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Voddie Baucham - LIVE at #SBC with Voddie Baucham & Tom Ascol · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us today here at the Southern
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Baptist Convention in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Bodie Baucom and I
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: are here. We're excited. Just recently have announced about the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: new Founders Seminary that's going to open classes August 11th. Man,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: hard to believe. Not long coming up. We've already got
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: about two dozen students or so who have signed up,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: and many of those will be moving to Cape Coral
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: over the next few weeks and planning to join us.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And we're excited about what God has done. Vody and
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: his family have landed in Cape Coral for two months
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: now or six weeks or so?
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, about six weeks.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's probably the longest you've stayed anywhere in the
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: last six months.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: In the last six months. It's been a while, yeah.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're glad for you to join in with us.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: We're here at the convention at the Founders Booth. Grateful
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: for everybody who's here live with us and those that
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: are joining us as well. And so, Vody, you and
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I have, we've known each other a long time, man.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: And I can't, I think the way that we first
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: got connected is I kept asking, who's this guy that's
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: ordering all of these tag books, these memory books, and
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: everywhere you'd go.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I was taking them to homeschool conferences.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: And I had been mentioning the catechisms and, you know,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: I'd been mentioning the truth and grace books and people
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: were asking me about them. And so we just decided
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: to you know, start bringing them and having them at
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: our booth. And people were lapping them up. So we
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: were just ordering and ordering and ordering. And you did.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: You reached out to sort of figure out what we
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: were doing with all of those.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. I thought, man, this is great. We're
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: getting all these orders. I don't know who this guy is.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: So we connected that way. And then you came to
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Fort Myers to speak at the Florida Baptist Convention, I think.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: at some point and came and stayed with us for
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: a day or night maybe and spoke in our church.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: And it was just like, boom, God knit our hearts together.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So here we are, however many years later and man,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: both in Cape Coral about to start something that a
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: year ago wasn't on the radar.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's amazing to look at God's providence and see
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: how he brought all of this together. It's not something
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: that either of us would, thinking about or planning or
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: trying to make happen. It's just something that God did
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: all the way starting with IOPT, you know? Yeah. This
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: is just an outgrowth of what the Lord was doing
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: when we got together to start IOPT, which was another
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: thing that, you know, just providentially came together and got
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: blessed and it was useful and helpful. And, you know,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: all we've been trying to do from then through now
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: is just to be as useful and as helpful as
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: we can. And to be good stewards.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, that's it. That's it. That's what I, it
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: just is a burden for me daily. I just pray, Lord,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: don't let me waste opportunities. Don't let me waste time.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Don't let me waste minutes. of a day. And to
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: look at what you put in front of us and
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: to make the most of it. And it's amazing the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: doors God's opened and how he's directed our steps over
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the years. We just graduated our first three students from
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: IOPT last fall, two of them. are still in Cape Coral.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: They're pursuing now the MDiv through Founders Seminary. Another has
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: planted a church in Michigan, and they had their first
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: service two weeks ago, and that went well. It's just
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: exciting to see how God has been moving. And what
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: we're gonna do now, because of what happened over the
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: last year, is IOPT is gonna become a four-year college,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: which is gonna have three majors in classical Christian education,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: in business and public theology?
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Listen, I'm honored to serve as the president of Founders Seminary,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: but I'm really excited about IOPT becoming a four-year Bible college.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: And especially with those three majors, those three areas of emphasis,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: because they're incredibly important. And it's really carrying on the
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: vision of IOPT. And it's about preparing and equipping men
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: to serve the Lord in their context, both in terms
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: of being on the ground where they are, committed where
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: they are locally, but also in terms of understanding what's
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: going on in their context and in the broader cultural
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: context so that they can be useful where they're needed.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, amen. You know, in your cross-cultural experience for
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the last nine plus years in Zambia, that's been an
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: invaluable opportunity for you to reflect on on what you
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: left behind here, what you saw there, how you're trying
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: to help with Christians thinking over there at the African
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Christian University where you served as dean for all those years.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: So there's just a world of experience that God has
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: put together in bringing this vision of a seminary into
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: being and doing it pretty quickly.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're telling me. Yeah, it was. He did. He
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: did do this very quickly. But again, it was providential.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: It wasn't like trying to move pieces around on a chessboard.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: I remember our conversation when the Lord was sort of
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: moving us out of Lusaka. We went to Lusaka in 2015.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Our commitment was three to five years. We ended up
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: there almost 10. But it was time. It was time
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: for that chapter to end. And I remember the discussions
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: that we had were really just around me trying to
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: figure out where I was going to land, where I
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: was going to have a family land. We needed to
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: be in a place where I could get on a
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: plane and fly and do tenant ministry. But more importantly,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: we needed to be someplace where there was a healthy church.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: And so we had a number of places that we
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: picked out, some churches that we thought would be good
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: for our family. And so that was... That was our discussion.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Little did I know that behind the scenes, there were
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: things happening to bring this about. So, you know, I'm
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: sitting here trying to figure out my next move. And
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: the Lord was already working this thing out so that
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: you could see a bigger picture than I could at
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: that time.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember it was in October. I think he
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: texted me and he said, man, you know, we're going
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: to be able to move. quickly yeah and we got
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: to move quickly because there's an offer on my house
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: out of the blue you weren't expecting it god did
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: it and i'm this is october and the part of
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the contingency on that offer was you had to be
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: out by december 1st yeah i don't know if you
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: remember this but you told me so i looked at
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: bridget i said honey i love you but we're taking
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: this off and we're gonna help you we're going.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah um but yeah we were already going to be
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: on furlough yeah um And yeah, so just all of
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: those pieces coming into place. And there were other opportunities
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: that we were praying through and looking at. So it
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: wasn't just instant and automatic, but again, providence.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Amen, amen. No, and when we talked, it was just
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: like a week or 10 days after we had made
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the final decision to say, okay, we're going to start
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: a seminary. You know, we, this is something we got
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: to do. So when you were telling me all this stuff,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I'm letting you talk. And I'm thinking it was amazing.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: So I said, let me tell you what's going on here, man,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and what God is doing. And, and, uh, the Lord
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: just worked it out. And, and that's one of the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: things we we've mentioned some, but not a lot is, um,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, none of this was on the books a
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: year ago. None of this was on the books. And
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: so there was no budget for it. There was no
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: building for it. Um, everything has had to be put
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: into place. And by faith, just kind of keep taking
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: those steps. And, and you came here and I remember saying, brother,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: you know, we don't have the money to pay you
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a salary, but I'll do my best to raise money
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: to get you a salary for your family. And that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I'm just so grateful for your willingness to do that.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: When you had offers that would have made life a
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: lot simpler, easier for you, had you taken them. And, uh,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: your stock couldn't get any higher in my book anyway,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: but had it been able to get higher, it would
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: have gone higher. Yeah.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: You know, but, but that's another thing when you look
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: at Providence, when you, when you live your life, according
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: to God's plans, according to biblical wisdom, godly counsel from,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: you know, sound Christian people in your life over time.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is what, as pastors, this is what
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: we're always telling people, right? Because one of the things
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: that we always have to do is walk with people
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: through these kinds of life decisions. Um, and it was
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: just an opportunity for me to sort of take my
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: own counsel. Um, and at the end of the day,
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: this couldn't be a decision about, um, you know, where
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: the most money was going to come from or, you know,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: anything like that. I, this, this, this was about, um,
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: This is my stewardship. And I look at this and
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: it's as though everything that the Lord has done in
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: me and with me throughout my life and ministry has
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: prepared me for this moment, which is exactly how we
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: felt when we went to Lusaka. And it was so.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: And we're grateful for what the Lord did there. But
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: we're excited about what's happening here. And I'm praying that
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: You know, it never caused me to start anything else. But,
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm getting old for this.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Tell me about it.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: I hear you.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but God's doing it. And we've got a good
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: church and the elders are fully supportive. The congregation is
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: fully supportive. And there are other churches in our area
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: that are on board with good pastors, good elders. And
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: it's just amazing to see how God's brought all this together.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: And we have a vision for doing theological education. in
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: ways that are consistent with how God's built us and
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: how we see what's coming down the pike and what's
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: going on. I mean, you saw it much earlier than
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I did. And I remember some conversations with you when
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: you were talking about things in education and things going
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: on in politics. And, you know, when Obama was elected
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and everybody, all the evangelicals were praising God, you know,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: we've got a black man as president. This is a
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: new day in the nation. And you were saying... Things
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: are about to get bad. Things are about to get
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: bad in race relations. And the Michael Brown incident that
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: took place outside St. Louis when all the evangelicals are saying, oh,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: my goodness, look what a horrible country we have. And
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: you were like a lone voice on the Gospel Coalition
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: website when you wrote your article that broke their server.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: It just shut down for a while and talked about
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the police officer.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That was fun. Yeah.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: These are the kind of things, you know, we can
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: trace all those points, you know, along that line that
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: made it clear to us that public theology was an
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: area that needed to be addressed. That we needed to
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: help people think through how our Christianity fleshes itself out
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: in the midst of a culture and particularly a culture
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: of opposition. A culture that hates our God, that hates
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: the Bible. Um, and not only that on the outside,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: but on the inside, when you have a church that
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: is filled with individuals, many of whom are not operating
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: from a biblical worldview, um, when situations like that are
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: happening in the culture, us not having a right response
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: has a lot to do with the fact that we've
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: got people who are not operating from a biblical worldview
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: and that goes all the way to the pulpit.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Um, and so again, That's why I think this is
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: vital to be able to do a work like this,
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: to be able to have the emphasis that we intend
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: to have specifically in the area of public theology.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: And I remember vividly in 2017 thinking about public theology
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: because I'd had an interview with Colin Hanson and he said,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I was asking about the Young Restless Reform Movement. He
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: wrote the book on it. And I said, what do
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: you see, man? What do you see coming down the pike?
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: And he said, I'm not sure the Young Reform Restless
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Movement can withstand what's coming in public theology. It was like, whoa, OK,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: I'd better start paying attention. And so I started trying
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: to do some reading and just listening and saw Tim
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Keller saying things that he'd been saying for 10 years
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: beginning to be taken to the woodshed. by people that
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: were applauding him and sectors of the society that were
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: applauding him 10 years previous. And so it just began
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: to put me on this journey of thinking about things.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: And I remember calling one of the best known theologians
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: in the Southern Baptist Convention. And I said, hey, man,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: you know, I've got some concerns about some of the
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: stuff that's going on in the SBC. I brought up
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: critical race theory, intersectionality. And I didn't have a good
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: grasp on those concepts at this point. But there were
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: articles coming out of our seminaries promoting this. And I
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: remember listening to this theologian and he said, look, he said, yeah,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: they come from a poisoned well, but they're basically Augustinian
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and we can use them. And the associate pastor of
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the church was sitting in the study with me whenever
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: that phone call was over. And I hung up, I
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: looked across the room. I said, he's not going to
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: help us. So he's not going to help us. And
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: it was at that moment that I realized I got
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: to go to school. I got to remediate my lack
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: of understanding of these ideas, which I I could have
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: died happily, never reading any of the books that I've
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: read about this stuff. But God used that to shake me.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: And then what happened with COVID and all that, so
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: many people crumbled.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: I think what happened was the pendulum swung so far
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: toward pragmatism. This whole idea of we have to learn
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: how to do church in a way that attracts people.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: We have to learn how to put our ear to
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: the ground, figure out what people want, figure out what's
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: going to entice them, and then build our ministry around
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: what's going to entice them. Initially, the idea was we'll
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: entice them with those things, but then we'll move them deeper.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: We'll teach them after we get them. And then we'll
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: give them the real stuff when we move them in deeper.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: And eventually what happened was those pragmatic tools that were
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: used to entice, they became everything. Yeah, that's right. There
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: was no deeper. There was no more. And when you
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: look to the culture like that, basically saying, what do
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: you want from us? What do we have to do
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: to keep you coming? And then the culture moves towards
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: critical race theory, intersectionality, right? LGBTQIA plus. Feminism. Feminism. You know,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: when the culture starts saying, this is what we demand
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: of you. Yeah. People started to waffle. Absolutely. And it's
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: because we weren't shored up, not only in public theology,
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: but we weren't shored up in our theology theory.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: That's right, yeah.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: We had become pragmatists. And so part of this is
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: the pendulum swinging in the other direction and us making
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: sure that we go deep with guys, making sure that
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: they have a solid theological framework. We're not just doing,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: you know... Practical public theology. Cultural public theology. That's not,
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: you know, we're going deep, doing all of the things
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: necessary to equip guys to handle the word of God,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: to handle it rightly, and also to be able to
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: think biblically, theologically, from a historic, you know, biblical, reformed,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: confessional perspective so that they can apply those things to
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: public theology. Yeah. We're going deep and in wide.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you've seen it. I've seen the trends. I've
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: talked to some people who are involved in theological education
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: and other institutions, and there's a movement to reduce the
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Masters of Divinity, to cut the number of hours. Some
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: have advertised it as a new, improved, endive, you know,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: less time that you have to spend in the classroom.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: And we're kind of going the opposite way. I mean,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: it's 101 hours that you will have to complete And
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: it's only men, only elder qualified men that are recommended
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: by churches. Peter Sammons, who's been instrumental in getting a
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: lot of the legwork done to get us to this point,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: who's going to be our systematic theology professor. He told
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: someone yesterday in my presence, something I had not heard
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: him say. He said that there's at least 80 people
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: that we've turned down that have applied to church. be
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: a student at Founders Seminary. That's mind boggling to me.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that, but he's, he's the one that's
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: kind of talked to more people than anybody. And we've accepted,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: I think it's 23, 24, and there's a couple more
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: in the pipeline, but I've had conversations with more than
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: two or three guys who said, Hey man, I love theology.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: You know, I love voting and I want to come
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: and study. So what do I have to do? You know,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: when can I start? I said, well, you need to
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: fill out the application. You need to get a recommendation
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: from the church. Well, I'm not really connected to a church.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: I said, well, you're not going to study here. Oh,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: but I love theology, and I'm going to be a
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: good student. I said, you're not going to study here.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. This is not for you. And one guy
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: got upset with me. He came around over the next
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: few weeks, but he was upset because he said, well,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: I haven't been in church in a long time. I'm
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: doing pretty well. I said, well, you need to find
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: you a church, get under the oversight of good elders and.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: You need to check your definition of doing well.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah, you're not doing as good as you think.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: And he said, well, how long is that going to take?
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I said, I don't know. He said, six months. I said,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: probably longer for you. But again, we have a clear
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: vision of what it is that God's calling us to do.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: And we want to see elder qualified men. That doesn't
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: mean they have to be elders now, but they have
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: to be prepared to be elders in a church that
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: has endorsed them. And when you get those things going,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: There's a few other things, but those are the biggies. And, man,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: I'm excited about what those classrooms are going to look like.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Especially because of our, the emphasis is not only
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: on public theology, but on evangelism missions and apologetics. Amen.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're trying to train warriors for the kingdom. Yeah.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: You know, we're trying to equip men to be useful,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: you know, to be tools that the Lord can use
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: in the midst of this culture of opposition. Right. And
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: I'm excited about the fact that we're not just, you know,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: raising up guys who are going to write nice papers,
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: you know, nice theological papers for theological journals. We will
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: have that. That's right. But this is about practical, public, evangelistic, apologetic,
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: you know, missions. This is about the kingdom advancing. Amen. Amen.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: And so our little tagline is sharp minds. Warm hearts,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: steel spines. And it's that last one that we're going
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: to need more and more in this culture.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we really are. And it's that last one that's
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: going to be probably most offensive to people. Because as
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: the culture has come against us, as the culture has said, no,
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: this is what we're requiring of you. They've seen in
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: many instances Christians sort of bow down and kowtow and,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: you know, and say, okay, well, you know, we'll, we'll
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: be accommodating, you know, we'll be accepting, we'll be whatever.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: And it's never been enough. Right. Right. Right.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Never is.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: They always demand more and more and more. And anytime
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: you stand up, plant your feet and square your shoulders
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: and say, let's say at the Lord, the immediate accusation
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: is you're not being kind. Yeah. Yeah. You don't like,
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: you're not being loving. You're not being Christ-like. And so
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: when we talk about men with steel in their spines,
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: when we talk about men who are brave and courageous,
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: as the Bible calls us to be, that's going to
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: be a major area of opposition, both from the outside
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: and the inside, as it's going to be easy for
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: people to try to tag that as unloving. Yeah. Because
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: they're divorcing it from the warm hearts.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Right? We're looking for men who have both of those things.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, and people have said, you know, you
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: guys are always and people oppose you and you're always
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: in trouble. Seems like you're a troublemaker.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: We fight all the time.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: You need to be more Christlike, you know.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because he didn't have to fight at all.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: So Jesus was pretty Christlike. They crucified him, you know.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: If they did that to our master, we shouldn't be.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: And no, we're not talking about being unkind and being jerks.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: But just recognizing if you stand for Christ, you're going
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: to be offensive. Your life is going to be offensive.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: And that's happening. We see it in our church. We
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: had one young man who was just recently tasked with
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: participating in his job in promoting LGBTQ stuff. And he's
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: got a lot of gifts. And so he wrote a
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: very respectful letter to his boss. He said, I cannot.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: I'm a Christian. Christ is Lord of my life. I
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: can't do this. And he didn't know if he was
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: going to lose his job or not. But by God's grace,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: God gave him that steel spine. He handled it with
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: humility and with conviction. And his boss, who is very
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: affirming of all that, wrote him back and said, hey,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: thank you for the way you handled this. And we're
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: going to work around with you on this. I mean,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: it would have been easy for him to say, my
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: job's on the line. I got to do this to
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: feed my family. But he didn't do it.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Bake the cake.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: Bake the cake.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's what's going to be needed more and
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: more and more going forward. And churches are going to
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: need pastors who can help people think about that because
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: it's happening everywhere. They come put an LGBTQ flag on
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: your desk in June. What are you going to do?
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Are you going to leave it there? Are you going
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: to take it off and say, I'm not going to
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: do that? I mean, these are real life things that
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: are happening And.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: I think people, too, have to recognize the fact that
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: this is not just about politics, right? When we talk
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: about public theology, a lot of people think that we're
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: just talking about politics and us being more engaged in
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: politics and having more leverage in politics. No, this is
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: about the fact that our adversary is destroying people's lives
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: through these issues that we're talking about. It's not that,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: you know, the... whatever party is on the wrong side
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: of this issue. It's not that the majority of Americans
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: believe this way or that way about these issues. It
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: is that people's lives are being destroyed, right?
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: And people's faith is being shipwrecked as a result of
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: these things. So for us, this is not about political leverage.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: This is about standing firm for the truth and about
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: equipping God's people to stand firm in the midst, again,
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: of this culture of opposition so that Christ might have
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: the fullness of the reward for what you've done. Amen. Amen.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: And it's love, what real love is. Love fulfills the law.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Love rejoices in truth. If you say you love somebody
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: and you participate in their lies or you withhold the
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: truth from them, whatever it is you have toward them,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: it's not biblical love. And then I like to remind people,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: you know the most political statement that any Christian can make?
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Jesus is Lord.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Jesus is Lord. When you say that, it's not Caesar.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: And our forefathers had their heads severed from their shoulders
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and rolled down dusty Roman roads because they refused to
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: say Caesar is Lord. And we've got to recover that too.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: It's not the state that is Lord. It's not the
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: government that is Lord. Jesus is Lord. And that simple
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: truth that I think every Christian would affirm needs to
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: begin to be fleshed out to say, oh, this applies.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: This applies in the public square. And I think most
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Christians believe that, but they just haven't been taught what
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: that looks like in a day when there's increasing opposition
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: and hostility, what we could take for granted 50 years ago.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's also part of the good news because
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: casual Christianity is no longer acceptable. People who've tried to
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: just go along to get along are now figuring out
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: that you can't go far enough. At the end of
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: the day, it's not just we want you to affirm this.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, it's we want you
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: to condemn Christ. We want you to condemn Christianity. We
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: want you to not believe this. And so as a result,
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of people who backed up as
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: far as they can back up. And now they need
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: someone to equip them and encourage them to stand up.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Lead pastors. So if you're listening to this or you're
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: familiar with Founders, We're trying to be good stewards of
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: what God has done here. God's blessed this ministry. He's
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: given us the responsibility and the opportunity to go ahead
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: and start a seminary. And if God's blessed you in
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: your life, your ministry, your finances, your business, man, I
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: know you want to invest your life and your resources
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: in the kingdom of God. And it could be that
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: God will bring us together and cooperate in this. We'd
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: love to talk to you about that. Hey, Bodie, we're
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: at the Southern Baptist Convention.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, we are.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: And you and I are messengers. From Grace Baptist Church
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: in Cape Horn.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, we are.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: So what are you going to do tomorrow? Are you
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: going to go make some motions?
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I don't think we have enough paramedics around
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: for what would happen if I walked to a microphone.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: But yeah, no, it's strange being here. You know, it's
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: strange being back here. I've been gone a long time.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: But I'm even excited about that. And looking forward to
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: seeing sort of what direction this ship goes.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Um, I, I, I'm still prayerful. Yeah. Um, still hopeful,
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: not as hopeful, uh, if I'm being honest, you know, but, but,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: but still hopeful. I mean, God is able. Amen. Amen.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: And it's unbelievable. What are the 47,000 Southern Baptist churches? Yeah.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Something like that. You know, something like 40, 45, 47,000
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Southern Baptist churches. Um, so this is still an important battlefield.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: It is. Um, it's, It's still a useful tool, still
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: can be a useful tool. And I pray that the
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Lord writes the ship. Yeah.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: And of course, you and I, we owe some things
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: to the SBC. We've got theological training there. I mean,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: I was raised from Cradle Roll in the Southern Baptist Church.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean that the SBC is the be
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: all end all. That's not my main identity. But I'm
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: grateful for those who have gone before us in generations
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: past who invested in in the things that were good
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: that has taken the gospel around the world. Praise God
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: for that. And we want to see that continue and increased.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: And so if you're going to be Southern Baptist, then
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: you ought to try to be a good one. You
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: ought to try to make a difference. Well, we've got
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: people here that are around, and we're going to give
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: an opportunity, if you'd like to ask a question, I
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: think Graham Gundon is right there. So Graham's going to
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: come up here.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: I can't see him.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, well.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: There he is.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: You talk to Graham.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: And if you've got a question, and then Graham will
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: vet your question and then pitch it to us. We'll
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: repeat it so everybody can hear, and we'll try to
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: answer questions. So anybody got a question, you just talk
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: to Graham. So, Vody, you and Bridget and seven of
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: your children have been traveling all over until God brought
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: you to settle in Cape Coral, man. Yeah. Everybody kind
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: of exhaling a little bit?
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we really are. Just in time for hurricane season.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Vody became president officially of Founders Seminary June 1, which
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: June 1 is the official beginning of hurricane season.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: So it's like two storms.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: All at once.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: First storm of the season. That's right. That's right.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: So it's really encouraging. Any questions? Well, you don't have
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: to ask questions. So it's not like anything you're obligated
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: to do. But we're delighted to be able to share
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: this vision with you and ask that you pray for us.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: We want to be good stewards. We want to do
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: the best we can with what God's entrusted to us.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: And so we're hoping.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: I've got one. We got a question? I've got one.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: And it would be right behind that light.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: That's right. We'll see if it makes Graham's screening process.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: We got it?
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Is the question coming?
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Okay. Okay.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: It's a long question.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: It's a long question. All right.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I was born back there in 1957.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that happens a lot.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: All right, here we go.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: All right, question a little bit off the wall, but
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: do you have an opinion on Booker T. Washington and
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: anything that he had to say when he was in
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: ministry that applies to what's going on today?
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, the question is, do you have an opinion on
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Booker T. Washington, and do you have anything to say
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: about his ministry that might be applicable today? Well, I
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: think Booker Which is probably not for me, right?
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: I actually narrated a documentary on the life of Booker T.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: Washington titled An Uncommon Way. So I would just encourage
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: you to go and check out that documentary to see
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: more broadly what I think about Booker T. Washington. But
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: Booker T. Washington was also, we kind of patterned what
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: we did at ACU after the work that Booker T.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Washington did there. And his book, Up From Slavery, was,
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, the documentary is on George Washington Carver. George
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, together at Tuskegee. But anyway,
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: but yeah.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Where can they get that?
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: I think it's.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: Available online, the documentary on George Washington Carver. But Booker T.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: Washington's book, Up From Slavery, was one that we used
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: in the work that he did at Tuskegee, really sort of,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: you know, laid a foundation for what we were doing
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: at ACU. And, you know, we were a classical Christian
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: liberal arts university, but we had a student labor program.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: And so one of the things we would say to
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: people is just, if you want to see, you know,
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: ideally what our dream would be, it would be early
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Ivy League, meets Tuskegee Institute, right? And so, yeah, big
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: fans of Washington's work. He really was. He really was.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Very good. Any other questions? No more questions?
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll end with that. Thank you so much for
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: joining us today for this. Again, if founders can serve
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: you in any way, we'd love to try. But please pray,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: pray for all these endeavors, the Institute of Public Theology,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Founders Seminary, as we launch, beginning, God willing, in August
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: of 2025.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: Amen. All right.