Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Ep. 198 - Hallowing Halloween: How to Redeem Cultural Events

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Ep. 198 - Hallowing Halloween: How to Redeem Cultural Events · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: If there has been anything that we've gotten some flack for, it's the fact that we tell people hey, man, do something on Halloween, engage during Halloween.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Ray, do you think it's a given that people would react that way because of the demonic elements associated with Halloween?
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can understand.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: It's just an evil night, the night of evil, Although I was talking to a girl the other day that she says it's a night of God.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: That's what I says.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Is it Satan or God?
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: This boy said why do people dress up so horribly?
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: She says because it's a spiritual thing.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: They're scaring the demons away with their masks and stuff like that.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Gotta fool me, but anyway, it's an event we should take advantage of.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Remember Acts 17,.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Paul was in Athens horrified by the idolatry.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: When he stood up, he quoted Greek poets and he did that as a bridge to reach his heros.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: And that's all.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: We're using Halloween for a bridge to reach people with the gospel posted.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: By all means, reach some.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Oxy.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Moron.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Would you call me Moron?
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction, defining silence, pretty ugly, open, secret, silent, scream.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: My favorite, ray.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: What are you doing, ray?
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Why do you do things?
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Why did you wait till we hit record?
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Why do you?
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: slowly pour your waddle, it's like silent water Oxy Moron.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Can you see the bottle away?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: We don't like the bottle, you don't like the whole point.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: It's called product placement for Fiji.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: All right, fiji, I'll get rid of it.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Put the cup in his cup.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Oxy Moron's guys.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: My favorite Jumbo shrimp.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: That's funny.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Wait, hold on.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: I don't think deafening silence is an Oxy Moron.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: It's the same thing Deaf silence, deafening silence.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: No, definitely means loud.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: No, definitely means loud.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, oscar Definitely means it made you deaf, yeah.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Because it was so loud.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: So how can you assume that?
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: it's loud.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: Here's an.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Oxy Moron, intelligent atheist.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: The fool has said in his heart Plastic silverware, is that funny?
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: But I never think about it right, every time I say it I'm not thinking Did you make these up or did you look them up?
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: No, I looked them up.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Act natural, that's a good one.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, that is too.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Act natural.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Random order, civil war yeah, never think about that Me me, me, well, you never think about it.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you guys had this one.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: We've been thinking about it all the time Offly good.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Original copy.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: Are these the things that keep you up at night?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Yes, Constantly Unbiased opinion.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: How long does it take?
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, seriously, we say this stuff, we don't think about it.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Unbiased opinion?
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: There's no such thing.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: How long is your list?
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Very, let me see.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Oh no, this one's good.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Barely dressed, barely get it bare, yeah, yeah.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: We got it Barely dressed.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, those are nice, but here's a couple of really funny ones.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Can you fake a bit of laughter?
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, listen, these three are funny.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Now you've built them up too high.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: These are dumb yeah.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Really dumb Government organization.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Airline food and temporary tax hikes.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: You see Oscar Marx facial expressions.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Temporary?
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: What Tax hikes?
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: They're never temporary.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Well, you guys need help.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm supporting you, eze.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: We're going to cut this whole thing out right now.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: No, no, this is the best.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, but these you guys will enjoy.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: These are oxymoronic statements.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good and prompt to speech.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Mark, wait, stop looking at the screen, I knew that one.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: It was very clever.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Very good.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Let's see here, this is a good one.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Any oxymorons in scripture, we're still waiting for the good one Are there.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: A lot of people never use their initiative because no one told them.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: To Banksy, you guys know Banksy, yeah the artist, street art.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: So okay, what's up with that dude?
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: are you seeing this guy?
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Why are you judging his gender?
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: No, you guys remember he'd do something where there was an auction at some big art show and someone paid like I don't know a million something, but it was a crazy amount, and then as soon as it was purchased it got shredded.
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and then the shredded paper is worth more than with the original thing.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Brilliant, but this guy's like no one knows who he is right.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: He's like this anonymous artist.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: He was anonymous.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: They know he is now.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: Oh, they do.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's Will Ferrell Was it.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we must believe in free will.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: We have no choice.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Isaac Behavis-Singer, this is the best one here.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: This is by Gerald Ford, hopefully, because it can't get worse.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, if Lincoln were alive today, he'd be turning over in his grave.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: These were so nice and cute.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Oh sorry, one more.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: George Carlin Drive on the parkway park.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: In the driveway he was a baddie, wasn't he right?
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: He was very film-bound, but my heart went out to him because he's really searching for truth.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: He passed away recently, didn't he?
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: It was about 10 years ago.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: No, it's recently.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: He spoke in the present right.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: That's recently.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: To EZ's dad yes, that's true.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: It is Guys, my dad keeps going.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah 112.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Well, january we'll celebrate 113.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: You could sell a book called my Dad's Diet.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: You know what?
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Actually, someone talked to me about that they're like we should create a website where we put your dad's secrets, you know, And-.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: He buys my books.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Subscription bangles them.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: He buys my books, every single one of the books.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but guys, what's up with that?
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Oxymorons?
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Absolutely nothing.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Moving on?
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: What's a moron we want to move on?
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Why do we use that word?
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Moron?
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Moron, that, all right, friends.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Here's a comment To Mark Easy Ray, oscar and the entire Living Waters team.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I was moved deeply by the movie today and I feel it is your best.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Yet I'm praying for God to use this in incredible ways.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I thank God for all you've done in my life, as I've closely followed your ministry for almost two decades and have been richly blessed by it.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you for fighting the good fight and equipping and encouraging us to do the same.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I love you all, even though we've never met.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: This is from Nathan Flaherty.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: And what movie could Nathan be talking about?
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, what is it, Friends?
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: It has finally been released, so how?
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: can people help?
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Go to livingwaterscom you'll see it there where all of our videos are posted and share it.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Or you can go to the YouTube channel.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Well, watch it Correctly.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Thank you, watch and share.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been so encouraging, you know, on the night that it premiered and this leads into something else I'm gonna share on the night that it premiered, we had 200 churches that shared it all around the country and we've been so encouraged by the response.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, this response is really typical A lot of people saying it's the most powerful move we've produced and God is using it in big ways.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: So here's the amazing thing Once it premiered, all these churches started showing it, started going up.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I went to our podcast statistic page and I could not believe what happened as a result, because the podcast was mentioned as I come up at the end of the movie and then it came up before the churches that showed it on screen.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: But on the Apple Podcast platform, we reached number five for the Christianity category in America.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: So the number five top podcast for the Christianity category in the entire country.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: On Apple, for the religion and spirituality category in America, we hit number five.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: So number six for religion, spirituality, number five for Christianity.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing that blew my mind Out of the two million different podcasts on the Apple Podcast platform all of them, every category.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Out of two million podcasts the Living Waters Podcast hit number 240.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: It's amazing.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: It's an oxymoron.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: It's an oxymoron, it's four of them actually.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: For guys that have no idea what they're doing.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Four morons, but yeah, number 240 out of two million, and Apple is the top platform for podcasts.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: And so, god's grace and goodness.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Now of course, it absent flows.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: This was a big pop it gave us, but still, we're still ranking in terms of one of the top.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: We weren't until today's podcast, so that opener it's over Well and thank you to our listeners.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: I mean, there are so many of you guys who faithfully listen.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: We get emails, we get comments where we hear from you guys subscribing, and there are people who are listening from episode one all the way forward.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: There are people listening from the beginning or the back, the top end, all the way back, and it's such a blessing.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: It's a blessing when we run in and meet you guys.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: It feels like we share each other's inside jokes, each other's stories, and so it's such an encouragement.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: We feel so blessed by your listenership and we just are here to say thank you so much for your commitment to tuning into four orthodoxes no four paradox.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: No four Oxy morons, oxy morons.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I lost my word.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Brilliant Oscar, big Oxy moron.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: All right, frans.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you for all of that.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: We're so blessed and grateful.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: All right, frans.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: In keeping with today's topic, this podcast is brought to you by the Halloween Outreach Box.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Now, before I even talk about its contents pack not box.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: No, it's box, it's box.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: It was a pack.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, hold on.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: This is the funny thing.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: The box was your idea.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: It's going to pack.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: No, it's called a pack.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: It was a pack.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: It was a pack or a box.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: It's the box Did we turn it into a box.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: That's what's funny.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Ray came up with a box idea and I was just about to say how brilliant it was, but now I'm taking that back.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: So we called it a box.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Mars, look it up and prove to Ray that it's called it.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll apologize.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: And then he came up with a box and it's got brilliant graphics.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, friends, halloween is here.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about it more, but, as we've mentioned many a time, halloween is what do we call it?
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Ray National.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Evangelism Day.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: I was thinking the National Atheist Day was April Fool's Day.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, national Evangelism Day.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: So, friends, get the Halloween outreach box now.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: This podcast will come out just before Halloween to give you a reminder.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: To get them quick.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: They've got 400 tracts in them the Albert Brainstyne Tract, the kids' million-dollar bill track, the Halloween-million-dollar bill and the curved illusion for kids.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: So make sure to get it.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Are you guys still looking it up this?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: is Bugs.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, my humble apologies.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: The Bugs that I came up with, unbelievable.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: All right, friends, and don't forget the Living Waters mug.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Hey, people are sending in their Is it cold and mug?
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: a plastic cup.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: And don't forget, take a picture of you doing something silly, fun or unusual with your mug.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: Post it online.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: Instagram social media, facebook social media, any other Twitter.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Is it cold?
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Twitter is still cold.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: My space, my space.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: My space, Social media and use the hashtag Living Waters Mug and we will give you something fun and free.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: Yes, we will.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Oscar Spitting for it.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, friends at LivingWaterscom, all right, guys.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Today's episode, halloween how to redeem cultural events.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if there has been anything, I think that we've gotten some flack, for I'd say it's the fact that we we're alive.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: That's the biggest thing, for sure, but the fact that we tell people, hey, man, do something on Halloween, engage during Halloween.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: And, ray, do you think it's a given that people would react that way because of the demonic elements associated with Halloween?
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can understand.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: It's an evil night, the night of evil, although I was talking to a girl the other day that she says it's a night of God.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: That's what I said.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Is it Satan or God?
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: I said why do people dress up so horribly?
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: She says because it's a spiritual thing.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: They're scaring the demons away with their masks and stuff like that.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Oh God, I fooled me.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: But anyway, it's an event we should take advantage of.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Remember Acts 17,.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Paul was an Athens horrified by the idolatry.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: When he stood up, he quoted Greek poets and he did that as a bridge to reach his hearers.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: And that's all.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: We're using Halloween for a bridge to reach people with the gospel.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Paul said by all means, reach some.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: And those Greek poets that Paul quoted were fornicators and idolaters, no doubt, and he wasn't giving their ministries or their poetry credibility.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: As I said, he was using it as a means to reach the lost, to reach his hearers.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the thing that's blown us away and we've talked about this on many occasions is the fact that you've got people coming to your door, like I mean, it depends on the neighborhood you live in, but in some cases hundreds of people you know will come to some people's doors.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: There are some people that you know make a big deal out of it and you know make it to where kids want to come to their door.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: I remember years ago was it Daniel?
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: That they would do something in his front yard, and some of our friends I think Anna Jackson and others we used to preach open here.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I do.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: And the driveway to groups of people that hung around.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: It was wonderful, yeah, and so let me give my testimony, my Halloween testimony, my testimony.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: When we came across to the US in 1989, we were absolutely horrified that Halloween had such a foothold on the United States, didn't in New Zealand, really?
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Alberta and New Zealand.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: No, no trick or treat or anything like that.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: So we came across here, got a local Walmart or whatever, and there's this horrific masks and blood and guts and axes and all that sort of stuff.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: You were in the grocery section.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: No, you were in the grocery section axles and knives and anyway we would hide as a family.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: We'd turn the lights off on Halloween and just hear people going past and someone knock at the door.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: On Monday, at a revelation, there's people knocking on my door.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: I could open it and give them tracks.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: So we did and if I remember rightly, we gave away a hundred tracks that night.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: A hundred, that's amazing.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was wonderful, yeah.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: So I think it's important that we discuss this today.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I mentioned that the Halloween, you know, outreach box that we want people to get ahold of, this is box right and formally pack, yeah, and this is the time.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: This is the time to do it and to gear our hearts and minds.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: My hope is that, honestly, this serves as a catalyst to make us realize that there are so many things that we can be doing, and today we could talk about Christmas, easter, thanksgiving Holidays are such great opportunities.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: National Donut Day National Donut.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: There's something special about Halloween.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Let me share with you what it is.
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: By the way, National Donut Day is one of the most holy.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: I was going to say that's a holy joke coming up.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Honestly, it would surprise me if there is such a day.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: There is a day.
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: Wait, it just passed like a month ago.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's National.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Donut Day.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Wait, watch this Unbelievable Seriously.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: I believe, national Rotten Potato Day.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, August 27.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: August 27.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: That one also just passed.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: There's a day for everything.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Go ahead right.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: What you can do is what we did just sit inside and wait for people to come to your door.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Or you could put your porch light on, which helps, so people know that you're friendly.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: You could put balloons helium balloons outside to let them know that you are more than willing Excuse me, you're more than willing to give them gifts.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Or you could put a sign up that says welcome.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: So you don't just get 100, you get 200 coming to your door.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Or you could put a table on your front door packed with treats so that people going past will come.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: But let me put this whole thing on steroids, if I may.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Every church wants to reach the neighborhood with the gospel.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Every church wants to grow, and there's a problem with the local church and I'm sure you found it as impasses is that if you want to reach your neighborhood, you've got to fight prejudice.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: People have gotten their minds that you're after their money and when you go, knock on their door and go and sit down with them for the first time, it's incredibly awkward.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Keep that in mind.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Halloween has become a night where parents accompany their kids on the streets.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: It's because it's become so dark.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: Any responsible parent would never let the kids go alone, trick or treat them.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: They never see them again with today's society.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: So this is a night where parents, families and children walk the streets.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Many churches set up something in their churches and alternate to Halloween.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: But I want to take it a little further.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Bring a table to the sidewalk laden it with gifts Not just candy, but gifts.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: So when those families come past and get the gifts that they're expecting on that night, it's going to break down barriers.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a lot of trouble because it's not at all awkward.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: You're meeting the whole neighborhood and you're giving them gifts, for so is the will of God that by your well-doing you put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: You can get rid of their prejudice, their biases toward the local church as a money-making institution on one night and a few minutes by just laning your neighborhood people with gifts as families, and I think it's a huge opportunity.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: That's a great idea.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I think you have a good.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there are so many opportunities like that.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Well, the key is to come down to the sidewalk so they don't have to come on your property.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: They're not gonna feel at all threatened.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's similar to something we do.
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: But before I go there, I think we need to take a step back and maybe discuss, just create a working definition of a theological approach to culture, because that's ultimately what we're talking about here.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: What does the scripture say about the relationship between the Christian and the culture, or, better yet, christ in culture and I've read a handful of books on this.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: I think one of the better ones, da Carson, christ in Culture Revisited the original Christ in Culture.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: He critiques it.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: I think he does a really good job of critiquing it.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: Great book, great cover, great cover.
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: So in Christ in Culture Revisited.
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: To summarize what DA says is he says, ultimately we have three approaches.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: The first is an anti-nomian approach to culture, which is that the culture is gonna colonize us and we look no different from the world.
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: We lose a sense of who we are as Christians.
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: You cannot just distinguish the difference between somebody in exile as a follower of Jesus Christ and somebody of the world.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: We just look like the world.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: He says we become colonized by the world.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: But he also says that we have a bit of a legalistic approach to culture in which we are overly negative and we wanna reject all of culture.
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: We wanna build high walls and protect ourselves and protect our families and let culture go to waste and, as a matter of fact, we even take on a Gnostic theology on culture when we do this.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: A Gnostic theology of culture says the world's gonna burn up anyway.
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: Let's just let it happen and protect ourselves.
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: That's Gnosticism.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: Is that?
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: like a monastery monk theology, gnostic.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: Well, gnosticism is not monk theology, but yes, okay.
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: So, yes, some monastic traditions is escapism.
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: I think that's what you're getting at.
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, let's build our high walls and remove ourselves from the city, remove ourselves from community and just let them do their thing.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: Did monks believe in?
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: evolution.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: That's a great question.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Monk elution.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Monk elution.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: So neither of these, da Carson would say, is what the scriptures call us to.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: Instead, what the scripture calls us to is cultural renewal.
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: In cultural renewal, what we recognize is that Jesus is at work in all of culture.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: What we recognize is that God's glory is put on display throughout all the world and when we do that, we can move into the world and find ways to redeem aspects of cultures and find ways to reject aspect of cultures.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: We're talking about salt and light, absolutely yeah.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: So what are examples of things that are utterly rejectable?
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: Easy one strip clubs, turnips, Turnips.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Cilantro, cilantro, cilantro.
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: Cilantro.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: These things are rejectable.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: There's nothing we can do.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: They're laden in sin.
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: What are aspects that we can renew about culture?
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: What we're advocating for is things like Halloween.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: We're putting out examples where we don't adopt it entirely.
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: We don't look like the world, but we find ways to renew aspects of the world.
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: I think the key thing here is think about the garden.
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: Adam and Eve's job was to cultivate the garden, and when we look at the world around us as a garden that God has called us to cultivate, then we'll find that we don't reject it.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: We find that we don't become like the dirt, but instead we get our hands dirty to cultivate the garden for the glory of God.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: And so, to go back to what you were saying, our neighborhood has, without exaggeration, thousands of kids.
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: You cannot drive on our streets.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: We are like the neighborhood that everybody goes to to bring their kids because all of the houses are giving away candy.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: So what we did on year one is we started a potluck and every year since then we invite everyone to bring food, and our like right by our house, is like the go-to spot to meet up with friends and then to disperse, to go get your candy and then come back and then disperse, and so what we do is we hand out tracks and we invite people to bring food, and we stand out there and we have conversations, we invite people from our church, and so, from our perspective, what we're trying to do is renew.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: We're trying to be faithful gardeners, we're trying to renew this aspect of culture and meet people where they're at with the gospel, which is exactly what you're calling us to do, ray.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I like that imagery, oscar, of you know if you're gonna work in the garden you're gonna get your hands dirty, but obviously it's the principle and Mark, I'd love you to speak to this of you know, being in the world but not being of the world.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: We're in the world to reach the world, but we're not conforming to the world in terms of walking in its ways, but we're finding an occasion and saying, hey, let's enter into this culture and let's use it as an opportunity to reach people.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: That is exactly right.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Everything that happens to us throughout the day, we have to remember, is a spiritual opportunity, is a blessing from God to step out of our comfort zone and to have an impact for eternity.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: Right, if you don't wanna call it Halloween, we'll call it happy Reformation Day, right, exactly, you know, with Martin Luther nailing his 95th thesis to the Wittenberg door, it's a great time.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: This is not Satan's day, right?
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: These are days that the Lord has created for us to walk in the works which God has prepared beforehand.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Nothing is on hold and nothing takes a back seat.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: This is an absolute, as Ray says, the best opportunity to reach your community for the gospel.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: You know, we're told to go into the highways and the byways and the getaways and try to compel people to come.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: But here's that one day of the year where people are coming to our door and what do we do?
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: We turn off the lights, we reject them, we don't have anything to do with them.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right, let's say let me, let me.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Okay, ray, now Mark you set it up for me.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Mark set it up, so Wittenberg, but Ray help me understand this dilemma.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Don't touch the dilemma.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: What's wrong with you?
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: We've been doing this podcast for two years.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Why does your iPad keep falling?
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: I thought you had a different thing.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: The reason for it is I didn't charge up my unfulable iPad.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: It was on 7% when I was gonna come down here.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: I thought that's not gonna work, so I had to bring this.
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: Here's the best part about that Right before we hit record, I said let's get our iPad set up so that they fall right in the middle of the recording.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I said to.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Mark set my iPad up, which he did so it wouldn't fall, and it fell.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: Well, because you keep touching it.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Well, you gotta touch an iPad.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: You can't sort it Just because of the movement, don't?
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: touch it Don't touch.
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: I will say this too, just as a, I think, looking back at my life.
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: What's funny is that Halloween was actually one of my favorite holidays before I was a Christian, since I was a kid.
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: I think I've shared before.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: We used to like my neighborhood friends and I would set up haunted houses and we would.
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: We just loved scaring people and we'd hang out afterwards.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: And specifically I remember this one time.
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: We scared this lady so poorly that she, like, ran down the street, leaving her like four year old kid with us.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: We had to walk the kid.
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: She limelight railed as a zombie walking this kid down the street back to their parents because the parent did not want to come pick up the kid and she should teach parenting classes.
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: But even moving forward like here's.
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: I mean like again, you know.
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: Going back to the garden thing, yeah, we get our hands dirty, but gardeners don't roll around in the mud.
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: But, full confession, I used to mow in around the mud, like you know, in my, in my twenties, halloween was an excuse for our women friends to put on lingerie and we'd have parties.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: You know, like that's ways that we become like the world.
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: But I'm thankful what the Lord has done in my life, cause now here I am, using Halloween as a way to proclaim his glory, right.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and, and look, when we look back on the history of Halloween, it's believed to have really originated back with the calyx and the druids, and and oh didn't we interviewed?
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: we went and interviewed druids once up in the Hollywood Hills, oh yeah.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I've been a forest right.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: His name was Drew.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: I wasn't there for that, but did you have your spy glasses?
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: I?
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: had my spy glasses on and Kirk and the guys couldn't believe how unnatural I was turning.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Oh right, Well, I was trying to keep the camera smooth when I turned up.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: It was ridiculous.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not your forte, right?
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, don't wear spy glasses please, yeah, you imagine Ray as a spy.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: He could be caught like that.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that's true, right at the front door.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Well, he's like, yeah, he'll like stick his face and people's face and like move slowly up and down his nostrils flaring they probably cover the lenses.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: That's a little personal.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: For those of you that don't understand or have never heard this whenever Ray is up to something sneaky, his nostrils flare.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: I can see him being like a narcotics cop and he shows up to like the drug bust.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: He's like hello.
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: I will take two drugs please.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: They flare.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Remember you guys remember Jurassic Park?
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: There was that one dinosaur.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Where it's, the neck thing is popped out.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: That's Ray's nostrils, ray's nostrils.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Leave my nostrils there.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: The nose nose comfort, the nose nose, no, but yeah.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: So back to those roots.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: You know, and you know it was connected with what they called Sam Hain Day, and you know they would do all kinds of things.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: They do sacrifices.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: They believe that this is when the veil between the spiritual world and our world would be broken, and so, you know, they believe that the dead could walk around and just crazy things.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: And then, of course, the Catholic Church sees it as all hollows eve or all saints day, and they'll celebrate martyrs and different things.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: And then in our culture it's become just this thing, where people have no connection with it.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: In that regard it's just like, hey, let's dress up and go get candy, you know.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: But there are also those pagan elements where there are satanic, demonic sacrifices that take place and all sorts of evil and wicked rituals and stuff like that.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, it's important for the Christian to be mindful of all that, but then to pause and to ask the question Lord, can this be redeemed for the sake of reaching souls?
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: It's also really important.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: I love that easy.
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: I also think it's really important to remember that sin is not out there, but in our hearts primarily.
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: And G A Carson, in that same book that I mentioned earlier, says this he talks about the rejecting culture position.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: He says many times the reject position assumes the evil of the extrinsic world will taint the faith of a Christian.
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: But Jesus says the exact opposite.
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: The fruit of our lives, whether in holiness or sin, is always inextricably tied to the root of our hearts.
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: If our hearts are prone towards sin in certain ways, we will find a way to sin.
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: Sin indeed corrupts, but the sin is not so much out there in the world as it is in the heart of every person.
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: The reject position falsely assumes sin is mostly what we do rather than who we are.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: I love that Like.
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: I think the point is is, like you know, when you walk out your front door on Halloween and you see some kid walking around with a ghoul's mask on, the devil's not tempting you.
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: The devil's tempting you when no one's looking and you pull up your phone and look at stuff you shouldn't be looking at, that's when the devil's tempting you.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: And so we need to recognize like like the sin primarily is in our hearts before it's in the world.
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, satan doesn't look like a red figure with a pitch Work in yeah, big old years he does it.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: Hey Angel, what's up?
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: He has big ears.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: While we're talking about their subject, one of the greatest ranks to give out is the giant money on Halloween.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because kids run around with a huge $100 bill and everyone sees it when they're walking around the streets and they come running to your door and say I want one of those.
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: Guys, I think it's time we tell Ray Ray that it's not giant money, that's a normal that's a normal that's a Ken Ham.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: It's normal Ray.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: It's the normal bill I remember coming back.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: It was a short joke.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: We came back from a harvest festival at a church and our kids' bags were filled with candy.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: And we got a knock at the door and there were a handful of kids you know they're saying trick or treat and I look in the back and there was this little boy with a king size pillowcase, kind of the size of the boy.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: And I told all the kids that were there and I say to the side, to the side, let the little one forward, let the little one come to the front.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: The little kid came to the front and I went to my kids' bag.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: They had all the candy from the harvest festival and I dumped every one of the bags which was just loaded with candy into this little boy's pillowcase and it filled up the entire king size pillowcase and all the rest of the kids got so excited on how much candy that we handed out.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: And then I looked at them and I said sorry, I'm all out, wait a minute.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: You took that from our video.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, I have to say, man, producing that video was one of the funnest things I've ever done.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: It was frightening.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: I looked it up this morning.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: In fact it's got like 130, 40,000 views.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: So what's it called Easy so people can look at it.
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: Well, actually, what we should do is we should link it in the show notes.
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, okay.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll make note.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll make note.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know that's Scotty too, if you're listening, so we remember to do that.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was called, I think, halloween fail video or something, halloween fails or something.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you go to our YouTube channel, type in Halloween Living Waters, it should come up.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: But oh, that was so much fun.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Remember, guys, I Ray and Mark you guys were dwarfs and you were on your knees with the shoes.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Well, mark was on his knees, yeah.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Ray was just his normal self, but I mean, people trip out.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: It really looked like you guys were little people.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: What do we do?
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I think we take the shoes to your knees.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: You guys are on your knees and Mark was Waldo and I opened the door.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: I go there you are.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: I've been looking for you everywhere.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: And then Ray had the big fro wig on and a little you did like a little earring thing in your nose and stuff and that was so much fun.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm all out.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: We go door to door and we'll hand out DVDs and things of that nature and it's so great.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: So instead of getting from the house, we like to give back to the house.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: I will confess I do dress up on our Halloween.
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: We've seen you always dress up, but I always dress up as something satirical or something that pops like makes fun of pop culture.
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: So, like last year, I dressed up as Elvis.
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: No, I dressed up as a suburban dad, so I had, like.
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: I took a shirt and I drew a little under armor logo on it, and on the back I put sports team.
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: And then I grabbed a mug and I wrote on it Yeti mug.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: And I was walking around talking to all the dads about Bitcoin.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: That was my costume.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: Oh, that's funny man.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: Oh, and I had a Tesla head on.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: Of course that was my costume.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: That's what suburban dads do.
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: I'm where.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: I live.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: That's how we roll, yeah.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: So let's get into a little bit of scripture here.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Ray, you referenced it earlier, but let me read the passage.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: This is 1st Corinthians, 9, 19 of 23.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: For though I am free from all men, I've made myself a servant to all that I might win the more.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: And to the Jews I became as a Jew.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: That I might win the Jews to those who are under the law, as under the law.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: That I might win those who are under the law To those who are without law as without law, not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: That I might win those who are without law To the week I became as weak that I might win the week I've become all things to all men.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: That I might by all means save some.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: And now, this I do for the gospel sake.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: That I may be partaker of it with you.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Now let me just say that there are some people who may use the gospel as an opportunity to revel in what they really love, like the aim is not really to reach the lost, it's like, oh well, if I do it and say it's this and I get to do these things, and they drift into some of the things we talked about which are conforming to the world.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: And Paul's thrust here, of course, again, just to be faithful to the text is not that now this means if the society in the midst of which I live is doing these demonic things, while I'm going to become all things to all men and do demonic things?
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: Of course not, but the point that's being made is this passion to reach the lost and a willingness to take certain steps to break into their world in a way where you can get the gospel message through to them without that resistance, and I make that about every single thing out of this Luisario in the world.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: I think it's important for us to step back and ask ourselves do we burn with that kind of passion?
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: I mean Ray Paul saying man, I do this for the sake of the gospel.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: He was out there Halloween giving out tracks.
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: Well, again, like you brought up X17, you know, Paul didn't go look at the Ereopagus and go ooh, they've got a bunch of false gods, I'm not going in there.
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: He didn't look at Mars Hill and think ooh, they all think that that rock was sent here by some other false God.
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to go stand on that rock.
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: No, he went into the Ereopagus, he went and stood on Mars Hill and he preached the gospel Amen.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and on that note, let me, let me read us that text as well Acts 17, 26 to 29.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and is determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he's not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: And then he quotes for we are also his offspring.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Mark.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: I love this.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: I mean Paul.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Paul here is conducting himself in a way that I think is contrary to the stereotype that people might have of an apostle.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, right, he's an apostle of Christ.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, you wicked, he, the hands you look at, you know.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: But Paul was so.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: He was surgically, surgically tactful.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Good word, and the way that he approached this crowd, yeah, you know, and he didn't have an example to follow.
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: You know, it's not like he walked with Christ, you know, and was able to see his mannerisms and his behavior amongst the people.
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: That's a good point.
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: It's not like he was discipled by somebody who was smarter than himself.
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: He was a man that was on fire and he was focused and because of that he was filled with the spirit, he was filled with joy and he was filled with purpose, and that was to reach the world.
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: Now, remember, he ultimately wanted to go to the Jews, but the Jews rejected him.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: So then he became an apostle to the Gentiles and of all people.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: To go to the Gentiles?
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: It would not be him, yeah, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and that's really what the apostle Paul was in God's hand at that time.
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: Let me take a little sidestep here real quick, and that is you know, I try to redeem the holiday, you know, if you would.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: So I tried to make it a tradition.
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: I started last year and it didn't go too well, but I wanted to donate blood, you know, in the morning of Halloween, you're kidding and some sounds strange, but you were handing blood out to kids.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: No, it gets even worse than that.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: Actually, I go to donate blood, and maybe because it's Halloween, but they asked the most intimate personal questions imaginable on that day and I don't know why it's like About your warts.
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: No, where did this blood come from?
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: Whose blood is that and why you bring it to us in a bucket Really.
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: Stupid man.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: I don't like it.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: That's an Oscar joke, that's pretty good, I wrote it for him.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: An Oscar moron, that works.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: An Oscar moron, great Keep that, yeah, you know.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Well, I was just.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: No, I guess I'm just so moved by Paul.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: You know, he was just.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: He was this guy who was persecuting Christians we talked about it recently, you know was consenting to their murder, had a hand in it.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: He was this Pharisee of Pharisees.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: He was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, rather, you know.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: And then God just transforms him and to me it correlates with what Jesus said.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: You know, he who is forgiven much loves much, and I think that's, that's the element of man.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: This guy was so transformed, he was so self-righteous he was, he was so driven.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: It kind of reminds me of Luther a little bit, you know just seeking to establish his own righteousness and Christ breaks through, humbles him, shows him he's nothing.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: And now he's just driven.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: You're right, mark.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Why would Paul, of all people, go to the Gentiles?
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Why not?
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: Why not someone else who is of Gentile background, you know?
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: But but that's how God works.
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: And I love, I love, I mean.
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: I think Paul's life is a great example about cultural renewal.
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: One of the reasons why Paul went to the Gentiles is because he was a Roman citizen.
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: He was a Gentile citizen.
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: He wasn't a Gentile, but he was a citizen of a Gentile nation.
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: No, and so what does Paul do?
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: He doesn't become a Christian and reject his Roman name.
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: No, he becomes a Christian and uses his Roman name whenever speaking to Gentiles.
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: He continued to use the name Paul rather than stick with Saul.
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: Side note Paul did not change his name.
• 42:27
  Speaker 4: Correct your pastor next time he does that.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: Tell him to read his Bible.
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: Next thing Please don't tell your pastor that I'm joking Don't do that, respect your pastor, but also yeah, he didn't think.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: just that's all I'm saying about that.
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: He uses his Roman name when speaking to the Gentiles.
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: If he had high walls and self-righteousness and he've rejected culture, he would have been like I'm no longer using Paul again.
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: My name is Saul, that is my Jewish name, that's all, though I'm ever gonna go by.
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: He used his Roman name.
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: He talks about eating in ways that the Jewish tradition, religious traditionalists, did not eat, and then he quotes poets.
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: I think that that is one of the most profound ways that he reaches the lost.
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: Is that he and I mean think about this, the nuance of the reality of Paul quoting a poet.
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: Some pagan poet writes a poem about the stars.
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: Paul reads it, quotes it.
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: God, in his sovereignty, canonizes it.
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: And now this pagan poet, who did not seek to glorify God, now his words are God's words, giving God all the glory.
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: What does that tell us?
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: That tells us that God's common grace is out there in the world, not just amongst the Christians, but against the non-believers as well, and Paul exemplifies seeing it.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: And redeeming it.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's good, Mark.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: You were gonna say something before Oscar Rudley interrupted you and said what he said.
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: I don't remember I was protecting him.
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: I was enraptured with what he was saying and I forgot what I said.
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's good.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: I would like to say something, please.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: No that I'm anybody, I just love what you said.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: He's about Paul condescending to the irksome and lowly task of evangelism.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: It's you think, wow, this is the apostle Paul, and yet he had this continual concern for the lost.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: And I feel exactly the same about Charles Spurgeon.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: If anyone should be admired for his theology and his eloquence, it's Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, and yet he continually came back to the lost.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: Don't forget the lost, and that thrills my heart.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: Ray, I'm so glad you said that's a perfect segue, because what I wanted to do was I wanted to read this little devotional from Spurgeon.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: This is from morning and evening.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: I've cited it before but it's not long and I think it's worth reading in line to what we're talking about.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Is that a real quick who, spurgeon Spadjun?
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: This is from September 7th, for those of you that want to look it up, and it's Mark 2, 4 that he's commenting on.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: He says and when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: And when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: So this is a paralytic man, his friends lowering him down through the roof to Jesus.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Faith is full of inventions.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: The house was full, a crowd blocked up the door, but faith found a way of getting at the Lord and placing the palsied man before him.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: If we cannot get sinners where Jesus is by ordinary methods, we must use extraordinary ones.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: It seems, according to Luke 15, 19, that a tiling had to be removed which would make dust.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: Oh man, sorry, when my phone rings, this thing goes.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: Here it's a thing which wouldn't have made dust and cause a measure of danger to those below.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: But Jesus was there to heal.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Oh wait, but where the case is very urgent, we must not mind running some risks and shocking some proprieties.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: Jesus was there to heal and therefore fall.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: What might faith ventured all so that her poor, paralyzed charge might have his sins forgiven.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Oh that we had more daring faith among us.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Cannot we, dear reader, seek it this morning for ourselves and for our fellow workers?
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: And will we not try today to perform some gallant act for the love of souls and the glory of the Lord?
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: The world is constantly inventing.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Genius serves all the purposes of human desire.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Cannot faith invent too and reach by some new means the outcasts who lie perishing around us?
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: It was the presence of Jesus which excited victorious courage and the four bearers of the palsied man.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: It's not the Lord among us now?
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Have we seen his face for ourselves this morning?
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: Have we felt his healing power in our own souls?
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: If so, then through door, through window or through roof, let us, breaking through all impediments, labor to bring poor souls to Jesus.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: All means are good and decorous when faith and love are truly set on winning souls, if hunger for bread can break through stone walls, surely hunger for souls is not to be hindered in its efforts.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Oh Lord, make us quick to suggest methods of reaching the poor, sin sick ones, and bold to carry them out.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: All at all hazards, wow, that's good.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: Isn't that good yeah wonderful and friends, this is Exactly what I was saying easy, straight back to seek and save that which is lost.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Right and friends, that is what we're telling you today, whether it's Halloween, whether it's Christmas again.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: Well, Labor Day.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Labor Day.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: National Donate Day.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, national.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: I mean you get in that the whole Christmas thing and the controversy over that as pagan roots and this and that, right you see, okay, whatever.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: But first of all can't we celebrate that Christ was born?
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: And why not, if the community of God's people want to do that?
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: But beyond that, use it as an opportunity, as I shared before in neighborhoods I've lived in on Christmas.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: At Christmas time I'd go around door to door with my family with a letter with the gospel in it, a gift, the gospel of John, and we would use it as an outreach to our neighborhood.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Easy how do you feel about National?
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: Onion Day Gross.
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: What about national cotton and deep day?
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: No, oscar, that's forbidden.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: So there you have it, friends.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: We hope that encouraged.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: It's evolving, it's evolving, devolving.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: We hope that encourages you.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Don't forget the Halloween outreach box.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Again, we are strategically releasing this before Halloween so that you'll get this and be a doer of what you heard today.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: Reach the loss that are coming to your door.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: Again 400 packs.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: So livingwaterscom that box yes it's on livingwaterscom.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: So don't forget, don't call it a pack.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Check it out yeah, it's a box Box Ray.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: The inventor of Normally a pack, yeah.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: So, friends, keep it going.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: As we shared with you, we are continuing to climb.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: You have helped to make this one of the top podcasts in the world.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Thousands of reviews, millions of downloads still at five stars, and people are being reached with truth, so keep sharing it.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: Remember podcastlivingwaterscom that's where I read that comment from today.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: So send comments there and remember to give us a rating and subscribe.
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: I was gonna say, speaking of five stars, I'm doing everything I can to lower that and just stays up there.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Yes, you are the contributor if it ever does lower.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us, friends.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: We'll see you here next time on the livingwaters podcast.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: The ultimate cure for insomnia?
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: I did not know.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: And come.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: Why would pigs come in at the end?