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Is Your Faith Built on Jesus or Tradition? · B1 Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to the B1 podcast.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Mark.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Blake.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Good to have you here.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: We are excited to have you back.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, uh, before we get started, just wanted to let you know if again, if you find value in the content that you hear and see on this podcast, we would love to invite you to subscribe, like, and share with your friends.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of that's been happening.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've been blown away by people sending me texts and emails.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like I just listened to an episode, it really helped me.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And like that kind of language has just been super encouraging to me.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's been fun to see how it's grown.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: So you you shared a photo.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: We'll just jump right in here.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: You shared a photo yesterday or this past Sunday of you working out.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking about what's fake and what's real in this world right now.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like everything's like, is that real?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like everything you see online, everything's questioned, right?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we kind of talked about that a little bit last week about how music, you don't know if it's real or what, you know, and like if is that a track that's you know.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I just showed a picture of myself in the gym, and I'm sure you thought it was real, right?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Didn't you?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I thought if it's not right.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: If it's not real, then it's goals, right?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, Chris, put that picture up so everyone can see.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that that's me, 100% jacked.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it turns out uh Blake plus AI is about, I don't know, a hundred pounds of muscle.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, the the church really they they cackled.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was hilarious.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: How do you tie your shoe or put a shirt on?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: How do you wipe your nose?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: My wife my wife looked at that picture and it's like, oh my, that's gross.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: All the veins and yeah.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: My prompt on AI was, hey, um, make me look like I'm on steroids for years.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's that's what I look like.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then it does, yeah.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it's true.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I I think uh in a world where everything is like, you know, so easily manipulated, um, and knowing that we live in a world that's at war, and this fear of like somebody taking my voice and my face and making a sermon or a statement or putting me with a woman, doing something questionable, right?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: It it it's it makes you just go, man, I it makes you feel vulnerable, doesn't it?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like it can look so very real.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so that that was what, you know, when we look at this series, it's it's really about the one true king and who's the real rightful, you know, person to sit on the throne of our heart, and who do we give authority to?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: All of that matters.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so the the idea that Satan is masquerading as an angel of light, and it's fake.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: He it what he does is puts this image out of like, you know, what what's real and what's not, and he makes you he makes you feel like I can give you more always.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the enemy does.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so my heart in this series is to go, there's a lot of that in the church, and I want to talk about it.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's religions that have been born because the the message yesterday was Jesus plus anything is a lie, right?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Any and so Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so that that thinking is where I came up with, you know, Jesus plus Joe, Jesus plus Muhammad, or Jesus plus a priest.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why do I need Joseph Smith?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why do I need Muhammad?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And why do I need a priest if I have Jesus?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, that's really where this message has been going, what I wanted to develop.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why I went pretty hard after the Catholic Church.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And not really after him, I just like I wanted to give the education and help people understand why we need reform at all?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we call it the Protestant Reformation?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh, it feels like in today's world on the news, when you hear he's a he's a born-again Protestant believer, it's almost like that.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: That feels like it's, you know, he's a Republican and he's a you know, evil, dirty guy.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like a white, evil man that's in the world doing bad things.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's like that's kind of the language.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: But but man, it's funny that that term Protestant, you know, is bad because the whole heart was they were the ones that were going against the system.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: They were the ones like, hey, let's drain the swamp.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: That was Martin Luther.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: He was the guy going, There's evil regime that's lording over us, telling us what to do, and we can't live up to the expectations of the priests and the pope and the papal authority and the cardinals, right?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: All these people that are the, you know, the bishops that are in charge of the Catholic Church are oppressing us.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so these like the the underdogs, you know, or the peasants were the ones pushing back against that, going, hold up.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like the you're trying to make us do all of these indulgences and penance, and I can't live up to your expectation.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Can can we just rewind and you unpacked it in in during the service and the sermon this past weekend?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: But when when was this and with Martin Luther, the Reformation, all that stuff?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Just to catch us up.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 16th century, meaning it was in the 1500s, and his 95 thesis was put on the wall on the door in 1517.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: But he really started that being reformed as he was reading the Bible.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so his whole thing was as as he's reading the Bible, the Lord was reforming his heart.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: So he was Catholic.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: He was a monk.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh he was, you know, trying to be a good Catholic boy, trying to do the right things.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he's going up the stairs, whipping himself, like I said.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that was really when I think the Reformation began.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because he was he was reading, you know, it is by grace through faith that we are saved.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's realizing, oh, hold up, it's not, it's not my works that saves me.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he's hitting himself with his indulgence, penance, trying to do the right thing.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a process called mortification, where you're bit beating your flesh to try and be, you know, make your sin go come out of your body, kind of thing.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's in that process and he realizes, I I have the grace of God regardless of how I perform, and regardless of how my works.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's then that he stood up against the regime.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: He literally stands up the stairs and walks the rest of the way up the stairs because he's on his knees going up the stairs, whipping himself, and he reads that verse, and he's like, Oh no, I'm not doing this anymore.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when he's realizing, even though these men tell me this is what I'm supposed to do, the Bible says differently, and I'm choosing the authority of the Bible over the authority of man.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: That is the Protestant Reformation.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm making it very simple, it's that in history, the Catholic Church, Constantine, they they were very demanding and making you feel like you weren't good enough.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that spirit is still alive today in the world.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the lobby, after that message, people were coming up going, man, first of all, I didn't know any of that.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know the Protestant Reformation.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: They were raised Catholic.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know my Bible because I haven't been reading it.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so good for me to know that that's why the Reformation happened.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it makes me go, I've got to get in the Word.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know the Bible.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I also need to know the history of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church and why, how we got to where we are today.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I thought that was fascinating that a lot of people don't know what the Protestant Reformation is.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know what it was for, they don't know what it was about, why we did it, you know.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so um it was fun for me to do that kind of edu the education behind that and just teach people like, hey, do you know why we stood up against that?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the heart was to get the Bible into the hands of the people so we could read for ourselves and and understand the word of God and allow the word of God to be our authority.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so the heart was not for uh the people to see it for themselves, to read for themselves and not just be told the information uh from the higher ups in in the church.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, uh I I think that the same spirit was here when when Jesus was here.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came after it.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when when the the Pharisees and the you know, rulers of the law and the Sanhedrin, all of that group, uh they actually were lording over the people.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came and he had a lot of very harsh words to say to them.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Called them a brood of vipers, right?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Called them whitewashed tombstones, people that were, you know, which means that you're you look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you're f you know dark and evil.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's he's saying, You're dead inside, but on the outside you look so pretty, right?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so that spirit that was on them, I think is still alive in the Catholic Church.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and I don't not just the Catholic Church, I think a lot of Protestants, right?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of these pastors that are become like rock star pastors and want privilege, they want a certain amount of money, you know, they have to have a certain kind of car and jets, you know, there's like this gross part inside the human heart that wants to be validated and worshipped and receive the glory.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: But that's always what the enemy tells us is to receive glory on earth.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, it's just disgusting.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's so gross.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, I mean, I I agree.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I think that is maybe human nature.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: I think about um I shared a story last week about a friend of mine who grew up in church and I and it was I think probably in a church that it was the rock star pastor, and now like I think being in uh older in age, she's like, I don't think that's what it's all about.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it's made her question things and so much to the the degree where she's walked away from her faith, you know, which is just sad, you know.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I think that's fascinating though.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: So what is the what was the thesis that he nailed to the to the door?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's called the 95 thesis, and um it's it's really his heart is to go against, hey, hey guys, these things you're placing on the people, the indulgences and the penance you're making them do, it's too much.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I he kind of goes after all of those.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so um it's a fascinating read, and I'd encourage you to go check out.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's also a movie about Martin Luther of him like running as an outlaw trying to, you know, and it's also a great movie.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever seen that.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Have you seen it?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, yeah.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: He was an incredible man, the great reformer.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to read this when I talked about yesterday where Jesus says to call no one a father, and I feel like that's a message directly at the Catholic Church, but it's also after Jesus is going after this spirit, the self-righteous spirit, the pious, pompous, arrogant pride of man that's using God to Lord over people.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what he says to them He says, The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you must be careful to do everything they tell you, but do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Everything they do is done for people to see.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know anybody like that?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's like always for show.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: They make their phylacteries wide and their tassels on their garments long.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogue.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: They love to be greeted with respect in the marketplace and be called rabbi by others, but you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: At best, we call ourselves brothers, right?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says this and do not call anyone on earth father, for you have one father, and he is in heaven.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always thought, you know, Jesus uh he he is timeless.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thought to me is like omnipresent.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's in the past, he's in the future, he knows what's coming.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so was that a statement that knowing, hey, a thousand years from now, you know, there's gonna be this church, you know.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: It really wasn't a thousand years after he died.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: But in in the not too long future, the Catholic Church is gonna be born and they're gonna call themselves father, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the time that wasn't a thing.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's so later on it's like he speaks directly towards, hey, listen, don't call anybody father but your father in heaven.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always thought that is like direct statement towards the Catholic Church.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And how do they how do they get around that?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why did why did they and it and if I'm starting a church and Jesus said, Don't call anyone father, why would you demand the people to call you father?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's the words of Christ Himself.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like a direct, like, um disobedience to the words of Christ himself.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, Father Ryan, Father Fred, all these like why do why do why do we do that, right?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm supposed to call only Father God.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus taught us to pray, he said, our Father, which art in heaven.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's he wants us to call him our Father in heaven.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I don't I wouldn't want to call anyone father if I'm in the Catholic Church.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be questioning that.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said not to do it.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do I choose the word of God and the authority of Jesus, or do I choose the papal authority, you know, to do what the you know man say, the spirit of man?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's really what it comes down to is that men want to have authority over people.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you've heard of the term papal infallibility.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Have you heard that statement?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Familiar with that.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's exercised by the Pope, and the Pope has used papal infallibility in the past to speak certain specific doctrines over people, but it's as if it's the word of God Himself, right?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: That seems so dangerous to me.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Infallibility is the what we use when we talk about the Word of God.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so again, it comes back to are the words of man infallible or are the words of a human infallible?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm going with the Word of God.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: An executive order.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I say these things, I I want to say this with the dearest respect and honor towards Catholic people.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I the last thing I want to do, if you're watching and you're Catholic, we love you.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to, you know, judge you.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I instead I just want to educate and help you understand how how we got here, why there was reform in the first place, and to help educate people.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like forget about the terms of Protestant versus Catholic, and just go, Am I gonna listen to the words of Jesus versus the words of man?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the better way to look at it.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is I I'm gonna choose the authority, the anointing, the sovereignty, and the sufficiency of Jesus alone.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I'm gonna stand on, not the sufficiency of man, because we're all like a breath of wind.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna, you know, we're gonna fade away.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna be here very long.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're temporary, but the word of God will stand forever, right?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is eternal.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to live for that, not this.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so have you ever been to like a Catholic church inside of a Catholic, you know, tabernacle or their temples or the Yeah, have you ever seen one?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's incredible.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: This summer I got to go to Europe and I got to see a lot of these.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like you spend a lot of time in that.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, when we went to Israel, Greece, it seems like the Catholic Church would go to these sites that were like the the site for, you know, Peter's house, like Peter's house in Capernaum.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's this big temple that's built over his house.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: You remember it was a church built over.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the Catholic Church comes in and buys up all the property.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's all these places that are like they're so like reverent, you know, holy.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, there's a lot of movement towards the younger generation is kind of wanting to they there's people that are going, I want to be Catholic again.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Have you s have you heard of this?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's a lot of people that are going, I I and I think what they want more than more than you know, to be under the tyranny and leadership of a man that's trying to, you know, tell you if you're good or bad.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think what they want is the reverence and the quiet.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: The order.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Old ancient ways, like this has been passed down to us for generations uh from the Catholic Church, and it feels like sometimes the Protestant Church is floozy, meaning it's new, it's like modern, and it's kind of like lights.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and pastors often are kind of like whatever they want to preach about.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like where there's like a rhythm and a system to all of the homilies in the Catholic Church.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's not like just whatever people are feeling that day because they, you know, what they ate or some because of their opinion about something that might be wrong.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, it feels more like solid.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: I so I can understand that.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: However, if you if you s go and look at um the history of the Catholic Church and the things that they did, it's like, are are you sure you want to lock arms with that knowing knowing the past of what they've done in in the past, and especially like um if you've ever been to like Bethlehem and seen where they built the building over Jesus's um where where he was born, um there was a lot of Greek mythology that kind of was at in Rome, and so a lot of the practices and teachings of Greek mythology bled into the, you know, Constantine and his teachings of what the church was.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so they were sun worshippers, right?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and if you look at the halos over people's heads, it's like that, it's very clearly you're depicting the apostles as as if they're sun worshippers also.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things that really freaked me out was when we were in Bethlehem, uh, you're like going down into this, it's like a cave where Jesus was born, supposedly, allegedly, it's one of the places where they say Jesus was born.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you get down, everyone's getting down on their knees, and they're touching this black rock and they're crying and they're kissing the rock, and around this rock is literally a sun.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you have a picture of that to show, but it's it's something to look at.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you getting on your knees, touching a rock, kissing this rock, crying, you know, thinking that you're loving Jesus, but it feels so evil.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and I was like, oh heck no, I'm not getting on my knees.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I if I'm gonna worship the sun, it's the son of God, it's not the sun in the sky, right?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm not touching that just because I know the history of sun worship, you know.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's all kinds of like pagan teachings that worked its way into the Catholic Church.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so yesterday I kind of taught about some of those things that how they were using indulgences and saying, hey, if you give so much money, then your family will be, you know, get extra privilege in purgatory, right?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and so there's just ways that they were using people and and taking advantage of people in the church in the name of God.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the part that's like gross to me.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I I hate, I can't stand that part of and not to say that it doesn't happen in the Protestant church too, right?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, we have these massive buildings and you know, and and pastors, you know, are treated with privilege.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I I've always struggled with like the pastor even having a parking spot.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like the this is the pastor's, nobody's parks here except his car.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always like, man, I any kind of privilege like that, it just seems so contrary to who Jesus was, right?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Foxes have holes, birds have a nest, but the son of man has no place to lay his head, right?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: If if you remember, he he was like, decrease so Christ can become less so Christ can become more.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was like I I always think like my job is to hold the ladder to help other people climb.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a glorious place of position and power.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like he comes, you want his spot in the banquet, you know, and people honor you and everywhere you go.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Not that I have anything wrong with honor.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: I I love it when people are kind and honoring, but to give extra privilege to the clergy, I'm because of the past that we have in both Protestant and Catholic Church, I'm just super careful because pride, arrogance, it puffs you up and it makes gross.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like when you're around people like that and there's vain conceit and their self-righteous spirit, this pious spirit, it's the same thing, same thing that was Jesus was fighting, and it's that spirit still alive in the church today.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to do everything we can to not glorify man, right?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Not glorify man's opinion over the authority and teachings of the word of God, right?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, right.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: I just posted a song this morning, Philippians 2, 3, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the heart of Christ, right?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so, um, yeah, I I want to tell you something that you might not know.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, have you ever seen in Vatican City there's this building that was built, and it's right outside of Vatican City, and it's called the Vatican Hall, the Pope's Vatican Hall.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Audience hall.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right, Pope's audience hall.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: You have heard of this.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this building, man, I want you to show a picture of this.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know how the Pope is like, you know, here's my idea for a for a hall.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: I and I I have these questions like, can When I sit down with the building committee, like who thought this is a great idea?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: They build this hall, and you can't deny that that thing looks like the head of a serpent.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't see this picture and not watching online, just Google Head of the Serpent Vatican.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: A dance hall.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, yeah.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll see, like, well, that that's the eyes of a snake.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Those are things.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Pope stands right between that, and then the main place that you walk looks like a tongue where you're walking down, right?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, why did you guys make a church that looks like a serpent's head?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it just makes you go, man, if I'm masquerading as an angel of light, like the enemy does, these places sometimes they look so glorious.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you walk in, you like the grandeur of God.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the architecture is so inspiring.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: But then you walk in and you look around in a lot of these temples, and it's like, it feels like this is the worship of man.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's statues and idols of all these, you know, popes from the past, and there's, you know, Francis, Saint Francis is up there, and then Patrick, Saint Patrick's up there, and it's like all these statues of men, Mary, as you know, is idolized in a major way.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it feels like idol worship.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like Rome, actually.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: When you go to Rome, it's very similar.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's like all these statues of these emperors and men, and and so it's like that practice was brought into the church, and it f feels like so.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it comes down to is God your authority or is man your authority?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because every time I go into those buildings, like, hey, this is cool of all these people.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's even tombs inside the ground of people that are dead.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and he's like, Why did you decide to do that inside the church?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Why is there a dead man in this building?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because I think the whole thing is supposed to be for Jesus.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just curious, where is he?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Can I see a picture of him?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and you know, I I just want us to take time to to really process that, to think about the fact that if there's a church that you go, man, it feels like if I'm the devil and I'm wanting to create a place that is looks kind of good, masquerading as it's supposed to be, kind of holy place, but it's really not, I I would make it look like the Catholic Church because it's so pretty.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's beautiful.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, and and that's the way the enemy looks usually.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's very alluring, you know.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: I always say, like, if the devil can't destroy you, he'll distract you.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that's what the a lot of times when I walk into these Catholic churches, I feel that.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I feel like I it feels so reverent and holy, but I also feel distracted by the beauty of man and the and kind of the worship of man.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so that's part of what I wanted to try and talk about.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus plus nothing is everything.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we don't need to add all this other stuff to make you feel like, you know.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, I I was one of the stories I want to tell today is like I took Allie into this beautiful place.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was one of these buildings, it was gorgeous.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think it was a Jesuit temple, and it was just so grand and beautiful, and everybody when you're walking through these places are quiet and they're you know not talking, and you're just kind of looking at all these like gold everywhere, and just like um you know, there's these big boxes, and there's people that are in these boxes that are kind of like gold people, and it's like man, this there's so much money here that's just in the walls of this place.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're we're walking out, and as we're walking out, this is so irreverent and bad of me.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's one of those bowls that has the holy water in it, and I reach over and I grab the water and I put it on my finger and I splash it on my wife.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are a fan of Nacho Libro, you you'll think this is hilarious.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I go, I take the water, I splash it on her going, you've been baptized.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so she's like, Blake, but I can't believe you did that.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, she's like having a hard time.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I know I probably shouldn't have done that, but it was hilarious.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: So every time we walk by that temple, she's like, that's where my husband baptized me.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: But anyways, I I think sometimes you just have to go, man, I I love my Catholic church, but there's so much around my Catholic church friends, but there's so much around all of that that I feel like we have to just give warning and teaching, like, hey, pay attention.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to what where you're at, what you're worshiping, and make sure that it's built on the scriptures and the word of God and the teachings of Jesus and not on the teachings of man, because most of my Catholic friends are like, I don't know the Bible, I don't study the Bible, right?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really, I I wasn't raised to teach the Bible.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it wasn't like the stories were actually taught.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: I we knew they had these homilies that, you know, and we were told to be good, and the people were, you know, scorned a lot, and like, you know, nuns spanking people's hands with rulers, and there's lots of like um uh behavior management, right?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so I there there's not as much heart transformation and by the word of God through the Holy Spirit.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I love about Martin Luther is that his heart was being transformed.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I love one of the things that he's credited for.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people say it's John Wesley, but the statement is beautiful.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's this traditions are the living faith of the dead, right?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: So there's traditions that are alive still, it's people that came before us that are alive and beautiful, things like communion, you know, that's passed down to us.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: But traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what is that?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Traditionalism, dead faith of the living.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a faith that's hollow, it's ritualistic, right?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Stand up, sit down, but it really doesn't affect your heart, right?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible speaks pretty strongly about that.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: It says things like, you know, you draw near to me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, that's what Jesus is trying to say is I don't I don't want you to do these ritualistic, hollow things that are lifeless and dead.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I want your heart.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to follow after me and give give me everything and not be pious and pompous and for show.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I I think that's the spirit that we need to come after is like let's not do this for pretend, we're not faking it.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't, you know, I'm not gonna be a hypocrite where it's like counterfeit religion.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want it to be real and sincere and from my gut, you know?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so um what are your thoughts about all that, Mark?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, I was as you were sharing that, I was just thinking, I've heard you teach on like even the significance um of at the crucifixion, there were some pretty significant things that took place even in the temple, um, with the curtain and things um that I feel like maybe speak to some tradition um, you know, of of having a high priest, you know.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: What can you speak into you know what what happened when Jesus was crucified?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um I remember once I was do I was preaching at a funeral and it was mostly Catholics that were attending there.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I taught this for the first time, and afterwards a lady came up to me and goes, That is not in the Bible.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know where you taught that or where that came from, young man, but that was wrong.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, No, it's definitely in the Bible.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it was it was the teaching that when Jesus died, right, we know that the rocks split, the earth shook, right, the clouds grew dark, right?
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And at the very time that he, you know, commits his spirit to the Father, that all that happened.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, Jesus, God reached down from heaven and he grabs the veil, and he rips that veil in half from top to bottom.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so you've talked about like this wasn't just like a piece of sheer fabric.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right, it's forty feet tall, twenty feet wide, two phone books thick.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's a massive thick.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: This curtain is huge.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so ripping that, you know, no man could have done that.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it would have been a massive sight.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: But what's the significance of that?
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why did that happen in that moment?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why, when Jesus died, did God say we're done with the temple, the holy of holies, all of the um ritualistic, legalistic laws that were hand Pharisaic laws, over 600.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, all of that system is done.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because the blood of the Lamb died on the cross, and that was the final atoning sacrifice that did away with the old sacrifices and the old covenant, and the all of that was like we don't have to practice that anymore.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: So before that, yeah, people had to go to the priests, and the priest went to God on the people's behalf behind that veil.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: The high priest would go in once a year and they would do this whole ceremonial cleansing, the whole year, preparing him for this one moment.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes in and he like offers sacrifices to God on behalf of all the people, all the Israelites, to say, Hey, would you forgive us?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like this atoning sacrifice to be done.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so he would have a rope tied to his ankle in case he died in the presence of God.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so they could drag him out.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: In case he died, they gotta pull him out because nobody else could go in after him because they would die in the presence of God, right?
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Ark of the Covenant.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, it was in that moment that that God was saying, Hey, the old high priest is done, and I you now have a new high high priest.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a new high priest in his name is Jesus, it's my son.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: He died on the cross for your sins to become our high priest.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so that that's the point of like, we don't have to go to Joe, we don't have to go to Muhammad, we don't have to go to a priest.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: I can go directly to the Father.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: I have access to God.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: My prayers don't have to go through any man, right?
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Praise God for that.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: So, yes uh in the message this past weekend, you mentioned uh there's a passage since we then have a great high peace priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: He he is our our high priest, right?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean so that that's that was the act of the crucifixion.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: He became our mediator to God.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: First Timothy two.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so praise God we have a you know mediator in heaven, and I don't have to go to have confessionals, right?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why people so I got an email.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: I got an email from a from a Catholic this week, yet well, yesterday, saying, Hey, I I've always wondered why I had to go do my confessionals as a priest.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've always asked that question.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was so helpful for me to finally understand, oh, that's why I don't need a priest.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I've always thought that, but you helped me understand it biblically.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, that's that's the good news of the gospel is that we all have access to the Father now, right?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been to a like a you've had a backstage pass at a concert or something like that?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: And having that pass on is like it feels awesome because you get to go behind stage and meet meet all the people and you get to like the famous folks are back there, and you're like, wow, I've I have you know full access.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's the exact same thing that we have when we give our life to Christ and we surrender to Him and we're baptized, follow Him with our whole life, become a disciple.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: You have access to God now.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your backstage pass to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like that, that is that is amazing.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, did you have more you wanted to talk about about the Catholic Church?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I know there's so much to teach and understand, and I just want to say to anybody listening, if you've been uh if this helped you, please let us know.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Leave comments if you ever have questions about the Catholic, you know, history, understanding Protestantism, and I hope you'll watch this sermon because I really kind of go into the history of the Protestant Reformation and how we got to where we are.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of a it was a pretty brief one, but it helped, you know, kind of the basic 101 in understanding the education of knowing why we needed reform from the Catholic Church and the importance of that.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so at the end of the day, my heart is to say everybody listening, make sure and make the word of God your authority.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Give him the the the word, the Jesus through his word to be supreme in your life and not the word of man.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that includes me, right?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: Any man.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and and a priest, anybody that's trying to make themselves in between you and God, it can easily become an idol and sets itself up as a you know, someone that's masquerading as an angel of light, you know, to say, you need to look at me.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of Herod.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know that story where he gets up in front of everybody and he's like shining?
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's got this glistening suit on that's like silver, and he's like the sun's shining on him, and the people were worshiping him.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: And what happened to him?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Remind me.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was he was turned into a dog.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like he got down on his hands and knees and he was on the earth.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think that's that's the heart of God.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, man, pride comes before the fall.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it's dangerous when we set ourselves up as a man to be worshipped by God's people.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: When I just think Christ alone received receives all the glory, not men.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's a lot of people in the church today that set themselves up to have a big platform, a bunch of followers, and I call them glory chasers.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're after the glory of God when it's like, hold up, be very careful.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Christ is the cornerstone, he is the rock.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's him alone that deserves worship and praise and honor.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so be very careful to receive that.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: I always just like be a mirror, deflect the glory of Christ, and don't allow it to, you know, make you puffed up and prideful.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's my heart for all of us is like, let's remember that Christ alone deserves the glory.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully that was helpful to you today.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us for this podcast.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we love you no matter where you are and no matter what background of faith you are from.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: And remember one thing that Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so I hope that today you'll go and be blessed and live for him and him alone.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for you.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for all the listeners that are online right now.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: We just praise you that we get to use our voices to teach the word of God and help people understand who you are so people can become closer to you.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so, God, may that be the case for everyone listening today.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe may they live lives that want to give you glory and live for your will.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Father, we just praise you for the opportunity to be able to speak boldly about the truth of our past and the truth of the scriptures.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully people grow closer to you because of all of that.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, we pray.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: We love you.