Beyond the Letter || Night 9 || ALFC Fresh Start

Welcome to the ALC podcast. Here at ALC, we seek the loss,

teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message. Well, praise God. Thank you pastor Aaron for that

generosity mode. It's very nice. Hey, mat you film that before church

somewhere or something like that. Yeah, yeah, well it's good to see

everybody. Thanks for joining us tonight. This our Beyond the Letter night.

This is a night where we have conversation about our faith, pop culture,

religion, anything in the sort that deals with our faith. So many of

you guys may be like us, where as you go about your everyday life,

you encounter people who are maybe Christian, non Christian, other types of

Christian, and you just start conversation, and in your conversation they start posing

questions and sometimes we say, I don't know, that's a great question.

I've never thought about that, or maybe I've thought about it, I don't

really have an answer. And so Beyond the Letter nights give us an opportunity

that as you bring a question, we could begin to have a conversation like

we normally would with people outside. And really, what we want to do

with these nights is be able to break down not only our faith, not

only our relationship with God, but also how does that impact us in an

everyday life. You know, sermons are meant to teach us the Biblical text,

and so every single week when we join on Wednesdays or Sundays as we

preach sermons, we basically have a text and then the stories you hear within

those sermons are meant to a way to apply to that text. How does

my life apply to that text? But these nights give us an opportunity to

take bite sized questions, have a conversation around that, and see what that

looks like for us. So, as always, we have dozens of questions

that come in and we try to put them in best order that we think

that most people are asking similar or same questions, and so just like that,

that's what we've done so far. So tonight we have one life question

and then we'll jump into some people have some questions about other religions today that

they've conversed with other people. And then we have a lot of life questions,

questions about how people interact with people in the outside world that are friends,

family, colleagues, anything like that. So we will jump. Why

don't you introduce yourself and we will jump into the first question today. My

name is Victim Man God bless you. Gauz In Tight, thank you for

taking my question. My question is not rhetorical. I really want to know

about it. But here it goes why the Canaan was, why he was

cursed when the fault felt on his father. If you know the story about

Noah right, might want to unraveled it. Yeah, but when he got

drunk and he went to his tent, he was found naked. Yeah,

and then hand came in and so nakedness went outside, told these two brothers.

His two brothers came in, took a garment and covered his father's nakedness.

And there was a lot of question about this that was given to me,

and I didn't know how I answered. And tow I started studying,

I got an opinion. I was like, tonight that opinion will become Well,

first, I want to hear your opinion. Tell me your opinion first.

You're wise. I know who you are. You're a man of the

scriptures. Tell me what your opinion is on it. Well, as you

know, I studied from Genesis to Apocalypse. Every time I go through the

Bible, and I go, like I passed through scripture, I mean books,

but this time I kind of venture on this question. And when you

venture, you find out a lot of things, you know. So I

was on Leviticus, Book of Leviticus, and I was talking about that nobody

should see the nakedness of his father's wife, you know. And when I

kept on reading, and this because it's your father's nakedness, so my opinion,

I mean, that was highlighted, and I said, wait a minute,

don't look at your father's his wife's nakedness because it's your father's nakedness.

So I said, maybe that means that where was Noah's wife at the time,

you know, the two sons came in, and the one that had

the authority to go in there was his wife. Where was she? So

I said, I don't know. I got to ask this question. That's

good, that's good. And the preliminary question is why did why did why

did Caanaan get the get the brunt of the curse when when Uh specifically him

had other children as well, Egypt being one of them, and they didn't

get the curse, only Canaan did. So Aaron, do you want to

first jump on and tackle it. I'll give some perspective, and and and

and thank you for the question. I'll read from Genesis chapter nine, because

that's where it comes from. So Noah got drunk, right, So verse

twenty one, he drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in

his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nekedness of

his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Sham and Jayfib took a

guarment, laid it on both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nkedness

of their father. Their faces were turned backward and did not see the father's

neckadness. So my perspective, when I'm looking at this, I see one

son seeing his father's nakedness and then going and telling his brothers and not covering

it, the other two brothers covering it. So I see the principle in

this is what I extract is they the son Ham saw a weakness in his

father, and love covers a multitude of sin. He decided not to cover

his father. He just decided to talk to others about it. The others

that talked about it because in the scripture that says he laid uncovered, but

he did do nothing to cover it. The other brothers covered him, so

they covered it and didn't look at it. And it takes spiritual maturity to

be able to see the humanity of your leader and still cover them. So

that's that's where the that's where the blessing came, and that's where the curse

came. Now, one of the things about being a disciple of Christ is

we have a freedom to say I don't know yet, I'm gonna keep searching,

I'm gonna keep reading. So so when when we're asking the question,

curse b came, like why is his son Kurt and not just him?

Man, I don't know yet? Like again, like I remember reading about

was it Abraham or Moses? When it's like this is gonna happen, You're

gonna I think it was Abraham. Hey, you're gonna be free, and

then four hundred years from now you're gonna you're gonna be a slavery and then

you're gonna So God knows all the future, and it's like, why are

you giving vision to this man four hundred years in the future. I don't

know, But the Bible is for me to take principles out that I can

extract. And what I extract in this in this passage is Noah was a

righteous man because God said so, Noah walked with God. And the thing

about the Bible, the Bible is honest about righteous people that have bad seasons

and instructions how to treat those people when they have those bad seasons. That's

good. I would definitely have the same opinion as Pastor Aaron. There's other

schools of thoughts which you probably have gotten into, that take the Babylonian Talmud

and basically say that they believe that him had sexual relations with his dad in

his drunkenness. And so I don't I think like Leviticus, like you saw

which is which is if you see you number one, his father in a

drunken stupor left himself naked. But now the son in and basically become wants

to make a laughing stock of his dad. It's a dishonorable action by going

telling his brothers rather than covering his father's mistakes. Pessor Aaron went into all

that kind of stuff additionally, But I also take on the other aspect.

We have one of the biggest things you always have to do. When you

read the Bible, you have to say, who wrote this book and who

is this audience? For Moses wrote this book. And so you're talking about

thousands of years forward now that Moses gave us this book, you want to

know at that time, who's going to be a very important figure enemy for

the Israelites. As Moses would go to give the people the story of the

Book of Genesis, the Canaanites would be. And so what you're looking at

as you're looking at the Bible and you're looking at God's story in hindsight,

and I think it's an important learning lesson for us because we always want to

know where God is in our story right now. But oftentimes when you reflect

outside of a season or a time period, you can see where God was

at all through it, and you could see where his handprint was all through

it. So I think one of the questions israel would be asking themselves is

why is Canaan our enemy. Genesis would help them to understand because their father

did something despicable to all of our great great great great grandfather And therefore,

as we stand for righteousness and the Canaanites stand for unrighteousness, they have become

our enemy, representation of unrighteousness, and it started. Everyone wants to always

know the genesis of something. Well, where did that start? Everyone wants

to know, Mom, where did you meet dad? Dad? Where where'd

you guys have your first kiss? So we want to know where's this beef

between Israel and Canaan start. Well, right here, this is where the

beef starts, is that Canaan. God knew Canaan was going to set his

heart against God's ways, and so God gives us the genesis story of that,

which is the his father was a dishonorable person, and so that's why

he chose that direction. So therefore lends to why he was quote unquote cursed

or most so rather chose his curse. So you know, so that would

be the implication. Because God sovereignty works with our will, they gotta go

hand in hand. And depending on what school of thought you're in in there,

but we know they go hand in hand. So ultimately, I would

say this passage more so speaks to us and gives us an answer on why

does Israel have conflict with Canaan. And you'll begin to see that in the

Book of Exodus and beyond as they go to go into the Promised Land.

Because Canaan actually inhabited the Promised Land, they had to take that over from

them. And so now that gives them an answer on why it's their responsibility

to do that. So that's where I would also reconcile part of that curse

as well. Yeah, so thank you sir. All right, let's jump

into a couple of questions regarding religion, and then we'll dive into some more

kind of life and lifestyle questions, And anyone's free to jump in on these

two, but for the sake of time, I'll answer it really briefly,

and anyone could add anyone on these two. Right here, it says this,

I was recently discussing my faith with my Muslim friend and they wanted to

know why a loving God couldn't just forgive people for their sins without the need

of a sacrifice. I answered by essentially saying that a just God can't condone

sins, so a consequence of punishment is necessary. But what would be a

better response? That is a great question, and so what I would say

first and foremost, Number one, I would find that hard to believe that

a Muslim would ask that in that exact way if they if they weren't practicing

Muslim because the top part, which was they couldn't understand why a loving God

couldn't just forgive people for their sins. Well, in Islam, the loving

God doesn't just forgive people for their sins. They have to work and pray

in deed, I mean they have to grind their butts off to try to

make it to heaven. As a Muslim, so no, in their own

religious structure, the Loving God is not just open gate like everyone come on

in type of thing. Now what a Muslim would have hassle over, which

is the fact of why could a sacrifice in Jesus actually be attributed to you

and I? We ought to earn our way into heaven. That is the

Muslim theory is you and I if we wanted to go ahead of heaven,

not only would we have to become Muslim by doing a certain set of things,

then we would have to practice the religion on a daily basis in hopes

that we can attain enough good works and good morals and good prayers that outweigh

our sins. Number one that gives me a lot of anxiety is thinking about

how often I would have to pursue my own righteousness in order to attain They

would call it jana. We would call it heaven or paradise. And so

one of the biggest things is is in it is forbidden that another person have

sacrifice for another person. So that's why they struggle with it, because it's

forbidden. No human being can sacrifice for another human being. It's a little

contradictory because they also, like us, believe in Father Abraham, and they

believe that Father Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac. So it's a little contradictory

because in the Qur'an it says that as Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac for

God, God supplied away a new thing so that Abraham didn't actually have to

sacrifice Isaac after all. So they teach sacrifice. They taught that from Abraham.

Additionally, First Corinthians chapter one says that to the gentile, well,

the gospel is foolishness, and then the Gospel to a Jew is a stumbling

block. And the reason why they believe that because they think it would be

foolish to believe in someone that would die for someone is Lord. And then

the Jew thinks it's a stumbling block because they think, how you ought to

live the laws your own life, and no one should be able to live

the laws for you and attribute it to you. So they all struggle.

Even in Islam, they struggle with that reality with us. What they don't,

what they fail to grasp within our faith is God's goodness and his righteousness

and his grace. That salvation is a free gift from God. And so

in being a free gift from God, this is an action where God looked

down on his creation and he wanted to create a way where He can redeem

us. Because there is not an amount of good works that you or I

could do that can attain salvation. God knows that. God knows that.

Additionally, in Islam they have the Hadith with his which is basically it's outside

of the Koran, and it's it's the teachings of Muhammad. They believe that

in the coming judgment day that a Muslim who's just inching their way into Heaven

but hasn't totally made it yet, can actually God can actually choose you can

actually look at it. It's actually the hadith is the Sahi book thirty seven

Hadiith number sixty sixty six six no pun intended. And so what they believe

is in that text, God will actually say, you know what, Muslim,

you just inched away. I will actually choose a Christian or a Jew

to go in hell in your place so that you can make it into heaven.

Well, that's atonement, that's God choosing someone else to go in someone

else's place. The only problem is is you can atone sin for sin.

Can't do that. Everybody has to pay for their sin. Every single person

has to pay for their own sin. That's true, every one of us

has to pay for our own sin. The only one that can actually truly

actually stand in our stead his name is Jesus. Because only Jesus is fully

God and fully men. Only Jesus is who he says he is, and

only Jesus is God. So Jesus is the only one that I can hold

on to that can actually redeem me of my sins. Nothing else can do

that. There is no other teaching on this planet that makes up any moral

argument on how you can stand before God guiltless other than the fact that Jesus

stood on the cross in your stead, and a Muslim, you good,

glad, for that. But a Muslim will have struggle with that because they'll

say, I want to work my way into that, in which I would

say, I'm not a betting man. I don't go to Vegas much.

But I'm not rolling my dice on that that at the end of my life,

that I said a certain amount of prayers and I did a good enough

deeds against the bad things that I did and the unrighteous thoughts that I had.

I'm not playing that game at the end of my life. And so

many of them want to play that game because they they want to end life.

They want to say I did this, I earned this, I did

everything God told me to do, and truly the Gospel of Jesus says there

was nothing I could do, and yet God still loved me and God still

gave me life. That's the argument that I would make to someone who's Muslim

who struggles with the fact that Jesus died in our stead. And then they

probably respond and I'd keep going, you know, in that way. All

right, let's go to one more religious question and then we'll jump into some

more conversational we'll jump if we Oh, okay, and now, if you

guys had you have someone this one, Pastor Kenny, how do I explain

to my Mormon family the trinity. They believe Jesus and God are two separate

entities. Their example of this is Jesus praying to God the Father in the

garden of Gsemine. I've tried using scripture in John ten three, but they

still I don't get it. Yeah, the Bible says in the beginning was

the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God,

and that word became flesh and manifested himself, and so all throughout. First

of all, you won't find the word trinity in the Bible. But we

see that when the Jews. One of the reasons why the Jews wanted to

crucify Jesus because he said he was the son of God, and in Judaism,

that is being equal with God. We notice in Acts chapter five when

Anonys and sapphi as sin Peter said, you haven't lied to He said you,

why have you lied to the Holy Yeah? Why have you lied to

the Holy Spirit? And the Holy Spirit is equal with God. So all

throughout the Bible we see once again that the word trinity is not stated.

But we see this, not this duality. But this this this one person

that is expressed in three persons, father, son, and the Holy Spirit.

Uh. I think with the Mormons a little bit that I know about

Mormons, I think they struggle with the trinity because they elevate Joseph Smith so

high almost to be equal with Jesus Christ. Mm. So that would be

yeah, and that and that's the struggle because the Mormons, because you got

to remember, they have an extra book, which is the Testament of Joseph

Smith. So you have the Bible and then they they will tell you the

Bible is the primary source. But if you ever talk to a Mormon and

say, hey, you're not allowed to use like because they say that the

the Book of Mormon, which is the Testament of Joseph Smith, it explains

the Bible better. If you say, well, if it explains it the

Bible better, don't use that book and only talk to me a about the

Bible. That they kind of start getting shaky at that point because that extra

book informs their thinking so much. And and in the education world we would

call that isage eating. Right. So if you're gonna if you're gonna preach

the Bible honestly, you're gonna exageat, which means you're gonna read and you're

gonna pull out of the text what the text says, nothing more, nothing

less. When you isog eat, you take your own thoughts, your own

hopes, your own desires, and then you read it into the Bible.

So that's like many times people will play roulette with the Bible, and and

and we'll use God as a magic eight ball. Right, we'll say God,

right now, I'm gonna maybe someone's done that. I've even done this

before when I was younger. But faith, I'm gonna I'm gonna spin the

Bible like this and I'm gonna, Okay, what are you saying to me?

God? And then we isog eat. Right. Some people are laughing

because we've done that before, right, They're like, God, just right

here? What yeah, there it is, I'm going Titus, you know,

like and and you read and you read it and you basically take your

life and then you go, okay, that's what it says. I got

what I went from it, I walk away. That's a lot of what

Mormonism would do, and a lot of other types of religious spliffs from Christianity.

They'll have an explanation that's greater than what's in the text by itself.

And so what they struggle with is they have demoted Jesus to just being a

child of the Father, and so they demoted Jesus to be a love child

between God the Father and God the Mother. And there's this teaching that you

know, if you accept Mormonism, you too will get your own galaxy and

your own planet, and you can have your spouse with you in heaven.

It's one of the big selling points of Islam or not Muslim Mormons. We

have so much religions going on right now, right is Mormonism is one of

the selling points. Is they'll say, do you want to be with your

spouse in heaven and stay married? Most of y'all would probably say no,

but there's a lot of people that would say yes. And they'll say,

great, Well, then you too will get your own planet, your own

soul system, you and your spouse can have you know, heavenly babies.

And then they would say, in which case, our galaxy was formed by

God the Father, God the Mother, and they had Jesus and they made

Jesus a part of the redemptive plan of this galaxy. And you may think

that sounds really silly, but there are millions of people that ascribe to this

level of teaching and that adopt this level of teaching. And so what we

would say is you could read the Bible frontward and back and you'll never see

any implication of that whatsoever. Only Joseph Smith Testament says that. So the

only way that works, that story works is if you if you embellish the

Father and you do decrease Jesus, and then you just make the spirit the

one who just kind of moves about the earth as kind of more of a

mystic movement type of thing. And so so so we would reject that notion

because there are far too many passages that that enable that says uh, that

says Jesus is the Word and the Word is God. If you were with

us last Sunday and the Word is God, So there is oneness, there

is unity. And so as we talk about three persons but one being that's

what we're talking about. There's too many passages scripture that explain Genesis chapter one.

It says, let us make man in our image. There is multiple

persons in there, but they are speaking. It says, but then the

Lord spoke, you always spoke. Let us make man in armage with me.

They're one, they speak in unison. They have different functions, just

like our body. But I would never if you cut my arm off,

You'd never say, oh, that's a new human being. You'd say,

no, that's a part of who Adam is. And so you cannot separate

the three from each other. The only religious sects that would try to do

that are ones that try to elevate one person's of the trinity over another,

and that's the only way you'll get that. But for us, we look

at them unilaterally. We look them all the same, and as there are

three persons, they have had different functions within our lives, but they act

as one together. And so that's a route I would go if I was

talking to some and I've talked to many Mormons before on the street at my

home, and I tend to sit on John chapter one for a really long

time. And if you're more of like an education person, I would say,

learn John chapter one studying on YouTube long enough in Greek, because if

you can talk about it in Greek, in the original language in Greek,

it's very hard to make an argument that they are separate beings. You can't

make it in Greek. The only way that argument works is if you speak

English like we do, because it has totally different grammatical connotations in the original

Greek. And you'll be find hard pressed to find a Mormon who knows Greek

that would be able to have that conversation of what that entails. So that's

an answer I would give towards that if I can just give some brief encouragement.

As disciples, we don't have to feel the pressure of negotiating some one

to salvation. One of my passages of scripture that gives me so much freedom,

as Hebrews eleven three, By faith, we understand that the universe was

created by the Word of God. So it doesn't say you understand and then

you'll have faith. It says, by faith we understand. So faith means

I'm gonna follow God with questions. So if I'm talking to people and they

don't believe what I believe, I don't feel pressure to convince them. I

feel a call to be prepared to have a conversation for what I believe.

But it's the Holy Spirit who convicts, It's the Holy Spirit who transforms so

I don't want to think, like, man, how can I get them?

How can I give this parallel and away that you don't have to do

them in a corner and make them say, yeah, you know, because

I believe Genesis won by faith. Like, no, it's not on YouTube

in the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth, Like, I

can't prove that, but I have faith that that has and you can't tell

me that that didn't happen. So so I can't convince someone else to have

faith. But what I can do is demonstrate the lifestyle of a disciple and

continue loving that individual. So yeah, it's great, let's go to the

next one. Let's go to some more kind of life lifestyle stuff. I

recently lost my father a couple of months ago. I've been taking it really

hard mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and I don't know how to overcome

my feelings of anger and sadness because I wanted more time. I needed more

time, and I know that he's in a better place with the Lord and

Savior because he was such a man of God. He taught me so much

about the Bible and how to love God and put him first. But the

one thing he did not teach me was how to live without him. That's

powerful. How can I overcome this anger I have inside of me? I'm

praying and I'm writing. I'm trying to use what he taught me about trusting

God, but it seems like I cannot get better. That's just what you

do all day. So you know I'm passing. First, I'm so sorry

for your loss, but you you have fortunately started this thing called the grief

journey. And so you not only have lost your dad, but you just

described within your questions what we understand as secondary losses, what your dad meant

to you and for you. And so you're you're you're struggling with not only

this person not being with you, being with you here anymore, but what

that person represents. And so you're you're hurt, you're frustrated, you're angry,

you're satin, and those are real emotions that come with grief. And

I think, you know, I definitely would encourage you to be a part

of a grief care class where you can begin to process your emotions. And

so we talk about why are we angry? You know, we grieve because

we love And so you're missing Dad and you're missing what Dad represents to you,

all of the moments. It's you know what, life slows down,

and so now you can remember every vivid moment, every vivid teaching moment,

all of the things, and you're missing that and you're still wanting that.

And so thank God that God, Thank God that your dad was a man

of faith and he was a living example to you while he was here.

And you know what, he may be a part of your past, but

he can also be a part of your future because you have a saving knowledge

and a relationship with Jesus Christ, and one day you'll see him again.

Yeah, you know. I the first thing that popped up when I read

that was that it said the writer said that they lost their father just a

couple of months ago. Yeah, so I think it's really really important to

understand that you have to give yourself some grace through throughout this grieving process.

Like Pastor Kenny said, we grieve because we love, and it sounded by

the way that it was portrayed in that question that your father was an amazing

man. So it's going to sting a whole lot more. And if I

can just briefly speak to everybody else, in this room. When you know

somebody who is going through the grieving process, sometimes you don't know what to

say, you don't know how to act, and it can be very difficult

to be there for somebody who's going through this. You get a situation like

that and the first thing you want to say is you know, well,

your dad is in heaven and you should rejoice. And sometimes that doesn't always

bode well with the person who is angry because this person said I'm angry.

They're angry at the circumst They're angry at the fact that they didn't get enough

time. They're angry at their father for not teaching them how to live without

them. There's a whole lot of that in that situation. But I have

a couple of verses that I want to share that can really kind of make

you understand what the grieving process really feels like from a Christian perspective. In

Psalm thirty four eighteen, it says the Lord is near the broken hearted and

saves the crushed in spirit. The person is broken hearted and is crushed in

spirit. That's okay. God knows that you're going to be broken hearted,

and that you're going to be crushed in spirit. But what is the Lord?

In this scripture? The Lord is near you, and that you have

to understand. You are not You are not capable of doing what the Lord

can do. You are crushed in spirit, you are broken hearted. The

Lord understands this and is near you. He's not saying that you have to

get over it. He's not saying that you have to move on. He's

saying, I get it. You're broken hearted, you're crushed in spirit,

but I'm near you. Psal'm seventy three twenty six says, my flesh and

my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion

forever. What is the person? They're failing? Their heart and their flesh

fail, but God is the strength. And in Matthew five to four,

it says, Blessed are those that mourn for their for they shall be comforted.

You can mourn and God will comfort you. Understand your role and understand

God's role. It's okay to be in that place. Give yourself grace,

give yourself time, have that moment where you're angry, talk to God about

it, because God's going to be there for you during this entire process.

Hey man, that's great. Very good. Yeah, and just to lastly

encourage. But you know, my my wife lost her dad in twenty twenty

in March, and is about maybe nine months or ten months into it,

she just, you know, probably three or four times a night, my

wife would cry herself to sleep, and I would just lay there and be

a present person for her and finally about and we would talk often. Finally,

about nine ten months later, she's crying and she just that night,

she just fed up. She's like, I'm so sick of this, Like

I'm so hurt. I miss him, this is so painful, Like like,

am I doing something wrong as a Christian? She looks at me,

He's like, am I doing some wrong as a Christians? You're not something

I understand about God? Because I feel like I shouldn't be crying as much

as I am if I had so much hope that he was in heaven.

And my response to her was, you are doing everything you ought to be

in this season. There is no supposed to be. There is no you

should be doing this. You shouldn't be doing this. I told her,

I encourage you. Whatever you feel. I'm a safe place you let it

out. I'm gonna be here for you, and I'm gonna walk with you.

And then I told her, and then on top of that, cry

cry when you need to cry. That is grief. And it'll take years,

years until this poke feels less and less, and it still won't go

away. And so I told her the best thing we can do moving forward

is honor his legacy. Don't stop talking about him, don't stop laughing about

the things about him that used to make him laugh. Moving on is not

that we talk about them less or we let them go past that. That

was an old season of some sort. They are with us everywhere that they

go. So for our boys, one of our sons knew him up until

he was two. And then our other son, Thomas, who's named after

her dad, didn't know him. And so we have pictures around the house

that we carry our boys to and we say, who is that. That's

Papa, And that was Papa a tall man. He was a tall man.

Was Papa funny? Yeah, Papa was funny. We show him videos

in our phone and we just remin this and we laugh, and we keep

his legacy going as a godly man, as a righteous man, as he

was. And then I always ask Matthias because We got pictures all over our

house of Papa, and I said, Matthias, worst Papa today and he

says, Daddy, Papa's in heaven. I say, yeah, We're gonna

see him one day, son, And so we encourage that he's not far

off from us. He's still here, and by the spirit of God,

we can actually we can honor that legacy as you would when you read the

Bible and you read about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These are all men

and women who have passed away that are still talked about today. And so

we can honor someone's legacy through various different ways. But that doesn't mean that

one day you just stopped really, as both of them just said. But

I encourage that person, like Sana said, if you know someone, that

is the best way to react, not yeah, I don't know. I'm

wondering when you get over it too, because it's kind of really starting to

bother me, and you know it just you know. And a person may

not say that, but you can tell in their silence, like okay,

another night that you're crying. You don't know. That's part of the grieving

process, and we have to embrace that. There does come a point where

it does become unhealthy. But you're talking about years down the line, not

in this person, Like, oh, there are some people, Yeah,

there are some people ten years, eleven years down the line that they just

won't move in life because they're so frozen by that trauma. That is definitely

something at some point you may have to go to counseling or sit with a

pastor or work that through. If it becomes a place years down the line

where you can't move forward, you definitely want to find someone to work with

at that point. I highly encourage that, definitely. Yeah, yeah,

all right, let's go to the next one. We'll roll through these.

What do you do if you're coming to church as the person who ruined the

relationships and it seems like the message is always to avoid people like you?

What does a broken person who's trying to become fixed do? Man? I

feel that I feel like it's always about me too, you know, yeah,

it's well, I mean no, I mean, well, yeah,

sure, I thought you were going to say right now. I was just

like, I know what that feels like too. Listen. I've been in

I've been here, and here's what I'll tell you. Uh, for a

while coming to church and hearing about things that you shouldn't do, and I

was not only just kind of now becoming a Christian, but kind of still

half stepping. So I was still a little bit doing the things that the

pastors saying don't do it. And you're like, okay, you're talking to

me, But yeah, it can feel a little convicting at times. What

I'll tell you is the day that you walk in and you don't feel like

it's an attack on you, not because you just don't care. But there's

freedom when you truly accept Jesus and you believe that Jesus has watched all your

sins clean, from things you did this morning to the things that you did,

you know, thirty years ago, coming into this place and hearing the

sermon and just being able to be like that was me, but feeling the

joy of the freedom that God has freed you from. It's a beautiful feeling.

So you might be uncomfortable, you might feel a little bit attacked.

You may feel convicted from time to time, but God may be trying to

talk to you not in it. There is never going to especially an abundant,

living family church in Rancho Cucamanga and Pomona. There's never a judge.

It never comes from a judgmental place, but it definitely is. We're not

a sugarcoating kind of church either. We're going to hit things head on and

it might be it might sting a little bit from time to time, but

let me tell you, there's a lot of love here and God may be

speaking specifically to you in those moments of how we can truly be freed of

the things that are keeping us from truly walking with Christ. Yeah. I

think it's important to know that God's grace and forgiveness is bigger than your fault.

Okay, and you, over time in the faith community have to continue

to embrace that. There is and sometimes an unfortunate reality that even though God's

grace is bigger and will always bigger than be bigger than your fault. That's

sometimes in the life of a person or a family member who has been hurt

or offended, sometimes it takes them a longhnger and sometimes they will never forgive.

I want to encourage you that as you begin to embrace and apply God's

forgiveness and your behavior has changed, and so nothing in your behavior currently and

moving forward represents the offense that you did in the past, and over time

you will be able to walk in that freedom because there are a lot of

us in here who have caused hurts and pains that maybe the individual may never

forgive. And so I don't want you to believe. I don't want you

to believe that you can get to a place where the individual will always get

to a place to forgive, because sometimes they won't. Yep, yeah,

that's good, it's great now. Pastor Diego has an old saying where he

said, this church is full of a lot of ex some things absolutely and

he said that for the past thirty years. And then he'd also say,

and if you knew what X something they were, you might not sit next

to him so freely like you are right now. And I think that's just

the reality of transformational God is what maybe seems like it's big, and everyone

sees it. When you walk in the room, they're thinking the same thing

about themselves, the person next to you, And so you know better to

be aware of your own sin and aware of your own shortcomings, then be

the person in service that's always like hmm, that had to been for Pastor

Kenney that had to been for Aaron. Well, he talking about sinas.

All of a sudden, the pastor's talking about everyone, but you that that's

not the heart to have either. You know, the heart to have for

a person is to say, yeah, he's talking to me, but thank

God for the grace of christ A yeah he's talking about me, but man,

Lord has redeemed me. And so God is redemptive in his nature,

and so have a big picture of God's love and be aware in the rearview

mirror of your past. But don't swap it. Don't have a rear view

mirror God's love. It's always behind you, and then your sin's always in

front of you, because that's not God's plan for our life and his grace.

You know, I encourage you that let's go. Let's go next one,

probably got room for two more, and we'll close it out. How

do you continue a relationship with a brother or mother who did something to you

that if they were a friend, you would not talk to them. Oh

go, okay, okay, so I get it now. So there's a

person that if they did something to you, if they were a friend,

you would have cut them off. But this time it's family. Example,

we were with a family on vacation having a great time, and upon Nancy

our announcing our pregnancy, my brother and his wife immediately were filled with jealousy.

They did not congratulate us or talk to us the rest of the trip,

and the wife still does not talk to us. Also, they just

had a kid and still don't talk to us, even after we tried talking

to them multiple times. They had friends who announced their pregnancy and they filled

them with love, joy, but not us. Oh wow, okay wow.

If I assume that the family relationship has been strained for a long time

with unresolved issues, then it really has nothing to do with the announcement of

the child as much as it has to do with a strained relationship for a

period of time with some unresolved issues. If I take the assumption that the

relationship is good, and I know sometimes when it comes to babies, sometimes

parents want to know first before there is an announcement of everybody else no notice.

If the relationship is strayed for a long time with unresolved issues, that's

probably really the issue. If it's a strong relationship, it's good, but

wow, they celebrated them, but they didn't celebrate you. Well, I

don't know if the other announcement of the baby, if that was a family

member or a friend. But let's say it's you're a family member that was

a friend. And there was wondered why why am I finding out while everybody

else is finding out? You say, pasekni? Is that a good enough

reason to be upset? No? But welcome to family? Yeah? Yeah,

yeah, I would say Jesus had family issues as well. Yeah.

Mark chapter three, like his own brothers didn't believe in him. So he's

in the synagogue and they're like, hey, Jesus, that's your mother and

your brother, and he says, who is my mother and my brother?

You guys are my mother my brother? And what he's saying is sometimes you're

closer to your church family than your own biological family, and that's tough to

navigate. So I honor the question because it sounds like someone that's really hurt

but trying to how what's appropriate in honoring my mom or honoring my brother.

Joseph is an example who has this call on his life and once he becomes

the big boss, now he faces his brothers who threw him in a pit,

and he goes back and he cries, and he has to deal with

that. So I think to be like Jesus is always err on the side

of love. And even if you can't reconcile with your family, God requires

us to walk in forgiveness for the disciple. Yeah, it's great, all

right, Let's let's close off with this one right here. I've read that

we should be specific in our prayers, but sometimes I find myself afraid that

Satan will hear me and try to attack me in that area. I hate

to ever even give the enemy that kind of power. I've been dealing with

a lot of spiritual warfare and torment lately, but I'm not giving up.

I just want to be able to pray more fervently and intentionally without fear of

more torment. Any advice. What I can tell is by your question,

you're coming from a certain school of thought when it comes to who Satan is

and what prayer and spiritual warfare is. What I would encourage is that what

I suspect is your fear is coming more from maybe what your religious circle you

come from has taught you, maybe, rather than what the Word of God

says, And that happens to us all the time, whether we come out

of Catholicism or we come out of some other type of movement that have certain

opinions built in. And not to be little any movements, but if you

ever, you know, meet people that either come from apostolic or Pentecostalism,

or Nazarene or certain ones right that have certain very strict rules and regulations,

and then you may come to a non denominational church that doesn't have as many

strict regulations in terms of your approach to God, and then we find ourselves

leaning into that heavily and feeling downstrop Now I would if I was talking to

this person. Number one question I was, where are you getting this from

in the Bible, this perception of who Satan is and what authority Satan is,

Because what I know from Romans chapter eight is the law is put to

death, it's misdeeds, and wherever where the spirit of the Lord is,

there is freedom. And Romans chapter eight starts with therefore there is now no

condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. And so if you're a person

that's full of the spirit and full of God, then there is no condonation

for those that are in the spirit. And if you continue to read Romans

chapter eight, it says number one that we are airs with Christ. Number

two it says the Holy Spirit intercedes with us groanings too deep for words to

understand. Number three at the end, it says what can separate us from

the love of God? It says, no height, no debt, no

angel, nor deemon, nothing can separate you from the love of God.

And so Satan doesn't have He's not a waiter, like he's not waiting for

you to pray. And then he's just like, yeah, I'm gonna get

you with that, and I'm gonna get you with that. I'm gonna Satan

is much wiser than that. This guy has existed before the foundation of the

earth when God formed the heavens, and so he can just watch you and

know what your sin is. He don't need you to bring it say it

out loud. He he can just scope you out, or his minions can

scope you out. But here's the thing, if you've been redeemed by the

blood of Jesus, he can try to poke all he wants, but he

has no authority over children of God and air with Christ. So there's no

subjugation. He has no subjugation in your territory. He has no authority in

your territory. And so yes he can influence others who may be demonically oppressed,

possessed, or anything like that. You can deal with things that you

had before Christ that may impede your mind, but outside of that you are

completely free. Just memorize Romans chapter eight. If there's one thing this individual

I can get to do, just memborize Romans chapter eight and confess it every

single day. In that passage, too, is also a scripture that says

we are more than conquerors. So rather than this idea of fear, if

you just read that scripture in every day you look yourself in the mirror and

you read that passage of scripture over your life, I guarantee you you'll walk

out of there with a kick in your step, knowing that you can kick

Satan's But any time of day, knowing that you have authority in that place,

you could take authority over your children, you could take authority over those

you could begin to intercede. So I highly encourage you. Yes, Satan

is real. Yes he roams around looking who is tempted. But that is

for the person who becomes weak full of their flesh, full of sin.

What the other passages is pulling on the full omber God and going out to

fight and going to battle. Those ring way more true than Satan just catching

you on a bad day. That's why you got to put it on every

single day. So I encourage you to walk in not your authority, but

walk in God's authority that's spirit led and spirit filled. And where fully where

a spirit filled church? And so if you've never come to the upfront for

prayer and ask for someone to pray for the gift of speaking in tongues,

that's another way that you can begin to have authority with the evidence of speaking

in tongues. We believe that as a church. And so you use all

the arsenal that's in your hands, and I'll tell you this, You're gonna

be able to see yourself walk in new ways of authority when it comes to

not only relationship with the Lord, but talk about spiritual warfare. That may

be with your old flash or that may be bad things that you think are

happening to you. But regardless of what it is, you have victory in

Jesus, and you have victory in his name, So I encourage you to

walk in that, ye man. Yeah, you know, sometimes just a

little simple thing is to say, let me see if what I'm feeling I

can find it in a New Testament. Do I see any time in the

New Testament when the disciples or when the apostles pray that it was secretive and

they were really concerned about the devil hearing them pray. And so sometimes when

you hear certain things or certain teachings, and so you say, okay,

let me match it with the New Testament. Have I seen it in the

New Testament? Have I seen it in the Early Church? That's just one

of the rules that I do. Okay, So I haven't seen it in

the New Testament. I haven't seen it in the Early Church? Right yeah?

Yeah, Yeah, that's great. Thank you, pastor An. Would

you pray and close this out today? Hope you guys enjoyed another Beyond the

letter, we have a few more for the year. Thank you guys for

always coming out and submitting questions. It's always amazing every single month that we

have tons of questions that are putting even you know, ten months into this.

So yes, Aaron, would you close us. Yeah. Yeah,

And before we close tonight on online, if I can have your undivided attention.

The question that was asked earlier was, Hey, what do you do

when it seems like every single sermon is about you? You're the bad guy,

You're you're the bad girl, and and you feel attacked. Here's what

I would say. That was me when I first came to ALFC, and

it was a healthy thing. I don't know if you guys remember twenty ten

Pastor Diego preached a sermon series called The Christian Atheist. Yes, and I'm

raised in church, and what I recognized is that I knew church, but

I didn't know Jesus. And one of the things that now grieves me as

a pastor is there will be people that are members of churches that may not

be members of Heaven. Because being a member of Heaven does not equal growth

track, planning, siner forward, neighborhood groups. It equals do I have

a relationship with Jesus? Do I know him? Pastor Adam and Pastor Kennedy's

talked about there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Here's the challenge. There

is condemnation in people. So if we don't have a biblical worldview about our

sin. Sometimes we'll look to people and based upon how people treat us,

will project our value on us. But I want to let you know that

Jesus loves you as is. He died on the cross for your sins,

and if I can use my holy imagination for him to talk to you right

now, he would say I miss you. He would say I want to

have a relationship with you. The start line of Christianity is forgiveness. You

know the gospel. But have you confessed that you're a sinner and are you

willing to change your values to be in alignment with God? Or you may

already be a Christian. You're on your way to heaven, but there's certain

things that are going on in your life that have you stuck and have had

you stray from being a disciple of Christ. What we're gonna do right now

is we're going to pray a prayer to start your relationship with Jesus or to

continue your relationship with Jesus. I want to read this verse as an encouragement

to you before we pray this. Isaiah forty three, verse twenty five says

I am he who blots out your transgressions. For my own sake, I

will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance. The next time you're

in shame about what you've done in your past, replace that with what Jesus

has done for you. So I would like it's all in person and rancho

if you're inside or outside, to bow your heads and close your eyes.

If you're online, I'd love for you to lock in with me because I

would ask us all as a community to share this prayer together. And it's

not the words that are going to save you. Is what's going on in

your heart right now that you want to be released from your sin or you

want to get up and continue your relationship with Jesus. And you have a

family here that's going to repeat this prayer with you. So let's say this

together. Now, say, Dear Lord Jesus, Dear Lord Jesus, I

believe, I believe that you died on the cross for all of my sin,

all of my sins. Thank you for forgiving me, forgiving and from

this moment forward, from this moment, you're my savior, my savior,

and my Lord. Teach me, teach me to trust you against you surround

me with community, community that points me to you. In Jesus name,

we prass Jesus. We really hope you enjoyed the message and if you said

yes to Jesus, we just want to say congratulations and give you a free

devotional to help you walk out your faith. Click the link in the description

or head over to grow dot Faith for download your devotional. Oh and be

sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. Thanks for listening to

ALSC podcasts and we hope you tune in again