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Hillcrest Academy: Asking the Hard Questions! (Some Christians Avoid Answering) · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  Relish, pleasing or zestful flavor, a quantity just sufficient to flavor,
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  to be pleased or gratified by, enjoy.
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  We are hoping that what we bring to your table today might add some spice to your life.
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  Welcome everybody. This is our podcast Relish Q&A format, and I have all the
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  questions that you guys submitted last week or two weeks ago in small groups,
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  bringing it before pastor don here from colin
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  midnight church which is where i attend so should be
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  a fun one but yeah no pressure here i do
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  want to acknowledge alex is in the back he has alex zimmerman
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  he's the uh originator of the podcast he's also our producer so every week he
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  produces the podcast and we want to thank you alex god bless you yeah we'll
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  start it off here with uh should be a fun question would you rather be swallowed
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  by a whale tossed in a lion's den or fight goliath.
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  And there's not a d none of the above no okay
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  just three options just three options okay i don't
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  like water so the whales out uh i and yeah
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  fighting like samson ain't gonna happen i suppose the lion's den's lost all
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  i'm left with at that point and i like kitties so maybe it'll work yeah yeah
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  lion's dead you have a dog though i know she doesn't like kitties but okay yeah i do yeah,
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  Who are your favorite grandchildren?
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  Yes, all ten of them are favorite grandchildren. Oh, yeah.
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  Favorite grandchildren. We'll leave that at. I think we better leave that alone.
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  Yeah, they're going to listen to this. So yeah, we'll leave that one alone.
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  I'll tell them our favorite.
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  Alrighty. We're going to jump into the deeper questions now. So.
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  Praise myself. Yeah. Why does prayer matter if God's will is going to happen anyways?
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  Ah, because prayer matters to measure our participation in that will.
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  So if we pray the prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,
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  which is Matthew 6, if we're going to pray that God's will is done,
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  we need to participate in it.
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  I mean, do we desire it? Do we look forward to it? Are we going to invest at
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  least the emotional energy desiring that the prayer come about?
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  Are we going to invest the emotional energy in believing that God will make it happen.
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  So, yes, our participation in prayer is important because it's our investment in making it happen.
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  This kind of might follow up with that a little bit. Does God know every choice
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  that we are going to make?
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  Yes. Are they all predetermined or predestined? Not predetermined because we
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  do still have the free will to decide.
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  But what I see, I'm going to come from my own life is that God is going to weigh
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  the positive. In other words,
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  God loves us and God is investing in us.
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  The whole salvation experience of Jesus Christ is God's investment into us.
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  He wants us to make the right decisions and he's going to put those things around
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  us to help us make those decisions the way he would like to have them made and
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  the way that reflects his kingdom.
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  Because we as Christians may forget the fact that every decision we make,
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  every word we say, the way we say it to our friends and our neighbors,
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  we are reflecting the kingdom.
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  If we're a Christian, we reflect the kingdom by what we say and by what we do.
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  So in one way or another, we're speaking gospel every time we're with people.
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  Now, that's either a positive gospel or a negative one. You know what?
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  We have the choice.
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  That's our investment.
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  Yeah very good um that was a little short version yeah yeah yeah we we covered
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  that subject in a uh was it three episodes ago i'm watching the clock we have
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  12 minutes so i'm really trying to give you yeah we're keeping a big bang for
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  buck because these are your questions,
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  but maybe not big bang yeah you can come find me after and i'll get you the
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  link we'll linger behind a while.
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  If God loves everyone equally, why are some people born into much harder lives than others? Yeah.
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  Excellent question. I hope I have a decent answer. From my experience,
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  it's often those who are born in harder situations that have the bigger testimony
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  of what God's doing in their life, because God is willing to take them from here to there.
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  And I believe God does that intentionally.
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  So yeah, some of people have a harder time,
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  you know, maybe born in a third world country and hunger and those things are
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  part of their lives, and then they rise to a certain point and bless their entire
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  nation as much as they possibly can, then there's you and I.
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  We've got it pretty easy.
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  So why do we have it so easy? Well, maybe we're wimps.
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  Maybe we're spiritual wimps and we won't make it any farther from here to there.
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  I'm sorry. Did I call you a spiritual wimp?
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  I meant it in a very loving way, but God knows ahead of time just to, okay,
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  1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, he will give us only what we can handle,
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  I think is part of the reflection of the fact that God knows ahead of time what
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  we're going to be able to handle and what we won't be able to handle.
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  I'm going to add a little snippet to the end of that. There might be the possibility
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  that you don't think you can handle the situation in front of you that God knows full well you can.
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  Ask him about it. Live into it.
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  Remember that He's on your side. God is not against us. He's for us.
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  And so that means He's going to create, just like that 2 Corinthians 13, 10, 38.
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  He's going to create a way out for us.
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  And that's what we need to be looking for is that way out he's going to make it for us.
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  I left my Bible at home, but... Yeah, I'll find it later.
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  God desires our very, very best. If he didn't, we wouldn't have John 3.16.
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  For God so loved the world. How many of us are in the world?
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  All of us, right? It's not a certain national group or entity.
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  For God so loved the world, cosmos, that he gave his only begotten son,
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  that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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  That's a God that lives into us, isn't it?
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  It's not a God that's against us in any way, shape, or form.
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  That being the case, the question still stands, why does he start us out where he starts us out?
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  And I still believe that he starts us out there for a reason.
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  And then he gives us the possibilities of doing more and better with every investment
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  he's made into our lives.
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  Consider it pure joy, my brothers. when you endure trials of many kinds,
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  because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
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  And perseverance, when it's finished its work, leaves us mature and complete, not lacking anything.
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  That's God's desire. James chapter one, verses two through four.
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  Well, knock on another question. I'll just insert that that's your favorite verse. It is. Yes.
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  Yeah. That's the one that came to me in the hardest moment of my life.
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  God gave me that verse he put me,
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  developing Sunday school material writing Sunday school material at that,
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  perfect moment in my life and as I was working with that verse this tragedy
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  happened in our family and I oh.
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  God put that verse in my life for the very moment I'm living I think you'll
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  find that as you turn your life over to God there's more and more of those moments yeah,
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  What are your thoughts on the book of Revelation, especially the Antichrist
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  and the time of tribulation?
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  Should Christians work to hasten or delay the end times?
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  Yes. To which one?
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  Okay. As I look at the book of Revelation and have studied it several times
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  through, it's interesting because if you look at it, there's almost seven perfect
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  frames of seven happenings.
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  In other words, if you were looking at a cylinder up here with seven sides,
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  each of those seven sides has seven frames.
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  That's 49 frames, right? My math is right.
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  So there's 49 vignettes of
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  seven different scenes in the
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  book of revelation so maybe that'll
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  help you look at the overall book and realize that
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  maybe the story is told seven different times of what's going to happen at the
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  end and it's seen from seven different viewpoints okay so if i looked at it
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  from this way and lincoln looked at the cylinder from that way we would see
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  two different panes of what's happening.
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  And that's sort of what I'm trying to explain with the book of Revelation.
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  That's why you have 49 different vignettes. In those vignettes,
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  then you've got this Antichrist showing up in one pane, which starts out with
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  the beast in chapter 13 and ends up with the culmination with the wrath of God.
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  So, yes, there will be an Antichrist.
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  Yes, there will be judgment. It will look different maybe on this side of the
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  earth than it will on the other side of the earth, but it's still going to be
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  planned out, I think, like John wrote it.
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  I really believe in the integrity of how John wrote that revelation.
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  That means that after verse 20 and the judgment that happens in chapter 20,
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  that those who are in Christ, whose name is in the book of life, will enjoy judgment.
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  A beautiful, wonderful future that includes that tree of life that was back
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  in Genesis chapter two and three back beside the streams. The tree of life will be there.
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  Now, did I hit all of them? That was quite a few. Right, I think you got the
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  first half of it. Half, okay. Let's do the second half. Yeah.
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  Should Christians work to hasten or delay the end time? That's been a contrary
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  thought to me because some of us...
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  Are no earthly good because we're so heavenly minded.
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  So we want to hasten things along so that heaven comes.
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  The other part of it is we can't be doing that because a lot of people aren't ready.
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  A lot of people are not ready for chapter 20, which means your name is in the
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  book of life and your name, your deeds are all in place.
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  So, no, I don't want to hasten it because of that.
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  Come Lord Jesus tomorrow or in the next two minutes, that'd be fine too.
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  Because, you know, stress, I don't like stress. Right.
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  This kind of ties into free will, but what do you think about infant baptism?
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  Or should you wait until you're old enough to make the decision yourself?
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  Okay, if you are baptized as an infant to be re-baptized as an adult.
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  I would say it's okay to be, if you're baptized as an infant,
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  to be re-baptized, I have found that in my work, I do some spiritual warfare kind of things,
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  that if you have not been baptized as a believer, it changes how you do spiritual
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  warfare and how you can do spiritual warfare.
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  And you say, why is that? Because our identity is in our baptism.
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  We have the freedom given to us in Christ in baptism because all of a sudden
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  we identify with his death,
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  and then death, how many people realize that dead people don't sin much?
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  Romans chapter 8. Dead people don't sin much. Just watch a cemetery.
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  Dead people don't sin there, do they?
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  So our freedom is in Christ, as if we died to all of our sins, and they're all gone.
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  And our identity then is in God, because He has created us in His image at that point.
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  We identify as joint heirs with Jesus. please read
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  Romans chapter 8 verses 1 through 29
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  and you'll see this identity that God
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  has given us given that identity then where does it start and I believe it starts
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  at the moment we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and we give
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  our life over to him and one of the things I'd add to that is the fact,
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  okay, so you say you're a Christian.
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  If you were in a courtroom and accused of being a Christian,
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  would there be enough evidence to convict you?
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  In other words, and I think about that in my own life, if I were in a courtroom
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  and somebody convicted me of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence
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  that I'd be found guilty of being a Christian?
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  And I think we need to live our lives in such a way that, yes,
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  there's plenty of evidence in our life that we're Christian.
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  And I believe that identity comes out of our belief system and baptism.
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  So I'm a believer's Baptist guy.
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  Kind of adding on to that, how old do you think is old enough to make that decision?
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  Around what age? You know, it varies from kid to kid. Because some kids know right from wrong.
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  Early in life like eight years old i found
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  some high schoolers that don't know right from wrong yet so
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  maybe they aren't quite ready uh but
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  i believe it's at that point when you
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  realize that what you do have consequences and
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  you know right from wrong and so i
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  know that following jesus is that's what I want to
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  do uh yeah that's
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  very Anabaptist but that's what I'm where I'm at
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  yeah understandably so I think
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  we got time for one more here uh at what
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  point is self-defense justified I'll give
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  some context here so from a spectrum of military involvement
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  where you're willing to die for your defending your country to like the right
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  to or like killing somebody who's invading your home like at what point is self-defense
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  justifiable i have every right,
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  to give my life to protect others i think it's a question of whether i have
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  the right to take someone else's life to protect my own?
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  So as I look at that question, that's where I'm coming from.
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  I have every right to lay down my life if I were protecting you.
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  Probably it's going to be the inverse.
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  But I don't have the right to take your life to protect me.
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  And so as I come to that question, I have to come from the reality that,
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  well, I probably won't be in a war situation.
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  I'm far too old for that anyway but when i put it in the perspective of i have
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  the right to give my life but i don't have the right to take yours,
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  And that's the short, simple, the bell has rung answer. Yeah.
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  Well, we better send the kids back to class. We want to respect the school and all of you guys.
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  Thank you for coming. Thank you for your questions.
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  Not all your questions will show up in the next three weeks,
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  but we've got a couple episodes.
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  We put that all on Alex as to how they'll come out. But we will use your questions
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  in our podcasts in the next coming weeks.
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  And thank you for giving them to us. good questions guys,
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  thank you for joining us for this podcast feel free to become part of this ministry
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  by sharing with others our goal is to help each other grow deeper in our understanding
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  of who God is and is calling to us in our daily lives thank you again for joining
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  us and may God bless your day.