# Why Even Christians Think the Cross is Foolishness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVMbus76XeE

[00:00] Welcome to Beyond the Fundamentals. It
[00:02] is good to see you here today. See some
[00:04] folks in the chat. And today we're
[00:06] talking about why even Christians, why
[00:10] even Christians think the cross is
[00:13] foolishness.
[00:16] There is a passage in 1 Corinthians
[00:19] chapter 1
[00:22] and it says because the foolishness of
[00:24] God is wiser than men and the weakness
[00:28] of God is stronger than men. What's he
[00:30] talking about up in verse 23
[00:34] of 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
[00:39] Here we go.
[00:41] Let me get my pen out.
[00:44] says, "We preach Christ crucified, unto
[00:47] the Jews, a stumbling block, and under
[00:49] the Greeks foolishness."
[00:52] And Christians like to tout this around
[00:55] like because as if because they believe
[01:00] the factual presentation
[01:03] of the facts of history of Christ
[01:05] raising from the dead that that because
[01:08] they accept that and some other people
[01:10] don't that this the idea is foolishness
[01:12] like the content of it is foolishness.
[01:14] Okay.
[01:16] And it's really a lot different than
[01:18] that. It's uh when we look at the wisdom
[01:22] pattern, when we look at the pattern of
[01:25] Christ, the order, disorder, reorder,
[01:29] the life, the death, the resurrection,
[01:34] we realize that to love is
[01:38] self-sacrificial.
[01:40] You're constantly Christ laid himself
[01:43] down for his
[01:46] friends. I lay my life I laid down my
[01:49] life for my friends. He he laid down his
[01:51] life.
[01:54] And the pattern of Christ is to actually
[01:57] do the same. Now the reason it's
[02:00] foolishness because of our Greek mindset
[02:02] and our our modernism mindset is very
[02:05] similar to the Greco Roman mindset. You
[02:08] think about the Greco Roman mindset.
[02:10] It's all bigger, better, faster,
[02:11] stronger. Modernism is bigger, better,
[02:14] faster, stronger. You got to build. You
[02:16] got to have the best team. You got to
[02:17] have the highest building. You got to
[02:18] have the fastest car. Bigger, better,
[02:20] faster, stronger. That's how everything
[02:21] is. Alexander the Great had conquered
[02:24] and helanized the known world of that
[02:25] region at the time. And then Rome came
[02:28] along and everybody's all about having a
[02:30] single language, building all the roads.
[02:32] They're doing all the things, okay?
[02:35] Bigger, better, faster, stronger.
[02:37] And so the mindset
[02:40] of the way we should be operating or we
[02:44] think we should operate is this same
[02:46] thing. We basically have a worldly
[02:48] mindset in the church where it's bigger,
[02:50] better, faster, stronger. We're going to
[02:51] have the mega church. We're going to
[02:52] have the pastor. We're going to uh
[02:55] somebody asked me the other day, have
[02:57] you ever heard of a pastor being called
[03:00] to a smaller congregation with a smaller
[03:02] salary?
[03:04] Typically doesn't happen that way.
[03:05] People are looking for career
[03:07] progression. They want to move to the
[03:08] bigger church with the better salary.
[03:11] And I'm not trying to paint those as
[03:13] moralistically good or evil necessarily,
[03:15] but everything's bigger, better, faster,
[03:17] stronger. Everything is. We want to
[03:19] build our Sunday school class. We want
[03:21] to replicate and duplicate our Sunday
[03:23] school classes. Uh I've seen all the
[03:26] little growth models. Everything's all
[03:28] about grow, grow, grow, grow, grow.
[03:30] Where's the quality control? We're we're
[03:32] so we have such an emphasis on growth
[03:34] that we don't have a lot of quality
[03:35] control. And so when you start saying
[03:38] something like well the way of Christ
[03:42] is self-sacrificial.
[03:44] I was talking to my son earlier because
[03:46] I wanted to test this on him. he has a
[03:50] little bit of a spoiler.
[03:52] And I'm like, well, if somebody
[03:54] presented you
[03:56] Jesus and they said, hey, if you believe
[03:58] on this guy,
[04:01] you'll go to heaven when you die as a
[04:03] free gift. If you just agree to the
[04:05] facts of the case and also agree that at
[04:08] least agree that you should be keeping
[04:10] some rules and living a certain way, you
[04:12] make this decision one time, you go to
[04:13] heaven when you die. Sounds a pretty
[04:15] good deal, huh? Yeah.
[04:16] Well, what if I told you what if there's
[04:19] a different religion and over here
[04:21] you're signing up for Jesus? You know,
[04:23] bam, free gift, go to heaven when you
[04:25] die, but over here you sign up for
[04:28] Christianity. Sign up for this other
[04:30] religion, let's call it. And
[04:33] hey, you're signing up for suffering and
[04:37] betrayal and injustice and backstabbing
[04:41] and disorder
[04:43] and hardship.
[04:45] That's what you're signing up for. Who
[04:46] Who's signing up? It's a little bit of a
[04:49] different story.
[04:51] It comes out a little bit differently,
[04:53] doesn't it?
[04:59] Order, disorder, reorder. And we will
[05:01] look at some of these as we go. I got to
[05:04] decide which kind of slide I want to
[05:06] start with.
[05:08] I might start with this one. It's a
[05:10] little ways in.
[05:14] I'm gonna start with this one where I
[05:16] saw this. This is atrocious to me, but
[05:20] this is the Christianity that I grew up
[05:23] with.
[05:24] The 62nd gospel.
[05:32] God loves you. God hates sin. Even if
[05:34] you're a good person, you have not lived
[05:35] a perfect life, nor has anyone else.
[05:37] Your sin has separated you from God. And
[05:39] your payment for sin is death. But
[05:41] there's good news. A perfect life can be
[05:42] substituted for yours. And God so loved
[05:44] the world so much that he gave Jesus as
[05:46] your substitute. And through his death,
[05:48] you can have eternal life. By his
[05:49] resurrection, death is defeated. The
[05:51] gift is free. You can never deserve it.
[05:53] And just by accepting this gift, your
[05:56] sins will be forgiven and forgotten.
[05:57] You'll be reconciled to God and live
[05:58] with him forever in heaven. Doesn't that
[06:01] sound great?
[06:04] That just sounds absolutely great.
[06:07] But I think we we leave out part of the
[06:10] gospel when we preach the gospel. Like
[06:13] this is not what's foolishness to
[06:15] people. Now some people, you know, your
[06:18] atheists and whatnot, I think they
[06:20] rightly think that uh a lot of religion,
[06:22] a lot of institutionalized religion is
[06:24] the opiate of the masses. And I think
[06:26] that they are correct for rejecting
[06:29] uh stage three versions of Christianity,
[06:32] institutional Christianity and the
[06:33] Hebraic Megazeus that comes along with
[06:36] most of the Christianity we have today.
[06:38] And whenever people are signing up for
[06:41] this basically a cult in the name of
[06:43] Christ, which isn't really Christianity,
[06:46] the atheists are correct and noticing
[06:49] how stupid we are for doing that because
[06:51] we are stupid when we're in that phase.
[06:53] It's not a good place to be and that's
[06:54] not real Christianity.
[06:58] But the the other side of the coin over
[07:01] here in Philippians 1 29 for unto you it
[07:06] is given in the behalf of Christ not
[07:08] only to believe on him but also to
[07:11] suffer for his sake. It's two sides of
[07:14] the same coin. That's what we want to
[07:16] focus on. So we're going to be looking
[07:18] at that today that suffering comes along
[07:21] with this. And of course, the
[07:22] Calvinists, they're they they have this
[07:25] trope, oh, faith is a gift. And so this
[07:29] all they see is a proof text for their
[07:32] gnosticism when they see this verse. And
[07:34] they are not realizing what the verse is
[07:37] saying. Now, Philippians 1:29,
[07:41] for unto you it is given in the behalf
[07:42] of Christ to believe on him. You could
[07:45] say that to any lost person. It's given
[07:47] to everybody to believe on him. The
[07:49] grace of God that bringeth salvation
[07:51] hath appeared to all men.
[07:55] Big guy 86 says,
[07:58] oh, he says, uh, solid work here, Kevin.
[08:02] Thank you. And he sent a $20 super chat.
[08:05] So, appreciate that super chat. The
[08:08] support is, uh, absolutely encouraging.
[08:11] So, thank you. By the way, these
[08:14] these videos are brought to you by
[08:16] people who support and we couldn't do
[08:18] this without you. Uh, thanks to
[08:20] everyone's generous support. If you want
[08:22] to jump on board with that, that would
[08:24] be very much appreciated. We could put
[08:26] out more content. And thanks to all the
[08:28] generous people who have been
[08:29] supporting. That's been very very very
[08:33] helpful and encouraging.
[08:39] So we'll we'll go back to these passages
[08:43] that talk about these things. So this is
[08:45] not a Calvinist proof text. Okay? You
[08:48] could say that's any lost person. But
[08:50] the other side of the coin is to also
[08:52] suffer for his sake. Now as we get
[08:54] started, there are some verses that I
[08:56] have to remind you of. There are some
[08:57] some mindset things that I have to
[08:59] remind us of. And one of the mindset
[09:02] things is the wisdom pattern of order,
[09:04] disorder, reorder. Christ the way that
[09:08] is Christ is exemplified in his life
[09:12] is death resurrection which is the
[09:15] pattern of order disorder reorder and
[09:20] when you sign up to be a Christian when
[09:23] you decide to follow Christ that's what
[09:25] you're signing up for and the disorder
[09:29] always comes
[09:31] with suffering
[09:33] pain betrayal and injustice justice
[09:37] and it's how it's not just undergoing
[09:40] those things that refineses us and
[09:42] transforms us into the image of Christ.
[09:44] It's not just undergoing these things.
[09:47] It is undergoing them while maintaining
[09:52] love,
[09:54] gratitude
[09:56] genuinely genuinely
[09:59] in in the midst of injustice injustice
[10:02] when you've been wronged. Okay. So,
[10:05] we're looking at this. We're also want
[10:07] to remind everybody that Christ never
[10:09] left anybody with a where is my mouse?
[10:12] Christ never left anybody with a set of
[10:15] beliefs, with a list of things to
[10:16] believe, like a statement of faith. Paul
[10:18] never did either. He left people with
[10:20] examples. Philippians chapter 3 15-16.
[10:23] He left people with examples. And so, we
[10:26] want to remind everybody that Christ is
[10:28] referred to as the way. this idolatry
[10:31] that we've been doing where we
[10:32] substitute a list of propositions that
[10:34] you're supposed to believe and we call
[10:36] that Christianity like our systematic
[10:38] theology books over here that that kind
[10:41] of idolatry is not Christianity. Christ
[10:44] has always been the way. So we are we
[10:47] will be approaching Jesus Christ as the
[10:49] way. That's the mindset we have here.
[10:52] And I feel like I have to remind
[10:54] everybody of these things because
[10:56] typical Western evangelical Christianity
[10:59] has a way of sitting in people's minds
[11:01] and we get thought inertia and we revert
[11:04] back to that if we're not careful. So I
[11:06] want to lead this video off by reminding
[11:08] us of the mindset of where we are in our
[11:11] journey now. Okay? So you don't fall
[11:14] back into the old institutional
[11:16] Christian ways of thinking, but that
[11:17] we're actually trying to align with the
[11:20] way that is Christ. And the third one is
[11:24] the emphasis that we find in scripture
[11:28] on charity and love. Now, I don't even
[11:31] have a bunch of them on here. I don't
[11:32] have John 13:35 on here. I don't have 1
[11:36] Corinthians 13 on there, a whole chapter
[11:39] on this. Covet the best gifts, and I
[11:41] will show you a better way. And then
[11:43] there's faith, hope, and love. And the
[11:46] grace of these is love, charity. Agape
[11:49] is the Greek word. When we say love and
[11:51] charity, we're talking about agape, the
[11:53] Greek word agape.
[11:55] And Paul says,
[11:58] "Above all these things, put on charity,
[12:01] which is the bond of perfectness, above
[12:03] all these things." He's three chapters
[12:05] into a four chapter book. Okay? And he
[12:08] elevates charity, love, agape above all
[12:11] this other stuff. We don't do that
[12:13] typically in evangelicalism. We have all
[12:15] these things that are more important to
[12:17] us. In Romans 13:8-10,
[12:20] love one another, for he that loveth
[12:22] another hath fulfilled the law. Love
[12:24] workketh no ill to his neighbor.
[12:26] Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the
[12:28] law. 1 Timothy 1:5, the end of the
[12:33] commandment is charity. In other words,
[12:34] the desired end state, what we're trying
[12:36] to get to is charity out of a pure heart
[12:40] and of a good conscience and faith
[12:42] unfeigned. That's the goal. Okay.
[12:48] 1 Peter 4:8, Peter also does it. So,
[12:51] above all things, have fervent charity
[12:54] among yourselves, for charity shall
[12:57] cover a multitude of sins.
[13:00] So, Peter, Paul,
[13:03] John,
[13:05] Jesus,
[13:07] they all elevate love and charity.
[13:10] We have to remember this. If you watch
[13:13] some of these quotes, I was I should
[13:15] have I should have recorded this. I
[13:17] might I think I recorded on my phone,
[13:19] but I have a little video of
[13:22] John MacArthur talking about the two
[13:24] most important things and it was like
[13:27] duty and doctrine or something like that
[13:29] or some you know some he never mentioned
[13:32] love the whole time. Never mentioned
[13:34] agape the whole time. Never did. And
[13:37] that's that's the thing
[13:40] that the biblical authors elevate above
[13:43] everything else.
[13:45] And this clown comes on there talking
[13:48] about the two things that a Christian
[13:49] needs to know. Never mentions the most
[13:51] important thing. Never does.
[13:53] It's astounding. It's astounding what
[13:56] people can get away with calling
[13:58] something Christianity when they don't
[14:00] even have the main idea, right? I don't
[14:05] even know what the main idea is
[14:10] at all.
[14:20] I was at a funeral the other day and the
[14:22] song The Old Rugged Cross came on. And
[14:24] many times when
[14:26] these hymns and a lot of Christian music
[14:29] comes on, when I'm exposed to it, I I
[14:33] lament how much
[14:36] left hemisphere myopic
[14:38] stage three pathological versions of
[14:41] stage three. Nothing wrong with being
[14:43] stage three, but our our
[14:46] we have a path we've we have a pathized
[14:49] version of stage three here in
[14:53] the United States
[14:55] and in the West in general that that is
[14:58] basically like Snowball the Pig and
[15:00] Animal Farm. It thinks it is the end all
[15:02] beall with everything. It'd be like uh
[15:06] it'd be like a bunch of second graders
[15:07] taking over the school and deciding that
[15:10] everything beyond the second grade is
[15:12] evil. Okay, that's essentially what
[15:14] we've that our version of Christianity
[15:15] is basically that. It's basically what
[15:17] it is. And that's not good. So when I
[15:20] hear some of these songs, I'm reminded
[15:21] of that and it's kind of a downer. But
[15:23] every once in a while, you come across
[15:24] some things that are like, huh, this guy
[15:26] might have kind of got it.
[15:29] I do not like the emphasis on everything
[15:35] off to heaven. I don't think that's very
[15:37] helpful. That doesn't help people
[15:40] uh relate to their family members, their
[15:43] kids, their spouse. Doesn't it doesn't
[15:45] help people with those things. People
[15:46] people really struggling with some
[15:47] things
[15:49] like uh how to have a good marriage.
[15:52] People struggle with that. And when all
[15:54] of when your entire emphasis of
[15:57] Christianity is all about the afterlife,
[15:59] there's people who need help, man.
[16:01] There's people who are struggling.
[16:05] are having a hard time with the
[16:07] dayto-day aspects of how to walk in the
[16:11] way that is Christ of how to do it in
[16:13] the way that you relate. Your life is
[16:14] basically a series of encounters. And
[16:17] the more you are like Christ, the better
[16:20] those encounters should go. But
[16:23] Christians, professing Christians in the
[16:26] West, we have
[16:29] terrible encounters. Absolutely terrible
[16:31] encounters. F full of vendettas and
[16:35] vindictiveness and rivalry and
[16:37] antagonism and hatred and uh resentment
[16:40] and bitterness. Just just full of these
[16:43] things.
[16:45] So when this guy he writes the song,
[16:47] okay, on a hill far away stood an old
[16:49] rugged cross, the emblem of suffering
[16:51] and shame. And I love that old cross
[16:53] where the dearest and best for the world
[16:55] of lost sinners was slain. So far so
[16:57] good. It's all about Jesus though
[16:58] nothing personally applies. And now look
[17:01] what he says. So I'll cherish the old
[17:03] rugged cross. Now look how he applies it
[17:05] to himself till my trophies at last I
[17:10] lay down. I will cling to the old rugged
[17:14] cross and exchange it someday for a
[17:15] crown. So that last line in there is
[17:17] like there's something's going to happen
[17:19] in heaven there. But he's going to lay
[17:23] down his trophies. In other words, the
[17:25] things that you accomplish in life, we
[17:27] tend to identify with those. And we
[17:29] think that those things are us. I've
[17:31] accomplished this. I have I'm a military
[17:34] officer. I'm a this. I'm whatever it is.
[17:36] And we think that we are those things.
[17:38] We are not those things. And part of
[17:40] taking up your cross and following
[17:41] Christ is to realize that you are not
[17:43] those things. And those things need to
[17:45] die so that the real you say, Kevin,
[17:48] who's the real you? That's the you that
[17:51] in accordance with Romans 7:17 and
[17:53] Romans 7:20 is not doing the sinning.
[17:56] Okay? All the other parts of you, all
[17:59] the other things that you identify with,
[18:01] oh, that's me. I'm a Republican. I'm a
[18:04] Democrat. I'm a Baptist. I'm a
[18:05] Methodist. I'm a Catholic. I'm a
[18:07] Provisionist. None of that's you. And
[18:10] you have to let that go. That part of
[18:12] you that you think that's you, that has
[18:15] to die. It has to go away. It's got to
[18:17] die.
[18:22] So think about that. So I I heard that
[18:25] phrase, the old rugged cross I will ever
[18:28] be true.
[18:30] It's shame and reproach gladly bear. So
[18:33] this guy's talking about taking up his
[18:34] own cross. Then he'll call me someday.
[18:37] So then then now we're talking about the
[18:39] afterlife. Then he'll call me someday to
[18:41] my home far away where his glory forever
[18:42] I'll share. We're so focused on this
[18:44] afterlife stuff that we don't know how
[18:48] to have a good conversation with our
[18:49] wife.
[18:51] That's literally where we are. It's
[18:56] What trophies do you need to lay down?
[18:57] Okay, so there's parts you need to die
[19:00] in first Corinthians is this whole thing
[19:02] of
[19:04] um
[19:05] the cross being foolishness. back in
[19:07] verse 18. For the preaching of the
[19:09] cross, 1 Corinthians 1, for the
[19:12] preaching of the cross is to them that
[19:13] perish foolishness
[19:16] unto us which are saved. It's the power
[19:17] of God. And Western evangelicals tend to
[19:21] run around thinking that well, people
[19:23] reject the idea of the gospel because
[19:26] they don't like it, because it's
[19:27] foolishness to them. They think the idea
[19:28] is foolish. But look, we are the ones
[19:31] who think it's foolish. We are the ones
[19:36] Look at um here's a meme I made.
[19:42] You want to take up your own cross,
[19:44] suffer injustice, and walk in the way
[19:46] that is Christ? No, thank you. We don't
[19:49] have any need for that.
[19:51] What about Jesus dying on the cross long
[19:53] ago, far away, leaving you with a bunch
[19:56] of free goodies? Okay, now we love that.
[20:00] You know, we love the 62nd gospel. Oh,
[20:04] Christ died long ago, far away leaves me
[20:06] with a bunch of with a bunch of free
[20:08] goodies. But
[20:10] taking up your own cross, suffering
[20:13] injustice when it comes time, see,
[20:15] Christians are fine, they're absolutely
[20:19] fine with Jesus dying on a cross long
[20:22] ago, far away, and you benefit. What
[20:25] they are not okay with, what they think
[20:26] is foolishness is when it comes your
[20:28] turn to take up your cross and walk in
[20:32] the way of suffering and walk in the way
[20:34] that is Christ.
[20:37] Like, hey man, would you uh would you
[20:40] like to voluntarily adopt responsibility
[20:43] for something that's kind of hard to do
[20:45] actually? And and then after that, you
[20:48] know, somebody down here says I I go
[20:50] soulwinning when I can, right? So Johnny
[20:53] 40, where is he? Bam. Johnny 40 goes
[20:57] soulwinning when he can and that's the
[20:59] only part of Christianity that I enjoy.
[21:00] Okay, good deal. Now imagine your
[21:03] soulwinning sounds like this. Hey, I
[21:05] want you to consider uh signing up for
[21:09] Christianity. Maybe you could uh
[21:12] voluntarily adopt responsibility for
[21:14] something. And then what you're going to
[21:16] experience next is disorder, hardship,
[21:20] failure, and suffering and betrayal and
[21:21] injustice. Who's on board? Who's on
[21:24] board?
[21:28] How many people going to be signing up
[21:29] for that?
[21:33] Maybe not a lot.
[21:40] I get this question a lot. Where does
[21:42] Eastern Orthodox fall into that? Okay.
[21:45] So what you have to realize is that
[21:47] there is there is no institution
[21:50] that can guarantee you the
[21:52] transformation that you need. There's
[21:55] not one out there. It could be, it could
[21:59] be that in any particular institution,
[22:03] maybe it's a Baptist church, maybe it's
[22:05] an Eastern Orthodox church, maybe it's,
[22:07] god forbid, a Catholic church, but it
[22:09] could be that a whatever version of a
[22:14] particular institution is within your
[22:16] reach has
[22:18] something that is within your zone of
[22:21] proximal development to get you to where
[22:24] you need to be at your next stage of
[22:26] transformation. information
[22:28] and you have to decide that. See, you
[22:31] have to decide that it you can't
[22:34] blanketly endorse Eastern Orthodox
[22:36] Church because my buddy over here, he
[22:40] might get what he needs at this
[22:42] particular congregation,
[22:44] but my other, you know, friend over
[22:47] here, she might not be able to get that
[22:49] might not be what she needs. So, I can't
[22:51] blanketly endorse this. See, we we're
[22:53] looking for like a one-sizefits-all
[22:55] prescription, and there isn't one.
[22:57] That's what you got to get. It's part of
[22:59] growing up. We, as children, you want
[23:02] there to be external forces that are
[23:04] always taking care of you that re you
[23:06] really don't have anything to do with.
[23:08] You know, if you had good parents,
[23:09] you've always had clothes, you've always
[23:11] had food, you've always had shelter,
[23:14] you've you never had to worry about that
[23:15] as a kid ideally. Right now, maybe you
[23:17] did, but we'll talk about that in a few
[23:19] minutes. But in a in an ideal situation,
[23:20] you don't have to worry about that. But
[23:22] as you grow older, you start to realize
[23:24] that those things are your
[23:25] responsibility. Now, we're the same way
[23:27] spiritually. We want there to be some
[23:30] entity, some set of leaders, some set of
[23:32] spiritual people who
[23:36] uh just give us all the security we need
[23:39] and we can completely rely on them. Give
[23:42] me a one-sizefits-all prescription. Tell
[23:44] me Eastern Orthodox is good to go so I
[23:46] can go there and stop using discernment.
[23:49] Something like that. There's not there's
[23:50] nothing like that. There's it doesn't
[23:52] exist. Okay. So, we're in this weird
[23:55] paradox where you need guidance and
[23:59] leadership and mentorship. You don't
[24:01] want to be completely autodidactic.
[24:03] All right. Ephesians 4:16. We need a
[24:07] peer-to-peer
[24:09] edification structure like we see in
[24:12] Ephesians 4:16. You should grow out of
[24:15] the five-fold edification min, you know,
[24:18] model of Ephesians 4:11 and 12 and grow
[24:21] into Ephesians 4:13-16. There's supposed
[24:24] to be a transition there.
[24:26] So, you need guidance
[24:28] and you need some structure, you need
[24:31] help, you need feedback, but there is no
[24:35] one institution that is a
[24:37] one-sizefits-all prescription guaranteed
[24:39] to get everybody better. It's not there.
[24:42] And it's not even that they're evil.
[24:44] It's not necessarily that they're bad.
[24:46] Even though there is a lot of pathology
[24:48] in American churches, a lot. Okay? But
[24:52] you have to decide what is in your zone
[24:54] of proximal development for what you
[24:55] need. You got to take responsibility for
[24:57] that.
[25:01] Thanks for the super chat, Richard. He
[25:03] says
[25:04] verse 18 is one of the few verses I like
[25:08] better in the New King James Version.
[25:09] And it says those of us who are being
[25:11] saved, it is the power of God, present
[25:13] tense. And so, we don't want to get into
[25:16] this, and I appreciate that comment, and
[25:18] I'm with you, but we don't want to get
[25:20] into this debate over whether salvation
[25:23] is a oneanddone thing or whether it's an
[25:25] ongoing thing. We want to completely
[25:27] scrap every way that we think about
[25:29] salvation and and uh look at the words
[25:33] in the text as if we're seeing them for
[25:35] the first time.
[25:37] We when we hear the word salvation, we
[25:39] think, "Oh, I'm going to heaven when I
[25:41] die." And we think there's some
[25:43] punctilar thing that takes place when
[25:45] you pray to receive Christ and then
[25:47] you're either in or out and you can
[25:48] either fall out or you can't or
[25:50] something those kinds of things. I don't
[25:52] think uh the word salvation just means
[25:54] healing. That's what it means. It means
[25:56] healing.
[25:58] What does that mean? Let's let's have a
[26:01] beginner's mind. Let's go back to
[26:05] uh Jesus said except you become as
[26:06] little children shall in no wise enter
[26:08] the kingdom of heaven. How do we do
[26:10] that? How do we do that? Going to go
[26:13] back to beginner's mind.
[26:15] So we reject this take up your own cross
[26:19] suffer injustice and walk in the way
[26:21] that is Christ. That's Christianity.
[26:24] Long ago far away someone else dies and
[26:28] I get all the goodies. We love that. We
[26:30] love the 62nd gospel. Okay.
[26:34] But let's look at when you expand the
[26:36] gospel. Somebody said the other day when
[26:38] when I use the not they talking about
[26:41] me, they were talking about themselves.
[26:42] They said use the word gospel. I'm
[26:43] referring to the entirety of the content
[26:45] of the Bible or the entirety of the
[26:46] content in the New Testament at least
[26:48] something like that. And that's that's
[26:50] it's kind of a good approach. I want you
[26:52] to think about that. Bringing everything
[26:54] together and how do you walk in that
[26:56] way? What does that look like? In 2
[26:59] Corinthians chapter 4, okay, we have
[27:02] people being troubled and perplexed and
[27:04] persecuted and cast down. Who wants to
[27:07] sign up for that?
[27:09] Always bearing about in the body the
[27:11] what? The dying of the Lord Jesus. Why
[27:14] are they bearing about the dying of the
[27:16] Lord Jesus? Look what Jesus said.
[27:19] Let him deny himself. Matthew 16:24. Let
[27:22] him deny himself and take up his cross
[27:24] and follow me. You know, in Luke 18,
[27:28] when Jesus says he's going to be, you
[27:29] know, spit on, spitefully treated,
[27:31] they're going to kill him. The third day
[27:32] he's going to rise again, they had no
[27:33] clue. It says, "And the disciples
[27:35] understood none of these things." So
[27:36] when Jesus, we know Jesus died on the
[27:39] cross because we we read the rest of the
[27:41] story. We know how the end of the story
[27:43] goes, right? We know how the rest of the
[27:44] story goes. We got the Paul Harvey on
[27:46] this. But when Jesus was saying these
[27:49] phrases to these people, they they had
[27:52] no idea what he's talking about. I mean,
[27:54] they know what a cross is. I mean, the
[27:56] Romans are crucifying people. They know
[27:57] what that is. But this idea, it's like,
[28:00] what? Take up your cross and follow it
[28:02] and and maybe what is it? What if when
[28:04] Thomas in John 11, let us go, huh?
[28:09] Let us go even into wherever Lazarus
[28:11] was. Let's go there so we can die with
[28:13] him in Bethany, I think. Isn't that
[28:16] interesting? Wonder if they had some of
[28:17] this in mind. I don't know.
[28:20] Take up the cross and follow me. Luke
[28:22] 9:23, "Let him deny himself and take up
[28:25] his cross and follow me. If any man will
[28:27] come after me, let him deny himself and
[28:30] take up his cross daily
[28:33] and follow me."
[28:39] So,
[28:41] what are we signing up for? You're going
[28:44] to take up your cross. What does that
[28:45] look like? Well, you're bearing about in
[28:48] your body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
[28:52] But then there's that faith. We want
[28:54] faith not by sight because we don't see
[28:56] the resurrection cycle that's coming. We
[28:59] don't see how things are going to get
[29:00] better. And we also don't know. You
[29:02] could
[29:04] voluntarily adopt responsibility and the
[29:06] disorder cycle that comes might actually
[29:09] kill you. I mean, people die.
[29:15] But that the life also of Jesus might be
[29:17] made manifest in our body. Two sides of
[29:20] the coin.
[29:22] For we which live are always what?
[29:24] Delivered unto death for Jesus' sake.
[29:27] That the life also of Jesus might be
[29:29] made manifest in our mortal flesh.
[29:31] You've read that passage. You you are
[29:33] our epistles known and read of all men.
[29:38] The the gospel that we preach. What did
[29:41] Paul say about it? What did Paul say?
[29:45] Look,
[29:47] he said not with wisdom of words.
[29:51] of Christ should become of none effect,
[29:55] not with wisdom of words.
[29:58] You see, when when he starts off in
[29:59] verse 9 here, God is faithful by whom
[30:01] you are called unto the fellowship of
[30:04] his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Fellow,
[30:07] it's we're not talking about a potluck
[30:08] at a church. Fellowship is to be
[30:12] co-aborers together with somebody doing
[30:14] the same mission. Okay? That's what a
[30:17] fellowship is. You're together doing the
[30:19] same thing. Think of Lord of the Rings
[30:21] as the fellowship of the ring. Okay? So
[30:24] the idea of this fellowship is brought
[30:27] out like in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. We
[30:30] then as workers together with him. So
[30:33] whatever God is doing, he's doing in and
[30:35] through us. So it's not just God, some
[30:38] external entity out there beyond us
[30:42] somewhere that's doing things. He's
[30:45] doing things in and through us. For it
[30:47] is him that workketh in you both to will
[30:49] and to do of his good pleasure.
[30:50] Philippians chapter 2
[30:53] as workers together with him. Beseech
[30:55] you also that you receive not the grace
[30:57] of God in vain.
[31:02] So this uh we're in the fellowship. We
[31:05] have fellowship with Christ's death in
[31:08] the suffering that we go through with
[31:10] him and for him and on his behalf. So
[31:12] then death workketh in us but life in
[31:15] you. How's that for a gospel
[31:18] presentation when you're soul-winning?
[31:21] Hey buddy, you about to get beat up.
[31:25] Knowing that he which raised up our Lord
[31:26] Jesus shall also raise us up shall raise
[31:29] us up also by Jesus and shall present us
[31:31] with you. And we think, oh, that's the
[31:33] afterlife. That's the resurrection at
[31:35] the end. But it it's the resurrection
[31:37] cycles and the order, disorder, reorder
[31:40] cycles. We walk by faith, not by sight,
[31:42] which by the way, I think is the very
[31:44] next chapter in this book, which I don't
[31:47] have up here. But though our outward man
[31:49] perish,
[31:51] okay, our inward man is renewed day by
[31:53] day. If you keep without resentment,
[31:57] without anxiety,
[31:59] you keep the love and the gratitude.
[32:03] And then our inward man is renewed day
[32:07] by day and we become more and more like
[32:10] Christ every day.
[32:18] Romans says
[32:21] caring about the death of Jesus in the
[32:23] body sounds like it means that we should
[32:25] always remember that suffering and trial
[32:27] is the way of one who is following
[32:30] Christ.
[32:33] Absolutely. Thanks for sharing that.
[32:37] So, we have affliction and when he says
[32:40] light affliction, we're talking about
[32:42] people being crucified by the Romans,
[32:44] people being having their families
[32:46] separated,
[32:47] people dying horrible deaths and living
[32:50] horrible lives. And he calls this a
[32:52] light affliction.
[32:58] I mean, these guys are really going
[32:59] through it. Read some Victor Franco one
[33:01] day.
[33:02] Read some Alexander Souljier Nixon one
[33:04] day. Read some of that stuff. Find out
[33:06] what people go through who actually
[33:08] suffer,
[33:09] who came through it
[33:12] without resentment, better and wiser for
[33:14] it.
[33:16] So we look not at the things that are
[33:18] seen, but at things that are not seen.
[33:20] For the things which are seen are
[33:21] temporal, but the things which are not
[33:22] seen are eternal, or you might say
[33:25] transcendent, because a class of the
[33:28] transcendent must precede the imminent.
[33:31] And that's how we know what to make
[33:33] imminent.
[33:36] Otherwise, we wouldn't know. In 2
[33:39] Corinthians 2,
[33:42] a sweet savor of Christ in them that are
[33:44] saved and in them that perish, and the
[33:47] one saver of death unto death, and the
[33:49] other saver of life unto. So other folks
[33:51] can't understand that the way up is the
[33:53] way down. The way to the resurrection
[33:55] cycle is through voluntary adoption,
[33:57] responsibility, and then suffering,
[33:59] hardship, through betrayal, and
[34:01] injustice and failure. They don't
[34:03] understand that. It just looks like
[34:04] death to them. They don't get it. It's
[34:06] foolishness to them. And it's
[34:08] foolishness to most Christians, too.
[34:09] Most Christians aren't there signed up.
[34:11] People who call themselves Christians
[34:13] say they haven't signed up for the
[34:14] gospel of what we're talking about
[34:15] today. They haven't signed up for this
[34:17] at all.
[34:21] like this is a great way to word it.
[34:24] John says the fine print of Christianity
[34:27] has little to do with with physical
[34:30] comfort, right? And it's not like just
[34:33] denying yourself physical comfort is
[34:35] going to get you anywhere either. But
[34:37] the path that you're going to be on
[34:39] isn't going to be comfortable.
[34:43] It's going to be anxietyinducing to some
[34:45] points.
[34:47] Okay?
[34:49] So Jesus says, "Take up your cross."
[34:52] You're going to voluntarily adopt
[34:54] responsibility for something.
[34:56] And it it this could be a wide range of
[35:00] things. Like Jordan Peterson says,
[35:01] "Maybe you're just cleaning your room.
[35:03] Maybe you've got kids. You voluntarily
[35:05] adopted responsibility for them. Guess
[35:07] what's coming your way as you sacrifice
[35:10] yourself for them? Disorder, hardship,
[35:14] failure, suffering, betrayal, and
[35:16] injustice. And we endure all this in
[35:20] faith that there will be a resurrection
[35:22] cycle. But this cannot be engineered.
[35:26] You cannot engineer the resurrection
[35:27] cycle.
[35:29] The disorder
[35:31] is a genuine failure of what you were
[35:34] trying to engineer in the first place.
[35:38] You got to understand that. And when
[35:40] that failure happens and when that
[35:41] hardship and suffering and betrayal and
[35:43] injustice happens, that's when it's so
[35:46] important
[35:48] um to maintain thankfulness, love,
[35:53] gratitude.
[35:55] Do not get resentful. Do not get bitter.
[35:58] Do not hate the people who unjustly
[36:00] saddled you with the suffering you're
[36:02] going through. Do not hate them. Do not
[36:04] get bitter against them. Do not resent
[36:06] them.
[36:10] Anthony says, "Have you signed up,
[36:11] Kevin?"
[36:13] I don't know. My son asked me that. He's
[36:14] like, "Would you sign up for that?" I
[36:16] said, "I'd be honest. I think twice.
[36:18] Somebody tells me, hey, you going to
[36:20] sign up for this religion? You're
[36:21] signing up for uh, you know, betrayal,
[36:23] suffering, and injustice.
[36:26] I think twice about that."
[36:30] But, uh, we're in it and it's happening.
[36:34] It's happening.
[36:37] It's why people get older
[36:41] if they're doing this. It's
[36:44] sadness in their smile, but there's
[36:46] still a smile.
[36:51] See, one day, thanks for the super chat.
[36:53] I've decided not to attend any church at
[36:55] all. Delivered out of Catholicism to
[36:57] non-denominational. Now, after
[36:59] Calvinism, I'm done. It's all apostasy
[37:02] and money grubbing.
[37:06] Yeah. Well, I always encourage people
[37:08] find a place where you can be edified
[37:10] with other believers somehow. And that's
[37:12] what our FSI on Wednesday nights is for
[37:14] to try to make up for this. So, there is
[37:17] a take up your cross component. G out of
[37:19] Jesus's mouth at least four times. There
[37:22] is this take up your cross component to
[37:25] what Jesus says.
[37:27] I was talking to somebody recently. I
[37:30] was having a conversation with somebody
[37:31] and this idea was going through my head
[37:34] of this this cross issue of like this I
[37:39] was working on this content here that
[37:40] I'm talking to you about today and just
[37:43] in this conversation
[37:45] I I made note of these things.
[37:49] You lose all your friends and say,
[37:51] "Well, well, I got saved. I lost all my
[37:52] drinking friends and all that kind of
[37:54] stuff." Well, what happens now? Then you
[37:56] lose all your fundamentalist religious
[37:58] friends. Use all the ones you're
[38:00] supposed to have and they think you're
[38:02] wrong and you're not.
[38:07] Have everyone in your past think that
[38:09] you are immoral and evil.
[38:12] Lose a sense of certainty when it comes
[38:14] to having answers. These are things you
[38:16] might be given. This is things that I
[38:17] notice. There's somebody that I know
[38:18] that is going through uh suffering that
[38:22] brings about growth and these are the
[38:24] things they're going through literally
[38:25] right now. lose explanatory power when
[38:28] it comes to fielding questions.
[38:31] People ask me questions, you know, six,
[38:34] seven years ago. Look, I had all the
[38:36] answers. I got all the systematic
[38:37] theology answers. And I can still tell
[38:39] you what all those answers are. I can
[38:40] answer as if I'm a dispensationalist. I
[38:42] can answer as if I'm a
[38:43] hyperdispensationalist. I can answer as
[38:45] if I'm a Calvinist. I know what all the
[38:46] answers are. Okay? I just know they're
[38:49] not right. I know they're not true with
[38:50] a capital T. That's what I've come to
[38:53] see. I'm a poet and don't know it. Let
[38:57] let go of all your need for payback and
[38:59] revenge.
[39:02] Let go of years of invested time and
[39:05] effort in a particular thing.
[39:10] Giving up your home, giving up your
[39:13] town,
[39:15] losing the game,
[39:18] losing your job, losing your kids,
[39:21] losing your family, losing your
[39:24] marriage.
[39:26] That's the kind of thing that comes up.
[39:28] It's the kind of thing that happens.
[39:31] So, those are just the things that
[39:32] occurred to me from one conversation.
[39:34] So, I asked chat GPT.
[39:36] I said, "Hey, chat GPT,
[39:40] um, give me a long list of items that
[39:42] represent situations where there is
[39:44] injustice, betrayal, disorder, hardship,
[39:47] failure, suffering, especially after
[39:49] having adopt voluntarily adopted
[39:51] responsibility. things like losing a
[39:53] child to a drunk driver. Imagine how
[39:56] angry you would be for years. This
[39:59] situation I actually knew about.
[40:02] Mama is mad to this day
[40:05] and it's completely understood.
[40:07] Completely understandable.
[40:09] Who wouldn't be? How can you not be
[40:13] mad at the drunk driver who walks away
[40:14] without a scratch? Killed your kid right
[40:17] in their little car seat there and
[40:18] they're six years old.
[40:22] losing a child to a drunk driver, being
[40:23] found guilty when you're really innocent
[40:25] in court of law. Basically, the things
[40:27] that happened to Jesus such as being
[40:29] betrayed, being tried in a kangaroo
[40:31] court and found guilty. What are some of
[40:32] the scenarios that have all those
[40:35] elements but perhaps to a different uh
[40:37] severity degree that occur in modern
[40:39] times? So, I asked this to chat GPT
[40:44] and I I get this long list of things.
[40:48] And so what I've done is I've reduced it
[40:50] down to just the titles that it gave me
[40:53] to make them easier. So here's here's a
[40:55] list of things that can happen. Now
[40:57] listen, as these things happen to you,
[41:03] what are some of these things?
[41:05] I got I got the list over here too.
[41:07] Let's look at it this way.
[41:10] Now remember the injustice.
[41:12] Remember the injustice. Remember the
[41:15] betrayal. Think about the things that
[41:17] happen, okay? Wrongful imprisonment,
[41:21] workplace betrayal, custody battles,
[41:23] medical malpractice.
[41:25] I know a guy who
[41:28] his son was in college
[41:32] and his son was riding his bike around
[41:34] the college campus and got hit by a car,
[41:38] broke his leg.
[41:40] And you're like, "Well, that's terrible
[41:42] that he broke his leg, but car to a
[41:45] bicycle, we're glad he's alive. A broken
[41:47] leg shouldn't be that big of a deal."
[41:51] The kid goes to the hospital,
[41:54] gets an infection in the hospital from a
[41:57] broken leg,
[42:00] winds up dying from the infection from a
[42:03] broken leg. And I'm talking about modern
[42:04] medicine. I'm talking about just a few
[42:06] years ago.
[42:09] How'd you feel if you were that dad?
[42:13] Your son goes to leg with a broken goes
[42:15] to the hospital with a broken leg, winds
[42:17] up dying from infection with today's
[42:19] medicine.
[42:22] How would you feel? How would how would
[42:24] you deal with the temptation to become
[42:26] resentful and hateful and want to blame
[42:29] somebody? You want to blame anybody from
[42:32] the person driving the car to maybe your
[42:35] son not watching where he was going when
[42:36] he was on his bicycle to the doctors not
[42:40] doing enough, not doing the right thing.
[42:43] You don't want to blame somebody. You
[42:44] want to be angry. You want to be mad.
[42:46] You want to be resentful. It's the stuff
[42:47] you want to sue somebody. Malpractice or
[42:49] something you got to do. There's some
[42:51] kind of vendetta.
[43:01] How would you do with that? That's
[43:03] that's when you can grow if you don't
[43:05] get resentful, if you stay thankful.
[43:15] So medical malpractice, military
[43:18] service, you go to military and you come
[43:19] back with a broken body, PTSD, something
[43:21] like that, lost your friends, corrupt
[43:23] legal system, corporate fraud, domestic
[43:25] abuse, false accusations, addiction,
[43:28] natural disasters, police brutality,
[43:30] discrimination, wrongful death, mental
[43:32] illness, identity theft, failed
[43:33] business, divorce, chronic illness,
[43:35] betrayal by friends, injustice and
[43:37] education, cyber bullying, professional
[43:39] failure, homelessness, unfair
[43:40] competition, Family estrangement. How'd
[43:43] that make you feel? Just try that one on
[43:45] for size. I want you to wear that one
[43:46] around for a few days. See how you like
[43:48] it. See how you handle the resentment or
[43:51] fending off the resentment.
[43:53] War and conflict, refugee crisis,
[43:56] workplace harassment, environmental
[43:57] pollution, education. These are all just
[44:00] a list comes from chat GPT. And I try to
[44:02] do it that way on purpose as to not get
[44:04] too personal. I just list all the things
[44:06] that I'm going through, which is
[44:07] tempting. Healthcare insurance denial.
[44:11] You get diagnosed with something
[44:13] terminal and that's curable and the
[44:17] insurance won't take it. So now you
[44:18] can't pay for it. It's curable. Cure is
[44:20] right there. But you're just going to
[44:22] die.
[44:24] Child exploitation,
[44:26] government corruption,
[44:28] abuse of the elderly, religious
[44:30] persecution, toxic relationships,
[44:32] economic exploitation, public scandal,
[44:34] failed health care system, substance
[44:36] abuse, political oppression,
[44:38] technological exploitation. You've been
[44:40] ransomware,
[44:42] unjust immigration laws, public shaming,
[44:44] loss of a child, betrayal by a mentor.
[44:47] I've had that happen. artistic
[44:50] suppression, community violence. Now, we
[44:54] want Think about how you feel
[44:55] politically when something happens on
[44:57] the left when even anything from being
[44:59] overt taxed to they shot my candidates's
[45:02] ear off to you want the other side to
[45:06] pay.
[45:07] Oh, them the Clintons have been secretly
[45:10] killing people for years and years and
[45:12] years and I mean all the kind of stuff
[45:14] like that. And you just want them to
[45:15] pay. You wanted to pay those dirty
[45:18] Republicans, whatever it is, you know,
[45:20] you just wanted to pay. When you get in
[45:21] that mentality where you just you want
[45:23] the other side, you want the people that
[45:25] aren't in your group, you want them
[45:26] punished, you want vengeance, you want
[45:29] justice, vindictiveness.
[45:33] That's not good. It's not good.
[45:38] Matter of fact, if you want to grow, if
[45:40] you want to transform, it's those exact
[45:42] people that wronged you. It's the ones
[45:45] who falsely accused you in court and
[45:46] lied about you. It's those people
[45:52] you have heard that it has been said,
[45:53] "Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate
[45:55] thy enemy." But I say unto you, love
[45:58] your enemies,
[46:00] bless them that curse you, and do good
[46:03] to them that hate you, and pray for them
[46:05] which despitefully use you and persecute
[46:07] you. Do you do that?
[46:11] I actually did a practice of this. I
[46:13] actually instead of just saying you love
[46:15] them, I actually
[46:18] engaged in a meditative practice where I
[46:21] intentionally followed the instructions
[46:23] here and intentionally mentally as best
[46:26] I could sent the best love I had to
[46:30] offer to the people that I wanted to
[46:32] hate the most.
[46:36] And I had an experience.
[46:39] I saw something
[46:42] and then ever since then I've had a new
[46:44] way of seeing that's very much changed
[46:47] my life. I don't think Jesus is not just
[46:49] saying things here. Okay. It really does
[46:53] transform you. It really does change
[46:54] you. It really does enable you to see
[46:58] it's not fun.
[47:01] It's not You don't want to. You want to
[47:03] hate these and and you're right. You
[47:06] have a reason to hate them. You want to
[47:08] hate them
[47:12] and that's where you go down and that's
[47:14] where you miss your opportunity to grow.
[47:16] You're holding on to that hate, holding
[47:18] on to that resentment. And there's one
[47:20] person that hurts and it's you.
[47:23] That's not the way of Christ. The way of
[47:26] Christ is, "Father, forgive them
[47:30] for they know not what they do." The way
[47:33] of Christ is, "Father, lay not this sin
[47:35] to their charge.
[47:38] That's the way of Christ. If you really
[47:39] want to be a Christian, you really want
[47:42] to say you're following Christ, that's
[47:43] it. That's the way.
[47:47] All this stuff happens to you. But I say
[47:50] unto you which hear, Luke 6:27,
[47:54] "Love your enemies. Do good to them
[47:57] which hate you."
[47:59] Luke 6:35,
[48:02] "Love your enemies and do good and lend,
[48:04] help, hoping for nothing again, and your
[48:07] reward shall be great, and you shall be
[48:08] children of the highest, for he is kind
[48:11] to the uh unto the unthankful and to the
[48:15] evil."
[48:16] Interesting.
[48:26] Adue says, "It's hard not to be
[48:28] resentful and it's sad when you look
[48:30] back and see how hard you fell."
[48:35] Good word today, Kevin. It's hard to
[48:37] hear, though. Yes, it's hard. It's hard
[48:38] to say, too. It's hard to say.
[48:41] And it's al also hard to fight back
[48:43] tears knowing that this is the way. And
[48:46] uh you don't want to do it.
[48:49] Resentment is far too often, says John,
[48:52] the soundtrack of our minds. That's a
[48:55] really good way to say that. That's
[48:56] right. We just ruminate over and over
[48:59] about how much the people who have
[49:01] wronged us deserve what they have coming
[49:04] to them.
[49:09] Or Veritax says disowned by friends
[49:13] after the loss of a spouse through no
[49:15] fault of your own. See, I'm with I'm
[49:17] with a friend group right now. I'm with
[49:19] I'm with several friend groups right now
[49:20] that if divorces happen, and they do,
[49:23] the friend groups don't take sides. They
[49:26] might share custody, but they'll stay
[49:30] friends with both spouses even after
[49:32] they split and they'll if they can if
[49:35] they can get along, they'll invite them
[49:36] both to things. If they can't get along,
[49:38] they'll pick which one they're inviting
[49:39] and they try to spread it out. And
[49:41] that's that's good. But you don't find
[49:43] that in church. In church, it's all
[49:45] splitting like people with personality
[49:47] disorders and idologues. One of them is
[49:49] good and one of them is evil and we hate
[49:51] the evil one. It's not the way that is
[49:53] Christ. These these people who aren't
[49:54] even affiliated with church are are
[49:57] being more Christlike than anybody I've
[49:59] ever met in church.
[50:02] which is telling.
[50:10] Interesting. Romans says Christ is there
[50:12] without all of the Christianes.
[50:15] It's true. We Christians, we act like
[50:18] Christ is our thing. Like that's our
[50:19] book and that's our church and we're the
[50:21] ones that look reality is
[50:24] in him we live, move, breathe, and have
[50:25] our being. So Paul said to a bunch of
[50:28] Athenians who weren't believers
[50:32] is God's everyone's God
[50:36] and he's there without the Christianes
[50:39] language.
[50:40] So the 62nd gospel
[50:44] unto you it's given on behalf of Christ
[50:46] not only to believe on him but also to
[50:48] suffer for his sake. I'm not a fan of
[50:51] the 62nd gospel. Okay. I think uh we
[50:55] need to preach the whole thing. Let
[50:57] people know what the way of Christ is
[51:00] when we're talking about Christ and what
[51:02] it means to sign up to be a follower of
[51:05] Christ. Look at that word believe. Okay,
[51:08] that word believe comes from the Greek
[51:10] word pistus. And I want to remind you
[51:14] what a first century person would think
[51:16] of when they see the word pistus. It's
[51:20] translated in your New Testament 239
[51:23] times as
[51:26] believe and faith or belief in faith.
[51:30] And I think once or twice maybe it shows
[51:32] up as hope. But the point is that's our
[51:35] it's the Greek word for belief and
[51:38] faith. Okay.
[51:48] In Greek mythology, pistus is the
[51:50] personification
[51:52] of reliability, trust, and good faith.
[51:55] The personification of it. It's like uh
[51:59] think of Hebrews 11:7. Personified.
[52:04] Hebrews 11:7 where Noah moved with
[52:07] faith, moved with fear, building the ark
[52:10] to the saving of his house. Okay? doing
[52:12] something, committing yourself fully to
[52:14] doing something out of love on behalf of
[52:18] others.
[52:20] The word is pronounced pistis and is
[52:23] written as pistus. In ancient Greek,
[52:25] pistus is often mentioned together
[52:27] alongside other personifications like
[52:29] elpus or saffine, hope, prudence, the
[52:34] charities who are all associated with
[52:36] harmony and honesty among the people. In
[52:38] Roman culture, fed is the equivalent of
[52:40] pistus and is a personified a
[52:43] personified concept that is significant.
[52:45] So
[52:49] this is what would come to mind when
[52:51] when Paul is using the word pistus.
[52:53] We're we in our left hemispheric
[52:56] westernized
[52:58] pathological stage three version of
[53:00] Christianity think that it just means
[53:04] believing that a fact claim is true.
[53:07] It's not at all what a first century
[53:09] person would have in mind when they see
[53:11] this. They would see
[53:14] a first person century first century
[53:16] person when they hear the word pistus.
[53:18] It's not just mental affirmation of the
[53:21] fact claim.
[53:23] It means to embody embody the qualities
[53:28] of trust, reliability and fidelity in
[53:32] your doing, being and becoming.
[53:35] Okay, the English word believe actually
[53:39] comes from a word which means belove.
[53:42] Beloved, like beloved, my beloved. The
[53:45] word believe is that word. That's where
[53:47] it comes from. And so when you back up,
[53:50] you know, English is a very what you
[53:52] might call the words in English are very
[53:55] transient. Okay? They change meanings a
[53:57] lot and English is a hodgepodge language
[53:59] anyway.
[54:01] And so as English is developing,
[54:04] we reach our height of it reaches its
[54:06] height of maturity
[54:08] right around the time of Shakespeare and
[54:10] King James and all that. So when you're
[54:12] writing this word believe, those English
[54:14] readers would understand the connection
[54:17] to belove
[54:20] to love.
[54:22] Whereas we miss it. We we take believe
[54:26] as just to affirm that something is so.
[54:29] We don't realize that it implied a love
[54:32] and commitment with it when it's being
[54:34] used
[54:36] earlier in the English language. The
[54:38] English word believe comes from beloved.
[54:40] It is not merely to agree to a fact
[54:42] claim. It entails a fully committed love
[54:45] in and toward a particular concept,
[54:47] person or pattern, etc. Whatever it is
[54:49] that we're talking about believing.
[54:54] So when you see the word faith, it's
[54:57] very important that you understand
[55:00] what it's saying. So let's go back to
[55:01] this verse, okay? If we look at
[55:04] Philippians 1:29, for unto you it is
[55:06] given on the behalf of Christ, not only
[55:09] to believe on him, but also to suffer
[55:12] for his sake. I want to expand that word
[55:16] believe right there. Let's expand that
[55:19] word believe with what we now know about
[55:22] pistus, the Greek word for faith, Greek
[55:25] word for belief. And if we expand it
[55:28] over on the left hand side,
[55:31] you see the verse, for unto you it is
[55:33] given on the behalf of Christ, not only
[55:34] to believe on him, but also to suffer
[55:36] for his sake. Now, if I expand that,
[55:39] this is kind of what I see in my mind
[55:41] when I'm reading it. Something like
[55:43] this. For unto you it is given on the
[55:45] behalf of Christ not only to embody a
[55:48] full committed love, trust, reliability,
[55:50] and fidelity in him, living out a deep
[55:54] and unwavering commitment to his pattern
[55:56] of order, disorder, and reorder, his
[55:58] ways, and his transformative path, but
[56:01] also to suffer for his sake. When I see
[56:04] the word believe, that's what occurs to
[56:08] me. That's how the word believe expands
[56:10] in my mind.
[56:12] like
[56:14] a piece of dry steak and you don't have
[56:16] enough to drink. It just it expands in
[56:18] my mind in that way.
[56:28] So let's try something else. Okay. What
[56:32] if we expand something else that we
[56:34] typically hear? Let's look at Acts 16:30
[56:37] to 31.
[56:41] What the text says is over on the left.
[56:44] Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
[56:47] And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus
[56:49] Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thine
[56:51] house.
[56:53] What a left hemispheric sleeping
[56:55] evangelical sees. What a pathological
[56:58] stage three evangelical sees when they
[57:00] see this. They hear, "Sir, what must I
[57:04] do to know that I'm going to heaven when
[57:05] I die?" That's what they think the
[57:07] question is. That's not the question.
[57:10] Okay, that's not the question.
[57:15] And they said, and this is what a left
[57:19] hemispheric stage three pathological
[57:21] sleeping evangelical sees, and they
[57:23] said, "Agree with the fact claims
[57:25] concerning Jesus Christ and you will go
[57:27] to heaven." And this is also the case
[57:29] for everyone in your house. That's how
[57:31] we read Acts 16:30-31.
[57:34] That is not what I think it's saying at
[57:37] all. At all.
[57:42] So if I were to expand this based on
[57:45] what I see when I see these words, what
[57:48] does the word saved mean? Salvation
[57:50] means healing. To salvage something,
[57:54] sers, what must I do to be salvaged and
[57:56] healed and reach my full transformative
[57:58] potential? Remember these guys, Paul
[58:03] and Silas,
[58:05] are in prison. They've been beaten and
[58:08] they're singing.
[58:12] Think about that. Think about how you're
[58:15] how you feeling about yourself
[58:18] and the path that you're on and the
[58:19] person that you're becoming. You're
[58:20] like, "Wow, wonder if I could have so
[58:22] much inner peace that I could actually
[58:24] be like that. How could I How could I be
[58:26] salvaged from the trauma that's made me
[58:29] who I am today and all the be bad
[58:32] reactions that I've had to my trauma and
[58:34] all the years of resentment and anxiety
[58:36] that I've had. How can I be salvaged
[58:38] from that into a person who is actually
[58:42] has this inner peace like these guys
[58:44] have
[58:48] and they said this is my expanded uh you
[58:52] know like Young's literal translation
[58:53] mixed with the Amplified Bible in
[58:56] Kevanese something like this and they
[58:59] said commit yourself fully in love trust
[59:01] reliability and fidelity to the Lord
[59:03] Jesus Christ not merely agreeing to a
[59:06] fact but embodying a deep unwavering
[59:08] trust in the way that is Christ,
[59:11] including the pattern of order,
[59:12] disorder, reorder, suffering for his
[59:14] sake, and embrace the transformation
[59:16] that comes through his resurrection
[59:17] cycles in your life. In this way, you
[59:21] and your household will be salvaged and
[59:23] healed.
[59:25] And you know, I'm not every sermon and
[59:28] every commentary is an expansion of the
[59:30] text. And so, don't take that as me
[59:32] trying to reward the Bible for you. Take
[59:34] it as commentary. Okay?
[59:37] It's just commentary.
[59:45] This is always interesting to me to see
[59:48] these John C John John MacArthur quotes.
[59:51] Is this is this basically a John
[59:54] MacArthur style? You must surrender your
[59:55] entire life to God in submission,
[59:57] sacrifice, and service in order to get
[59:58] eternal life thing. Uh for no, it's not.
[01:00:02] But the ironic thing is
[01:00:07] John MacArthur would need to surrender
[01:00:10] his Calvinism
[01:00:12] to get whatever it is he thinks needs to
[01:00:15] be gotten through those means.
[01:00:17] That's what's ironic about it.
[01:00:21] So what I want to point you see you're
[01:00:24] like okay get eternal life in order to
[01:00:27] get eternal life we're thinking of the
[01:00:29] old we're thinking of salvation
[01:00:31] occurring in a punctilar time and you
[01:00:33] having guaranteed entrance into heaven
[01:00:35] it's all about the afterlife what I'm
[01:00:37] trying to say what I'm trying to say is
[01:00:40] that your life is a series of encounters
[01:00:43] and those counters those encounters are
[01:00:45] salvaged through self-sacrifice
[01:00:49] that's what I'm trying to
[01:00:50] So it's it's every little thing.
[01:00:54] It's not like a oneanddone thing. It's a
[01:00:56] way. It's a way of doing things. You be
[01:00:59] the kind of person that has the best
[01:01:01] possible encounters,
[01:01:03] not just not just a one-time thing, not
[01:01:05] just one total surrender. When people
[01:01:08] talk about when left when when stage
[01:01:10] three left hemispheric, you know,
[01:01:12] pathological stage three left
[01:01:14] hemispheric Christians are talking about
[01:01:16] surrendering, what they really mean is
[01:01:18] to align with their ideology. That's
[01:01:20] what they really mean.
[01:01:22] Now, when we talk about surrendering,
[01:01:25] which we don't do here, uh it's
[01:01:27] completely different idea,
[01:01:30] completely different thing.
[01:01:37] Jace says, "My parents left me as a
[01:01:39] baby. When I reconnected in my late
[01:01:42] teens, the strength to forgive came when
[01:01:45] God revealed to me how much he has
[01:01:46] forgiven me.
[01:01:54] Would you be willing to sacrifice your
[01:01:56] eternal life to follow Jesus and love
[01:01:58] your neighbor all the way through?"
[01:02:00] That's an interesting question, but I
[01:02:02] think that we should frame questions
[01:02:04] without presumptive. We need to form
[01:02:07] questions without presumptive framing.
[01:02:10] And when we start talking about our
[01:02:12] concepts of the afterlife and eternal
[01:02:14] life and all that and we mix those into
[01:02:16] our questions, it kind of kind of spoils
[01:02:19] it, poisons the well a little bit.
[01:02:23] Yeah. Thank you. Very attack says, "No,
[01:02:25] Kevin is not taking a page in John
[01:02:26] MacArthur's Lordship Salvation." Yeah,
[01:02:28] exactly. It's not what we're doing at
[01:02:30] all.
[01:02:34] So when you expand this, this this is
[01:02:37] what I hear and see and read as I'm
[01:02:41] reading passages like Acts 16:31.
[01:02:45] What must I do to know that I'm going to
[01:02:46] heaven when I die? It's not what he
[01:02:48] asks.
[01:02:50] Agree with the fact claims concerning
[01:02:52] Jesus and you will go to heaven. That's
[01:02:53] not what they answer.
[01:02:55] So when you double click on the words
[01:02:56] they're using and you look at the
[01:02:58] background of the words pistus
[01:03:00] embodiment of faith trust and
[01:03:01] reliability
[01:03:03] fidelity and then you look at believe
[01:03:06] beloved
[01:03:07] full love and commitment.
[01:03:10] When you look at those words and then
[01:03:11] you relook at the question and you
[01:03:13] realize that salvation means healing
[01:03:15] salve like a salve a salve ointment is a
[01:03:18] healing ointment.
[01:03:20] salvage. Okay, we we have so much
[01:03:26] baggage and branding and framing
[01:03:28] associated with the word salvation. We
[01:03:31] think trust Christ, go to heaven. That's
[01:03:33] what we think when we hear the word
[01:03:34] salvation. Let's forget all that and
[01:03:36] think about what the word means.
[01:03:39] Means healing. So sometimes when I see
[01:03:42] the word salvation, I will swap it out
[01:03:44] for something like salvaging
[01:03:47] to remind me not to bring the baggage of
[01:03:50] my Baptist doctrine with me to try to
[01:03:54] just to try to see it fresh. Let's let's
[01:03:57] erase all the structures and and the map
[01:04:01] that I'm imposing onto the text and
[01:04:04] let's try to see it fresh for the first
[01:04:06] time. Can we do that?
[01:04:10] And so I play with the words a little
[01:04:11] bit to try to try to keep it as fresh as
[01:04:13] possible.
[01:04:20] Adue says, "I'm beginning to realize how
[01:04:22] much stage three Christianity is rooted
[01:04:23] in me and how much growth is needed of
[01:04:25] me. Seeing a new reality in a sense."
[01:04:28] Thank you, Kevin. I appreciate that.
[01:04:30] That's uh encouraging that this is
[01:04:32] helpful. And remember, we don't we don't
[01:04:35] want to talk about stage three as
[01:04:37] necessarily being bad. The problem is
[01:04:40] that in the United States, our version
[01:04:42] of it is pathological.
[01:04:45] That's that's our problem with nothing
[01:04:47] wrong with being stage three. There's
[01:04:49] something wrong with being pathized,
[01:04:51] which happens very well in our society
[01:04:54] at stage three.
[01:05:00] So, let's let's take this Acts 16:31 and
[01:05:04] let's take it to a different scenario to
[01:05:07] try to get yourself in the mind of how
[01:05:10] how this conversation might be going in
[01:05:12] somebody's head. If y'all seen The
[01:05:15] Karate Kid,
[01:05:17] okay, you have Sensei Crease up here and
[01:05:21] you have Mr. Miyagi.
[01:05:25] And the person realizes, whoa, I am on
[01:05:28] track to be like Sensei Crease. Turns
[01:05:32] out he's not such a good guy. He's kind
[01:05:33] of the bad guy.
[01:05:35] How do I? And and it's all this my
[01:05:38] experiences mixed with my resentment and
[01:05:41] my hate and my bad motives and my
[01:05:43] profane orientation in life. What must I
[01:05:47] do to salvage my path and become more
[01:05:50] like
[01:05:52] this? More like Mr. Miyagi, what must I
[01:05:56] do to do that? How can I avoid becoming
[01:05:59] this this bad guy? And is it too late
[01:06:01] for me? Is there something that I can
[01:06:03] do? And what I'm telling you is that no
[01:06:05] matter how old you are, I know we said
[01:06:07] on here before that if you don't make it
[01:06:08] out of stage three by age 40, chances
[01:06:11] are you never will. But some people do.
[01:06:14] I can think of I think two examples that
[01:06:17] I know personally right now. And uh so
[01:06:21] there's hope. Just because the
[01:06:22] statistics are low doesn't mean that you
[01:06:24] can't make it to adulthood as a sea
[01:06:26] turtle. Somebody's going to make it to
[01:06:27] adulthood as a sea turtle. Maybe it's
[01:06:28] you.
[01:06:33] So kind of question like this like, "Oh
[01:06:35] man, I'm on path to become like Sensei
[01:06:37] Crease. How do I become how do I change
[01:06:39] that so that I'm actually more like Mr.
[01:06:41] Miyagi? I'm like wiser and more gentle
[01:06:46] and less antagonistic and happier, that
[01:06:50] sort of stuff.
[01:06:52] Able to help people instead of lead them
[01:06:55] astray because Sensei has a lot of
[01:06:57] people following him, but he's leading
[01:06:59] them all astray. He's filling them with
[01:07:00] antagonism and rivalry, too.
[01:07:03] And the the best martial artist
[01:07:07] is going to walk away from the fight,
[01:07:08] not try to start one.
[01:07:13] in 2 Timothy 2. Now, think about this.
[01:07:17] Suffer. Suffer, but also to suffer for
[01:07:19] his sake. And remember, we're not
[01:07:21] talking about,
[01:07:24] you know, pray to receive Christ and go
[01:07:27] to heaven when you die. When I show you
[01:07:29] this passage in 2 Timothy 2, get that
[01:07:31] idea out of your head. Therefore, I
[01:07:34] endure all things for the elect's sake.
[01:07:38] Now the elect here is not the gnostic
[01:07:40] Calvinistic elect. It's the people. It's
[01:07:43] the faithful men who were chosen to
[01:07:45] teach others at the beginning of the
[01:07:46] chapter. That's who the elect are there.
[01:07:48] Cho people chosen by people.
[01:07:52] I endure all things for the elect's sake
[01:07:54] that they may obtain the salvaging and
[01:07:57] healing which is in Christ Jesus with
[01:08:01] eternal glory. For it's a faithful
[01:08:03] saying. For if we be dead with him, we
[01:08:06] shall also live with him. You see that
[01:08:08] pattern there?
[01:08:11] Order, disorder, reorder, order,
[01:08:13] disorder, reorder. If we be dead with
[01:08:16] him, we shall also live with him. If we
[01:08:19] suffer with him, we shall also reign
[01:08:21] with him. Now, we've always thought, oh,
[01:08:23] you suffer in this life, then you reign
[01:08:24] in the millennial kingdom. And what I'm
[01:08:27] trying to get you to see is that if you
[01:08:30] suffer with him through the disorder
[01:08:32] cycle, you reign with him in the
[01:08:35] resurrection cycle. You suffer, you get
[01:08:38] falsely accused at work, you lose your
[01:08:40] job. Resurrection cycle, better job,
[01:08:43] better pay, better benefits,
[01:08:46] something like that.
[01:08:50] So you suffer with him and then you
[01:08:54] reign with him. And those are cycles
[01:08:55] that happen in your life of suffering
[01:08:57] and reigning. Suffering and reigning. If
[01:08:59] we deny him, he will also deny us. If
[01:09:02] you deny the disorder cycle, I refuse
[01:09:05] this. And I'm not going to be thankful.
[01:09:07] I'm not going to be grateful or
[01:09:12] or loving. I'm going to be bitter. I'm
[01:09:15] I'm going to I'm going to deny
[01:09:18] Christ's love, the love of God which
[01:09:20] shed abroad in our hearts. Romans
[01:09:22] chapter 5.
[01:09:24] I'm going to deny that which comes
[01:09:25] through tribulation and patience and
[01:09:27] experience. I'm going to deny that and
[01:09:29] I'm going to give in to the resentment
[01:09:31] and the hate and the anger
[01:09:35] and the anxiety.
[01:09:39] And guess what? You don't get a
[01:09:41] resurrection cycle. He will deny us.
[01:09:45] Just going through something bad
[01:09:49] does not mean you grow from it.
[01:09:54] Going through something bad and staying
[01:09:56] loving and grateful
[01:09:59] even toward the perpetrators of
[01:10:00] injustice
[01:10:02] is where the growth comes. It's not fun
[01:10:05] to hear. It's not a popular message. We
[01:10:06] want a revenge message. Lock her up.
[01:10:09] Lock her up. That's the kind of thing we
[01:10:10] want to hear. Put the people in jail.
[01:10:12] We're turning into a banana republic
[01:10:13] where our opposing political parties
[01:10:15] want to put all the other ones in jail
[01:10:17] using the legal system, weaponizing the
[01:10:19] legal system against each other. That's
[01:10:21] not the way that is Christ.
[01:10:24] Now, I'm not saying there's never a time
[01:10:26] to defend yourself. I'm not saying
[01:10:28] there's never a time to defend your
[01:10:30] family or for self-defense or things
[01:10:32] like that. Sometimes you might have to
[01:10:33] take actions in favor of someone you
[01:10:36] love that thwart the intentions of
[01:10:39] somebody else who are trying to harm the
[01:10:40] ones you love. Not saying that there's
[01:10:43] not a time for that.
[01:10:45] But, Father, forgive them for they know
[01:10:47] not what they do. keep yourself right in
[01:10:50] the middle of the actions that you have
[01:10:51] to take responsibility for.
[01:10:55] If we believe not,
[01:10:57] he he abideth faithful, he cannot deny
[01:10:59] himself. So the the consciousness, the
[01:11:02] light that is shining through every man,
[01:11:04] okay, some of us are all clogged up with
[01:11:06] ideology and inculturation and all this,
[01:11:08] the light that's shining through every
[01:11:10] man that comes into the world. John 1:9,
[01:11:12] it's shining through all of us. And
[01:11:13] sometimes that light is refined and
[01:11:16] purified and comes through more cleanly
[01:11:18] in one lifetime and then in some lives
[01:11:23] it stay they stay clogged and there is
[01:11:25] no refinement of the light in some lives
[01:11:30] and you know the wind driveth away the
[01:11:34] chaff.
[01:11:41] He cannot deny himself. That light will
[01:11:43] persist and it will be refined and
[01:11:46] purified through other vessels.
[01:11:50] But you want to be salvaged so that it
[01:11:52] can be shining through you, not clogged
[01:11:55] up.
[01:12:06] Yeah. one day says there's no guarantee
[01:12:09] uh that you will get a better job right
[01:12:12] there there is no guarantee of that but
[01:12:15] the problem with examples is that the
[01:12:17] scandal of the particular you can always
[01:12:19] object to us to a particular scenario
[01:12:22] that's the problem with Jesus it's the
[01:12:23] scandal of the particular you talk about
[01:12:26] patterns and concepts people all nod
[01:12:29] their head but when we start talking
[01:12:30] about this guy people like whoa hold
[01:12:36] So,
[01:12:39] same thing with specific examples. Yeah,
[01:12:42] maybe it's not the better job, but I
[01:12:44] have to I have to use something as an
[01:12:45] example. I need you to understand that.
[01:12:52] So, I'm going to show a quote from
[01:12:54] Richard Roar. And do not
[01:12:57] do not send me an email asking me if
[01:13:00] I've agent over the deep end and do I
[01:13:02] recommend Richard or I can't believe you
[01:13:03] had him on your channel or recommended
[01:13:05] him, that kind of stuff. Um, and I hate
[01:13:08] to have to give disclaimers for all the
[01:13:11] splitting idologues that we have in the
[01:13:15] audience.
[01:13:16] And
[01:13:18] so
[01:13:20] we don't endorse or fully recommend
[01:13:22] anybody.
[01:13:24] We think that as you mature and grow,
[01:13:27] you should be able to read anybody and
[01:13:29] get something from them. And when we
[01:13:32] look at these quotes, don't think, "Oh,
[01:13:35] I'm going to I'm going to throw out
[01:13:37] everything Richard Roar says because he
[01:13:39] thinks his dog is Christ." Okay?
[01:13:42] Don't do that. Don't be that kind of
[01:13:44] person. Be learn how to evaluate.
[01:13:51] Okay, there's a Jordan popping in the
[01:13:53] text there. Richard Roar. Learn how to
[01:13:57] evaluate statements
[01:14:00] based on their own intrinsic quality,
[01:14:03] not and don't commit the genetic fallacy
[01:14:06] of throwing something out because you
[01:14:08] don't like who it came from. Okay? But
[01:14:11] this is a very, very good quote
[01:14:14] and I can't not share it with you. And
[01:14:17] if you reject it because of who it came
[01:14:20] from, that's on you. But this is
[01:14:24] absolutely spot-on.
[01:14:28] This is Richard Roar on love and power.
[01:14:30] Power assumes
[01:14:32] that life is lived from the top down and
[01:14:36] from the outside in. It draws its
[01:14:39] strength from elites and enforcement.
[01:14:43] As such, it is efficient. It's clean.
[01:14:47] It's practical and it works well on many
[01:14:50] shortterm goals.
[01:14:53] Now, the gospel,
[01:14:55] it's not only given unto to believe, but
[01:14:58] also to suffer for his sake. The gospel
[01:15:02] offers us the inefficient,
[01:15:05] not so clean, multi-layered, longhaul
[01:15:09] way of love, longsuffering, experience,
[01:15:12] patience, tribulation.
[01:15:15] Love is lived much more from the bottom
[01:15:18] up and from the inside out. It's easy to
[01:15:22] see why even churches don't believe in
[01:15:25] it. It does not give ego or institution
[01:15:28] any sense of control. It often doesn't
[01:15:32] even work.
[01:15:34] In other words, whatever it is you're
[01:15:36] trying to engineer
[01:15:38] just fails.
[01:15:40] trying to do something, trying to bring
[01:15:42] about something. I'm trying to trying to
[01:15:44] restore the dysfunction, you know, get
[01:15:47] rid of the dysfunction in my family,
[01:15:48] restore the harmon harmony and the
[01:15:50] functionality, trying to restore the
[01:15:53] church, trying to kick out the Calvinist
[01:15:56] pastor. You're trying to engineer these
[01:15:57] things that you're trying to get to come
[01:15:59] to pass. And oftentimes the way of love,
[01:16:02] which is the right way, doesn't work.
[01:16:06] Doesn't work. It doesn't accomplish
[01:16:07] those goals. And so
[01:16:10] using power
[01:16:13] is so much more tempting. So much more
[01:16:16] tempting just to use power and be
[01:16:18] efficient, get something done and be
[01:16:20] able to bark out orders and organize
[01:16:22] from the top down and get this thing
[01:16:24] done.
[01:16:28] Church doesn't even believe in love.
[01:16:31] And that's sad.
[01:16:37] I thought there were more slides after
[01:16:38] this.
[01:16:42] And I see them,
[01:16:44] but I don't see them there.
[01:16:56] I do have a couple.
[01:17:00] So, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do.
[01:17:03] I'm gonna
[01:17:06] stop sharing this for a second.
[01:17:10] And I'm going to turn this off. It's
[01:17:12] 5:22.
[01:17:16] I'm going to turn that off. And then I'm
[01:17:18] going to read it.
[01:17:28] And the passages are Let's look at what
[01:17:30] Paul went through.
[01:17:34] Paul says, "Seeing that many glory after
[01:17:36] the flesh, I will glory also, for you
[01:17:37] suffer fools gladly." In other words,
[01:17:39] you foolishness. You like you like
[01:17:41] fools, you send to put up with them a
[01:17:42] lot. So, here's what I'm going to do.
[01:17:43] I'm going to act like a fool. Maybe
[01:17:44] you'll listen to me then. He's being
[01:17:47] sarcastic with these guys.
[01:17:49] Seeing yourselves are so wise. For you
[01:17:51] suffer if a man
[01:17:54] bring unto you into bondage. You suffer
[01:17:56] if a man bring you into bondage. If a
[01:17:58] man devour you, if a man take you. If a
[01:18:00] man exalt himself. of men smite you on
[01:18:02] the face. In other words, you're putting
[01:18:03] up with the diatrophies of the world.
[01:18:05] But you won't put up with me. I speak as
[01:18:08] concerning reproach. As though we had
[01:18:09] been weak, how be it wherein soever any
[01:18:12] is bold, I speak foolishly, I am bold
[01:18:14] also. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are
[01:18:16] they Israelites? So am I. Are they the
[01:18:18] seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they
[01:18:19] ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool.
[01:18:21] I am more. In other words, he's
[01:18:23] boasting. He's he's taking the
[01:18:25] Dotrophies ro route because that's what
[01:18:28] they seem to like over there. And he's
[01:18:29] being sarcastic with him. Are they the
[01:18:32] seed of Abraham? So am I. Okay. Am I
[01:18:34] more in labors more abundant? In stripes
[01:18:37] above measure in prisons more frequent
[01:18:40] and deaths oft people dying around them.
[01:18:44] Of the Jews five times received I 40
[01:18:46] stripes. Same save one. Thrice I was
[01:18:49] beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.
[01:18:52] Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and
[01:18:54] a day have I been in the deep. and
[01:18:57] journeyings often in perils of waters
[01:18:59] and perils of robbers and perils by my
[01:19:01] own countrymen and perils by the heathen
[01:19:03] and perils in the city and perils in the
[01:19:05] wilderness and perils in the sea. Perils
[01:19:07] among false brethren and weariness and
[01:19:09] painfulness and watchings often and
[01:19:10] hunger and thirst and fastings often and
[01:19:12] cold and nakedness beside those things
[01:19:14] are without that which was uh cometh
[01:19:17] upon me daily, the care of all the
[01:19:19] churches. Who was weak? Am I not weak?
[01:19:21] Who was offended? And I burned not.
[01:19:23] Don't you think I got some things to be
[01:19:24] angry about?
[01:19:26] If I must needs glory, I will glory in
[01:19:28] the things which concern my infirmities.
[01:19:30] The God and father of our Lord Jesus
[01:19:32] Christ, which is blessed forever more,
[01:19:33] knoweth that I lie not in Damascus,
[01:19:35] governor of Aratus, the king, city of
[01:19:38] Damosines, with Agarion, desires to
[01:19:40] apprehend me, and through a window in a
[01:19:42] basket, I was let down by the wall and
[01:19:44] escaped his hands. Okay,
[01:19:48] he'd been through some stuff.
[01:19:51] All right, he's suffered. So when you
[01:19:54] look at the way that is Christ, what is
[01:19:56] the way that is Christ? Let's look at
[01:19:58] Isaiah 53.
[01:20:00] And this is the last slide I have and
[01:20:02] then we're going to look at some
[01:20:03] comments. Let's look at the way that is
[01:20:05] Christ. Look at these words. Okay.
[01:20:10] Everything that I have in blue here.
[01:20:13] Okay.
[01:20:19] Everything that I have in blue here is
[01:20:22] basically like a negative thing.
[01:20:28] For he shall grow up before him as a
[01:20:29] tender plant and as a root out of a dry
[01:20:31] ground. He hath no form nor clumliness.
[01:20:33] And when we shall see him, there is no
[01:20:35] beauty that we should desire him. He's
[01:20:38] despised and rejected of men, a man of
[01:20:40] sorrows and acquainted with grief. This
[01:20:42] is the person you signed up to follow.
[01:20:44] Okay? Which means this is the path
[01:20:46] you're going to walk. That's what you
[01:20:48] signed up for to to suffer for his sake.
[01:20:52] And we hid as it was our faces from him.
[01:20:54] He was despised and we esteemed him not.
[01:20:56] Surely he hath borne our griefs and
[01:20:58] carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
[01:21:00] him stricken, smitten of God and
[01:21:01] afflicted. That's how we esteemed him.
[01:21:05] But he was wounded for our
[01:21:06] transgressions. In other words, you're
[01:21:08] the one. You're the one scapegoat. When
[01:21:11] you understand Renee Gerard's scapegoat,
[01:21:14] this makes so much more sense than how
[01:21:17] it was always preached to me in the
[01:21:19] churches that I grew up in. He was
[01:21:22] wounded for our transgressions. He was
[01:21:24] bruised for our iniquities. The
[01:21:26] chastisement of our peace, not the
[01:21:27] chastisement of our sins. The
[01:21:29] chastisement of our peace was upon him.
[01:21:32] With his stripes, we are healed.
[01:21:34] The scapegoat, if you The scapegoat
[01:21:38] theory
[01:21:40] is essentially, if you've ever watched
[01:21:42] the movie Black Panther, I have a video
[01:21:43] on this, Black Panther and the
[01:21:45] Atonement. The bad guy in the movie is
[01:21:48] the scapegoat. And in the movie, he's
[01:21:51] rightfully the scapegoat. Everyone wants
[01:21:54] to defeat the bad guy. And then when you
[01:21:56] defeat the bad guy, there's more peace
[01:21:58] because there's like I think there's
[01:22:00] like five tribes and some of them are
[01:22:02] waring against each other. Well, in the
[01:22:04] defeat of the bad guy, there's now
[01:22:06] unity. So the bad guy was the prince of
[01:22:10] peace. The death of the bad guy brought
[01:22:12] about peace to the tribes.
[01:22:15] And in the older stories, they would
[01:22:18] then eat the bad guy who they killed,
[01:22:20] cannibalism,
[01:22:22] and then embody the peace that was
[01:22:24] brought. And so Jesus is alluding to
[01:22:27] that practice when he says, "You have to
[01:22:28] eat my flesh and drink my blood." So
[01:22:31] he's the prince of peace.
[01:22:34] See, Christ Jesus did not die to change
[01:22:37] God's mind about us. We we esteemed him
[01:22:40] smitten of God and afflicted, but we
[01:22:44] esteemed wrongly. He was wounded for our
[01:22:46] transgressions, bruised for our
[01:22:47] iniquities. In other words, we killed
[01:22:49] the scapegoat. We killed what we thought
[01:22:51] was the bad guy. And the thing about the
[01:22:54] Christian story is that it just turns
[01:22:55] out that the scapegoat happens to be
[01:22:58] innocent.
[01:23:00] And when we realize that,
[01:23:03] see, Jesus didn't die to change God's
[01:23:05] mind about us. He died to change our
[01:23:07] minds about God. When we realize that,
[01:23:10] that we were the ones who killed the
[01:23:12] innocent, that is what affects and
[01:23:15] produces the change in you.
[01:23:18] You needed to kill the innocent
[01:23:23] in order to realize how much saving you
[01:23:26] needed.
[01:23:29] And so Christ sacrificed himself so you
[01:23:32] could see that
[01:23:38] the chastisement of our peace was upon
[01:23:40] him.
[01:23:46] and with his stripes
[01:23:48] we are healed. I should have put stripes
[01:23:50] and blues also. All we like sheep have
[01:23:52] gone astray. We've turned everyone to
[01:23:54] his own way. And the Lord had laid on
[01:23:55] him. The iniquity of us all. He was
[01:23:58] oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he
[01:24:00] opened not his mouth. He was brought as
[01:24:02] a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep
[01:24:04] before her shearers is dumb. So he
[01:24:06] openeth not his mouth. He was taken from
[01:24:09] prison and from judgment and from who
[01:24:11] shall declare his generation. For he was
[01:24:12] cut off out of the land of the living.
[01:24:14] For the transgression of my people was
[01:24:18] he stricken. And he made his grave with
[01:24:20] the wicked and the rich and with the
[01:24:22] rich in his death. Because he hath done
[01:24:23] no violence, neither was any deceit in
[01:24:25] his mouth. Is innocent. Innocent. And we
[01:24:28] kill him.
[01:24:31] Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
[01:24:33] He hath put him to grief. When thou
[01:24:35] shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
[01:24:37] he shall see his seed and prolong his
[01:24:38] days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
[01:24:40] prosper in his hand. He shall see the
[01:24:42] travail of his soul and shall be
[01:24:43] satisfied. By his knowledge shall my
[01:24:45] righteous servant justify many, for he
[01:24:47] shall bear their iniquities. Therefore
[01:24:50] will I divide a portion with the great,
[01:24:53] and he shall divide the spoil with the
[01:24:54] strong, because he hath poured out his
[01:24:56] soul unto death, and he was numbered
[01:24:59] with the transgressors, and he bare the
[01:25:01] sin of many, and made intercession for
[01:25:03] the transgressions.
[01:25:05] Transgressors. You want to walk in the
[01:25:07] way that is Christ,
[01:25:09] you're going to be
[01:25:11] falsely accused and betrayed and suffer
[01:25:15] injustice. So, you're going to pour out
[01:25:17] your soul unto death self. You're going
[01:25:20] to sacrifice everything that you think
[01:25:23] you're identified with and you will be
[01:25:26] numbered among the transgressors.
[01:25:28] You will be falsely accused.
[01:25:32] You're just honestly trying to help,
[01:25:33] trying to do the right thing. Have you
[01:25:36] heard how everybody's talking about you?
[01:25:38] Yeah. You're going to be numbered with
[01:25:39] the transgressors. You didn't do
[01:25:41] anything wrong.
[01:25:43] That's how it works.
[01:25:46] That's the way that is Christ.
[01:25:57] That's the way it is Christ.
[01:26:00] When you want to be a Christian, that's
[01:26:01] what you're signing up for.
[01:26:05] It's all fun and games.
[01:26:08] We have the 60cond gospel,
[01:26:13] you know. Do you do you really,
[01:26:18] folks? That's uh 60-cond gospel stuff is
[01:26:25] is not Christianity.
[01:26:27] It's just not.
[01:26:31] We look at some
[01:26:34] quotes here. Let's look at some chats
[01:26:37] here. When I brought up Richard Roar
[01:26:40] quote, "How dare you?" I know he's
[01:26:42] joking.
[01:26:48] You might provide opportunities to serve
[01:26:50] people
[01:26:52] in a way you couldn't have before.
[01:27:00] God puts wisdom, but God puts the
[01:27:02] greatest wisdom in the ones we wish to
[01:27:04] hear, wish least to hear it from. That's
[01:27:08] also a hard pill to swallow.
[01:27:11] Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings,
[01:27:12] that's Lord ordained strength because of
[01:27:14] that enemy.
[01:27:20] Explanatory power is the dark side. The
[01:27:23] dark side is not stronger. Love
[01:27:25] conquers. First is last. Last is first.
[01:27:29] Christ's backwards kingdom.
[01:27:34] I'm reminded of a verse where I think
[01:27:36] it's Paul, but he's admonishing the
[01:27:37] church for not doing certain things for
[01:27:39] the brethren. Then he calls them out by
[01:27:41] saying, "Even the heathens do this. Not
[01:27:44] even the heathens the same."
[01:27:51] Hello everyone from India. It's 4:00
[01:27:54] a.m. here. Well, welcome aboard. It's
[01:27:56] good to see you. Said he had a
[01:27:59] nightmare. Woke up and saw your stream.
[01:28:01] I guess the nightmare continues, huh?
[01:28:10] Jesus didn't die to change God's mind
[01:28:12] about us. He died to change our minds
[01:28:14] about God.
[01:28:19] I uh find it hard to bear the suffering.
[01:28:23] In the past, I would experience pain and
[01:28:25] ruminate on it to the point it would
[01:28:28] cause my own physical and psychological
[01:28:30] distress.
[01:28:32] Yeah.
[01:28:40] Now obtuse just seems to me that the 16
[01:28:42] jailer was asking how to be more
[01:28:44] holistic person, more transformed life,
[01:28:45] but asking for a panic deliverance from
[01:28:47] something.
[01:28:52] Uh I don't know,
[01:28:56] you know, when I when I offer a
[01:28:57] perspective on something, I'm not I'm
[01:28:59] definitely not ever saying this is the
[01:29:02] way. I don't I don't have this this is
[01:29:04] what the text means mentality.
[01:29:08] It's a way to see it
[01:29:11] and maybe there's another way to see it.
[01:29:13] That's fine. They're not they're not
[01:29:14] against each other. The different
[01:29:16] perspectives
[01:29:18] are all there and maybe is multifaceted.
[01:29:23] And so the in other words, seeing it one
[01:29:26] way is not to the exclusion of seeing it
[01:29:28] another way.
[01:29:30] And there could be multiple different
[01:29:32] aspects that are that are helpful. Okay.
[01:29:38] The thing we least want to do is often
[01:29:40] the most beneficial.
[01:29:45] And this is actually my life. Cool. To
[01:29:48] live as Christ, to die as gain. It's an
[01:29:51] honor.
[01:29:52] All right. Thanks, folks. Thanks for the
[01:29:54] super chats. Thanks for those who
[01:29:56] support the channel. Could not do this
[01:29:58] without you. And looking forward to next
[01:30:01] time. May the Lord bless you and good
[01:30:04] day.