do good works for sinners, but they won't tell them the truth.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: It'll be all fluffy stuff.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: You'll get people that feed or do good works for sinners, but they won't give them the gospel.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: Or you'll get people to give the gospel but they don't do good works in connection with it.
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: It's not an either or Oscar right, it's a both, and yeah, I love what Mark's mustache was saying earlier about compassion without compromise.
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: You mentioned it as well.
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: I think here's the thing because as we shift, I think what we're doing here is we're shifting from recognizing that Jesus is a friend of sinners and how there's gospel, good news in that, and then we look out in the world and go, okay, how can we be like our savior and be a friend of sinners?
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: And we feel that call to be a friend of sinners, and yet we also know that the scriptures tells us to be not of this world, and so there's a balance there.
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: And I think if you look out there in Christian culture, you see kind of two extremes.
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: You see one extreme the hold so tightly to being not of this world.
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: Misunderstand it.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: What they do is they actually build barriers and walls between them and the non-believer.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: You look inside their homes, you look inside their churches, you look inside their daily lives and activities and there's little, if any, interaction, true friendships, with non-believers.
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: They've isolated and removed themselves from culture.
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: This is not how God calls us to interact with the scriptures.
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: This is not how God calls us to interact with culture.
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: On the other side, the other extreme, which is what Mark was and you were talking about are people who overly compromise, and I think that the key phrase here is that Jesus was a friend of sinners, but he was not friends with sin.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: And for us.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: We are called to be friends of sinners, but we cannot be friends with sin Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh says.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Jude.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really good, amen.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: So let's do this.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: Let's look at an example of Jesus befriending a sinner or being friendly toward a sinner.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: I love the account of Zacchaeus and I want to read it.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Sometimes we'll just say it says this or that, but there's power in reading the Word and I want those listening to get the context.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: So this is Luke 19, 1-10.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: And when we're reading it, remember Jesus looked up to a short man.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, I like that.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich and he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd for he was of short stature.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said to him Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: So he made haste and came down and received him joyfully.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: But when they saw it, they all complained, saying he has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord Look, lord, I give half of my goods to the poor and if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: And Jesus said to him Today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of man has not come to seek and save that which was lost.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Now, ray, you relate to Zacchaeus physically.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: I would love to hear your thoughts on Zacchaeus.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: I wonder if Ray was shorter than Zacchaeus?
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, definitely.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been historically verified.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: Mark yeah, six foot six, a hairy chest.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: You're gonna have all eternity to regret what you've done.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: You're looking up to me.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Imagine Ray in eternity is like 600 feet tall and we're all like ants crawling around his feet.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: I'm treading on you.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: Zacchaeus was a Jew.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: He knew the law.
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: He says behold, Lord, I pay back fourfold if I've done anyone wrong.
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: And so that's why he so readily accepted Christ.
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: He ran before Jesus.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Because he was laden with his own sins.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: He wanted to see Christ.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: And that's what the Lord does.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: It's the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: It prepares the hearts of sinners.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: So Zacchaeus is a great example of Lord, of the proud grace to the humble.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: That's why Zacchaeus didn't hear the law.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: He just heard I'm coming down because you are the Savior.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: And he had.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: What is it?
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: Fruit of salvation, Fruit of repentance?
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: I remember once someone said they heard of someone who'd become a Christian and they saw at the front of their store a little bag on a Monday morning and it just said I stole this on Friday, became a Christian on Sunday.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: And here it is Monday and they'd stolen something from the store.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: And that's fruit of repentance.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: And that's what Zacchaeus did.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: And just think he was a tax collector, yeah, yeah, Despised by his own race, because it's like working for the Nazis, and yet he would restore fourfold to someone he had wronged.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: So, hello, who is it?
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: Zacchaeus?
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, no.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah here's a couple hundred bucks.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and I think it's important to note that, right in terms of its cultural context, we think, okay, tax collector, yeah, we don't like the IRS.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: But no, I mean this was, they were hated because they were allied with the Roman oppressors and they were hated because they were allied with the Roman oppressors.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: And so, yeah, I mean he was hated, he was despised.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: But look at the heart of Christ, you know, he's walking by, he sees this dude, he knows obviously he's hated, he's despised.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: He's seeing his eagerness and wanting to see Jesus.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: He's sitting up in the tree, highlights him, pinpoints him.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: He doesn't just say, hey, zacchaeus, this, that or the other, I'm coming to your house today, and that in the culture back then was huge.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: Like when someone comes into your house, it's a sign of friendship and acceptance in a sense, you know.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: And so he was accepting him as a sinful friend so that he can make him righteous.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: I love the one word it's a small point, but it's a big point was Zacchaeus came down and Zacchaeus stood and said to Jesus he made a stand, which is what happens when you come to Christ.
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: No more world.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, amen.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, with the rich young ruler in Mark 10, he was regretful in that Jesus told him go sell everything that you have right, give to the poor.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: But I love that before it says that, it says that Jesus loved him, right, he's talking to this guy and he poses that question and he says why do you call me good?
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: No one good but God and you know the commandments.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: And he goes through the commandments with him.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: But it says he ends up going away.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: Sorrowful, but before that Jesus loved him.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, when you think about that, the power in that that he loved this man, and then he speaks truth to him and he gives him the commandments and he gives him that hard call to do that right.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: And, ray, you always talk about that that he went to the heart of the issue with him.
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I believe he was an extortioner.
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: He was Jesus when he gave those commandments.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: He dropped extort, not right in the middle of it, for some reason, and it seems that he gained his riches by extortion, which would make him, instead of being a nice young man, which is what we think, oh.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: I've kept all those from my youth.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: He was a liar and a self-righteous wretch who got his money by unjust means and yet Jesus loved him.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: I mean so many people in that very category, and yet he's the lover of their soul.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: It's just mind-blowing to me that it's sandwiched right between that.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: You know, he gives them the commandments.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: He says I've done this from my youth.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: Then Jesus looked at him and loved him and said to him one thing you lack, right, mark.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: That's part and parcel with love, wouldn't you say?
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Well, because love is a verb.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Love is action.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Love is never passive.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: It is always seeking to serve.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: That's what love is.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: That's what love does George Woodfield, one of the greatest, probably most influential evangelists of the 18th century.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: He said exactly let me just quote it God forbid that I should travel with anybody a quarter of an hour without speaking of Christ to them.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Right, that encapsulates his evangelistic zeal of love in action.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: How many times we said it ourselves or we hear other people say to us man, I love you, brother, love you, but there's no action attached to that.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: If we love, we give, we serve until it hurts.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: Remember King David.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: He said God forbid I ever offer anything to the Lord that which didn't cost me anything.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Love costs Ministry.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: There is a cost, whether it's your time, your talent, your treasure.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: You give up sleep to love.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Right, I think of every morning, before I leave my wife.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: I go over towards my wife and, whether she's asleep or awake, I pray a prayer over her.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: I want to pray for her day.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: What do you got planned going today?
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: What is up?
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Because I want to keep you accountable and I want to be there for you when you hit roadblocks.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Right, I want to be that encourager where you can stand on my shoulders and move forward.
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: Can I do that too?
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Mark the verse that comes to mind when you talk about that in terms of love and action 1 John 3.18,.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth, and that is a part of our culture today.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: It's become a greeting Hi, I love you.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: Bye, I love you.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: Hamburger fries and a shake.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: I love you, but there's no, doesn't sound too bad, yeah, I like that.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: Earlier Mark said in and out.
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: You see Ray's head.
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: Both of us.
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: Never can those words be said without.
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: Ray reacting, speaking of love costing or something I don't know if I've ever told you guys or if you knew about it, but when we showed the fool over at the Ark Encounter, it was in what?
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: did we show the fool?
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: What did we show the fool?
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: I get it.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: I get it.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was in Cincinnati or something, and the National Atheist Convention was in Cincinnati.
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: Oh, that's right.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: And I had actually ordered 10 gift baskets to be delivered to the atheists, With bananas, With all sorts in them and just a big high Ray Comfort and nothing else.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: No, God bless you, or anything like that.
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: And they got delivered, the whole 10 baskets the day after the convention finished.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: Ah, are you serious?
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: A whole 10.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: Yes, I'm not going to say who the firm was, but it rhymes with Barry and Havert.
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: No, yeah.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: I got my money back, but boy I was so disappointed and I gave them plenty of time, well over a week but, they delivered them the day the convention finished.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: Heart deferred, hope deferred, hope deferred makes the heart sick.
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: Makes the heart sick yeah.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but Ray, I love that though.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Right, that's that extension of love and care, Oscar, what do you say to the person who says well, but look, it says in James 4.4 that friendship with the world is enmity toward God.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: If you make yourself a friend of the world, you're an enemy of God.
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: What's that really talking about?
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah well, the friend of the world is different than friends with an individual.
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: A friend with the world is getting back to the idea of being a friend of sin rather than a friend with sinners.
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: So a friend of the world is looking at the world and understanding all of the ways in which it has fallen and beginning to compromise and relate to and become a part of the— in another part of scriptures it calls it with the air of the moment, right, like the way in which the world works, and I love the way Kevin D Young points this out.
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: He says we must not think of relationships with non-Christians primarily as dangers, but opportunities.
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: Do we go out into the world hoping for conversion or expecting contamination?
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: And then he says and that he came to save sinners and was very pleased to welcome sinners who were open to the gospel, sorry for their sins and on their way to putting their faith in him.
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: In other words, jesus was on mission to bring about his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: And when we go, everything we do in this life, every relationship we have, should have a purpose, and that purpose is the glory of God.
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: If I'm friends with a believer, I look at that as an opportunity for iron to sharpen iron.
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: If I'm friends with a non-believer, I look at that as an opportunity that God would use me to bring that person to a saving faith.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's having intentionality and focus and also clarity.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: You know every relationship is different, we relate to people in different ways, but having that kind of downloaded into our minds is gonna impact how we interact with people and relate to them.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: And that's really the question, mark, as we start to wrap up how, how can we befriend sinners?
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: Uh, in a way that isn't compromising, though, because sometimes, when we go into those dark arenas, it can be challenging.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: What are some tips you have in that regard?
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Well, when I worked in the restaurant business, you know it's, it's kind of a uh, a dark environment.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: It's a very tight environment, rubbing elbows, reaching over people, and I remember going inside the break room.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: This is actually where I met my wife.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: I'd go in the break room and there's no windows in there and my wife was smoking at the time, non-christian, and the whole room would be filled with smoke and I'd walk in there and she would try to wave the air, thinking the smoke is going to go away.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: I've never smoked a cigarette in my life, right, and you understand how much you detest smoking.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: When you don't smoke, I would, on my break, be there and I would serve.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: I would refill waters for people that were inside the break room or their drinks.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: I would come early to help those in need and I would stay late.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: That's the sort of idea and the concept, with my neighbors as well.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Right, figuring out what are my neighbors into?
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Those now become your hobbies, right, they're into working in the garden.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: You know, buy them a plant.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: You know, you're going to the store to purchase some cookies, two batches, one for your neighbor, right, it's just always thinking of ways to be rich in good works and that is going to stand out and then knocking on that door, that opportunity to try to share the gospel.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: Our neighbor right across the street from us, his wife has leukemia and he is a social media influencer himself.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: They're not Christians.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: They just invited us, in fact, to an event where your daughter had her reception.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, and he's given this motivational speech on how to be better at you, whatever you are.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Well, my wife reached out and said hey, whatever I can kind of do to be there for your family.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: So my wife is now finding herself in a place where she's homeschooling our neighbor's little girls right.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: And being there.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Well, that is leading on to other conversations, right and right from the beginning, I just want to let you know that we're Christians.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: We have a Christian worldview, not a conservative worldview.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: We have a biblical worldview.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: So when we teach our kids about schooling, we have Christ at the center of what we do.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: This is what Laura shared with the neighbors and they said we have no problem with that, that's wonderful.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: What a great example Mark that is, and the moral of the story is endure, smoke and get a wife out of it, right?
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: You know I like that.
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: You asked that question.
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: I actually was thinking about this and wrote kind of three things that we need to keep in mind down, and then before I go there, I want to say one of the challenges I think being in full-time ministry, being so involved with the local church, is that slowly but surely you find yourself naturally being removed from opportunities from being friends with non-believers, and so I almost have to be actually not almost, I have to be intentional about putting myself in places and situations where I still get to interact and get to be friends with non-believers.
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: For me it's like the gym, the basketball court, certain old friends that I just last night I was over at a friend's house playing board games with non-believers, and one of the things that I've noticed again before I get to this list, one of the things that I've noticed about being friends with sinners is that it humbles me, because if I think too much, if I get too involved with my tribe, my circle, suddenly the sinners are the problem with the world, it's us against them.
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: But when I'm friends with sinners, I remember that I too was once a beggar, and so it softens, it builds up compassion in my heart for the individual, recognizing that if not for the grace of God, there I would go as well.
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: And so, as I think about how to be friends with sinners, I think about three things.
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: One we should feel the tension of the state of their fallingness.
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: If you're hanging out with non-believers and you don't feel that tension that they are fallen, that they are headed towards damnation, and that doesn't bother you, that doesn't disrupt your comfort.
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: Man, you need to check your heart.
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: So we got to feel the tension.
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: We have to fear sin.
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: We should fear, because sin is crouching at our door, it has a desire for us and whether you're at the gym or a friend's house or wherever, you need to be fearful of sin.
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: And, finally, we need to faithfully proclaim and remember that, like I said before, we were once there as well.
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: We need to take those opportunities to faithfully proclaim the gospel to these friends of ours who are currently lost.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: Wow, and, as you do all of that, feed on french fries too, Keeping the F theme Ray.
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: While we're talking about Jesus being a friend of sinners, it's always important to remember that ignorance of scripture will give the world the thought that god is their friend when he's not.
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: Um told me the other day, around around the college young guy says do you pray?
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: He says yeah.
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: I said uh, what do you pray about?
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: He says I talk to god.
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: I said what do you say to him?
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: He says I ask him what he's been doing.
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: Stop, stop, I'm not kidding.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: Hey God, what have you been doing today?
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I thought oh boy.
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: So I said is this God your buddy?
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: And he says yeah.
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: And he asked him what he's been doing.
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: Well, I could tell him what God's been doing he's been storing up his wrath and that's what's been going on.
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: Aw Tozer said we can never know who or what we are until we know at least something about what God is.
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: John 15, 14.
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: You're my friends, you're my friends, if you do whatever I command you.
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: And that word if is a tiny word, but it's huge, because if you're not doing what Jesus told you what to do, you're not his friend, you're his enemy.
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: Ray, that's so good.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you highlighted that, because there is a multi-dimensionality to this whole friend with Christ, friend with God type thing.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: In that, yeah, of course there's that element of God demonstrating his friendliness toward man, that endearment that we talked about by coming and becoming a man and going to the cross, but on the other hand, we're at enmity with God, and so it's important to remember that.
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: It's not like he's my friend, I'm going to cuddle up to him, but it's like, hey, I've shown my friendship in that I've come to rescue you.
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: Now repent, because if you don't I'm going to have to pour my wrath out on you, because I'm a just God.
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: And, oscar, I loved that list Sorry, I ruined it with my stupid joke, but it was really powerful and I love especially the portion about remembering where we were and just understanding.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: Hey, we were once there, and Paul makes that clear in Ephesians 2, and such were some of you right, or that's in Titus 3,.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: But in Ephesians he said for we ourselves were that right, and you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: For we all were children of wrath, just as the others.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: And I think that's the biggest, maybe, catalyst to creating in us that heart to want to be friends with sinners, but not friends of sin.
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: I love the way you had put that as well.
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I think we covered it.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Fellas, friends, I'm excited to go be friends with some sinners.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: Let's go do it.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: All right, friends, there you have it.
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: How to make sure God hears your prayers.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: That's actually a fitting title for today.
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: You must become reborn or born again, a true friend of God.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: In that sense, don't forget the Living Waters mug, the Evidence Study Bible, alllivingwaterscom.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: Oh, and Fight Like a man.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: Oscar brought it up.
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: That's the only reason I'm mentioning it.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: Get that, it's still out there.
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: Friends and podcast at livingwaterscom, we love to get your comments and thoughts.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: Keep going, friends for the Lord.
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: Ray, you're looking at me.
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: That's what I tend to do with my eyes, oh.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us, friends.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast, where we have no idea what we're doing.