Latest / Brandon Fogal Evolution / #65 - There Are Many…Whose Mouths Must Be Stopped | The Fight for Truth

Transcript

#65 - There Are Many…Whose Mouths Must Be Stopped | The Fight for Truth · Brandon Fogal Evolution

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  There are many whose mouths must be stopped.
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  This is from the Apostle Paul in the first century, writing to one of his protégés, Titus.
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  This can be controversial in today's age, especially if you are of the mind
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  of free speech, and I am 100% of that mind, so I don't want it to get misunderstood.
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  But Paul was writing in a specific context, and now we are 2,000 years later,
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  and we got to deal with the context that we are in.
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  And I am of the opinion that better speech needs to beat bad speech.
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  People are out there. Ideas have consequences. So we need to be on the front
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  line and fighting for what matters and what is true.
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  I wanted to start it off with, do you care about what is true?
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  Are you of the opinion that truth matters for you? Because it doesn't for everybody.
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  Truth doesn't necessarily matter for every single person out there.
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  Everybody has a lot to deal with in this world.
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  And when it comes to truth, that can be maybe something we put on the back burner.
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  But I would say that we need to be reminded, especially from this letter,
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  and we're going to talk about this letter, Paul was writing to Titus.
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  Now, when we read the books of the Bible, the letters of Paul,
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  they were in-house instructions.
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  And specifically, this was to one singular person.
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  Now, Paul, he most likely knew that other people were going to read what he wrote.
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  Don't give me the thumbs down. Don't give me the thumbs down.
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  Most people are going to, Paul would have known that people are going to,
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  would be reading his letters.
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  He knew that. He said to circulate them, get them out there and know that they
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  are very valuable. He was writing God's instruction. he was writing scripture himself.
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  He said, if anybody doesn't acknowledge that what I am writing is God's word,
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  you know, throw them out. They have no part with us.
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  So we're going to read this from the book of Titus in chapter one.
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  There's only three chapters in Titus, but in chapter one, Paul writes,
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  for there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those.
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  Now, as any part of the Bible, and some people get upset when you remind them
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  that context matters, but as any part of the Bible, context matters.
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  Context seriously matters in whatever's happening.
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  And this, what he's writing here, Paul is just out of prison.
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  This is around 64 to 68 AD that this letter is penned.
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  That's according to tradition.
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  Paul had been released from Rome in prison in around 62 AD.
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  And he knows that his time on earth is short.
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  And he has to invest the most he can in the fewest people he can.
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  Because if you spread your influence to so many people out there and you don't
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  really pour into a select few,
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  you're not going to get as much return on your investment than if you really
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  pour into a smaller, close-knit group of individuals.
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  And I think Paul understood that. And wherever we're at, we might find ourselves
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  where we have a big megaphone and we can talk to the masses.
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  Paul, he went into synagogues every weekend, you know, he went and whenever
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  he was tent making, he was always talking to people, but he would select the
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  people that he would specifically pour his heart into and say, imitate my life.
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  And those were like Titus and Timothy and others.
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  And I think that goes for us as well.
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  And him writing to Titus and he's, he knows his time on earth is short and he
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  has only so much parchment to write on.
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  And he says, when I send you into Crete, because he's sending Titus into Crete
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  to basically appoint elders and get communities set up, up and running of like
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  small house churches and how the church can be governed.
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  And he says to appoint people, appoint the people that you can trust and that are reliable.
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  And he says, because there are many out there whose mouths must be stopped.
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  There's a lot of chatter happening. And I think in our day and age,
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  it's not about we need to silence.
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  Don't get us wrong. Don't get us wrong. And I know Paul, he's not writing from
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  a First Amendment, you know, American way of thinking.
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  Everybody's got to have freedom of speech and all that. He's not,
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  he's not even thinking about that. That's not even, that's not here yet. That's not there yet.
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  And so I don't want to misconstrue what he's saying because he's not saying
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  go in there and like literally don't let people talk, but make your ideas so
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  much stronger, so much more valid than others that they can't talk.
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  You silence people by the greatness of your argument and what you believe and
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  what you know is true because truth matters.
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  Truth absolutely matters. And that's why I wanted to start off with,
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  does truth matter to you? Are you of the opinion that you care about truth?
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  Or is it, you know, I'll just go with the wind of politics, you know,
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  put my finger in there and just try to, where is culture going?
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  And I'll just try to fit in. I'll go with the current of everything that is happening.
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  I think that can be very detrimental to ourselves, and it can be very detrimental
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  to our culture and the way that we're leaving a future for our children.
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  We need to be on the front lines, speaking about truth, telling people what
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  is the truth, you know? A hundred percent.
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  We cannot sit back and think other people are going to do it,
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  and we can just sit on the sidelines.
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  As Christians, because this is a letter specifically to Christians.
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  He's writing to his protege, Titus, and it applies to all Christians and anybody
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  else out there that wants to be a part of this community and really seriously cares about truth.
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  Because if you care about truth, you will always end up at Jesus.
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  You will always end up at the Bible, because the Bible is true.
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  And I get in so many disagreements and arguments with people.
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  Online and, you know, in a person that disagree with the Bible.
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  They think it's silly, you know, and they say, where's your evidence?
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  And I feel like you could say something over and over and you could explain
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  what you believe and what the Bible says and how it lines up with history.
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  It lines up with archaeological evidence. It lines up with the historical facts
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  of what happened and how only the truth of the Bible could explain what happened.
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  And it doesn't matter. They'll just throw that out the window and say, where's your evidence?
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  Where's your evidence? And you give it to them over and over.
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  And I think there is a call to endurance and perseverance. You have to continually fight.
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  You can't just, you can't take
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  a day off. You got to, whatever context you're in, stand up for truth.
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  Whatever context you're in, whether it's your family or at work or,
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  you know, and just in regular in society, stand up for truth,
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  keep fighting for truth and your opinions,
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  your ideas, if they're strong enough, and I 100% guarantee they will be strong
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  enough if they are based on the Bible and on Jesus.
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  You will win the argument ultimately.
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  Ultimately, you will win the argument. Paul was not a guy, just a random, a random dude.
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  He was not just a random dude that just, you know, he had some ideas.
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  He was, you know, he found some mushrooms and he came up with this idea of Jesus
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  Christ and interpreting everything.
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  You know, his eyes were opened. He had to be completely confronted by Jesus
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  and his eyes be made so they could see.
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  And there was a supernatural miracle that happened with the Apostle Paul that
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  that's why in the New Testament, it's over and over repeating his testimony
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  of how he came to Christ because he wanted to destroy Christianity.
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  He wanted to completely obliterate Christianity. So he was the equivalent of,
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  you know, he was equivalent of Osama bin Laden coming to faith in Christ of his day.
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  So, I mean, I think we can take a lot from the Apostle Paul and what he taught
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  us and what he says in this passage to Titus.
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  He's saying, I'm sending you where it says, he talks about the Cretans,
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  and they're not putting the best light possible.
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  It says, one of them, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars,
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  evil beasts, lazy gluttons.
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  And he's pulling from a poet, a philosopher, Epimenides, back in the 6th century BC.
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  And he's saying, I'm throwing you into that context. Now stand firm. Make truth reign.
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  Go out there and make it so that, I mean, there is, there's hype.
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  It's hyperbolic in a sense to say, make their, their mouse be stopped.
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  He's not physically saying, say, make their mouse be stopped,
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  but make your opinion and your beliefs so strong and so just evident to everyone
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  that they cannot argue with it.
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  Because when truth stands up with a lie, when they stand beside each other,
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  truth will easily overcome a lie.
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  Truth will always win. Truth always wins. So we'll leave it at that.