Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Ep. 330 - Answering Tough Questions About Christianity

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Ep. 330 - Answering Tough Questions About Christianity · The Living Waters Podcast

1:04
Speaker 1: This time, right now that you're having is not to be a time to be wasted.
1:08
Speaker 1: You cannot waste time, because there's no time to waste.
1:10
Speaker 1: Draw near to God, read books on how to be a good helpmate, how to be a good mama, mama, mama, yep.
1:21
Speaker 1: And redeem this time right here, right now.
1:24
Speaker 1: I remember Lecrae once saying man, I'm going to chase after God as fast as I possibly can and then, when I'm ready to get married, I'm going to look to the left and look to the right and to see who kept up with me and I'm going to marry that person.
1:36
Speaker 1: That's what I'm going to do.
1:38
Speaker 1: Well, that's kind of what I would say right now Sanctify yourselves, use this time set aside, not necessarily to see the world, but to see the Word in a place where you've never been able to and you probably won't be able to in the future, by opening up books and commentaries and things of that nature.
1:54
Speaker 1: And in God's timing he's going to bring it to pass Ecclesiastes 3.11, that God makes all things beautiful in His timing.
2:00
Speaker 1: So your timing isn't necessarily God's timing, but it's not bad timing you're on losc, dang it.
2:12
Speaker 2: I messed that up.
2:13
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to the living waters podcast, our first ever live q and a, at least in livingwaterstv, and it's kind of fun today because you are our special guest.
2:26
Speaker 2: Easy.
2:27
Speaker 2: How do you feel about that?
2:27
Speaker 2: He doesn't feel easy's not here today.
2:29
Speaker 2: He is only feeling sick.
2:29
Speaker 2: Are our special guest Easy?
2:30
Speaker 2: How do you feel about that?
2:31
Speaker 2: He doesn't feel Easy's not here today.
2:32
Speaker 2: He is only feeling sick.
2:33
Speaker 2: Ray, how are we going to do this without him Easily?
2:36
Speaker 1: because we've got God's help.
2:37
Speaker 1: That's true and, truth be told, he lost his voice yelling at the staff again, so he couldn't be.
2:43
Speaker 2: Just kidding, easy, listen.
2:45
Speaker 2: This is how it's going to work.
2:46
Speaker 2: Again, thank you so much for joining us.
2:49
Speaker 2: We are going to be answering your questions.
2:50
Speaker 2: We're going to spend about 45 minutes to an hour with you guys, depending on how good your questions are.
2:54
Speaker 2: All you have to do is submit your questions to the live chat and we've got our team.
3:01
Speaker 2: They'll be pulling them up and then sending them to us and we will be able to answer them for you.
3:06
Speaker 2: But before we go there, I'm going to go ahead and read a comment and this comment actually came in regarding the very last episode recorded.
3:13
Speaker 2: It says best episode ever.
3:15
Speaker 2: I can't believe how much better it is without easy.
3:19
Speaker 2: Tanny S from Costa Mesa.
3:22
Speaker 2: Thank you, tanny S from Costa Mesa.
3:25
Speaker 2: We fully agree with you on that one?
3:27
Speaker 3: Did you write that I?
3:28
Speaker 2: did.
3:28
Speaker 2: That's horrible.
3:29
Speaker 2: That's my boy.
3:30
Speaker 3: Tanny's a good guy.
3:31
Speaker 2: That was Mark.
3:32
Speaker 2: How do you feel about Q&As?
3:34
Speaker 2: I love?
3:35
Speaker 1: Q&As.
3:35
Speaker 1: Because if somebody has an ad hoc question, right that this is weighing heavy on me.
3:43
Speaker 1: I'm doing a little research.
3:44
Speaker 1: But what do you guys think?
3:45
Speaker 1: That's what most excites me, not just like, hey, here's some random question how many licks does it take to get to the center of a titsy roll Pop, right, funny?
3:54
Speaker 1: You ask because the first question that came in.
3:56
Speaker 1: So when it deals with an ad hoc question, somebody's going through that what do you guys think?
4:02
Speaker 3: I don't know what ad hoc is.
4:03
Speaker 1: It's a question in the moment that they're going through that a hawk asks and they want an answer right now.
4:07
Speaker 1: They need an answer right now.
4:09
Speaker 3: When you say that.
4:10
Speaker 1: I did at hawk.
4:10
Speaker 1: Make it that simple Is it Greek or something.
4:13
Speaker 1: Latin.
4:14
Speaker 1: No, listen, there's a reason why you have, like, the word simultaneously right, it happens at the same time.
4:23
Speaker 1: Right, with my broken finger, it happens at the same time.
4:27
Speaker 1: That's six words, or you can just use one word simultaneous, right?
4:30
Speaker 1: So this is why we expand the vocabulary that EZ's always trying to get us to do, so we can say more in a shorter amount of time.
4:36
Speaker 1: All right, that's fair enough, ray.
4:38
Speaker 2: One of the things that I really like about live Q&As is that it's kind of the same thing as seeing you on the street on video.
4:45
Speaker 2: It's not premeditated, it's not being read from a script.
4:49
Speaker 2: People get to watch you in real time proclaiming the gospel and I think the Q&A adds sort of that same little mix, don't you think I love Q&As?
4:58
Speaker 3: When people ask me to do a Zoom and say we've got like 40 people in a room, I say give me some Q&As, don't just sit me there preaching for an hour.
5:05
Speaker 3: I don't want to do that because there's something special about Q&As that's right.
5:10
Speaker 3: It's because they're Q&As and what I really like about Q&As is the ad hoc.
5:14
Speaker 3: It's just so neat.
5:16
Speaker 3: Wow, I did not know you knew that word.
5:18
Speaker 3: It means similar.
5:18
Speaker 3: It means similar.
5:19
Speaker 3: A sick bird, similar.
5:22
Speaker 2: Ad hoc is when you purchase a hawk and add it to your chicken collection.
5:25
Speaker 2: I got it.
5:25
Speaker 2: That's what Ray thinks ad hoc is All right, so we do have our first question, by the way, if you're joining us later on on YouTube.
5:32
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching this so that you know you could have this same live experience the next time we do something where you're submitting your questions if you join livingwaterstv and we do have a couple of days or a day free trial right now so if you go to livingwaterstv, not only do you get access to all of our live streaming events and Q&As, but you win a free trip to Hawaii for two, at your own expense.
5:58
Speaker 3: Own expense is the key part.
6:00
Speaker 3: That's right.
6:01
Speaker 2: And we're giving away a free car after you pay for it.
6:04
Speaker 2: We're not even doing that, actually, but on livingwaterstv we've also got every single episode from every single season of the Way of the Master.
6:13
Speaker 2: I know some of you guys have been following the ministry for a very long time and you go all the way back to when Kirk Cameron and Ray were getting chased by a tank.
6:21
Speaker 2: Every single episode we've ever done for Way of the Master is on LivingWaterstv.
6:26
Speaker 3: And I got chased by a woman once.
6:28
Speaker 3: That's true you did so.
6:29
Speaker 3: I was not for a different reason than Kirk gets chased by a woman.
6:31
Speaker 2: Her name is Sue and she married you.
6:33
Speaker 2: No, no, this is a real woman.
6:34
Speaker 3: Oh, it's on when Things Go Wrong.
6:36
Speaker 3: You can see her chasing me.
6:37
Speaker 2: There you go.
6:38
Speaker 2: That's also on livingwaterstv.
6:39
Speaker 2: We also have Living Waters.
6:43
Speaker 1: Equip it Well we were talking about, what sort of class would you want to take If you're going to sit through?
6:50
Speaker 1: If you had to sit through something, if you needed to learn something, what would you want to do?
6:53
Speaker 1: And we kind of came to the conclusion that we would want to sit through something where there are probably two to three minute answers, because that's probably where our attention span is at.
7:02
Speaker 1: Give me two to three minute answers from the top questions apologists, professors, theologians answering the top questions that we get when we are out on the street.
7:13
Speaker 1: So it's kind of a street apologetic and we brought them in here and we have a lot of questions.
7:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, who are some of the people that have joined us on?
7:19
Speaker 1: Equip we have Frank Turek, sean McDowell, arkand Hughes, kurt Cameron Votibokum we have Phil Johnson.
7:29
Speaker 1: Mike Riccardi, mike Wiener, that's right.
7:32
Speaker 1: So the list goes on and on.
7:33
Speaker 1: John the Baptist, john the Baptist.
7:37
Speaker 2: So, in addition to Way of the Master and Equip, you also get to watch all of the recorded video episodes of the Living Waters podcast as well.
7:47
Speaker 2: We highly recommend you check that out if you're watching on YouTube.
7:51
Speaker 2: Okay, first question today comes from Scott O.
7:54
Speaker 2: What is the hardest question to answer?
7:57
Speaker 2: I like this, yeah it's a good question.
7:59
Speaker 1: I like it because I don't think it's a difficult question, like who made God?
8:04
Speaker 1: Where did God come from the age of the earth?
8:05
Speaker 1: The hardest question to answer is when you don't know the answer and you pretend to have the answer Ooh that's a good one, right?
8:15
Speaker 1: So we just pontificate and we go on, and on, and, on, and on, and on and on pretending like we have an answer.
8:22
Speaker 2: You're explaining my entire career, by the way.
8:24
Speaker 1: It's okay to say I don't know, I don't have an answer for that.
8:27
Speaker 1: That's good.
8:28
Speaker 1: Doesn't rock my faith, though, and here's why.
8:31
Speaker 3: Hardest question I've ever been answered.
8:32
Speaker 3: When I was open air preaching at Huntington Beach, we had a crowd of about 40 people.
8:35
Speaker 3: A guy walked past, an elderly guy, and he just looked at me and says why did God let my wife die in agony of cancer?
8:41
Speaker 3: I loved her.
8:42
Speaker 3: And he just burst into tears and walked off.
8:44
Speaker 3: I said, please stay.
8:45
Speaker 3: Because I wanted to talk to him about fallen creation, death, being rebellious, suffering pain and everybody dies and it's because we've sinned against God.
8:53
Speaker 3: But God offers us everlasting life.
8:56
Speaker 3: But I couldn't because he was off in tears and I would have liked to have chased him and said can I take you to lunch and just talk with you and let him pour his heart out?
9:03
Speaker 3: Because the guy was so hurt.
9:05
Speaker 3: And the guy was so hurt and there was bitterness in there too.
9:10
Speaker 2: So that's probably one of my hardest.
9:11
Speaker 2: I think that's good, yeah.
9:12
Speaker 2: Next question is coming in from Jamie F.
9:15
Speaker 2: I try to go out weekly to evangelize, but I can't seem to ever get any laborers from my church to come.
9:21
Speaker 2: Weird, very unusual.
9:23
Speaker 2: How can I increase laborers in evangelism, ray?
9:28
Speaker 3: There's a really good answer to this, and the key is I don't know what it is, I'm just trying to discover it.
9:33
Speaker 1: For about 40 years, I think, I have an answer and I think you do know the answer.
9:36
Speaker 3: I do know the answer.
9:37
Speaker 3: I learned this from you, ray.
9:38
Speaker 2: Good, that's great.
9:39
Speaker 1: Good, I'm glad I taught it to you.
9:40
Speaker 1: That is, to share your experiences, right, right, and let's take it all the way back to the pastor.
9:52
Speaker 1: First of all, if a pastor from the pulpit is sharing his evangelistic endeavors, I took an Uber, I had this conversation.
9:55
Speaker 1: This is how it went.
9:55
Speaker 1: I handed a gospel tract to the sales clerk.
9:58
Speaker 1: This is how it went.
9:59
Speaker 1: When you are sharing your experiences, people realize that they want to be part of that because they were designed to be part of that, so share that.
10:10
Speaker 3: So when you talk to your pastor, talk in his language.
10:12
Speaker 3: Say, pastor, I would really like our church to increase in membership, I'd like strangers to come and become part of this church, because that's how pastors think they want their church to grow.
10:23
Speaker 3: That's why they're there.
10:24
Speaker 3: And so talk in that and don't say we're going to evangelize to strangers.
10:27
Speaker 3: They'll never see them in this church, so we're going to try and bring them back.
10:30
Speaker 3: So could you mention this from the pulpit?
10:32
Speaker 3: Tell them we've got a team.
10:33
Speaker 3: It's a small team, but every time we come back we're having free pizza.
10:37
Speaker 3: Nice, nice.
10:39
Speaker 1: Speaking of which Ray gave us free In-N-Out right before this event.
10:42
Speaker 2: I think he set us up for failure, attending different churches.
10:46
Speaker 3: I was serious about the pizza seriously, oh yeah, no, I agree.
10:50
Speaker 3: When you come back from an hour of witnessing on a Friday night to know there's going to be free pizza is kind of neat.
10:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
10:58
Speaker 2: So I would add evangelism needs to become a part of the cultural DNA of the church that you go to, and cultural DNA doesn't happen by your pastor you pastors preaching one sermon on evangelism.
11:13
Speaker 2: Cultural DNA doesn't even happen when you host one evangelical event.
11:17
Speaker 2: Cultural DNA happens when everybody sees and shares the vision of a gospel-centered, evangelistic church, and when that happens it encourages everybody because everyone is participating in the cultural DNA.
11:36
Speaker 2: The other thing that's really great about it is that what you'll discover, at least in my experience, is when everyone has the evangelical DNA of a church that they should have.
11:44
Speaker 2: When that new person comes in the church on a Sunday, have.
11:47
Speaker 2: When that new person comes in the church on a Sunday that was invited by the deacon's wife because they have a book called together.
11:58
Speaker 2: Everybody understands we're all on the same page.
11:59
Speaker 2: This is either a new believer, a non-believer.
12:00
Speaker 2: Something's going on, they're here and we want to put on display the living out of the same gospel that was just preached.
12:08
Speaker 2: And so the real question, I think, is how do we change a DNA?
12:12
Speaker 2: I love Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.
12:16
Speaker 2: It's not a book specifically written for the church, but I think we can inherit a lot of great ideas from it, and one of the things that he starts with is if you want to change a culture, you need to have early adopters.
12:29
Speaker 2: Find those first few three, five, 10 people, get them excited and then start working to see that three to five catch fire through the rest of the church.
12:42
Speaker 3: We found that our evangelistic team tripled one Friday night in Santa Monica.
12:48
Speaker 3: That was the week after Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up at.
12:52
Speaker 3: Third Street Promenade Next week.
12:54
Speaker 3: There was 30-something people instead of 10.
12:56
Speaker 1: Everybody thought he would be back, hey, so just get Arnie to show up.
13:01
Speaker 2: Is that the plan?
13:01
Speaker 2: I like it.
13:02
Speaker 2: S3e.
13:03
Speaker 2: We have a question from her.
13:05
Speaker 2: I have a question for Ray Mark.
13:07
Speaker 2: I'd love for you to answer this, do you?
13:08
Speaker 2: We have a question from her.
13:09
Speaker 2: I have a question for Ray Mark I'd love for you to answer this, that was good Do you find some evangelism encounters easier than others.
13:16
Speaker 2: Why or why not?
13:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, I put out a litmus test when I meet a stranger and I say, are you afraid of dying?
13:23
Speaker 3: And if someone says, no, everyone dies, I think I've got a proud heart here.
13:28
Speaker 3: But right at the beginning with a litmus test, if someone says, nah, everyone dies, I think I've got a proud heart here.
13:29
Speaker 3: But right at the beginning with the litmus test, if someone says, yeah, I think about it all the time.
13:34
Speaker 3: I'm really scared.
13:35
Speaker 3: I think, ooh, I've got a humble heart here.
13:36
Speaker 3: And then I say, did you know in the Old Testament God promised he would destroy death.
13:43
Speaker 3: The New Testament tells us how he did it.
13:44
Speaker 3: Would you be interested to hear what God did?
13:47
Speaker 3: And they'll almost certainly say yes, because of that humble heart.
13:51
Speaker 3: So God gives grace to the humble, and humble people hear the gospel and embrace it.
13:55
Speaker 3: So they're the ones I find easiest and the proud ones are the ones I find hardest.
14:01
Speaker 3: But with the law you break the hard heart, as someone said, and with the gospel you heal the broken.
14:06
Speaker 2: I think that who I find easier to talk to is less about who they are and more about something about our own selves.
14:15
Speaker 2: So I find it really easy to have a conversation with an atheist.
14:21
Speaker 2: That comes natural to me.
14:22
Speaker 2: Maybe because I was a former atheist, I understand the language.
14:25
Speaker 2: I've been there.
14:26
Speaker 2: I've read most of the books.
14:28
Speaker 2: For me, the hardest person to talk to for a really long time was like your typical Bible belt Christian that were culturally Christian but hadn't been to church in five years but grew up in the church and like yeah, of course I'm a Christian.
14:42
Speaker 2: In the same way I'm an American.
14:43
Speaker 2: For the longest time I didn't know where to go with that.
14:46
Speaker 2: But instead of sort of backing away and just never talking to that kind of person, you do your study, you do your research, you make observations and for me the breakthrough was actually listening to EZ.
14:57
Speaker 2: Have a conversation with somebody like that.
14:58
Speaker 2: He says to them something and you guys I know you've heard him do this before he said something to the effect of oh man, that's so great, you're a fellow believer like first affirming that right.
15:15
Speaker 2: You know the scriptures say something about some people will come to Jesus at the end of the days and he will say get away from me, I never knew you.
15:17
Speaker 2: And so in that same way, like it's just important for us to test our faith to see.
15:20
Speaker 2: And so I have a test for you and he goes right into the good person test and once I heard him do that, I go oh, that's such a good transition, it was so helpful to me.
15:29
Speaker 2: So my encouragement to you is, if there's somebody out there, a kind of person that is really hard or intimidating for you to talk to, it's not because of the person, it's because it's something about yourself and doing the work, you'll find that breakthrough.
15:44
Speaker 1: I tend to avoid females if I have the opportunity to talk to a male, but when we produced our pro-life film, I got to talk to a lot more females than I do men, but it's all good.
15:55
Speaker 3: It's okay too, because Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, absolutely At the well, and it all went well, it was all well, it did go well.
16:03
Speaker 2: Becca F how do I know whether to stay in America or go to a different country to preach the gospel?
16:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, someone once said you don't have to cross the sea.
16:15
Speaker 3: To what's the saying If you haven't crossed the street?
16:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, whatever it was, it was a great saying.
16:22
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, sure.
16:24
Speaker 1: You know, paul Washer is not a big fan of short-term missions, so if we're talking short-term missions, you don't have to cross the sea.
16:29
Speaker 3: You just have to see the cross.
16:30
Speaker 3: Oh there it is.
16:31
Speaker 3: And once you see the cross.
16:33
Speaker 3: Your neighbor needs saving, your workmates need saving.
16:36
Speaker 3: So you say to your workmates you want to come out to lunch today.
16:38
Speaker 3: Tell me, do you think there's an afterlife and that's how you get through?
16:41
Speaker 3: But no, I went overseas, I'm overseas, you are overseas, I'm overseas, I've been here 36 years.
16:48
Speaker 3: But no, there's people all around you in our country that need God's forgiveness.
16:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good.
16:53
Speaker 2: I think it's kind of the same question of, like, I'm thinking about becoming a professional basketball player, but I never play basketball.
16:59
Speaker 2: If you want to evangelize, I'm not saying the Lord is calling you overseas or is not calling you overseas, but if you're thinking about going overseas on a mission trip to evangelize, evangelism starts at home.
17:15
Speaker 2: If that's not a regular practice in your life, now start there, let that build up, and if the Lord calls you elsewhere, fantastic.
17:22
Speaker 2: Praise the Lord, follow Him, but until then, be faithful with the people and the time that you have in your neighborhood.
17:29
Speaker 2: Mark, you're really good at making yourself available to your neighbors.
17:34
Speaker 2: You got something when you guys first moved into your house.
17:36
Speaker 2: Didn't you guys put together like a welcome gift or something like?
17:38
Speaker 1: that.
17:38
Speaker 1: Well, during COVID we put together a basket for everybody.
17:42
Speaker 1: I have 13 neighbors that live within my cul-de-sac and so inside that basket we put in wet wipes and toilet paper and some food and things of that nature.
17:52
Speaker 1: And then a friend of mine from Chick-fil-A gave me $40 worth of gift cards, mr Fil-A, mr.
17:57
Speaker 1: Fil-a $40 of gift cards to put inside of all the baskets and that really broke down some walls and opened some doors.
18:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
18:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, making yourself available.
18:06
Speaker 2: I love that because most Americans.
18:08
Speaker 2: It's surprising to me how many people don't know the names of their neighbors, like.
18:15
Speaker 2: I knew a guy that lived in the same house for 27 years and he confessed to me that he doesn't know his like two or three of his neighbors' names who had been there since he moved in.
18:24
Speaker 2: You know his wife's name?
18:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope he knows his wife's name, but the point is is we live in a community with lost people and we should be, first we should be, known on our neighborhood, in our neighborhood, on our blocks, on our streets, as loving, servanthood people, and then we should also be known as the kind of person that preaches the gospel Shane S pro-life versus abolitionists.
18:50
Speaker 2: Ooh, I know Mark's gonna have fun with this one.
18:52
Speaker 2: Which do identify?
18:55
Speaker 2: I think it's supposed to say which do you identify as and why?
18:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, mark Spence.
19:00
Speaker 1: Well, this is actually a very easy answer, right?
19:03
Speaker 1: First of all, I believe, if you're pro-life, you are an abolitionist.
19:08
Speaker 1: Right that you believe that all life is worthy of honor, dignity and respect, right From the womb to the tomb.
19:17
Speaker 1: And if that be the case, then we need to preserve life at all cases, in all situations, and we need to have laws in effect that punish wrongdoers, evildoers.
19:30
Speaker 1: Some will come along and say well, a woman doesn't know what she is doing when she has an abortion.
19:37
Speaker 1: My response typically for that is well then, she will never need to repent if she has an abortion, but it weighs heavy upon their soul, right?
19:46
Speaker 1: So an abolitionist is one who says we need to establish laws.
19:50
Speaker 1: Getting emotional I am that's what happens when I don't eat right before I speak.
19:56
Speaker 1: It's because of that very thing.
19:57
Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that up.
19:58
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you.
19:58
Speaker 1: We need to establish laws where there's equal protection under the law, right?
20:04
Speaker 1: Not just when somebody is five years old or 55 years old, but when somebody is five days old inside the womb.
20:12
Speaker 1: Most abortions happen between the seventh and the tenth week.
20:15
Speaker 1: That's when they find out that they're pregnant, right?
20:19
Speaker 1: So when we use cases like, well, if the mother's life's in danger or if the mother was raped, abortion should be illegal in all the other cases except these two, then we have a problem, right?
20:32
Speaker 1: First of all, if the mother's life's in danger, that's not an abortion.
20:35
Speaker 1: That's just been hijacked within our lawmakers today.
20:38
Speaker 1: That abortion is the willful termination.
20:42
Speaker 1: It's the murder of an innocent human being, right?
20:44
Speaker 1: If the mother's life's in danger, then we take them to the emergency room, not Planned Parenthood, demonstrating that Planned Parenthood is not necessary.
20:52
Speaker 1: And I would love to see our government, instead of giving $550 million every year to Planned Parenthood, give it instead to crisis pregnancy centers.
21:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, amen.
21:01
Speaker 1: Foster care, living in waters, living in waters, abortion, anti-abortion services, right Adoption services.
21:09
Speaker 1: I think that's what would be necessary.
21:12
Speaker 1: So, if you're pro-life, I think that you need to understand what an abolitionist is, because that really is the only route to go.
21:19
Speaker 1: That's so good.
21:21
Speaker 2: Ray, I think the first time I ever heard of Living Waters was because of 180.
21:26
Speaker 2: And one of the things I love so much about 180 is that you took the conversation, not just ending with having a conversation about abortion and changing people's minds.
21:36
Speaker 2: You then went to the gospel.
21:39
Speaker 2: How?
21:40
Speaker 2: Why?
21:41
Speaker 2: Well, I guess, when I hear so many people talk about pro-life out there, it's only a conversation about pro-life and it never finishes with the gospel.
21:49
Speaker 2: Why is that important?
21:50
Speaker 2: Why do you do that?
21:51
Speaker 3: Well, when we produced 180, I showed it to a friend who I love very much and he said this is so good, just cut the gospel off and it'll go further.
21:59
Speaker 3: Why did Mark say that?
22:00
Speaker 3: What's that?
22:01
Speaker 3: Why did Mark say that it wasn't, although he's a friend?
22:03
Speaker 3: And I thought you've got more chance of flossing the back teeth of the lions at the Al-Azizu at feeding time than you have of getting the gospel out of that, because that's why we made it, that's why I make any video is to carry the gospel, because we don't want to fix society, we want to see people saved from a very real hell and we mustn't forget that.
22:23
Speaker 2: Amen Bo M asks what are the first steps to take in creating a Christian YouTube channel.
22:31
Speaker 3: I can tell you step one?
22:32
Speaker 1: Do we have any experience?
22:33
Speaker 2: I can tell you step one Create an account, mark, take it away.
22:37
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think anybody here has any experience in that Ray YouTube channel.
22:40
Speaker 1: Youtube channel.
22:41
Speaker 1: What's that?
22:41
Speaker 1: Our YouTube channel has taken off over the last 30 days.
22:44
Speaker 3: Ray, yes, it's wonderful You've been so creative.
22:46
Speaker 1: You and Tanny have put together some really great thoughts.
22:48
Speaker 1: Your editing has been amazing 10 million views in the last 28 days alone.
22:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, that just blows us away because I think to myself.
22:57
Speaker 3: Go back 50, 60 years If you want to reach the last.
23:00
Speaker 3: You have what was called a mass crusade Billy Graham used to have them and you'd herd cats together.
23:06
Speaker 3: You get 200 churches and get them to combine so that you have a combined church crusade which was packed full of professing Christians.
23:13
Speaker 3: It didn't really touch the world like we're able to on YouTube.
23:16
Speaker 3: So just to think with a push of a button and we had the button push.
23:20
Speaker 3: This morning I get a text from Tanny.
23:23
Speaker 3: He says it's live.
23:26
Speaker 3: And the gospel is going to literally millions of people with the push of a button.
23:29
Speaker 3: It just blows us away.
23:30
Speaker 3: It's wonderful.
23:31
Speaker 1: It really makes open-air preaching to some degree unnecessary.
23:35
Speaker 1: If you have a following within YouTube, you shouldn't say that.
23:39
Speaker 1: I mean you've been-, but that's what's happened with me.
23:42
Speaker 3: I've got to say this that Scotty and I preached open-air every Saturday, almost every Saturday, at Huntington Beach for about 14 years.
23:48
Speaker 3: Then came COVID and then after COVID we went back and we both found it very hard to draw a crowd.
23:53
Speaker 3: I'd spend 20, 30 minutes and two or three people had stopped because they didn't like to gather in crowds after the two years of COVID and so I felt my time at my age was more profitable to be used in interviewing people on the pier rather than preaching and losing my voice with 20 minutes open air preaching just to preach to three or four people, five or six.
24:13
Speaker 3: But Scotty's stuck with it and he's been getting crowds lately.
24:16
Speaker 3: But to think that we had one video just under 5 million from the interviews on the pier.
24:22
Speaker 3: So I find my time is best spent doing that.
24:26
Speaker 2: That's so good.
24:26
Speaker 2: You know, when I am asked this question, or every time I'm having a conversation with somebody, I actually take a step back.
24:32
Speaker 2: And I think the first question is should you start a YouTube channel?
24:36
Speaker 2: Because here's the reality is that for most of human history, you were discipled in the local church.
24:43
Speaker 2: You were raised up, you were entrusted with a small portion of ministry before you were ever considered to be a deacon, before you ever considered to be an elder or a pastor, before you were ever given the pulpit right.
24:56
Speaker 2: And nowadays we have this form of spiritual bypassing where any 21 year old kid is like I want to preach the gospel, I haven't gone through those motions, I've never been to Bible college, I haven't gone through theological training.
25:07
Speaker 2: I'm going to start a YouTube channel and I'm not saying the Lord can't use you, and I'm not saying that you are not, that you're doing it for wrong reasons, but the reality is this is that notoriety is violence to the soul.
25:21
Speaker 2: One person said made a prediction it's like we were not meant created by God to be known by more than 200 people, and so introducing yourself into a broader context of the world and having more notoriety increases the likelihood of just violence happening to your soul, you falling short of the glory of God.
25:43
Speaker 2: And here's a reality.
25:44
Speaker 2: We can easily convince ourselves.
25:46
Speaker 2: But I'm doing this for the gospel, I'm doing this for the lost, but our hearts are deceitful.
25:50
Speaker 2: You know what that tells us about our own hearts?
25:52
Speaker 2: They're deceitful.
25:53
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, thank you.
25:54
Speaker 2: It tells us that our motivations aren't always altruistic or monolithic.
26:03
Speaker 2: In other words, often we have mixed motivations.
26:06
Speaker 2: We have the motivation to reach the lost, but we also might have the motivation of self-glory.
26:11
Speaker 2: And so my, quite my, my response to anybody who's thinking about starting a youtube channel, getting on social media and starting to share the gospel is search your heart, and if you're not equipped for ministry, pastoral ministry in the church, you might, might, might not be equipped for social media ministry I would also include be part of your local church, right that pastors can look in.
26:36
Speaker 1: I was reading a bio of a gentleman the other day and said that he's an online pastor.
26:40
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait what?
26:42
Speaker 1: He's just trying to get followers.
26:45
Speaker 2: An online pastor.
26:46
Speaker 1: And I said listen, become part of the local church so your pastors, your elders can speak into your life.
26:52
Speaker 3: There is a way around this that satisfies both.
26:54
Speaker 3: That's YouTube Shorts.
26:56
Speaker 3: I read recently where YouTube Shorts get 70 billion views per day.
27:03
Speaker 3: And you think, how could it be that many with only 6 billion, 8 billion people on the earth?
27:06
Speaker 3: It's because when I get on Shorts, I can't stop.
27:09
Speaker 3: It is addictive, and so we've created livingwaterscom forward slash shorts, where we're allowing you to take any of our videos and there's about 3000 of them up there and create shorts from them.
27:23
Speaker 3: We'll tell you, we'll teach you how to do it.
27:25
Speaker 3: We've got on that site.
27:26
Speaker 3: We've got an instructional video showing how you can create shorts and check your motives.
27:33
Speaker 3: Make sure you've got a pure motive.
27:34
Speaker 3: But, quite frankly, if I'm saved from a building that was on fire, I don't care about the motive of the firefighter.
27:40
Speaker 3: If he did it for glory or did it because he wanted to see me saved, he did it.
27:44
Speaker 3: So there's people going to hell.
27:46
Speaker 3: So check your motives and go for it.
27:48
Speaker 3: Preach the gospel to every creature by all means possible on YouTube, especially shorts is a wonderful way to do it, because all the work's been done for you.
27:57
Speaker 2: I know how excited you are about this because all your life since I've known you, you've worn shorts.
28:01
Speaker 2: Right now, in that suit, you're probably wearing shorts.
28:04
Speaker 2: I don't know that you are, but you might be.
28:05
Speaker 3: No, I'm not.
28:06
Speaker 2: Wow, it's a miracle, Kathy.
28:08
Speaker 2: I liked that last one, by the way, if you want to put that back up later.
28:11
Speaker 2: As a biblical Christian, I've been reading my evidence study Bible and when reading Revelation 6, 9 through 11, nothing it made me wonder where we go when we die.
28:23
Speaker 2: Does the Lord put us on hold somewhere?
28:27
Speaker 1: Well, he does not put us on hold.
28:29
Speaker 1: Right, to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord.
28:32
Speaker 1: So, regardless of your eschatology, if it's orthodox, right.
28:37
Speaker 1: If you believe, uh, that the bible is god's word, everybody believes within that orthodoxy that when you die you go to heaven.
28:44
Speaker 1: Right, it's outside of that such as catholicism.
28:47
Speaker 1: They believe in purgatory, but you're not going to find that within the Bible.
28:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the question that you're asking is like, if heaven is promised to us coming down from the clouds back on earth in Jesus' second coming, then where do we go now?
29:06
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people have different views on that.
29:11
Speaker 2: I would say one that I'm interested in is a traditional view, which is that we have a kind of heaven, that there's a heaven that we go to now and that there's a heaven of a not yet.
29:24
Speaker 2: But this go to now is not a waiting place, it's not just sleep.
29:28
Speaker 2: Jesus says to the thief on the cross today you will be with me in paradise.
29:33
Speaker 2: He doesn't say in my second coming, a couple thousand years from now, after a millennium.
29:37
Speaker 2: He says today you will be with me in paradise, and so, in other words, your last breath on earth is also your first breath in heaven.
29:51
Speaker 3: Just take a last breath.
29:52
Speaker 2: Thank you, Kathy, for that.
29:53
Speaker 2: The next question we got is from someone named Easy, who I hope he's not struggling with a fever right now.
30:02
Speaker 2: Oscar, how did you get your grandma to let you borrow her sweater?
30:06
Speaker 2: That's offensive.
30:07
Speaker 2: I'm over here praying for you, hoping that you're still alive, wishing that you're praying that your fever would go down.
30:15
Speaker 2: Well, you know what.
30:16
Speaker 2: The prayer stopped.
30:17
Speaker 2: Now easy.
30:18
Speaker 3: Anyway, tell us.
30:19
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah, she actually doesn't know.
30:21
Speaker 3: I just went in and grabbed it.
30:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's blind.
30:24
Speaker 2: I mean, she won't ever realize it.
30:25
Speaker 2: Eric G, how do I deal with evangelism?
30:28
Speaker 2: Burnout Ray, have you ever actually Ray?
30:31
Speaker 2: Yes, have you ever felt burned out?
30:33
Speaker 3: Yes, all the time I felt burned out.
30:34
Speaker 3: But there's a way not to be burned out and those don't bite off more than you can chew.
30:37
Speaker 3: Often you'll get a youth pastor filled with youth and enthusiasm, take his team out and they get in at 3.30 am, but you're going to have half the team next week.
30:48
Speaker 3: That's why you go out at eight o'clock and at nine o'clock you meet for pizza, and so you'll want to be coming next week.
30:53
Speaker 3: You keep your team, so make sure you don't get burned out by just being sensible.
30:58
Speaker 2: That's good, mark, that's good Ditto.
31:00
Speaker 2: I think being burned out is actually working from an empty cup.
31:06
Speaker 2: So I know I've said Psalm 51.
31:09
Speaker 2: It's one of my favorite Psalms, about not only repentance but also evangelism, because the first stanza in Psalm 51, david comes to confess his sins to the Lord.
31:21
Speaker 2: The second stanza is about his repentance and the third stanza starts with restore to me the joy of your salvation, and then I will sing praises, I will tell Zion of your name.
31:34
Speaker 2: And so here's the picture I get in Psalm 51.
31:37
Speaker 2: I get this vision of a cup of joy overflowing, and when that cup of joy overflows it looks like the proclamation of the gospel.
31:48
Speaker 2: In other words, if you're feeling burned out, my encouragement to you is to pray a prayer like David restore to me the joy of your salvation.
31:59
Speaker 2: When we see, rest, meditate, depend on the grace of God, the glory of God and the goodness of God, it will naturally cause our hearts to become overflowing with joy.
32:15
Speaker 2: And joy is not fulfilled until it is expressed.
32:21
Speaker 2: I've said it before it's natural for us to do this.
32:24
Speaker 2: If you watch a great new movie, you read a book, you listen to a cool new song, you visit a great restaurant, you find a new chili cheese dog somewhere in town that you're super excited about.
32:34
Speaker 2: What's the next thing that you do?
32:36
Speaker 2: Eat it.
32:36
Speaker 2: After you eat it, you tell somebody about it.
32:39
Speaker 2: Have you seen this movie?
32:41
Speaker 2: Have you read that book?
32:42
Speaker 2: Have you eaten at that restaurant?
32:43
Speaker 2: Why?
32:44
Speaker 2: Because it is natural in every single one of us, introvert or extrovert, christian or not, to be evangelists over the things that bring us the most joy.
32:52
Speaker 2: And so let your heart rest on the glory of God and let joy overfill, and you won't feel burnout.
33:00
Speaker 3: Also, someone once wisely said we get tired in it, but not tired of it.
33:06
Speaker 2: That's really good.
33:07
Speaker 2: I'm glad I said that.
33:07
Speaker 2: Cameron H, how do you guys start conversations that lead to witnessing Ray?
33:15
Speaker 3: I use the same method each time.
33:17
Speaker 3: I just say to a stranger do you think there's a life after death?
33:21
Speaker 3: I do it all the time.
33:22
Speaker 3: I use the illustration and it's happened here a lot.
33:24
Speaker 3: I've got a plumber come working on one of our basins in there.
33:28
Speaker 3: He's underneath it.
33:29
Speaker 3: I just walk up and say, hey, how are you doing?
33:30
Speaker 3: He basin's in there, he's underneath it.
33:32
Speaker 3: I just walk up and say, hey, how you doing?
33:34
Speaker 3: He says good, I'm ray.
33:34
Speaker 3: What's your name?
33:34
Speaker 3: He says fred, nice to meet you, fred.
33:35
Speaker 3: Fred, do you think there's an afterlife?
33:37
Speaker 3: Perfect?
33:37
Speaker 3: And you haven't, haven't built a relationship for two years.
33:40
Speaker 3: It's been like 20 seconds and it works every time.
33:43
Speaker 3: Are you nervous every time?
33:44
Speaker 3: No, not, because because of that question I know how he's going to answer do you think there's an afterlife?
33:48
Speaker 3: He might say I.
33:49
Speaker 3: He might say yeah, I think there's a heaven and a hell.
33:52
Speaker 3: I said where are you going?
33:53
Speaker 3: I don't know.
33:54
Speaker 3: Would you like to know?
33:55
Speaker 3: Shouldn't you find out?
33:56
Speaker 3: You know you make plans when you go to travel.
33:58
Speaker 3: You don't get in a plane not knowing where it's going.
34:00
Speaker 3: So where are you going when you die?
34:01
Speaker 3: Tell me out.
34:06
Speaker 3: Well, we go through the commandments and he finds out.
34:07
Speaker 3: He's going to hell for sure and he needs to get right with God.
34:11
Speaker 3: So that's been my means of taking Goliath and bringing him down to Zacchaeus, that's good.
34:17
Speaker 1: So how many of those times, ray, do they get angry with you?
34:20
Speaker 1: They're hey, I'm just here to work on the electricity and here you are asking these sort of things.
34:24
Speaker 3: I mean does it ever get hostile?
34:31
Speaker 3: No, because I say I'm the boss, I'm paying your bill, I'm the one that's paying you, so just stand up and listen to what I'm saying.
34:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
34:35
Speaker 3: Now I can't think of anyone that's got angry with that question.
34:37
Speaker 3: Do you think there's an afterlife?
34:38
Speaker 3: Why would they get angry?
34:39
Speaker 3: You know it makes me really mad.
34:42
Speaker 3: No, it just doesn't happen.
34:44
Speaker 2: I found also that there are so many people in this world.
34:46
Speaker 2: I think as Christians, we're so used to us constantly having a conversation about the spiritual, about good and evil, life and death, what happens when we die because it's a part of the DNA what it means to be a Christian.
34:58
Speaker 2: I think a lot of the times we forget that people who aren't Christian.
35:02
Speaker 2: They're plagued by those same questions.
35:05
Speaker 2: They're being haunted by transcendence and they have nowhere to have that conversation.
35:12
Speaker 2: And so when you go there and you have a conversation about the spiritual, do you think there's an afterlife?
35:15
Speaker 2: Where do you go when you die?
35:16
Speaker 2: What do you think the most important thing about you is?
35:18
Speaker 2: What is your purpose in life?
35:20
Speaker 2: What's for lunch?
35:21
Speaker 2: It's like what's for lunch.
35:22
Speaker 2: It's like a breath of fresh air.
35:24
Speaker 2: It's like you're inviting them into a conversation they've been dying to have, and so I think it's a lot easier than we think it is most of the time.
35:32
Speaker 1: And let's not forget to use gospel tracks.
35:34
Speaker 1: They're just great icebreakers to engage in a conversation.
35:37
Speaker 1: Did you get one of these?
35:38
Speaker 1: What did we used to say?
35:39
Speaker 1: Would you like one of these?
35:40
Speaker 1: And then we were on a plane one time and people were not accepting the tracks.
35:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, we don't want to say, would you like one of these is better, because that makes them feel they're missing out on something which they certainly are.
35:51
Speaker 3: Did you get one of these?
35:54
Speaker 2: No, I didn't get one.
35:55
Speaker 3: No, when you ask before I get nervous.
35:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, I fight nervousness and fear all the time, but that question, do you think there's an afterlife?
36:03
Speaker 3: Has helped me hold my fears down.
36:04
Speaker 2: That's good.
36:05
Speaker 2: Shad H, what happened to Way of the Master?
36:09
Speaker 2: Why did the show end with Kirk Cameron?
36:12
Speaker 2: Have you not been listening, shad H?
36:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, it has not ended with Kirk Cameron.
36:20
Speaker 2: And if you're part of livingwaterstv which you are because you're having a conversation with us right now you will see that Way of the Master is still happening.
36:29
Speaker 2: So we did five seasons with four seasons with Kirk Cameron.
36:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's, I think, 67 programs.
36:37
Speaker 3: That's right, something like that.
36:38
Speaker 3: It was a lot Anyway.
36:39
Speaker 3: So 13 times four, what's that?
36:41
Speaker 3: Four 13s?
36:42
Speaker 2: It's a number 52.
36:43
Speaker 2: It's definitely more than one.
36:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was 52 episodes, I think we did with Kirk and then Kirk went on doing his thing.
36:49
Speaker 3: And we're still very good friends.
36:50
Speaker 3: We text each other.
36:51
Speaker 3: I've been on his television program two or three times, so things are really good and we appreciate the fact that we've still got a friendship, because often friendships like that bust up for some reason and we've kept ours.
37:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like to tell people that they replaced Kirk Cameron with me.
37:07
Speaker 2: Oh, is that what?
37:08
Speaker 2: Happened See because we had him as a host and now I'm the new host.
37:12
Speaker 2: I mean there's like a 10-year gap there, but still, I replaced Kirk Cameron.
37:16
Speaker 3: You're better looking.
37:16
Speaker 2: All right.
37:17
Speaker 2: Next question is by Stephen H, short for Hawking, and it is this C equals A2 plus B2.
37:28
Speaker 2: Yes, Mark, I know you really wanted to answer this Minus.
37:32
Speaker 1: I actually like this sort of question.
37:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's funny.
37:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not the fact that I know the answer to that, because I barely know my times tables.
37:39
Speaker 1: But this goes back to what we were talking about before, about pretending like we have all the answers to all the questions.
37:46
Speaker 1: There was a scientist, a Christian guy named Dwayne Gish, and he, as an intellectual, he would ask all kinds of Christians a very specific question that was heavy with him and he saw these questions, these Christians, stumbling through with their answer.
38:02
Speaker 1: And then he came across a guy who said I don't know.
38:05
Speaker 1: And he was taken back and he said when that Christian said I don't know, it changed everything for him to actually examine the claims of Christ within the Bible.
38:19
Speaker 1: He's no longer with us, but I love the fact that it's okay to say I don't know.
38:25
Speaker 2: That's good.
38:26
Speaker 2: There's humility there too.
38:27
Speaker 2: I was just telling the story the other day.
38:29
Speaker 2: I was on the Compelled podcast that you went on and EZ went on.
38:34
Speaker 2: You've been on it too.
38:35
Speaker 3: Not yet.
38:36
Speaker 2: You don't remember.
38:36
Speaker 2: So they go through your testimony.
38:39
Speaker 2: And I was thinking back to when I first got saved and I started going to a church.
38:44
Speaker 2: I had a lot of questions.
38:46
Speaker 2: As a former atheist, I had immersed myself in books and ways of thinking that it just took time for me to unwind a lot of presuppositions.
38:57
Speaker 2: And there were some, even pastors, leaders, who I'd sit down and have a conversation with and I'd ask a question and they would respond with some premeditated answer that they memorized and heard by reading, like a Lee Strobel book or whatever, and you can tell that they hadn't really thought about the kind of question that I was asking.
39:18
Speaker 2: And then there were others who would just get frustrated and walk away from the conversation because of the kinds of questions that I was asking, and it wasn't until a guy named Casey Jones was willing to actually disciple me.
39:30
Speaker 2: And he was His name was really Casey Jones.
39:31
Speaker 3: He really was.
39:31
Speaker 3: Casey Jones was willing to actually disciple me.
39:31
Speaker 2: His name was really Casey Jones it really was Casey Jones, which is also a superhero in the Ninja Turtles.
39:35
Speaker 2: He's been here before.
39:37
Speaker 2: You guys have met him a few years ago, casey Kaysom, casey Jones but I would ask him a question and to your point, mark, sometimes he would go man, you know what?
39:45
Speaker 2: I don't know, but let me take some time to think about it, pray about it, read about it and, hopefully, I'll have an answer for you next week.
39:54
Speaker 2: Sometimes he didn't, and sometimes he did.
39:55
Speaker 2: It didn't matter.
39:56
Speaker 2: What mattered was the willingness to disciple me, to bring me into his home, invite me to dinner and spend time with me and listen to the questions that I had, whether he had the answers or not.
40:09
Speaker 2: That's truly what people need, Eric L.
40:13
Speaker 2: Hey, Mark, just saw your post about Wienerschnitzel.
40:16
Speaker 2: You'll have to update us on that, Mark.
40:18
Speaker 2: So sad.
40:18
Speaker 2: How do you guys navigate through companies, being of the world and knowing where to spend your money to support better businesses?
40:24
Speaker 2: Ooh, I like this one.
40:26
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
40:27
Speaker 1: Mark, this is good.
40:27
Speaker 1: So, for those of you that don't know, I posted on my public facebook page about wienerschnitzel and their advertising that their advertising is anything but family friendly, and so I called them out on it.
40:42
Speaker 1: And I just said, hey, you may be catering to, uh, frat boys in the college, but you're're not catering to family-friendly people.
40:51
Speaker 1: And I just said, hey, would you give me a response on this?
40:54
Speaker 1: I mean, you're alienating a certain group of people.
40:56
Speaker 1: When you said you called them out, did you phone?
40:58
Speaker 3: them no.
40:59
Speaker 1: I did a post on my ex or on Twitter and then I put it on my public Facebook page today and I put a post on their page and they're just avoiding it altogether.
41:11
Speaker 1: Stuff, I can't even respond here in public.
41:13
Speaker 1: Things that they're doing with their advertising, with their chili cheese dogs, right.
41:16
Speaker 1: And I said, listen, just stop.
41:20
Speaker 1: Like, why do this, why alienate?
41:23
Speaker 1: And they're not responding and I said, well, I'll give you another week and I'm going to be done, I'm going to boycott, if you would.
41:29
Speaker 3: You are kidding.
41:31
Speaker 1: Because of this right.
41:32
Speaker 3: Seriously, it's that bad.
41:33
Speaker 3: Do you want to pray about it?
41:34
Speaker 3: It?
41:34
Speaker 1: is that bad?
41:34
Speaker 1: And I crave their food.
41:36
Speaker 3: You do you talk about it all the time I?
41:38
Speaker 1: do all the time.
41:39
Speaker 1: I've done the same thing with Target.
41:46
Speaker 1: Yeah we did too.
41:47
Speaker 1: I don't shop at Target, same here.
41:49
Speaker 1: I will use their restroom, you know, and I'll take off.
41:54
Speaker 1: You know.
41:54
Speaker 1: It's only what it's good for.
41:55
Speaker 1: And the reason why is because they are.
41:57
Speaker 1: They allow women men, excuse me, they allow men to go inside of women's restrooms, even though it says women.
42:03
Speaker 1: They allow men to just go inside there and to use the restroom.
42:05
Speaker 1: I go.
42:06
Speaker 1: This is ridiculous.
42:07
Speaker 1: Now you can paint a case with any sort of corporation, any sort of company whatsoever, and this is where it comes to, to answer the question, a personal decision, your personal conviction.
42:19
Speaker 1: What do you want to do?
42:19
Speaker 1: I know that with Carl's Jr, easy had kind of boycotted Carl's Jr for a long time because of their commercials.
42:26
Speaker 1: Really bad commercials Really really bad commercials, and they changed it, so it's personal preference right.
42:33
Speaker 2: I love the way you finished that.
42:34
Speaker 2: This is a personal conviction thing.
42:36
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people that will choose to boycott.
42:39
Speaker 2: I think in a broader scale, boycotting could be really hard.
42:41
Speaker 2: If anybody has a 401K or a pension plan, you're probably invested in Starbucks, mcdonald's, target.
42:49
Speaker 2: Whether you realize it or not, you're making money off of the same companies that you're boycotting.
42:53
Speaker 2: So it gets really complicated, hard and weird when you start doing stuff like that.
43:00
Speaker 2: I would also say that while I have also chosen to boycott at certain times, I also want to remember that God put us into this world to be good citizens, to interact with culture, not abandon culture.
43:15
Speaker 2: God means to redeem culture that's DA Carson's point in Christ and Culture Revisited and so allow your personal convictions to cause you to stay away from certain organizations if that's what the Lord is putting on your heart.
43:30
Speaker 2: But I would also say don't make yourself so unavailable that you've become detached.
43:37
Speaker 2: The Lord doesn't want us to be separated.
43:39
Speaker 2: He wants us to be in the world, but not of the world.
43:43
Speaker 2: Taryn N advice for an early 20s Christian woman waiting for God to bring a godly man into her life.
43:52
Speaker 3: You can put your full name and email address up there.
43:55
Speaker 2: I'll send you some of the options.
43:57
Speaker 1: Put your phone number up there and we'll see what we can do.
44:01
Speaker 1: I think the greatest thing that you can do for your future spouse, for your current spouse, in your current situation, is for you to go after God.
44:12
Speaker 1: This time, right now that you're having is not to be a time to be wasted.
44:17
Speaker 1: You cannot waste time, because there's no time to waste.
44:19
Speaker 1: Draw near to God, read books on how to be a good helpmate, how to be a good mama, mama, mama, Yep and redeem this time right here, right now.
44:34
Speaker 1: I remember Lecrae once saying man, I'm going to chase after God as fast as I possibly can and then, when I'm ready to get married, I'm going to look to the left and look to the right and to see who kept up with me, and I'm going to marry that person.
44:46
Speaker 1: That's what I'm going to do.
44:47
Speaker 1: Well, that's kind of what I would say right now.
44:49
Speaker 1: Sanctify yourselves.
44:50
Speaker 1: Use this time set aside not necessarily to see the world, but to see the Word in a place where you've never been able to and you probably won't be able to in the future, by opening up books and commentaries and things of that nature, and in God's timing he's going to bring it to pass.
45:05
Speaker 1: Ecclesiastes 3.11, that God makes all things beautiful in his timing.
45:09
Speaker 1: So your timing isn't necessarily God's timing, but it's not bad timing.
45:14
Speaker 3: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these guys will be added, the one guy.
45:19
Speaker 2: We only need one guy here.
45:21
Speaker 1: Delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you heart's desires.
45:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, we only need one guy here Delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you a house to size, yeah.
45:25
Speaker 1: And so what happens is, when you're delighting yourself in the Lord, you're getting a new desire, which is a godly desire that God places in your heart and he's not going to put that desire there without a real desire to fulfill that Right.
45:35
Speaker 1: Because it's a gift to be single and it's a gift to be married.
45:40
Speaker 1: God never fulfill that.
45:42
Speaker 1: I can play devil's advocate with that, but by and large that tends to be the case and enjoy your singularity.
45:52
Speaker 3: It all started with a singularity, because the time is coming with mortgages and diapers and at the moment you don't have to worry about that.
45:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good, I would say to that person.
46:01
Speaker 2: I spent quite a bit of time volunteering in college group, so these are ongoing conversations and questions that were asked of all the time and something that I noticed, and certainly not I don't know you, Taryn, but this is just for anybody listening.
46:15
Speaker 2: We do need to search our hearts because oftentimes we are more excited about the idea of being in a relationship.
46:22
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, and oftentimes the idea of being a relationship can become an idol.
46:29
Speaker 2: Yes, often we think that our lives are on this holding pattern, won't start until we find the one, until we get married, and so it's kind of like the if onlys right.
46:40
Speaker 2: Well, I will only be happy, I will only find true joy, true meaning, I will only be living out my purpose when I get married, when I have those kids, when we buy the home if only, if only, if only, if only.
46:51
Speaker 2: And those if onlys end up becoming these idols in our lives.
46:55
Speaker 2: And the danger of that is that if the idea of marriage is become an idol, then what you've created is your future spouse, husband or wife.
47:04
Speaker 2: You've created them to be a functional savior in your life.
47:07
Speaker 2: And if they're a functional savior in your life, you're putting so much weight into who that person might or might not be in the future that once you get married, either you're going to crush them with your unimaginable expectations or you will be crushed realizing they didn't bring you the joy you hoped they would bring you.
47:26
Speaker 2: Why?
47:27
Speaker 2: Because your only savior is Jesus and I think when we really truly rest in Christ as a single person, we can come to this place we really begin to understand David's command, where he's like man.
47:41
Speaker 2: For some people it's better to be single, and I'm not saying God is calling me to be single, you to be single.
47:45
Speaker 3: Did you say David or?
47:46
Speaker 2: Paul I did say David, but I meant Paul.
47:49
Speaker 2: But at least to hold that with open hands.
47:51
Speaker 2: At least you didn't say Solomon, solomon once said.
47:53
Speaker 2: But you can hold those options with open hands To be able to say sincerely from the bottom of your heart if the Lord wills for me to be single, then praise the Lord, I will joyfully be single.
48:05
Speaker 2: If the Lord wills for me to be married one day, then I will work for the Lord.
48:10
Speaker 2: I will pursue sanctification until the Lord brings me that person.
48:15
Speaker 2: But either way I am satisfied in Christ.
48:18
Speaker 2: All right.
48:19
Speaker 2: Isaac B.
48:20
Speaker 2: What is your favorite verse and quote so two different things.
48:32
Speaker 1: I'll go first, john 17, 3,.
48:33
Speaker 1: This is life eternal, that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
48:35
Speaker 1: Because eternal life is in knowing God.
48:37
Speaker 1: And I want to know God better today than I did yesterday, and his thoughts for me outnumber the sand of the sea.
48:41
Speaker 1: So his thoughts for me aren't necessarily the same thoughts that he has for you, or you or you.
48:46
Speaker 1: And then I have a couple quotes that I hold on to on the regular.
48:51
Speaker 1: John Sale he once said if I had the power of God, there are many things I would change, but if I had the wisdom of God, I wouldn't change a thing.
48:57
Speaker 1: You know, oftentimes we say well, man, if only this or if only that.
49:02
Speaker 1: No, god in his infinite wisdom knows what you need.
49:05
Speaker 1: I remember asking one of my boys if you had $100 million, what would you do with it?
49:08
Speaker 1: He said, well, I would buy all of my siblings a house and a car.
49:12
Speaker 1: And I go well, that's why you don't have $100 million, because you're not their financial savior, right?
49:18
Speaker 1: And then another quote is from.
49:20
Speaker 1: It's attributed to Elizabeth Elliot.
49:22
Speaker 1: I don't know where she got it, it's not original to her, but she held onto it after her husband had died, which was do the next thing, do the next thing.
49:30
Speaker 1: And oftentimes we get ourselves inside of a rut or a situation.
49:33
Speaker 1: Maybe a family member dies and you're just like where do I go next?
49:37
Speaker 1: Where do I go from here?
49:38
Speaker 1: I've just sinned, I've just blown it, or I just lost my job.
49:41
Speaker 1: Do, sinned, I've just blown it, or just lost my job.
49:46
Speaker 1: Do the next thing.
49:46
Speaker 1: Do what you know you're supposed to do, and you'll know what you're supposed to do, just one step in front of the other.
49:49
Speaker 1: Do the next thing.
49:49
Speaker 1: So for me, there you go, roy 19,.
49:53
Speaker 3: It's Ray, isn't it?
49:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, 1923.
49:56
Speaker 3: Proverbs 1923 is my favorite verse.
49:59
Speaker 3: The fear of the Lord tends to life, and he who has it shall abide in satisfaction.
50:06
Speaker 3: He will not be visited with evil.
50:08
Speaker 3: Couldn't want anything better than that in life.
50:12
Speaker 3: The fear of the Lord tends to life, and he who has it abides in satisfaction.
50:18
Speaker 3: That's what I want.
50:19
Speaker 3: Just to be satisfied, and he'll not be visited with evil.
50:21
Speaker 3: And my favorite portion of Scripture is Genesis 1, 1 to Revelation 22, 21.
50:28
Speaker 1: You work Just right in between Yep.
50:30
Speaker 3: Just right, favorite, go ahead, quote it for us Memory verse oh, in the beginning.
50:34
Speaker 2: Bible verse Romans 8, 31 to 31, 39.
50:37
Speaker 2: 31 to 31, 39.
50:39
Speaker 3: What shall we?
50:40
Speaker 2: say about such wonderful things as these.
50:43
Speaker 2: If God is for us, who could be against us?
50:45
Speaker 2: Since he did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?
50:51
Speaker 2: Who dares accuse whom God has chosen for his own?
50:56
Speaker 2: No one, for God himself has given us right standing with himself.
51:00
Speaker 2: And then my favorite quote, which I feel like over the last couple of years, god has really began to show me the awesomeness and the significance of what this means.
51:18
Speaker 2: Jr Packer said adoption is the highest privilege of the gospel.
51:23
Speaker 2: The traitor is forgiven, brought in for supper and given the family name.
51:30
Speaker 2: To be right with God, the judge, is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God, the Father, is greater.
51:39
Speaker 2: I think as I am going through my life as a Christian, I've come to recognize, or I'm increasing my understanding of the significance that I have a Father in heaven who loves me.
51:56
Speaker 3: I didn't give my favorite quote Go ahead, and it's one that I discovered in August of 1982, I think it was on a Friday, charles Spurgeon.
52:07
Speaker 3: What will you do when the law comes in terror?
52:10
Speaker 3: When the trumpet of the archangel shall tear you from your grave, when the eyes of God shall burn their way into your guilty soul, when the book shall be opened and all your sin and shame shall be punished?
52:20
Speaker 3: Can you stand against an angry law in that day?
52:24
Speaker 3: That's a great little memory verse.
52:26
Speaker 3: Put that on a Hallmark card.
52:28
Speaker 1: Yeah.
52:29
Speaker 3: That would be funny.
52:29
Speaker 3: Happy birthday, oh my god, happy birthday.
52:35
Speaker 2: Question for Ray how many chickens is too many?
52:41
Speaker 3: Oh, never.
52:41
Speaker 3: There's never too many chickens.
52:43
Speaker 3: We've got 22, and I love every one of them.
52:44
Speaker 3: Eggs are going up in price right now oh never.
52:45
Speaker 3: There's never too many chickens.
52:45
Speaker 3: We've got 22, and I love every one of them.
52:46
Speaker 2: Eggs are going up in price right now.
52:48
Speaker 2: They certainly are, yeah.
52:49
Speaker 3: So we're telling them keep pumping them out, ladies.
52:51
Speaker 2: Joke's on them.
52:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, the next question we have.
52:55
Speaker 2: We've got about five, ten minutes left here, guys.
52:58
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for submitting all your questions.
53:00
Speaker 3: Guys, I'm really enjoying this this.
53:02
Speaker 2: Guys, I'm really enjoying this.
53:02
Speaker 2: This is great, yeah.
53:03
Speaker 2: Next question, adam F Do you think it's okay for a Christian to read a book like the Quran in order to better understand and share with Muslims, or is it such a spiritual evil book that it should stay off my shelf?
53:17
Speaker 3: Oh, I had a guy who immersed himself in the Quran and got so depressed he couldn't shake it almost for years just about destroyed him.
53:27
Speaker 3: Wow, it's a doctrine of Devils and I wouldn't soak my soul and something like that.
53:32
Speaker 3: I'd soak my soul in the Word of God and just learn what the Quran says from other people that have read it.
53:37
Speaker 1: Hmm yeah, I have to agree to some degree.
53:40
Speaker 1: I mean, unless there's some sort of an Islam, a just right, and you, you feel like that, that is your calling to reach the Muslims and you think that that's going to give you some sort of street cred to say that you've read the Quran.
53:51
Speaker 1: I've never read it, you know, I mean first of all I read Origin of Species.
53:56
Speaker 1: You read Origin of Species.
53:57
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, to say that you did for Hendo.
53:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah and it was horrific.
54:01
Speaker 3: It was so dry as dust I couldn't believe it.
54:06
Speaker 3: But EZ made me read every word.
54:08
Speaker 3: He kind of almost stood over me.
54:10
Speaker 3: I wonder if he would make you do that today.
54:12
Speaker 3: I hated it.
54:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with Ray.
54:15
Speaker 1: Become so familiar with the real thing that when the counterfeit comes along, you're going to recognize it.
54:25
Speaker 2: Ray, you were a bank teller for many years.
54:27
Speaker 2: Wasn't that something that you?
54:27
Speaker 3: kind of learned.
54:28
Speaker 3: It was for one year.
54:28
Speaker 1: That's for many, many years Seems like forever when you're not able to create YouTube videos when you are familiar with the real thing, then when counterfeits come along, you're going to recognize those.
54:35
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like people I'm told with the US Mint that they handle the real things when the counterfeit comes, you're going to see it straight away.
54:43
Speaker 2: That's wise.
54:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say this requires discernment, and I would imagine that for most people it's probably not necessary.
54:49
Speaker 2: By God's grace, there's a lot of apologists and guys in polemics that have read the Quran, know the Quran, that you can read their book and get a Christian perspective of the Quran, and often that will be a better option for you than just going out and reading the Quran itself.
55:04
Speaker 2: With that in mind, though, I will say and I know you know this if you listen to the podcast I read books by atheists but I'm also not tempted by them.
55:12
Speaker 2: I'm having an argument with them while I'm reading it, I'm having a conversation, and so that perspective is very different.
55:18
Speaker 2: And so, yeah, this requires discernment, and often there's a better route to reading the Quran, and that's books by Christians who have read the Quran and are equipped to help you better understand it from a gospel perspective.
55:30
Speaker 2: Mallory R, what are the top questions to ask Mormons?
55:36
Speaker 2: Ooh, mark, I like this.
55:38
Speaker 2: What?
55:39
Speaker 2: Are the top questions to ask Mormons.
55:40
Speaker 1: Would you consider yourself to be a good person?
55:42
Speaker 2: Nice, you stole my thunder space.
55:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.
55:44
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but listen, we get so caught up because all the apologetics that comes our way says that you must be an expert in everything Mormonism.
55:54
Speaker 1: But what happens when there's a new religion that comes your way and comes knocking on your door?
55:58
Speaker 1: They're there to proselytize you and you don't know what to say because you're not an expert in what they believe.
56:03
Speaker 1: So you don't know what to say because you're not an expert in what they believe, so you don't know what questions to ask.
56:06
Speaker 1: This goes back to that last question with know the real thing.
56:10
Speaker 1: So then you know how to engage in dialogue.
56:13
Speaker 1: When the Spirit comes, you shall convict the world of sin, judgment and righteousness.
56:16
Speaker 1: So when we get into an apologetical sword fight, it's almost as if the Holy Spirit stands aloof waiting for us to finish.
56:23
Speaker 1: So sin, which is transgression of the law and this is why we go through the commandments demonstrates we don't have the righteousness required of the law to stand before holy God and therefore you will be judged.
56:31
Speaker 1: And in Romans 1, 16 it says I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, the Jew first and then the Gentile.
56:38
Speaker 1: Very, very simple.
56:40
Speaker 1: So when we say I'm to talk to a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness.
56:44
Speaker 1: Well, why not start with the gospel?
56:47
Speaker 1: And you can't start with the gospel unless you start with the law to bring the knowledge of sin, and then maybe, if you get into talking about magical undergarments or the false prophecies I actually had a debate today with ChatGPT on my way to work, talking about false prophecies.
57:02
Speaker 2: You guys got into another argument.
57:02
Speaker 2: Every day we get into an argument ChatGPT on my way to work talking about false prophecies.
57:03
Speaker 2: You guys get into another argument.
57:03
Speaker 1: Every day we get into an argument, but with ChatGPT and I was talking about false prophecies and I was trying to teach ChatGPT how wrong they were.
57:12
Speaker 1: By the time we were done, chatgpt actually said it is a false religion according to their false prophecies, as we see in Deuteronomy 13 and 18.
57:19
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh great, look, chatgp in chapter 18.
57:21
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh great, look, chet GPT actually did kind of learn something.
57:24
Speaker 1: But start with the gospel you could publish a book with that.
57:29
Speaker 3: I argue with Chet GPT daily about these things, it could be a good book.
57:33
Speaker 2: They're like two old men just sitting there like bickering back and forth with each other.
57:37
Speaker 2: But I do like the idea that I love what you just said, mark.
57:40
Speaker 2: You know something that I do when somebody comes to the door and the routine of the Mormons.
57:45
Speaker 2: I think I've got it down Every six months.
57:47
Speaker 2: They swap out the elders, so they switch right.
57:50
Speaker 2: You get about six months with one elder, and so when you get that first elder, they come to your door.
57:54
Speaker 2: One of the things I like to do and I do this because, well, I ask the question I'm a Christian, you're a Mormon, can you tell me what the difference is between what you believe and what I believe?
58:05
Speaker 2: Because they'll usually say, like if you're like, oh, I'm a Christian, they'll go oh, we are too.
58:11
Speaker 2: And then the challenge here is that they'll often use the same words without the same definitions Jesus, grace, heaven, sin, god, the father and you can get lost in the conversation, not really knowing what we're talking about, because we have yet to define terms.
58:31
Speaker 2: And so what I like to do at the very beginning, when they knock on my door, is I like to say I'm a Christian, can you tell me the difference between what I believe and what you believe?
58:41
Speaker 2: And you'll usually hear something about the Trinity, joseph Smith and then the third one's always a variable, but that's my starting point to get into my conversation about sin and about the need for a Savior, who Jesus really is.
58:58
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, guys Go ahead.
58:59
Speaker 3: I always do the knife in the back routine.
59:03
Speaker 2: You stab them in the back.
59:04
Speaker 2: No, I've got a knife in my back.
59:05
Speaker 2: Actually, in the way of the Master, I had a knife in the back routine.
59:05
Speaker 3: Do you stab them in the back?
59:06
Speaker 3: No, I've got a knife in my back.
59:06
Speaker 2: Actually in the way of the master.
59:07
Speaker 3: I had a knife in my back when we were over in Paris or somewhere and it really works.
59:12
Speaker 3: You just say to a Mormon that comes to you.
59:14
Speaker 3: Do you Mormons Nice to meet you?
59:15
Speaker 3: I'm Ray, I've got a question for you.
59:16
Speaker 3: This knife in my back, I've got three minutes to live.
59:18
Speaker 3: How can I to heaven?
59:20
Speaker 3: And they don't know.
59:22
Speaker 3: Same with Jehovah's Witnesses.
59:24
Speaker 3: They're like sorry, I can't help you.
59:25
Speaker 3: I've got it on YouTube saying again and again you've got to do things which show they're not trusting in the grace of God.
59:32
Speaker 3: And the reason they're not trusting in the grace of God is because they haven't seen sin in its true light.
59:35
Speaker 3: So you have to take them back.
59:36
Speaker 3: Do you think you're a good person?
59:37
Speaker 3: Yes, I am, and you don't go through the commandments.
59:40
Speaker 1: I would like to add one more thing.
59:41
Speaker 1: That's really terrible, but I'd like to add one more thing, ray, and that is, I mean, actually dealing with Mormonism.
59:46
Speaker 1: They will encourage you to pray whether or not Joseph Smith is a true prophet and whether the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, doctrine and Covenants is God's Word.
59:54
Speaker 1: And then I'll say something along these lines.
59:56
Speaker 1: I'll say, look, I don't think I actually need to pray about that.
59:59
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what I mean.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: Should tell you what I mean.
1:00:02
Speaker 1: Should I ever pray whether or not I should steal a ballpoint pen?
1:00:05
Speaker 1: That's good, and the answer to that, of course, is no, because the Bible tells us in Exodus 20, you shall not steal.
1:00:14
Speaker 1: So I don't need to pray about that.
1:00:15
Speaker 1: And I don't need to pray whether or not Joseph Smith is a true prophet.
1:00:17
Speaker 1: I just need to see if Joseph Smith, if he ever spoke as a prophet and those prophecies never came to pass.
1:00:22
Speaker 1: Because if they did, deuteronomy 18 says that they're a false prophet and they deserve to be stoned right?
1:00:27
Speaker 1: So for me, I think it's very simple when you begin to follow that line and I've seen that actually change people's minds.
1:00:33
Speaker 1: I can't tell people to pray about it.
1:00:35
Speaker 1: You just need to examine it according to God's word, and I see that there is one more question.
1:00:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's do it.
1:00:41
Speaker 2: All right.
1:00:42
Speaker 2: Is this really what we want to end on?
1:00:43
Speaker 2: Apparently not easy.
1:00:45
Speaker 2: I have a feeling it is Ray.
1:00:47
Speaker 2: What's it like to have the greatest son-in-law who has ever lived.
1:00:53
Speaker 3: I don't have a greatest son-in-law, that's ever lived.
1:00:55
Speaker 2: What would that?
1:00:56
Speaker 3: be like I wouldn't know.
1:00:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not easy.
1:00:59
Speaker 3: It says it's not easy, so that's the answer.
1:01:01
Speaker 3: It does Not easy, not easy, so that's the answer.
1:01:02
Speaker 3: It's not easy.
1:01:03
Speaker 3: He answered the question for himself.
1:01:07
Speaker 2: Guys, thank you so much for joining us on our first ever LivingWaterstv Living Waters podcast.
1:01:15
Speaker 2: It's a really long title.
1:01:16
Speaker 2: The Living Waters podcast LivingWaterstv question and answer.
1:01:20
Speaker 2: Is that what we're going with?
1:01:22
Speaker 2: Sure, thank you so much for joining us.
1:01:23
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for these questions and the live chat.
1:01:26
Speaker 2: We really appreciate you.
1:01:27
Speaker 2: I think we might be able to stay on in the live chat a little bit longer, but we'd love to hear from you.
1:01:32
Speaker 2: If you want more of these at livingwaterstv, let us know.
1:01:35
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1:01:36
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1:01:40
Speaker 2: Thank you guys for being here and continue to listen to the Living Waters podcast on all of the platforms and check out the YouTube channel.
1:01:47
Speaker 2: If you don't have a subscription yet, please do and, of course, you can check out the Evidence Study Bible and EZ's book Fight Like a man at livingwaterscom, places where you can get amazing resources, including tracks and all sorts of goodies.
1:02:01
Speaker 2: So, with that said, allow, allow me thank you for joining us on the living waters podcast, where we have no idea what we're doing.
1:02:13
Speaker 2: It's terrible.
1:02:14
Speaker 3: It was better though it was ed hawk.
1:02:16
Speaker 2: Thank you.