Latest / 4-Freedom Podcast / 160. Freedom from CRT In The Church

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160. Freedom from CRT In The Church · 4-Freedom Podcast

0:10
I found my freedom in you. I found a toy I can't lose, and
0:20
thank God it's true. You wrapped your arms around me
0:24
and heaven broke through. From the moment she found me.
0:29
I found. Welcome to the Four Freedom
0:34
Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the
0:37
freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with
0:40
everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James
0:44
Seyfried and Brett Marks. Welcome back to the Four Freedom
0:54
Podcast. This is the day the Lord has
0:56
made. Let us rejoice and be glad in
0:59
it. It's great to be here.
1:01
I'm great to have another opportunity.
1:03
I'm so blessed to record with you, James.
1:05
I always love getting on here, spending this time together,
1:09
talking over subjects that we need to know as Christians to be
1:15
to be free in Christ. I can't think of a better
1:18
ministry that I can be involved in.
1:21
I love recording. I love doing these episodes.
1:23
I just hope that we're a blessing to our listeners.
1:26
I hope you get something out of this and listen.
1:29
We want your feedback. Get on social media, talk to us,
1:34
tell us what's working. Tell us what's not working, mate
1:38
suggestions. This is, if you're a listener of
1:41
this podcast, this is your podcast as much as it is our
1:45
podcast. One thing me and James love and
1:49
that we lead, that we live on, that we feed on that we can't
1:52
get enough of is feedback from our listeners.
1:55
So we want your feedback. We want you to tell us what you
1:59
think, what's going on, make suggestions, have any questions,
2:02
concerns. We're here for you.
2:04
We listen to you and to get on social media if you feel led to
2:08
do that. Just a great day, a great day to
2:10
be alive, great day to be here. And I'm excited about what the
2:13
Lord's doing in our church. Some things we've got going on.
2:17
I'm excited about some things we've got going on in the
2:19
podcast and coming up in our future.
2:22
And with that, James, what's going on in your neck of the
2:25
woods? Yeah, I was hoping you're going
2:27
to break out in the song. We will rejoice and be glad in
2:29
it. But but you didn't.
2:31
You disappointed me there, Brett, when you began opening
2:33
that up piggyback what you said. I you know, we do appreciate
2:38
whenever you come in or, or or or give some feedback.
2:42
A guy named Joe reached out to me a while back and we've, we've
2:46
talked many different times, but at the beginning of the year,
2:49
our audio was crazy because the platform we were using record
2:53
with it changed a little bit after our winter break.
2:56
And so we went to a different 1. And in between that we were
2:59
recording sort of just makeshift.
3:01
We're trying to record over my mic and a sound system that I've
3:05
got here. And it was, the audio was really
3:08
bad. I didn't realize it on my
3:10
computer. It sounded fine.
3:11
But man, once you played it in the car, it was really, really
3:14
bad. And Joe reached out to him was
3:16
like, hey, man, I listen to your episode and quality is not, not
3:19
great right now. What's what's going on?
3:21
And so we shared some things with him and told him we were
3:24
going to be working on some stuff.
3:26
But man, he's got a small little podcast they've started called
3:28
99 for One, and we want you to go and check that out as well.
3:33
What a great different opportunity.
3:35
The Lord's opening up with different people, opening up
3:38
their gifts, talents and abilities.
3:39
It was great to have an interview last week with Olivia,
3:42
some feedback that she's given us with the We Are One podcast.
3:46
And hey, we're all in this together.
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We want to see you thrive in the ministry, want to see you thrive
3:51
in your Christian walk with the Lord.
3:53
And part of that is exposing legal for what it is and
3:57
exposing the culture of the world that we live in for what
4:00
it is and being able to be set free through Galatians 51 for
4:05
freedom. Christ has set us free.
4:07
And that's we are thankful that you're listening, thankful that
4:11
we have another wonderful day to serve him and is a blessing to
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be here today with you. Brett, what we got some two
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things we've been talking about right now.
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Once you start out with the first one with things we got
4:22
going on coming up. Well, one of the things we've
4:25
got going on, I told you last week to start saving, start
4:29
putting back your money and start getting that coffee can.
4:33
And because we are going back to Israel, we are this close.
4:38
Each week we get closer to setting a date and it's going to
4:42
be in the beginning of 2026 somewhere, January, February,
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March, somewhere right around in there.
4:49
And we're going to go back for a full trip to Israel.
4:51
Me and James, we were talking to some other churches.
4:55
We're trying to get some big group over there.
4:57
We, like I said, we've got Marcus.
5:00
Marcus is going in March of this year.
5:03
We've got the the Hope Church crew is going in September.
5:07
And so it's, it's safe to go over there.
5:10
If they've got tours, airlines coming in, now's the time to go.
5:14
Time to strike with the Iron's hot and listen, I've been on my
5:18
time hot and it's been showing me memories.
5:22
And all this past week or so I've been seeing memories of us
5:26
going to Israel. I just got done seeing some
5:30
pictures of me at the pool of Bethesda and at the empty tomb.
5:35
I'm standing at the bottom of the pool of Bethesda with with
5:41
Austin Wiest and Brandon Neal were actually down in there at
5:45
the bottom and they took a picture of us.
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And these are just memories that that you can have.
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I'm telling you, you wouldn't. When you go, and I've always
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said this, there are places that you go to in Israel where you
5:59
know it's going to affect you. When, when we were singing and
6:03
having communion at the, at the empty tomb between Calvary and
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the empty tomb and you got 30 pastors in a room singing in
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Christ alone. And man, it's just, there's
6:16
nothing more powerful than that. It was moving but man, just
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getting up and watching the sunrise over the Sea of Galilee
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or going to the actual stream. We're Gideon, you know we're
6:29
Gideon drank the water and watch the soldiers lap like a dog.
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And one thing I have regret not doing was what was drinking from
6:40
that. And I think when I go back, I'm
6:42
just going to throw caution in the wind and drink from it.
6:45
And that's right. And so, So what we'll do is I'll
6:48
laugh like a dog and you put your face in it, and then you
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can go home and I'll stay, I'll be chosen.
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And and so just things like that.
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I can't wait there. There's some I want to go to.
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What was that place called Rendezvous.
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What was the place called? Razooks.
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Razooks, yeah. Razooks, you going to Razooks
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with me? Let's do it, baby, let's do it.
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Let's go. But anyway, I, I am, I am ready
7:15
to go back and we want you to come, want you to be a part.
7:19
We don't know 100% on the price right now, but start saving.
7:25
It's a once in a lifetime trip. You're going to be glad you go.
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You're going to be glad you went.
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I pulled up my memories because I did a lot of videos from
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Snapchat because it was the easiest way to record for my
7:36
kids and then send that to them every day.
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And so I pulled up to see and I'm, I'm sitting here looking at
7:42
the Dead Sea Scrolls, Masada, the location of the Dead Sea
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Scrolls there at the Dead Sea about to go in and get, get my
7:53
mud bath at the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Dead Sea.
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And man, it was, it was great to be able to just look through
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that for a minute and see that last day while we were there in
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February of last year. Hey, man, if things work out,
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man, we're about 365 days away from being back in Israel.
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And so it's going to be awesome. Hopefully you go.
8:14
And wait and wait. Absolutely.
8:17
Well, we want you to also, if you are someone who enjoys our
8:21
new adventure with our cigar company, we'd love for you to go
8:24
to our website and for freedompodcast.com, check out
8:28
our what we've got going on there.
8:30
And we've got some exciting things coming up in the future
8:32
as well, some things that I've been working on and hopefully
8:35
you'll go and enjoy that. And we'd love for you to
8:39
participate in that endeavor for us.
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But today, Brett, we are going to be talking about critical
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race theory and the church and what that looks like.
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And we're going to give you some working definitions for that
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today. So let's jump right into it and
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we'll play our intro and then we've got a cold open story that
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Brett's going to start with. We cannot truly worship.
9:09
God while we stay. Silent on injustice in all kinds
9:12
of areas. And I know as a white pastor I
9:14
have blind spots, so I am part of the problem.
9:21
James Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith.
9:25
From their Jewish scriptures and my friends.
9:30
We must as well. White people, we're black men.
9:38
That's not fair, but it's true. Jesus repents of his racism and
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extends healing to this woman's daughter.
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I love this story because it's a reminder that Jesus is human.
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He had prejudices and bias and when confronted with it, he was
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willing to do his work. I believe in the non binary God
10:02
whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their
10:07
child who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads and saw
10:13
everyone as a sibling child of God.
10:16
I believe in the rainbow spirit who shatters our image of 1
10:21
white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity.
10:28
I believe in the Church of everyday Saints as numerous
10:32
creative and resilient as catches on the 8th quilt, whose
10:37
feet are grounded in mud and whose eyes gaze at the stars in
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wonder. I believe in the calling to each
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of us that love is love is love. So, beloved, let us love.
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I believe glorious God, my unbelief.
10:57
Amen. This woke self loathing and we
11:08
will never let the woke left take it away.
11:11
It's because they're putting woke ideology.
11:14
To a woke mob that can't even tell you what a woman is.
11:25
In this season of the Full Freedom Podcast, we want to
11:27
bring to you some enlightening topics that deal with the
11:31
wokeness of the church. We want to bring to light some
11:34
issues that are often overlooked, and we hope that
11:37
it'll be a blessing to you in your listening experience.
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Everybody OK. All right, class.
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Before we begin today's lesson, let's start with a simple
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exercise. I want everyone who identifies
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as white to stand up. Murmur ripples through the room.
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Some students hesitate, glancing at one another.
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Slowly, a handful of them rise to their feet, their faces
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unsure, some embarrassed, some confused.
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Others remain seated, arms crossed, eyes darting between
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their peers. Now those of you standing, you
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are the oppressors. The room falls silent.
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The air thickens. A 12 year old boy named Ethan
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shuffles uncomfortably on his feet.
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His heart pounds in his chest. He looks at his best friend,
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Jalen, who's still sitting there.
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They've been inseparable since the 1st grade.
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Sleepovers, basketball games, church on Sundays.
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But now there's a line between them.
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Jalen looks away. The teacher continues.
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Those of you still sitting, you are the oppressed.
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You are the ones harmed by systems that these students.
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She motions to Ethan and the other still standing, continue
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to benefit from. Ethan's stomach knots.
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He wants to sit down. He wants to disappear, but Ethan
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says. But I didn't do anything.
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The teacher sighs. That's exactly the problem,
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Ethan. You don't realize the privilege
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you have. Jalen won't look at it.
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Ethan's hands clench into fists. He sits down, face burning,
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staring at the desk. He doesn't understand why this
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is happening, why his skin is suddenly something to be ashamed
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of. At lunch, Jalen sits at a
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different table. The other kids at the table
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glance at Ethan and turn their backs.
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By the end of the week, Ethan isn't just avoiding school, he's
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questioning who he is. By the end of the year, he's
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questioning why he should even try to be friends with people
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who see him as a villain. This isn't fiction.
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This happened in a school in California, and it's happening
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in schools, workplaces, and even churches across the country.
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This critical race theory in action, that's what it is.
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It promises justice, but instead, it sows division.
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It claims to lift up the marginalized, but instead, it
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forces children like Ethan and Jalen to see each other as
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enemies. The worst part?
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This isn't just in the world, it's creeping into the church.
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Today on the Four Freedom Podcast, we're going to break it
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all down. What is critical race theory?
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How has it infiltrated our institutions, including the SVC?
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And most importantly, what does the Bible have to say about it?
15:45
Welcome back to the For Freedom podcast.
15:47
I'm James, and man, do we have an episode here for you today,
15:51
Brett, what a great cold open that was.
15:54
And we've got a big topic, one that's been stirring tons of
15:57
controversy in the church, in the SBC, and in society as a
16:02
whole. Man, this is something that
16:04
we're going to talk about as critical race theory, where it
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comes from, what it teaches, how it has influenced the church,
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and most importantly, how we should respond as believers.
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Brett, what's your thoughts, man?
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That's right, You know that there's a lot of confusion out
16:20
there about CRT, and some people think it's just about fighting
16:25
racism, something we're all against as Christians, by the
16:28
way, that, as we'll see, CRT is a much bigger issue.
16:34
It's actually a dangerous philosophy that contradicts the
16:40
gospel, and that's what we want to see.
16:42
Just because you know, if that's the the fact of CRT critical
16:47
race theory is it fundamentally contradicts the Gospel.
16:51
Yeah, You know, as you were talking, they reminded me right
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before Christmas, we were sitting here at our local school
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and we were taking some backpacks up to Asheville, where
17:04
the hurricane had come through and and hurt a lot of people.
17:07
And on the way up, one of the men were telling me about his
17:11
granddaughter who goes to our church and about how the school
17:15
did A, they called it a, some type of identity walk.
17:21
And so they went outside and, and the guidance counselor had
17:25
told all of the students to pair up and, and to get in groups
17:28
that they decided to get into. And so they all stood on the
17:31
sidewalk and she stood on one side.
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And you may have seen this as a, as a TikTok or a video at some
17:36
point it went, it went viral years ago.
17:40
And she stood out there and, and we're in a small rural
17:43
community, farmers. And she began to ask the
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questions. How many of you have more than
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10 books at your house? Take one step forward.
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How many of you, your mom and dad are still together and
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married? Take one step forward.
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How many of you when you go home, your mom or dad are going
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to have a hot meal prepared for you at your dinner table.
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Take a step forward. How many of you have eaten a
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meal? Get this have eaten a meal
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together as a family at least one time in this last week.
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Take a step forward and one of the young ladies that was there
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was a fifth grade class. She came home to her mom and she
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said, I feel guilty that we have 10 books in our house or more.
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And mom told me, she said, how in the world am I supposed to
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look at my, my, my, my 5th grade daughter and say, no, it's OK,
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there's nothing wrong with that. But this the system and all man,
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the the school system got got blazed up because of this
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guidance counselor did this and did this exercise without
18:42
parents or even the principal's permission to do this.
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And all of a sudden these kids begin to feel guilty as the
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story we talked about with Ethan, he did nothing wrong.
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He asked that question. I didn't do anything wrong.
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There's nothing here that I did. And all of a sudden, this is
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what critical race theory does. And so as we, we walk through
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the history of critical race theory, CRT, we're going to use
19:02
CRTA lot just so we're not saying it.
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We're going to talk about what the Bible says, how it's
19:06
affecting the church. And, and really, Brett, as me
19:09
and you were SBC pastors who've come out of the Fundamental
19:12
Baptist movement, we want to talk about how the SBC C has
19:15
been affected in this as well. We're going to spend some time
19:17
on that and really we're going to get to the biblical approach
19:21
about racial issues and what it looks like.
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So, Brett, let's dive into defining the history of.
19:28
So let's start with a basic definition.
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Critical race theory is an offshoot of critical theory
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which came out of the Franklin of the Frankfurt School in the
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early 20th century. The main idea behind critical
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Race theory is that society is structured in a way that
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benefits some groups while oppressing others.
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CRT applies this idea specifically to race.
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Yeah, that's right, Brett. CRT claims that racism isn't
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just about individual prejudice, but it's embedded in the laws,
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institutions, and even the social systems that we're in.
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It says ultimately, and this is a basic, broad definition,
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ultimately it says that white people, whether they intend to
20:11
or not, benefit from a system that oppresses people of color.
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One of the key figures behind CRT is Derek Bell, a legal
20:20
scholar who argued that racism is permanent and that the civil
20:24
rights laws don't really fix the problem, they just maintain the
20:28
power structures. Another major voice is Kimberly
20:32
Crenshaw, who developed the idea of intersectionality, which
20:38
looks at how different aspects of a person's identity as race,
20:42
gender, sexuality intersect to create layers of oppression.
20:48
Yeah, CRT absolutely draws from the postmodern philosophies like
20:52
Michael Foulkout and Jacqu was Deterred.
20:56
I pronounced that name wrong. Deterred.
21:00
These guys argue that power determines truth, which
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ultimately means that truth is whatever the dominant group says
21:07
it is. So that's why CRT tends to
21:10
reject objective truth and instead focuses on lived
21:13
experiences. And listen, James, that that's a
21:17
big problem. That's a huge problem, because
21:19
once you reject absolute truth, everything becomes subjective.
21:25
And that leads directly into the second part of our discussion.
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What does the Bible have to say about this?
21:31
Yeah, and often times, Brett, people don't realize the CRT
21:34
intersexuality, the the, the point system.
21:39
There's a, some type of point system here that that begins to
21:42
work in our lives. I'll, I'll explain it like this.
21:46
If you're a white male, if you're white, that's a negative.
21:50
If you're a male, that's a negative.
21:52
And if you're cisgender, if you believe that you're a male
21:55
that's married to a woman, you've got 3 negatives against
21:58
you automatically just because of that.
22:00
Now if you're a white male that's a homosexual, now you've
22:04
got 1 positive towards you, but you're still negative too.
22:07
And so there's this grading scale.
22:09
Now if you're a black woman, well that that's too positive
22:13
too there. And all of a sudden it's this
22:15
who you are, the outside of who you are, nothing to do with what
22:19
you actually have done or accomplished in your life.
22:22
I'll explain it like this and I sell this often in different
22:25
situations, but I worked at Chick-fil-A for two years here
22:28
in North Carolina. When we moved back and while we
22:30
were in North Carolina, while we were working there, we had a
22:33
lady, her name was Daphne, great lady, black lady.
22:37
That's just, I mean, just a good lady in her heart.
22:40
But she had some hard statements, man sheets.
22:42
This is during Obama's terms and right before Trump got elected
22:46
the first time. And so she was huge in Obama and
22:49
just going back and forth on these political issues.
22:52
And, and I didn't bring it up often, but there was one time
22:54
where she just, I mean, she's ramblasting white people and how
23:00
we're going back into slavery if Trump gets elected.
23:02
I would just cop this kept going on and on.
23:04
And so I was cutting lemons or something and I just turned
23:07
around and said something to her like, man, that's a pretty
23:10
racist statement that she'd say something like that.
23:12
Like I, I've never owned a slave and all she just, all it was
23:17
bad. Like it, it felt like a grenade
23:19
was thrown in. My manager might, the guy was in
23:21
charge of me. And that was like, dude, you
23:23
just set a firestorm. Like, I don't know how we're
23:25
going to get out of this. And I looked at her and I said,
23:27
you know, Daphne, I love black people.
23:30
I said my sister married a black guy.
23:33
And her whole attitude and demeanor changed because I was
23:36
now accepted because my sister married a black guy.
23:40
And that really got to the point where open my eyes of what
23:44
critical race theory and intersexuality is.
23:46
It's all about who you've adapted to become and and how
23:50
many lines you can cross to gain acceptance based on what you've
23:56
done in your life. This culture that this type of
24:00
thinking has created, has created a culture where reverse
24:05
racism doesn't exist. Like, like the white people can
24:09
be racist to black people because you've got the oppressed
24:14
and the oppressor and the oppressed cannot be racist
24:19
towards the oppressor. And then you've got, you know,
24:22
black people who exclude white people and think, Oh, well, we
24:26
can't be racist because they're we're the minority.
24:31
And that's just not grounded in truth.
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That's not a reality. Racism is prejudice.
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It's a two way St. And it it, it creates an
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atmosphere where I've apparently got no choice but to be a
24:47
racist. It doesn't matter how much I do
24:50
doesn't matter. You know, what I say doesn't
24:53
matter what my character reflects.
24:55
It doesn't matter my integrity or what I intend.
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I'm white, so that means I'm inherently racist.
25:03
There's nothing I can do about it.
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And you know, there a black person is inherently oppressed.
25:11
There's nothing he can do about it.
25:13
And that's the type of atmosphere that, you know, this
25:17
creates. And as we're going to see as we
25:21
walk through Scripture is we're going to see that that is not
25:25
the Bible. Whereas critical race theory
25:28
wants to bring attention to color and bring attention to
25:33
race and, and, and permanently make our identity all about
25:38
that. We're going to see that that's
25:40
not the biblical model, OK. The biblical model is, is kind
25:45
of color blindness is just like we're all the same and we don't
25:49
need to make our differences our our identity.
25:52
We need to realize that even though we have differences,
25:56
we're still the same. Yeah, you know, CRT frames that
25:59
like this bread. And as you said multiple times
26:02
already, there's a struggle between oppressor and oppressed.
26:06
But the Bible never divides people into categories like
26:08
that. Scripture simply teaches that
26:11
regardless of race, And I even hate that term race, because
26:15
we're all one race. We're all part of the human
26:17
race. We're all part of there's
26:20
different tribes and tongues, but we're all part of the human
26:23
race. We're made in the image of God.
26:26
Genesis 127 made that very clear.
26:29
He created male and female in his image.
26:31
Breathe life into them. And then love them and place
26:36
them in the garden. And we're all part of that one
26:38
human race. That's right.
26:40
We we, we are image bearers. We carry the image of God.
26:46
The Bible doesn't say that our main problem is oppression.
26:50
It says that our main problem is sin.
26:53
Every human being is fallen. Our greatest need isn't to
26:57
dismantle power structures, it's to be reconciled to God through
27:02
Christ, Romans 323 says. All have sinned and come short
27:07
of the glory of God. Yeah, Another issue, Brett, with
27:11
CRT is that it teaches collective guilt, right?
27:14
Meaning that certain people are guilty of sin because of the
27:17
group that they belong to. Right.
27:19
None of that's absolutely the opposite of what the Bible
27:23
teaches, right? Ezekiel 1820, it's very clear
27:27
that showing favoritism is a sin.
27:30
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I've misread.
27:32
Ezekiel 1820 says that the Son does not bear the guilt of the
27:36
Father. Each person is accountable for
27:38
their own sins and their own actions.
27:42
Exactly. You know the Bible warns against
27:44
partiality and favoritism, treating people differently
27:48
based on external factors. James two one through 9 is clear
27:52
that showing favoritism is a sin.
27:55
And yet CRT promotes racial favoritism under the name of
28:02
equity. Yeah, You know, and even
28:04
thinking about James two one through 9, you know, we use that
28:07
passage as the rich man and the poor man, the way it's applied
28:11
there in Scripture. But this can be a black
28:15
gentleman walking into a white person's church and we say, hey,
28:18
you come pick the best seat. You come take the the best place
28:21
here at the church because we want to favor you because you're
28:24
different than us. And that's completely opposite
28:27
that. That goes exactly what what
28:28
James was saying is you're making the poor man your
28:31
footstool rich man is coming in and it's just you're changing
28:36
the the poor and rich into a black and white and it fits the
28:39
exact same context. And and we also Brett, don't
28:42
even forget it. Colossians 28 Paul warns against
28:45
the deceptive philosophies that are taking people captive.
28:49
CRT fits that deceptive philosophy perfectly.
28:53
It's a man made ideology. It's a man made philosophy that
28:57
contradicts the gospel and the gospel is going to be the main
29:01
thing that we've got to get rid of the man made ideologies.
29:04
Just as we addressed with the Independent Fundamental Baptist
29:07
movement, there are man made ideologies in that movement.
29:10
This is just another one that is outside of that movement that we
29:14
can begin to talk about. That's right.
29:16
You know, over the last few years, many churches have taken
29:19
a stand against CRT, recognizing it is unbiblical ideology.
29:25
The Founders Ministries and the Conservative Baptist Network
29:28
have been vocal in their opposition of CRT.
29:31
Yeah, we saw. A major push back in 2019 in the
29:35
SPC on Resolution 9 in the controversy.
29:40
If you've not heard of that, if you want some education on that,
29:43
there's a synodic out on Resolution 9.
29:46
We'll try to put that in our show notes that you can go and
29:48
you can watch and see what happened and how.
29:52
This resolution argued that CRT could be used as an analytical
29:57
tool as long as it was subordinate to Scripture.
30:00
Many pastors and leaders pushed back, saying that CRT is
30:04
fundamentally opposed to biblical truth.
30:07
Other churches. However, have gone the opposite
30:11
direction. We're looking at you, David
30:13
Platt, embracing CRT language and adopting social justice
30:18
initiatives that are heavily influenced by it.
30:21
And that's led to a division in many congregation.
30:25
Yeah, absolutely. And as we begin to think through
30:29
this, we're going to specifically jump in and talk
30:32
about the issues of CRT and in, in the SPC.
30:36
Brett, my, my first convention, National Convention was supposed
30:40
to be in Orlando in 2020. That was going to be my very
30:46
first one. It was going to be the year
30:47
after 2019 when this resolution passed the, our, our church, we
30:53
had decided, hey, we're going to send someone.
30:55
We haven't sent someone to the National Convention in years.
30:58
And then there was a small little virus that went around in
31:01
2020 that shut the world down. And so it also shut the
31:04
convention down in 2020. So my first convention was in
31:08
2021 in there in Nashville. I went drove to John's house.
31:13
I went to church there that Sunday, preached at his church
31:16
and then Sunday night drove up to Nashville and, and it was
31:20
there Sunday, Monday, Tuesday for the convention and drove
31:22
home. And it was eye opening to see
31:26
the convention at work, but also this issue of CRT been brought
31:30
up. It's been the center of debate
31:33
after Resolution 9 at every convention that I've been to
31:37
since then, 2021-2022 in California, 2023 in New Orleans,
31:44
and 2024 in Indianapolis. CRT and Resolution 9 has been
31:48
brought up every single time by pastors and churches, and they
31:53
started asking the serious questions about CRT and the
31:56
influence of the seminaries and the denominational leadership,
32:01
the ones that are in leadership over this.
32:04
And they're beginning to ask this question and saying, hey,
32:06
how much is CRT actually infiltrating our organizations?
32:13
You know, we've seen this. Play out of places like
32:16
Southeastern and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,
32:20
where some faculty members have been accused of promoting
32:23
CRTIDS. Yeah, and that's.
32:27
You know, we as Southern Baptist, we give to the
32:30
Cooperative Program and I believe it's like something like
32:32
29% of our Southern Baptist Cooperative Program dollars go
32:36
to our seminaries to help offset college costs.
32:39
So if you're a, a church member of a Southern Baptist church,
32:43
you get a discount at those seminaries.
32:46
And so that's part of the benefit of, of being a part of
32:49
it. And so when we see that, we
32:51
begin to see this, you know, our, our monies that are being
32:55
used in a, in a wrong way. Ultimately, the divide in the
32:59
SBC is really between those who see CRT as a useful tool for
33:03
addressing racism and injustice and those who seek it as a
33:07
dangerous compromise with the secular ideology.
33:11
And as we've seen it, it causes major fractures in we'll, we'll
33:15
use the term denomination. We understand that the SPC is
33:17
not a denomination. They're a cooperation of
33:20
churches together. But Brett, we have everyone I've
33:24
been to, and I know you. Your first one was New Orleans
33:29
two years ago and then Indianapolis last year.
33:32
But everyone I've been to, when the issue of the CRT, social
33:37
justice mandate, the resolution now gets brought up, you begin
33:41
to see this. The people on stage get on easy
33:45
feelings. They they're shifting in their
33:46
weight. They don't want to say the right
33:49
thing or the wrong thing, and they're trying to toe the party
33:51
line because it is such a divisive topic.
33:55
I remember in 2021 when Founders Ministry got up and they tried
34:01
making a resolution and that was going to, and they had like
34:05
thousands of church pastors that had signed this petition saying
34:09
that we do not agree with CRT, we don't think it should be what
34:13
it is. And the guy that actually wrote
34:15
resolution nine got up and talked about how he submitted
34:18
this resolution and presented his original resolution and they
34:21
took it and they gutted it and changed it to be something
34:25
completely different than what he had said.
34:27
And so there was this whole issue of they're trying to bring
34:30
in this CRT, this racial theory that is unbiblical to its core.
34:36
As we talked about just a moment ago, if we're going to be
34:40
biblical Baptists, let's use the Bible as our definition.
34:44
Let's not use some man made ideology, some man made thought
34:47
up structure to help us in some type of reading of Scripture.
34:52
That that's that's absurd. And that would have never all
34:56
either. They would have never thought of
34:57
that when they were writing scripture, when they were
34:59
writing down what God had told them, when they were preaching
35:01
in their churches. They would have never thought,
35:03
well, let me let me think of how the Romans would think in this
35:06
and, and try to apply that. That's not how they thought.
35:09
That's not how they they process.
35:10
That's not what Jesus did when he went to the Sumerians.
35:13
He went in and preached the free gospel and said there is this
35:17
open invitation for all who believe exactly like you.
35:21
Go to the Samaritan, the Samaritan woman, even though
35:26
Jesus, a Jew was going to the Samaritan woman, all she could
35:31
really talk about was how her people have oppressed their
35:33
people. And and you know, she kept
35:36
bringing up this oppression that last that had been going on for
35:41
centuries. And Jesus is just like, you
35:44
don't need to worry about that. That's not the point, you know,
35:48
And so it's almost like this Samaritan woman, she was trying
35:52
to bring a critical race theory. She was trying to bring up the
35:55
issue of oppressed and oppressor.
35:58
And Jesus is like, that's not your need.
36:01
Your your need is, is not, you know, racial things.
36:07
Your need is the gospel. Your need is you are a Sinner
36:10
and you know, I think that we need to take a note from Jesus
36:14
and it needs to be all about the gospel and you know, you trying
36:18
to tripped over the letters and when you're reading that.
36:21
And so it got me to thinking we need less CRT and more CCR and a
36:27
little joke for you. I tell you, I, I, you know, I go
36:30
to New Orleans Baptist Illogical Seminary and I haven't seen it
36:33
yet. If it does, I'll report on it.
36:36
But we haven't seen any of that critical race theory, you know,
36:39
creep in there yet. So if, if CRT isn't the answer,
36:44
what is? What should the church address?
36:48
How should the church address racial issues in a way that is
36:52
faithful to Scripture? Because let's not, let's be
36:54
honest, racial issues exist or there is racism, there is
36:59
prejudice, prejudice out there. And I'm not saying that there
37:03
aren't systems set up that that aren't race inherently racist,
37:08
that that does exist. So how do we approach it?
37:12
What's what's our next steps? Yeah, I think that's a great.
37:15
Question, and I think it's a great topic.
37:18
We can talk through really 4-4 different ways that we've
37:21
addressed here today of how to address this from a biblical
37:25
perspective. I think the first thing we've
37:27
got to do is we've got to preach the gospel of reconciliation.
37:31
Second Corinthians 518 to 21 makes it clear that Christ came
37:36
to reconcile us to God and to one another.
37:39
The answer to racism isn't critical race theory, Brett.
37:42
The answer is the gospel. The answer is, is getting back
37:45
to what God has done. God has sent his Son to die for
37:49
us, to redeem mankind, to redeem humanity back to himself.
37:53
And in doing that, it reconciles us with one another.
37:57
And we're able to go and we're able to make an ends with one
38:00
another as God has made an ends with us through his Son.
38:03
And so the gospel must be the first, clearest thing that we
38:07
can do. Exactly and.
38:09
Second, I think we should reject partiality of the Bible,
38:13
shouldn't engage in racial favoritism of the church,
38:17
shouldn't engage in racial favoritism, whether it's against
38:20
minorities or against white people.
38:23
The Bible calls us to treat one another as brothers and sisters
38:26
in Christ. There is no Jew.
38:28
There is no Greek man, woman, rich, poor.
38:32
We, you know, we, you know, we don't need to set up some way to
38:36
pay back reparations. We need to not beating the show
38:40
favoritism because that's what the Bible prescribes for New
38:45
Testament Christians. Absolutely.
38:47
I think the. Third thing we can do is
38:49
emphasize personal responsibility.
38:52
Ezekiel 18/20 shows that people are accountable for their own
38:56
sins, as we mentioned earlier, not for the sins of others.
39:00
This means that we don't promote collective guilt and often times
39:05
bred. I don't know if you're if it's
39:07
if you've heard this, even in the independent fundamental
39:09
Baptist, you know all the women that wear pants, right?
39:12
That they, they lump everyone together in one in one category.
39:17
Those that go to the movies, they're sending everyone that
39:20
goes to the everyone that does they, they love bringing a group
39:24
of people together and giving collective guilt on one issue
39:29
and it's the same as CRT all white men or oppressors, right?
39:33
All white women are slave. All black women are great.
39:37
Like all of a sudden we're we're categorizing everyone together
39:41
in one collective group of guilt in the Bible says that's
39:44
absolutely unacceptable. Exactly.
39:47
I think finally, we should focus on discipleship and not identity
39:51
politics. The church's mission isn't to
39:54
create social activists. It's to make disciples who live
39:59
out biblical justice in their daily lives.
40:02
And, and, and when you when you see a pastor get up on a pulpit
40:07
and use it as a platform to promote this racial ideology
40:12
that, you know, be a social justice warrior, identity
40:16
politics. It just wears the gospel, the
40:18
gospels on the cutting room floor and and we need to make
40:23
the main thing the main thing and keep Jesus at the center.
40:26
Our job as pastors and preachers is to preach Christ crucified.
40:31
It is our job is not just pastors, but as Christians, we
40:34
are all ministers of the gospel. If you're saved, redeemed, born
40:39
again, child of God, you are a minister of the gospel and we
40:43
need to get back to the gospel of Jesus.
40:46
Amen. You know, Brett, at the end of
40:48
the day, if you really break it down, if you really bring it
40:53
down to the bare bones, which is what we want to do, we want to
40:56
bring it down to what I like to call the lowest common
40:58
denominator. Let's bring it down to where the
41:01
rubber meets the road, putting the cookies on the bottom shelf
41:04
so that anyone can grab it. That takes a hold of it.
41:07
When CRT infiltrates the church, what it ultimately does is it
41:11
brings in a counterfeit gospel. It offers a distorted view of
41:14
sin. It offers a view of sin that if
41:18
you are a certain color or status or level in your life,
41:23
then you are good and things are great and you don't need
41:25
anything else. And it ultimately brings in a
41:28
false hope of redemption and salvation.
41:31
It's a divisive approach to justice.
41:34
But the Bible gives us something far better.
41:37
The Bible gives us a true gospel of Jesus Christ.
41:41
It lays out that all have sinned and we've fallen short of the
41:44
glory of God and that there is only one way to redemption.
41:49
Not based on the color of our skin, not based on our our
41:53
gender, not based on our our sexual preference.
41:56
None of that matters. All that matters is the gospel
42:00
of Jesus and his death, burial and resurrection, and that he
42:03
rose from the dead so that we could live forever for Him if we
42:08
trust and accept Him. That is the true gospel.
42:11
CRT distorts that. It changes that and is a false
42:15
gospel that Paul preached against.
42:17
That's right. You know, the church also needs
42:20
to stand firm on Scripture. We need to reject any ideology
42:26
that competes with the authority of God's Word.
42:29
The fact that God has spoken to man is one of the greatest facts
42:34
that exists. The fact that we have his word,
42:38
that he's the creator God and he's taken the time out of, out
42:43
of his life to, to contribute, to give us his word to speak to
42:48
mortal man. And if we have, if we carry
42:51
God's word, then God's word carries the authority of the God
42:55
who spoke those words. And we need to get back to the
42:58
Bible. We need to get back to
43:00
Scripture. And that's what our foundation
43:03
needs to be based in, absolutely.
43:06
And man, these are hard topics, Brett, not going to lie.
43:09
These are tough, weighty topics. It's tough talking about them,
43:13
but they're needed topics. And so we're, we're spending
43:16
this season talking through this and we hope you've enjoyed.
43:20
We hope you will share some of this content, some of the
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encouraging to you and maybe shed some light on some issues.
43:33
And so we hope that you will share this and, and, and respond
43:37
appropriately. If you have a question about
43:38
something we've said, send us a message.
43:40
Let us know what your thoughts are.
43:43
And until next time, to God be the glory great things he.
43:47
Hath done found my new. Name found that good grace found
43:53
that healing, and the tears fell down my face when I found my
43:58
beginning that has no ending. I found that second chance,
44:00
found my best friend, found my forgiveness, found my happiness.
44:03
I've been singing ever since. Thanks for listening.
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