Latest / Pastors Perspective / Pastors' Perspective-10/05/26

Transcript

Pastors' Perspective-10/05/26 · Pastors Perspective

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Pastor's Perspective. I'm your host, Brian Perez.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: We are here live in the studio on this Monday afternoon.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: So give us a call if you've got a question
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: about the Bible, uh, the Christian faith. We are here
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to talk to you no matter what your question is, 888-564-6173.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: You can watch us live stream as well on Facebook, YouTube,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and Instagram. You can also send us your questions via Facebook, Instagram,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: The Kwave.com pastor's perspective page, but if you do that
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: right now, we probably won't see your question today, so
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you can send it in and we might use it
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: at a later date and we'll send you an email
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: or whatever to let you know uh when the question
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: has been read in case you missed it when we
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: do it live. But if you want to ask a
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: question today,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Now's the time to call 888-564-6173 is our number. And
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: answering your questions today, we've got Char Broderson, the lead
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. How's it going, Char?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: It's going well, Brian. Good. How are you? Doing well, thanks.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Mike Chaddock's here too. He's the senior pastor of Image
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Church in San Juan Capistrano. What's new with you? Hey,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: it's great to be here, Brian. Happy Monday. Good to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: have you.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: You guys in the studio. So let's answer some questions, uh,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: before we go to the phones at 888-564-6173. Here's one
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that was submitted online through the Facebook Messenger. It is
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: from Joshua, who asks, if you are praying about something
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: in particular, in this case, a relationship, and you're asking
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: for clarity and direction and you surrender it to God,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: You've continued to pray about this for a period of months,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and God is allowing it to continue and even to progress.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Would you consider this relationship blessed and approved? I've specifically
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: asked if this particular woman is the one that God
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: selected for me and assigned to me, and while there
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: has been no bold yes.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: He is continuing to allow it to continue even though
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: my prayers have been, please bless it if it's meant
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to be and please take it away if it's not.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: God doesn't take it away. I think it would have
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: faltered by now if you're explaining to God you want
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: to be guided long term and the spouse that He
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: has directed. So, Char, what do you say to Joshua?
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, I just want to say, just because
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: something continues doesn't mean that it's blessed or that God
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: is allowing it. There's a lot of things that happen
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: in this world that are continue to happen in this
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: world that are not according to God's will. And so
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: isn't it great that scripture gives us radical clarity on
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: what God's will is, right? God's will is that we would, um,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: live knowing that we are His image bearers and that
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: we would
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Uh, reflect Him in all that we do, and he
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: has given us a living human example of this in
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the person of Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: And Jesus gives us kind of the, uh, blueprint of
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: how we are to conduct our lives as human beings,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: to glorify God by loving God supremely, loving our neighbors ourself.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: And so I think
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: You know, we have a lot of really great clear
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: criteria for something that is blessed by God, and I
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: think that we need to push ourselves back on that. Like, uh,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: is this person somebody who has devoted their life to
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, to following him, to being more like Him,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: to being a disciple? And if not, then whether or
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: not it continues, this isn't blessed by God. So I
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: think we need to start first with what scripture is
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: clearly laid out.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: And then we'll know whether something is blessed by God
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: or not. And even, you know, just because um
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I, I think just in this, in this question,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: it seems to me that it doesn't sound like there's
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of human responsibility in it. And I think, no,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: God does hold us responsible, uh, for the knowledge that
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: he gives us and then the agency that we've been
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: given to practice and implement these things, you know, so,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: just because my, you know, marriage.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Might be struggling, doesn't mean that it's not blessed by
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: God and isn't worth fighting for, struggling for, uh, deeply
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: sacrificing for. So I, I just would love, um, of course,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: this is always the reason why we wish that people
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: would call in just so we could get that kind
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: of clarity. But, right, like, um, God holds us responsible
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and yet God works in our lives in powerful ways.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And so I think always looking at scripture for clarity
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: on what God's, uh,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Permissible and blessable will is and then enacting that in
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: our own lives is kind of that line that we walk, uh, walk, yeah, yeah,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I think what Joshua is doing is great. I think
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: bringing anything, um, to God in prayer is a good thing.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Bringing a relationship continually bringing a relationship is a good thing,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: but like you said too, like, um.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Scripture has a variety of ways in which God speaks
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: and works into our lives and it's not always sort
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: of that immediate direct communication, you know, a word, a
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: word of knowledge or whatever, you know, the entire genre
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of wisdom, the book of Proverbs, I mean, if all
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: we needed was just direct answers and we didn't actually
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: need to really reason through and think through and like
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: you said, char, take responsibility for things, I don't even
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: need the book of Proverbs then do I just give
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: me the answer. What do I do? What do I do? Yes, no, maybe.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Proverbs is like here's the tools you need as a
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: godly man or woman to think through things for yourself
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: using the word of God as your guide so it's
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: also about becoming a wise and discerning person and I
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: think obviously you know with relationships it's um.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: You know, emotions are very, very much involved, and that's
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: not a bad thing, um, but it, it can cloud
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: people's judgment many times and sometimes like even like in
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I've seen this so many times over the years where
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: especially like doing singles ministry and college ministry years ago, um.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: People would just be solely lying on what they believed
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: they were hearing in prayer, neglecting, uh, wisdom, looking at
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: character like you said, Char, taking responsibility. Um, Proverbs says
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: in a multitude of counselors there's wisdom, looking to wise
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: people in your life that know you, that know her
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: or whatever and can kind of speak into that, see
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: things you.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: You can't see and there's so much emotion and sometimes
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: those emotions, like even if, here's the thing, I'm not
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: saying God can't, can't tell someone, oh yeah, this is
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the right person. I don't think he, uh, normally actually
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: does that. I think he can, but even if he
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: were sometime or if he were to say no.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: I, I know what it's like to want something so
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: bad I didn't wanna hear God, you know, uh, or I,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I really don't want to believe something like bad, bad news, like, nope, nope, um,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: put your fingers in your ears, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm, I'm not gonna hear it because you
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: don't wanna believe it. So I just, I don't even
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: trust my own heart, uh, in that regard, and so
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I really, really wanna be careful that I'm.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Relying, especially in major, major life decisions like that, I'm
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: relying on the whole counsel of God, everything God tells
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: me to do. Am I being a godly man, not
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: just in the relationship, but in general? Like, am I
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: walking with God or am I a train wreck? But
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping I'll, you know, be a sound mature Christian
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: in this most important judgment I'm about to make. Um,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: look at her character, honestly, don't just see what you
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: wanna see.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: You know, see everything, you know, she, does she treat
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: you well? OK, yeah, that's great. Does she treat everyone
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: else terribly? You know, it's like, well, a little ways
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: down the road, that's probably gonna be you, you know,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: so just don't close your eyes to those things. Be
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: willing to hear a no, um, you know, just even
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: providentially like, oh wow, you know, this would not be
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: a good thing. I want it. My heart, my affections
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: cling to it, but it's.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: You know it's not good. I can actually see that
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: if this if I were counseling a friend, I would
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: say no but as for myself I'm like oh it's
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: not that big of a deal so I would say,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: you know, rely on the manifold wisdom that scripture gives
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: us um character prayer word of God, general course of
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: life am I walking with God in general because if
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I'm not I just don't trust my judgment or even
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: my ability to hear God that well like if I'm
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: living in sin and areas and this and stuff, you know, so.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: You know, just pursue Jesus first above everything else, you know,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: and I do think things will become as clear as
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: they need to be for you to make decisions. Yeah,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think one of the practical ways that
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: we could think about this, right, so we've kind of.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Solidified God, like God's will according to scripture. What is
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: it that's been laid out, right? And then, you know, Mike,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: you've talked about like kind of just the personal dynamics.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: I remember my brother-in-law, you know, he used to always say, body, soul, spirit. Like,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: is there physical attraction? Is there that personality, like connection? Like,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: do you connect on the things of life with this person?
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: You know, we talk about like, oh, it's my soulmate.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Do you see what I see? This person sees what
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: I see. They have the same passions and, and just
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: kind of view of the world and the way that
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: they approach it.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: And then of course there is the spiritual level of,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: does this person have a deep hunger and thirst for God, right?
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Like they want God. That's the thing that they want
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: primarily in this world. And I think those things are
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: so important for kind of filtering out. And then I
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: think kind of the last part would be, like you said, community. Like, OK,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: what do other people see? People that know me well,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: they love me best.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Like, bring it to those people. Like, do you think
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: this person's a good match for me and allow them
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: to speak into it. I think, you know, one of
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: the kind of lost arts of dating, you know, if
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I could put it that way, was this idea of, um, courtship.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: And I don't mean like to go back to like
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: an old fashioned way, but actually,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I would say date in community. Date with a group
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of people because you're going to see, like you said,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: you know, you're going to see this person interact with others.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: How do they interact with children? How do they interact
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: with the elderly? How do they interact with their peers? Like, is,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: you know, this person that's competitive, are they gossipy, you know,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: are you seeing like
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Aspects of their character come out and insecurities and things
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: like that, that you would want to be aware of
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: when you're walking into a marriage. What's this person going
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: to bring into? How are they going to raise children?
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: How are they going to view, you know, my friendships
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: that I'm going to bring into this marriage. There's all
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: sorts of dynamics that are going to happen there. And
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: of course, you want to have, you know, your best
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: leg forward and all of that. So I think, right,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: God and what he's revealed for his will and scripture,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: there's just those aspects of the body, soul, spirit, and
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: then of course, the community for accountability is so important.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I, I think that's great what you mentioned too just,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: you know, I think a lot of people only think
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: about where we are now, where I am now, where
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: this other person is oh do we fit now? What
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: are you aiming at in life? Like what, what do
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: you want? What are your life goals and you know
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I remember there was this, uh, young Christian couple, um,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: they just, their personalities clicked so well, uh, they're both
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: serving in one of the, in the singles ministry.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Um, and they were talking about getting married and they both,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and they both did, they wanted to get married and
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: then the guy told me they were out on a
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: date and this little kid comes by, he's got like
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: a snotty nose or whatever and like, you know, kind
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: of cut them off and almost tripped him and then
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the girl was like, ew, I would never want kids.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: And the guy, like his jaw dropped because he's like,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: I never brought this up. I just assumed, I assumed
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: that would be a part of the deal. Found out
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: she doesn't, does not want kids at all, and you absolutely, well, that's,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: that's a huge problem. And again, it's not safe.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: You can't talk that out more, but I'm just saying
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I would not just move forward and how many people
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: just don't have those hard conversations, you know, about what
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: are the things that are, you know, again it's of,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: of course minimally we're like, are you in Christ, but
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I think for some people that's all that's it.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: You know, it's like, well, no, what about, what are
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: your values? What are the things that are important? What
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: are the kind of the non-negotiables in life, personal convictions, desires,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: godly ambitions that you have that you don't feel actually
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: would be even right in your relationship with God to
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: give up? What are those that other person deserves to
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: know that and you know, deserve to hear their response.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: And uh we're not saying Joshua is doing this, but
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: you could find someone who checks all the boxes, right?
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: And the one thing that
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: You're not telling us, and again, not saying Joshua was
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: doing this, but all of a sudden we find out,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, she's still married or something like that, where
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, you know, but, but she's not in
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: love with her husband anymore, and you know, so, so
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: we met at the workplace or whatever, and so we've
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: been talking and, and I keep telling God, yeah, if,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: if this is not from you, just take it away,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: but they're growing closer and it's just like, and again,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: not saying Joshua was doing this, but
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: But that's, I mean, that's exactly what I was talking
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: about where people will put on blinder they want something
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: so bad they're not, they're, I mean, again, if you
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: have close friends that know you know them, sometimes the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: red flags are, I mean, they're huge and they're waving
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and you're just like, how do you not see red
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: everywhere and they're like, what, what red flag? I see none,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: you know, it's all green to me. So I think,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: you know, just, you, you know, I think if you've
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: seen enough, you know, disastrous relationships, you realize.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: You know your toughest day alone is nothing compared to
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: a horrible disastrous relationship and if you've sat through divorce
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: court and family court and all that kind of stuff,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: honestly it is, it's horrendous and my heart goes out
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to anyone who's having to go through that it's brutal,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: you know, when your kids are involved in seeing your
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: heart torn out because your hearts are attached to your
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: children and.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: You know, it's, and again, some of this you can't predict, right?
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: You know, there's nothing, even going back, there's nothing you
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: could have done to see that in advance, but I
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: am saying many times there, there are, and people just
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: completely ignore it, then they end up in it, then
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: they pay the price and I'm just like a wise
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: person would foresee what they can foresee and make decisions accordingly.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Joshua, thank you for sending in your question by using
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: messenger on the pastor's perspective Facebook page. And now we're
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: gonna go to the phones, 888-564-6173 is the number to call.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: And we've got Jose calling from Riverside. Hey, Jose, thanks
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: for listening to K Wave and thanks for calling in today.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Are you there, Jose? There you are. Go ahead. What's
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: your question?
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: So my question is, um, I've been single even before
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: coming to the Lord. Um, I'm always at work for
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: the most part. Um, I don't really go out.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: As far as like just
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Other than, you know, running errands, um, I'm just wondering,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: and I kind of haven't really found it in scripture
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: or like, how do you get in, like, to the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: dating scene, but biblically, right?
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Courtship, right, Char? Yeah, courtship. No, yeah, I mean, obviously,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: you know, according to the Bible, and the Bible doesn't
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: address this, I mean, but there's arranged marriages in the
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: ancient world. That's how things would happen, and it would happen,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: you know, you would most likely marry in the community
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: that you grew up in, right? And it was through
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: family connections, things like that, um.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I, I would encourage you, um, to
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: belong to a local church, to submit yourself, like really
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: be known, involved, invested in that church. And I think
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: through those relationships, as people get to know you and
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: you get to know those people, you gain a reputation.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: And I think that's where those connections come. Like I
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: just think about my own life. Um, my wife was
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: known in the church community that I had previously belonged
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to and
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Um, it was recommended to me by, you know, someone
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: who I dearly loved, dearly trusted and respected.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: That this girl, man, this girl would be the girl
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: for you. I truly believe that. And I think that you,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I think that you should pursue a relationship with her.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: And I thought this person was nuts, you know, but
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: they were persistent and gave me all these reasons why
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: they knew me very well. They knew her very well.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: But it was that recommendation because both of us were
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: known by this person and we were all belonging to
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: the same community, uh, that we were able to make
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: that connection. We've been married now for almost 20 years, right?
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: And I think
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: I'm so thankful that I went into this relationship with
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: a strong recommendation from somebody that knew me so well,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: loved me deeply, and also knew her so well and
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: loved her deeply. And I think, you know, that really
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: is what the, you know, it's not that the church
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: community is there for marriage, but it is there to, um,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: give us an understanding and a conviction about marriage. And
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I think to actually, uh, create those deep
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Convictions and bonds where we would um find our spouse,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: we would raise godly offspring, you know, and that this
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: would continue this uh presence of God's people uh in
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: the community. So I, I think the church community is
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: the best place.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Uh, to find, um, a good godly relationship. And also,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: I have, you know, this is no dig at people
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: that use apps. I know that it's harder and harder
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: to meet people these days. Uh, sometimes maybe you're deeply
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: committed to a church, but there's nobody else, they're your age.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: So I understand there's all those things. So that's not
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: a dig on any of those things, but I still
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: prefer the in-person.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Uh, I'm known. My reputation is known. They are known.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Their reputation is known, and it's through an introduction. So
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: maybe I'm a little old school. But even on those
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: situations where there's nobody my age, it could be somebody
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: who says, you know what, I know it could still
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: be the same situation like you just mentioned, Char, where
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: it could be somebody's daughter or something that, hey, I
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: think you'd be a, I should introduce you to my daughter.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is one of those conversations where I feel
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: old because I just missed the online dating boom by
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: a hair. I remember right before I met my wife,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: one of my roommates was on a, I can't remember
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: which dating app it was, but this was like a
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: new thing and we saw him on the computer and like, hey, what,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: what are you doing? It's like, um, I'm looking for
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: a date. I'm like, what? You're looking for dates here,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: So that was a new thing and I know now, uh,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: a lot more people, including Christians have met. I've, I've
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: met more and more couples that are married, wonderful families,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and I ask how you met and they kind of,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: you know, laugh, laugh a little bit. They look like, uh,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: we met online, you know.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: So again, not, I don't think there's anything wrong with that,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: but to Char's point, I think, you know, there's pros
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and cons to it. Um, obviously it can connect you
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: superficially with a vastly larger number of people. So that's
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: obviously the pro for people that work many hours, you know,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: like you, Jose, or maybe people who work odd hours and.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Things like that I can see how that can be
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: a tool, but even with all of that, you know,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: it still comes down to personal dynamics. What is it
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: actually like in person, um, the relational context I just
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: feel is so important because you, as we all know,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: some more than others, people can invent false identities online very,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: very easily. It's not like people.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Can't do that ever in person, you know, kind of
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: pretend to be they're something they're not. I mean, the
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: apostle Paul talks about hypocrites 2000 years ago, so they existed,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: but I think it's far easier to present yourself as
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: something you're not today in the internet age. I just,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: I just think so. I think.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Um, in person relational contexts, you know, they really mitigate,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: they don't do away with it, but they mitigate it tremendously,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and then, um, like we're saying, I think relationships, um,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: people that know you, that know her, that, um, can
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: witness kind of your relationship and, and to be honest,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: even the effects like I remember talking to.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Uh, a Bible college friend, great guy, and he was
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: dating this girl in Bible college, both Christians, and he
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: didn't know it, but he went from the happiest guy
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: to like every day was hell, you know, and at
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: some point I'm like, and it's like I'm not, I'm
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: not like on their dates with them. I'm not riding along.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I have no idea what they're talking. Maybe they have
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: a fabulous time, but all I know is you're, I'm like, bro,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I love you and you're miserable every day. I'm like, I,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm just, I'm, yeah, I'm just saying, and
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: he's kind of like.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: And no, he actually thanked me because he was kind
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: of like, yeah, you know, like, I kind of, you know,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: I know him, like, I get a little frustrated and stuff,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: but
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was wondering maybe I'm not myself, you know,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and it's like, yeah, this person is, you know, they're,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: they bring out the worst of you like all the
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: time and the good about you is getting mitigated. So some, honestly,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I just, I think even with the online dating thing,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: it still comes down to that. So I still recommend
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: again getting involved in a local church, serving, and that's
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the thing too, I don't just mean attending because if
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: you show up on a Sunday, sit down, maybe they
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: have a meet and greet, you shake a hand or two,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and then you're, you know.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I think get involved, get involved in small groups, serve,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: do ministry together. I mean, I met my wife, um,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: at the new teacher orientation. I was a first year
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: sophomore Bible teacher. My wife was a first year on
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: campus substitute for the elementary school and we met there
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: and like one of my personal convictions was, you know,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: with that whole thing being single, I know I wanna
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: be married all this.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I just felt like, Lord, I do not want to
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: leave the path you have me on. I know what
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: I'm called to do and I, and I'm gonna trust
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: you that I don't have to step to the left
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: or to the right to meet the person you want
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: me to meet. Like if I have to step off
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: because I've seen this too many times, God's clearly gifted
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: and calling somebody.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: And then they meet somebody and they like leave it
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: they abandon that calling to go pursue and I'm like, man,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I get the temptation. I'm not immune to it either,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: but I just feel like, man, Lord, I wanna follow you.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: I wanna keep you first and I trust that if
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a person's from you, it's gonna be on the path
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: and not to the left or to the right. So again,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: same as Char highly recommend as much as possible church involvement,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: serving ministry, that kind of stuff and that.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Weeds out a lot of people because truth is obviously
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: most people out there it seems to me are not
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Christians then you have people who say they're Christian but
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: you know it's they're nominal they're not very serious about
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: their walks and so I think once you see who
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: actually is attending church regularly, who is involved in the community,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: who is loving other believers, who has friends in the church,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: who's serving that, you know, you, you start to get
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: people that I think are.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Solid in their faith, and that's the kind of person
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: you would wanna, I would think you would want to pursue. Jose,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: thank you for calling us today here on Pastor's Perspective.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: 888-564-6173 is the number to call us. We're gonna be
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: here till 4 and we'd love to hear from you.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Let's talk to Zilali who lives in Fontana, or at
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: least is listening in Fontana, uh, listening on the Kwave app. Hello, Zitlali,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: how can we help you?
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Hi, yes, hello.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Uh
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get some information, just some guidance
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to see how I can see the light at the
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: end of the tunnel during these circumstances that me and
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: my partner are in.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: We recently just got our kids taken away from CFS
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and it's been a
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: A toll on our both our, not just our relationship
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: but on our hearts.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Uh, anxiety with both of us, my partner having to
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: do all these things due to allegations being made against him, um,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: our kids being with their grandparents and just
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: You know, it's, it's, it's, it's difficult during these times,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: even though
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: The circumstances brought us closer.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: To God and speaking out to Him, there are days
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: that are hard for myself and Him, but I guess
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: I just, I just need some guidance on seeing again,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: the light at the end of the tunnel. OK, Mike,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: start with you.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think when you're in such a difficult situation
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: like that, it is overwhelming, um, and I think, you know,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: one day at a time.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Keep focused on the Lord and what you can do.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I think you know part of the frustration and vexation
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: is all the stuff that's not in your control, um,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: but I think that's that's where we, we need to
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: surrender that to the Lord just every morning, Lord, like
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: this is what I want to happen, this is what
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: hurts me, this is what grieves me, this is what
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I would like the outcome to be here's what I
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: think I can do today to work towards that or
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to become the kind of person.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Um, just to grow in my faith because we all, uh,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: have room to grow in our faith and also to
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: surrender all those things you are not in control of
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: who's making those decisions ultimately and what the timing will
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: be and how the legal process bears out. I mean,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: you know this, it's like it's, it's so frustrating and I've,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I've seen the, the ins and outs of it with,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: you know, numerous.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Church members over the years going to court and you
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: know it gosh it's if justice gets done there once
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: a day sometimes I'd be shocked you know it's just
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: it's a very very difficult thing and we can really
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: ask God where are you um but at the same
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: time we know.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: That God is there, even Jesus, when he cries out
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: on the cross, my God, my God, why have you
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: forsaken me? Um, God hasn't forsaken him, we know that,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: but that is the human experience that that does feel
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: that way sometimes in those moments of darkness, so.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Um, keep your focus on, on Jesus. Be a Christian woman,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: be a godly woman just every day like Jesus, I
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: wanna focus on my walk with you at the end
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: of the day in life. A lot of times that's
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the only say I really have in things. So, um,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: that's just a couple of things I would say. Yeah,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I think when you have a desire, you know, a
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: deep prayer of your heart that it, you know, you
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: just know is right, it's good, it's something that is.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Uh, blessable by God, something that he has designed, right?
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Reunification with your children. Um.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I think that in that process of waiting, if you
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: can allow it, uh, God can do some of his
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: deepest work that he does in us, um, because there
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: is this kind of focus, right? And this helplessness, kind
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: of to your point, Mike, like, you know, there's stuff
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: that we can do and then there's stuff that is
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: just so radically beyond our control. And I think that's
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: where the power of prayer and um,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: The power of God and the and the presence of
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: God really come into play, I think in just such a,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: you know, just a significant way. I'm thinking about in
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Psalm 119, uh, how the psalmist is, you're talking about
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: just appealing to God again and again, teach me your ways.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: I'm yours. I belong to you. And there's this line
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: where he says, I am yours, save me. And just
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: appealing to God to, to be who he is. God,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: do what only you can do. You know my situation.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: And I think
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: When we are appealing to God, waiting on him in
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: these ways, God can do such a deep work, a
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: deep character work in us of, um, giving us this
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: kind of um resilience that we need for, you know,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: maybe further things down the road. I was just talking
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: to uh a group, a discipleship group that I'm in.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: And just talking about, man, when, when God comes through
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: in situations like this, these become what scripture calls a
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: stone of remembrance, where we can, you know, in hard times,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: cling to these moments and say, OK, God, you met
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: me in one of my darkest, most depleted moments, and
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I trust and I have hope that you will come
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: through again. And so, you know, I think, um, you know, again, like,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: if you're willing
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Um, to just hand yourself over to God in this
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: process just again and again and again until he comes through.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: God can just do such a deep work of building
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: up your confidence. I think also of cultivating the presence
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: of God with you, um, that he's, you know, he
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: is the God of the brokenhearted. He's the God of
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the humble, the God that that hears the cries of
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: those who call upon Him. And so you can be
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: confident that God is with you, that he's at work,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and that he's faithful, you know, through these things.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Does this help you?
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, thank you guys so much. I appreciate it.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: You're welcome. We'll be in prayer for you guys. Mike,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: what were you gonna say? Yeah, I was just gonna say,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: you know, and, and again, God is there even when
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: we don't experience His presence. That's the thing, you know,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and it's not like if we do all these things, oh,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: I'll feel better, or I'll get the outcome I want. No,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: just entrust yourself to God that even when you don't
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: feel like it, when the outcomes don't look good, when
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: you don't sense His presence, when you feel like force
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: is outside your control, not God, that's what's really.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: You know, trusting even then, even then, Lord, I believe
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: you're in control. And lastly, every parent has to give
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: their kids up to the Lord. For many people, oh,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: it's not till 18.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: How much harder is it when they're young, but nevertheless,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: that's sometimes the position we're put in as parents when
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: they're young, having to be reminded one day I was
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: gonna have to do this, I'm having to do it
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: far earlier than I wanted, but Lord, you love these
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: kids more than I am possibly even capable of. Help
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: me to remember that and entrust them to your love
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: and care today.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Sicklali, thank you so much for your phone call today
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: here on Pastor's Perspective. We're gonna take a quick break
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: and then we'll be back with your questions. Ralph, you'll
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: be up first when we come back. 888-564-6173 is the
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: number to call. That's 888-564-6173. Pastors Char Broderson and Mike
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Chaddock are gonna be here till 4, so call in 888-564-6173.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: All right, we are back here on Pastor's Perspective at 888-564-6173. 888-564-6173.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: What do you guys want to ask us? Here's a
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: question we haven't had all month. Well, it's only the
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: 5th of the month, but, uh, Ralph in Santa Barbara
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: wants to know about the Ethiopian Bible. What about it, Ralph?
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Yes sir, how are you guys today? Doing well, thanks. Yeah,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: doing all right. Good, good, good. So far I can't complain,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: you know, grateful to be around. Amen. But, uh, but yeah,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: like I recently moved up here and I've been going
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: to other churches because I can't find a, a decent
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Calvary Chapel type.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Church out here
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: And, but I, everywhere I go, I, the, like again,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: do the missions up here Catholic, so they have their
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: own Catholic Bible with like, I don't know, 70 books
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: or something, and I've got a Protestant book, 66.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: But the Ethiopian Bible has 88.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: So I'm going like, what? Where would I get a
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: good Ethiopian Bible and do I believe the other 22
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: books that are in there?
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's, that's a good question. It seems to be, uh,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: growing in popularity at least online anyway, and I think
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: honestly this, this always comes around people are fascinated by
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: books that, you know.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Aren't in the Bible. missing books. These books, I remember
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: the whole what was a Dan Brown Da Vinci Code
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: and oh there's missing books, and they at at Nicea
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: they voted on to remove these books and you know
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: nobody voted on any books at Nica, which, uh, it
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: is kind of an interesting historical point, but I think,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: you know, without diving into all the specifics and of
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: course on the one hand you can also take a
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: book by book in the Ethiopian canon and, and address
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: that because even with, for example, the most I think
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: most popular is the book of Enoch.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: And even then you actually have um different versions of
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: the book of Enoch, so you have uh discrepancies there,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: but I think kind of the main thing is these
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: emerge centuries after the earliest Greek manuscripts. So typically, um,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: you know, for example, the Protestant canon sticks with those
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: earliest scriptures that we have from the 1st and 2nd century.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Um, some of those additional books that you're talking about, again,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily make them bad per se. That's what
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: I try to point out to people. For example, if
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: you kind of want to know, um, what, what a
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Jewish apocalyptic thought looked like, um, you know, reading Enoch
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: gives you some ideas.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Um, one popular like assumption people make is that the
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: only things Jews were writing at all was scripture and,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: and then, and if, and there was just no writing
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: of any kind, no fiction, no popular writing, no imagining or,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: you know, mid rash kind of commenting on scripture, that's
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: not true. There was lots of writing. Apocalyptic was a
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: very popular genre or style of writing, so I think
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: we have to get out of our heads. Oh, the
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: only thing that was written was the Bible. Therefore we
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: don't even have to.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: You know, think about that, but no, there was a
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: lot of other writings of various kinds, um, but the
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: early Christians never recognized those as canons, so we don't
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: see those additional books being recognized canon again actually, even the, the, uh,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: sort of Catholic and Orthodox, although that's not technically a
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: split till I think 1053, 1054, but nevertheless different traditions,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Latin speaking West Greek.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Speaking, so you'll, you'll have some kind of additional books
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: floating around there, but the Ethiopiana goes beyond that. It has, uh,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: additional books that even those, uh, groups do not recognize
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: as canonical, and those emerge later. And then after that point,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: like I said, with Enoch, you actually get into, um,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: there's actually discrepancies and some versions apparently continue to evolve
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: into the Middle Ages. So that would be food for thought.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I, I love your point too, Mike, just.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: A couple of years ago, I was reading the, um,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: I was doing some deep studies in Mark, and it
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: was really interesting. I found this commentary that was pulling
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: from a lot of the apocryphal writings and realizing how,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: you know, so much, like you said, of that time, um,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: there was actually so much messianic hope in that time.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: So even though they are writing,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: You know, apocalyptically, it's in hopes of the Messiah coming.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: And so, even Mark in the way that he writes
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: his gospel, he's aware of the, uh, apocryphal writings and
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: appealing to what people would have been reading at that time,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Popular fiction at that time, you know, popular writings at
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: that time. And so even in the gospels, though, you know,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: they're showing the fulfillment of scripture, they're also appealing.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Um, to the broad masses and the things that they're
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: consuming at that time. And so I think just to
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: your point, these books can be incredible, helpful for understanding the, uh,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: first century context of the Jews. They can be really
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: helpful in understanding the history of the Jews and what's
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: happening kind of those times between the testaments. Uh, and
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: yet at the same time, we do not believe them
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: to be scripture authoritative, you know, where we look for
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: life and godliness and the things that God expects of us. So,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I think kind of deeper than that, Ralph,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: there's a number of great churches in the Santa Barbara area,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: and Mike's brother, uh, was a pastor of a church in, um,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Ventura Ventura for many years. Uh, it's called Reality, and
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: there's a number of realities in that area. I think
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: the closest one to you would probably be Carpenteria.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Uh, and that is a very solid church came out
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: of Calvert Chapel, so very, um, they teach through books
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: of the Bible, very committed to deepening themselves in Scripture.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: They love Jesus, dependent on the Spirit. It's a great community,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: and so, um, there are a number of, of good
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: churches in that area. I don't think you have to,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: you know, just kind of, well, OK, well I guess
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: I'm just subject to the Ethiopian Bible now, um, yeah,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: and you know, one like point of comparison, so think about.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Popular Christian imagination regarding the end times. Think about the
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Left Behind series, you know, should that be in our Bible?
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: You know, my, uh, my answer is no, by the way,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: in case you want, but you, but do you see
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: how meaning, well-meaning sincere Christians take what's in the Bible,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: then they kind of go beyond and expound and imagine
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: what could this be like.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: That's actually what you see in some of these apocalyptic
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: writings like Enoch, like, oh, the Watchers or the Nephilim. What,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: what does that mean? Oh, I wonder if this is
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: their backstory. I wonder if this and kind of expanding
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: and expounding on that again, it doesn't.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: You know, I mean it's, it's like horrible or bad,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: but again, it's sort of taking what is scripture going
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: beyond that, expounding and, and again it, it's understandable if
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: you're fascinated by what's in scripture you do try to
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: make connections. There's gaps sometimes or spaces where scripture just
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: set drops kind of a truth bomb and you're like,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: wait a minute, where did that come from or what
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: does that mean or what must be true in order
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: for that to be said and then.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: And we begin imagining it and, and to be honest,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: it's like a lot of times pastors when they preach,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: you know, they'll kind of fill in the gaps and
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: this and that and it's like, OK, that's, you know,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: it seems to connect those two. It's not, you know,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: you're the little bridge you made, it's not technically, uh,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: in scripture. I hope those, you know, that bridge is solid,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: but I think that's why it always comes down to
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: the difference between that which is inspired and that which
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: is not inspired.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Alec, uh, Ralph, thank you for your phone call today
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: here on Pastor's Perspective. Alex, you're up next, but before
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: I forget, Mike, you wanted to mention an event that
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: your church is doing. Oh yes, um, if anyone is free, uh,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: this Saturday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., we're doing worship
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: by the lake in Rancho Santa Margarita, uh, with a
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: partner nonprofit organization called Moman Foundation.org. Um, they host evangelistic
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: events using mixed market.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Martial arts fighters, they do it in public schools, but
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: this night, uh, Image Church is partnering with them to
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: just worship the Lord in public at the lake. Uh,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: it's a, it's a low-key thing, just believers getting together,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: gonna worship the Lord. So that's 5:30 to 7 p.m.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: in Rancho Santa Margarita this Saturday, October 10th, and you'll
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: find it on the Moman Foundation.org. Moman, M O M
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: E N Foundation.org.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's where it's at. Very good. All right, Mofoundation.org,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: not moment, moment. 888-564-6173. Alex in Oahu, Hawaii, watching on YouTube.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Hi Alex, thanks for calling in today.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: How's it going? Good. How are you, Alex? How's Oahu
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: treating you?
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, I can't complain. Yeah, great.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Um, but hey, I have a question on Matthew 27,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: but before I ask about it, uh, I was wondering
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: if I could just share a quick, really cool story
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: with Pastor Chuck Smith, 20 years ago.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: Sure, um,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: So this is a part of my testimony, but, uh,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: 20 years ago I was sitting in my car in
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Orange County, uh, asking the question, Why is Christianity the
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: true religion? I was listening to Pastor's perspective, called in.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: I was busy. I asked if Jesus was real. Uh,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: please have my question be answered. Called again. Pastor Chuck
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Smith answered.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: To be honest, I don't remember what he said to me,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: but what he was graciously, uh, offered me was to
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: go to his office, uh, the following day, uh, which
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: I did, and him and his assistant, uh, was super kind,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: spoke to me, uh, and gave me a Luke's children's book,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and I was an adult, but the Luke's children's book
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: was perfect.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Um, and that was part of my, uh, story in
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: coming to, to, to Christ, uh, after that, a bunch
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: of other little things happened, but I want to share
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: that story and to hopefully encourage you guys and the
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: impact you guys are making, even if it's not seen
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: today that you just never know what's gonna happen in
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: the future. That's awesome. Yeah, thanks for sharing that, Alex.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, um, well, thanks, guys. Uh, the question I have
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: is Matthew 27, Jesus' crucifixion, uh, verse 51 to 54. Um, essentially,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: it talks about, uh, the saints who have fallen asleep
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: or raised and coming out of the tombs and they're
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: almost like zombies.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Uh, at the end walking around, uh, showing people themselves.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: I'm just curious what the significance of that is, um,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: and if there's any stories about people writing in their own, um,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: you know, books of seeing these people that died and
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: started walking around.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, from my knowledge, there's no extra biblical account of
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: these events. Um, we actually talked about this passage a
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: couple of months ago, and it's, it's one of those
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: passages I think you forget.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: You know, in, in just like kind of your remembrance
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: of the gospel, you're highlighting the gospel, and then you
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: read it, you're like, wait, what? What happened? And so,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: you know, as we read it, it sounds like when
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Jesus died.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: The, the great earthquake that happened at that moment opened
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: up graves and those who, the righteous dead, came out
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: of them and went into the city of Jerusalem, and
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: people recognize them. Like, what in the world?
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: And Mike, last time we talked about this, we were saying,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: you know, there's some people that, you know, think, oh, actually,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: this is a reference to, you know, the saints that
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: have died before going into the holy city. And so
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: maybe this is a reference to, you know, those leaving,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: you know, what they call Abraham's bosom, the place of
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: the righteous dead and going uh to the heavenly realm
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: and God's presence.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: But that's not what it says. And so I think
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: what we have to recognize is that what has happened
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: in the death of Jesus is so powerful, so significant,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: so earth shattering, that it literally opens up the graves
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: and sets the righteous free.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: And isn't it interesting? That's actually what we believe will
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: eventually happen, that the death and the resurrection of Jesus
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Christ is a thing that will set all the righteous
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: free to new life, to enjoy God's kingdom forever and
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: ever and ever. And so it's almost like this moment
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: of Christ's death is there's just a foretaste of what
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: will happen in the very end. The graves will be open,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: the dead will rise to life again, uh, and present
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: themselves in the holy city. So,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Um, it's radical, but, you know, if we believe that
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ rose from the dead, if we believe that God, uh,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: by the word of his power created all things and
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: holds all things together, well, then this shouldn't be that
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: hard to believe as well. There's some radical things, uh,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: that scripture states that we have to grapple with, right?
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it testifies to who Jesus was that
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: this was no mere man that, you know, as the
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: apostles taught, as you just alluded to Cha Colossians 1:17
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: in him, Christ, he's not just a mere man, moral teacher, sage.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: That in him all things hold together. So what is,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: what is the effect on creation itself when the Lord
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: of creation is killed, crucified, that you see this ripple
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: effect actually throughout, right? The sky is dark and the
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: moon turns to blood, the earthquakes.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: The dead are coming in. This is a cataclysmic. This
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: is an apocalyptic event. That's, that's, that's what we're being shown.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: And I think again this is like the Amos, the
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: language of Amos, the prophet Amos, you know, this, this
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: is the day of the Lord. That's, this is testifying
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: to this is not just, you know.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Uh, uh, a mere man, a rabbi, this is a
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: messianic movement, but it failed. No, this really is, as
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: the centurion said, this is a son of God, a
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: son of a god. I mean, he knew there's no
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: mere man, something other than what I thought just happened.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: And by the way, like in Mark, you see these
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: hints all the time. Like I love the little, little
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: line you can miss so easily when they get into
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: the boat and.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: You know, and then the storm's happening and it says
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: they're scared, says they're afraid, um, then Jesus calms the storm.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: You'd think they were not afraid, right? And then it
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: says they were greatly afraid. Who is this that's in
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: our boat? Like they, oh, and then the line before
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: it was, he got in the boat just as he was.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: It's like they're recounting the story. I swear Jesus got in.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: He was just, just normal human guy, got on the
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: boat just as he was, didn't have anything on him.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Next thing you know, he talks to the storm and
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: it obeys him. Who is this in the boat? Who
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: was this on the cross? This was the author of life,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: and that is why all of creation itself groans out
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: and bears witness that this is the Son of God. Alex,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: what do you think?
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Uh, yeah, I mean that makes sense. Uh, man, I
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: wish there was some, uh, stories out there that they
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: saw zombies, but.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Those are other stories, Alex.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be, uh, you know, fun, non non
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: non-canonical literature there. Oh, what would it have been like?
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: What if they still looked dead when they went? It
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: doesn't say that, but hey, you can imagine, right?
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Thanks for calling us from Hawaii today on Pastor's Perspective.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: 888-564-6173 is the number. I got a couple of questions
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: that were submitted online by Robert in Duarte. He says,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: I've been thinking about God.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Does my God want the first fruits of my labor,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: that meaning a healthy portion of each check I receive?
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: How adamant is God that I do this act of
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: giving God my first fruits all the time? And then
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: Robert's other question is about Mark 8:38. He asks, if
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: I'm ashamed or embarrassed to talk about Jesus with my
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: neighbors and associates, will Jesus be ashamed of me when
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: He comes in the glory of His Father with the
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: holy angels? Sharp.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this question of, you know, does God
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: want the first fruits of my labor? Yeah, he does.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: And that's literally like
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: The, the least amount of thing that we give to God.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Like what God actually demands, requires is everything that you are, right?
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Because you've been made in the image of God, you've
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: been made by God, been made for God. And unfortunately,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: we humans, we live as though we made ourselves and
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: we live for ourselves. And so I think just even
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: the first step in recognizing that Jesus is Lord is
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: that we hand our lives over to God completely.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: And that we allow God to determine right and wrong,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: what's good and true, what's holy and profane. He decides,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: and we submit to that. A part of that is
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: that now what we do, who we are is all
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: directed towards God's glory, God's kingdom, and God's will. And
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: of course, you know, what we do for our vocation.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Um, how we, not just what we do for work,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: but how we work. All of these things are to
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: bring glory to God. And we are to use the
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: things that God has given us to build for His kingdom.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: And that is not just our money, but that is
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: our time and our resources, that's our physical bodies that
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: we give to God. And so, I just think sometimes
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: we're talking, when we're talking about
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: You know, a tithe they're offering. We're we're really just
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: talking about the minimal amount of what we give to God.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: We actually give everything to God. And we actually have
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: kind of a saying that we regularly reference on Sunday morning.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: We give back to God of all that he's already
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: given us. This is all that we're doing in our
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: worship of giving to him to build his church and
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: to build his kingdom. So I think that's the the
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: first question.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Uh, the second one, you know, I, I don't know,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: I always have a hard time with this, the kind
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: of interpretation of this passage.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: And I would just love to know just like what
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: does it mean that you're ashamed or embarrassed to talk
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: about Jesus with your neighbors? Because I mean, I would
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: say I find it very unnatural to talk to people
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: that I don't know about something that is so deeply
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: personal to my life. But I would say, you know,
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: so if you find it like awkward socially to talk
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: to your neighbors that you don't know about Jesus, I
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: understand that. And
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: I don't necessarily think that scripture demands that we go
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: up to perfect strangers and we say, can I tell
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: you about the hope that I have in Jesus Christ?
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Can I tell you about Jesus, how he is my
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: Lord and Savior?
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: Um, I think that God holds us responsible for the
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: relationships that we have, that we would share, um, the deepest, meaningful,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: truest thing about us with others. And I think, you know,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: for anyone, right, like the thing that you are passionate about, the,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: the most core things about you, you don't have to
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: be convinced to share those with people. You're not ashamed
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: to share those with people. They're just who you are
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: and it's what you do, right? Uh.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: You know, nobody has to pull it out of me
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: that I love music and I love to play music.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: As I am in a relationship with people, it comes out.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: This is what is known about me, that this is
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: a passion point of my life. I don't have to
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: tell people, you know, forced to tell people that I
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: love to read and I love to learn and I
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: love stories. It just comes out of me naturally because
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: it's part of who I am. So I think if
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: you truly do belong to Jesus Christ and, uh, your
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: salvation in Him is the truest things about you, that
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: your sins have been forgiven you for Jesus' sake.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: That Jesus Christ is the savior of the world who will, uh,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: not only redeem your life, redeem this world, but resurrect
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: all things and give you hope and eternity forever. You're
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: going to talk about those things. It's gonna come out, right?
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: And I think what what scripture is really talking about
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: here is someone that is embarrassed to talk about these
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: things because of what other people will think about that.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: And that's a different thing. I think if, if you're
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: struggling with that, I would say, well,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I think that you really need to delve
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: deeper down. Do you believe this to be true? And
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: if it's true, it's not subjective to, you know, how
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: somebody emotionally feels, whether it's cool or not in or not.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: It's either true or false. And I think that that's
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: where you really have to come to grapple with that.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: And of course, if it's true, then it's true for
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: all people, and it needs to be made known.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, um, again, it just why it's great to call
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: in because again why are you ashamed, right? Like they,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: you know, it could be because there's a significant incongruity
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: in your life versus your proclamation, right? And like, and
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: you understand that you're like, oh man.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Somebody's asking if I'm a Christian or not, but man,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: they know, they know I've been living like hell all week,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: you know, and uh, you know, and I know I
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be doing it, but I'm not doing anything about it.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: I'm just doing my thing, but oh, now I'm being asked,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: now I'm embarrassed. And, and again, by the way, I'd
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: still tell people who believe in Jesus, but you know, you're,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: you're not the savior. Jesus always is, you know, nobody
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: is good enough to be a Christian. Let's, let's get
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: over that myth. I know what we mean. We obviously
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: we wanna honor and love our Lord and Savior because
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: we love Him, um, but it.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: It's not like at some point you are so good
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: that you are the picture perfect representation of you. Nobody is,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: you know, and, and anybody, even the best, most wonderful
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: Christians can have a bad day, you know, or a
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: bad moment or whatever. So don't let that.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: Um, be the reason, but at the same time live
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: into that, right? Like Paul says to put on Christ
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: and it's something you've got to do continually put off
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: the old self, put on the new self, and we
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: have to continually do that every day. So if that's,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of the reason.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: For it, then that's something that, hey, take this as
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: the occasion to address a problem that already existed prior
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: to any occasion that made you feel ashamed. There's, there's,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: you know, heart issues with my walk and I need
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: to figure that out for its own sake as well
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: as for the sake of evangelism. Then, you know, like
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: Char was saying, I mean, I think I totally agree with.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: You know, pretty much anybody, if, if something is the
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: truest thing about them, they're very usually pretty open and,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: and even loud about it.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: So it's, it's kind of like, you know, how, how
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: Christ might be in my life, but how significant is he?
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Is he, is it like a side thing I do
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: on Sundays, but my real passion is these other things,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: you know, um, on the other hand, you could be somebody,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: it is possible you're walking with the Lord, so it's,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: you know, it's not ashamed of living a hypocritical life, um, you,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: you are passionate about Jesus. I would say this is
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: the one thing where it is different.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: From other analogies, Jesus really is a polarizing figure in
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: a way nothing else is like Jesus even said, I
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: did not come to bring peace on earth but a sword,
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: you know, and that this would divide families and, and
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: it does. So I think we rightly know, you know,
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: what we're talking about, we're talking about.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: Heaven and hell, we're talking about life and death, sin
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: and so these are, this is not, we're not talking
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: about the Chicago Bears and whether they should have started
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Case Keenan, which by the way, they should have, but
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: we're not talking about that's not that big a deal.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: Um, but when you get into, man, this is, this
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: is something of ultimate significance, and it, and Jesus lays
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: claim over every area of life, there's not one square
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: inch of all the earth over which Christ does not
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: declare mine, so I think people often intuit that and
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: so we recognize, man, they can see this as a threat,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: but again, I think we have to trust in the
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: I think we have to trust in the grace of God.
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: I think we have to trust also in the fact that,
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: you know, there's times where we may not share because
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: we're ashamed of what the possible response would be and
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: yet that's the person dying for a message of hope
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: and salvation in Jesus, and we might wrongly withhold that
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: from them because we're worried about a possible wrong response.
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: So I think our duty is like, hey, I'm gonna
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: error on sharing.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: Jesus with people I'll do it humbly. I'll do it graciously.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be in your face about it and
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: you know slamming my Bible against your forehead, but I
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: do wanna share it if you're closed, right? Like if
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: you're just closed off, I, I don't believe I'm the
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: one that can convert you and beat down the door
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: and you know I'm not gonna do a Spanish Inquisition
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: on you don't believe that's effective.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna trust the Holy Spirit, but I am
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: gonna do my part and I'm gonna put it out
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: there and if I see that there's a response, then
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: there's an opportunity to follow up and if they say no,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: I don't wanna hear it, then you can move on.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Robert, thanks for submitting your question online through the pastor's
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: perspective page at Kwave.com. Reggie, don't have time to take
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: your call today, so sorry, but uh we'll give you
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: a fast pass. You can call us tomorrow. It's only
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: good tomorrow. Uh, the sooner you call in, we'll put
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: you on like almost right away. So, uh, you
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: It tomorrow. God bless you guys. We're gonna archive today's
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: episode on Facebook, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. If you
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: missed any part of it or just wanna hear it again,
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: or share it with your friends. Make sure that you, uh,
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: subscribe to our podcast too. Uh, YouTube, if you're watching
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: that way, leave a comment there in the section and, uh,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: It'll get more people watching and, you know, the whole,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: the way the whole algorithm thing works, uh, can be
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: very beneficial for letting people know about pastor's perspective. For
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Char Broderson and Mike Shattuck, I'm Brian Perez and we'll
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: talk to you next time right here on Pastor's Perspective.