Sermon

Cutting Room Floor: What's The Fruit?

His Hands Church

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  1. Hey guys, what's up?

  2. It's uh me Justin and I'm here with Madison.

  3. Hello.

  4. And we are recording something we do from time to time called the cutting room floor.

  5. This is when we have a message on a Sunday and there's like stuff left unsaid.

  6. It didn't quite make it into the Sunday morning message for time purposes, but we we we felt like we wanted to add to.

  7. And uh yeah, so Madison, the the message was about false Well, it's kind of like false false teachers, but like more like a warning not to follow false teachers kind of thing.

  8. Yeah, it's like it's like typical message of Jesus.

  9. The the Matthew chapter seven, he says, you know, beware of false teachers.

  10. Uh many will come like like you know, the language used often is wolves in sheep's clothing.

  11. Um and he later applies it to all people.

  12. He says, You judge a tree by its fruit, and you can judge people by their actions.

  13. And so we we first half of the message we kind of looked at just practical relationships, you know, whether it's friends, dating, what's the fruit?

  14. We use that as a as a guide.

  15. What's the fruit?

  16. And really be careful with who you trust, be careful with who you listen to.

  17. But he specifically is talking about false teachers in the second half of the message, that's what we focused on, being really careful about who you listen to spiritually.

  18. Yeah.

  19. And so um I'll I'll just ask you this.

  20. Do you have any, do you have like who are some people that you listen to on a regular basis?

  21. That are false teachers or that are false teachers.

  22. No, no, no.

  23. Yeah, who are some false teachers?

  24. No, who like are there any are there any podcasts, or there are any like uh pastors?

  25. Yeah.

  26. I listen to um that uh ask ntwright anything podcast.

  27. That is Tom Wright.

  28. Tom Wright.

  29. But N T like N period T period.

  30. It's like an author name.

  31. Yep.

  32. And uh I listen to that podcast too.

  33. It's a good I think I told you about it.

  34. No, I don't think so.

  35. Did you?

  36. It was me.

  37. Oh, okay, cool.

  38. Well, I uh uh thank you then.

  39. Because I listen to that podcast pretty often, and uh N.

  40. T.

  41. Wright talks exactly like the dad and Peppa Pig.

  42. And I can't not picture the it's just it's the same.

  43. It might he might voice the dad and Peppa Pig.

  44. Um yeah, N.

  45. T.

  46. Wright's a very well-known biblical author.

  47. Listen to Tim Mackey.

  48. Tim Mackey, a little Bible project.

  49. Yep.

  50. There's a uh it's more like a debate show, so it's not really like teachers, so it's it's a a plethora of people uh called Unbelievable with Justin Brierly, and he hosts it and it's a British thing, right?

  51. Yep.

  52. Yep.

  53. On Premier Christian Radio.

  54. On Premier Premier Radio.

  55. Christian Premier Christian Radio.

  56. There you go.

  57. Okay.

  58. So I'm a Christian.

  59. A Christian.

  60. I listen to you.

  61. Aw.

  62. I have so I listen to NT Wright too, I do the Tim Mackey stuff, and I also listen to there's a pastor in Missouri named John Lindell that I've listened to for years, and um he's just a really awesome Bible teacher, and and I'll have a few other people.

  63. Are there any when it comes to and and here's the reason we're talking about this?

  64. You know, we are like we do pastor jobs, and yet we have people that we listen to over the years.

  65. What criteria have you and maybe you've never verbalized it, but like what criteria do you use to determine this is a person I should listen to on like a regular basis?

  66. This is a person.

  67. Well, I think if it's constant current events where they're like constantly addressing recent drama in the news, I I tune out of those people pretty quickly.

  68. Why's that?

  69. Because I can tell that they're just seeking a platform based on whatever is current dramatic in the Christian world.

  70. Like they're trying to like grab a hold of the coattails of whatever thing is like outrage.

  71. Yeah, it's like, oh, so so such and such pastor said this, I need to address it.

  72. Such and it's like hot takes.

  73. I don't need hot take teachers.

  74. I did a hot take like a week ago.

  75. Did you?

  76. Two weeks ago.

  77. Yeah, on the whole like uh Bethmore.

  78. Yeah, I don't follow you.

  79. Well, there you go.

  80. Well, I listen to you in real life.

  81. I just if you're on social media, I've never seen it.

  82. No, I just I posted a really quick uh like video, and uh I'm sorry.

  83. It's okay.

  84. Okay.

  85. No, no, no.

  86. I'm just it's in general when I subscribe to a podcast or something.

  87. That's why I think the only that's probably the only time I've done that in the last two years, but anyway, go ahead.

  88. So sustained um biblical like exegesis, honest honestly is.

  89. What does exegesis mean for extra Jesus?

  90. Extra Jesus?

  91. No, no, it's uh E-X-E-G.

  92. It's working as a scripture as a starting point instead of reading into script scripture, would which would be what int intra Jesus?

  93. Intrages.

  94. I don't know.

  95. I don't know.

  96. Which is the way that we teach here at his hands.

  97. Now, like a lot of times we're going, and this is something that's kind of developed over time.

  98. We didn't always do it this way, but where we've we've landed for now, and I I don't see it really changing in the future anytime soon, is I used to teach with the Bible, and then I really got convicted I needed to start teaching from scripture.

  99. And what that means is rather than here's the topic, and we're gonna incorporate scripture into this, it was like, here's the scripture, let's analyze what this says.

  100. And you know, we we went through the entire book of Ephesians last year, took us about a year, and uh we've been going through the teachings of Jesus this year for a lot of the year.

  101. In the last few months, we've just gone straight through Matthews 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount.

  102. So that's exegesis.

  103. That's just yeah, scripture is the starting point.

  104. Let's dive into what it's and it's really important to do that because when you don't do it that way, you can pull a lot of different scriptures out of context to have it say what you want.

  105. You miss the history of the moment, you miss the the context of even the conversation that was being had in the moment.

  106. Right.

  107. Um so I listen to a lot of people that do that because it's really helpful to hear that done well as I'm preparing for messages either on those specific scriptures or um, you know, just the Bible in general.

  108. Like, how do you um preach the Bible well?

  109. And so for me and my role, it's really helpful to have people that are that are doing that well.

  110. Yeah.

  111. The 10-minute Bible hour, they they have a podcast that I've been listening to that's uh pretty good.

  112. He's going through Matthew, just the book of Matthew, and he's like 20 episodes in and on verse like five.

  113. I'm like, how?

  114. Verse five of what?

  115. Of chapter one of Matthew.

  116. He spent like 10 episodes just on the genealogy at the beginning.

  117. Yeah, yeah, no, I can picture that, but I'm like But it's like those names mean nothing to me at the genealogy part, other than Abraham.

  118. How long is each episode of the podcast?

  119. They're like eight minutes.

  120. Okay, okay.

  121. Love it.

  122. Okay, good.

  123. So my brain for a minute was picturing like like I so I'm I'm going through the book of Romans right now with you and and some other guys, and I'm part as part of that, I'm listening to um a pastor who's gone who goes through the entirety of the book of Romans, and I'm in Romans chapter six right now, but I've probably listened to I don't know, twenty hours of content about just that.

  124. And for some reason I was picturing that length.

  125. It'd be in like 20 hours of the first five verses of Matthew just seems like uh overkill, I guess.

  126. I mean it's possible.

  127. It's weird.

  128. Yeah, so so you you really have lean you lean into people who really take teaching scripture seriously.

  129. I think in um, you know, I just so you know, like I've got other people I listen to that that's really not what they like, they're they're not they're not necessarily like doing exegesis, so to speak, or or going right through scripture.

  130. Um they are more topical.

  131. Yeah.

  132. But I've but I've listened to them long enough to know that their perspectives are are are biblical.

  133. They're like, and so that's really important.

  134. I mean, and I think they're you know, if you're listening to this, being like, oh my gosh, these guys are just so caught up on the Bible, because I know a lot of times, honestly, I know a lot of times right now in sort of modern Christianity, the Bible is sometimes like maligned from within the church.

  135. And you'll even see things that like like uh someone posted a thing on Facebook, it was a church sign that says, I don't want a biblical world, I want a Christ-like world.

  136. And I get what they're saying.

  137. Because they're but no, I get what they're saying, because I mean too there there's a lot of things that are like false teaching, false my alarm is just going off.

  138. No, no, like there's a very narrow meaning to that that I would agree with.

  139. Yeah.

  140. Which is like slavery is biblical and that it's a thing that happened in biblical times.

  141. So later.

  142. And and the the law, like having this uh approach to God where you're having to sacrifice animals is biblical because the Bible records it.

  143. Right.

  144. And so if you're saying I don't want a word that looks like that, I get it, but I don't think that's probably what that that thing is saying.

  145. That sounds like somebody who's never read the Bible before.

  146. No, it's such a it's such like a it's one of those statements that sounds deep, but it is not deep.

  147. Yeah.

  148. You know what I mean?

  149. Like it's like it it's it's clever.

  150. Yeah.

  151. It's clever, but it's not, and people will be like, yes.

  152. There's a little forum post that uh is called I'm 14 and this is totally deep.

  153. And just posts pictures.

  154. No, and people will read that be like, yes, and I want to I want to respond, I never do respond um to that.

  155. Because I like a lot of times I'll start typing up a response, and I'm just like, this isn't gonna be helpful to anyone, and I just don't.

  156. Um but yeah, yeah.

  157. So we we have people we listen to.

  158. Here's what we're trying to say.

  159. We have people we listen to.

  160. But we have to be careful about that.

  161. And the reason the the the the Bible is such a basis for us, and this is actually something we're gonna talk about in a message in a couple weeks, is I just want to know whoever's whoever's talking to me.

  162. I want to know what are their views based on.

  163. What are the what what have where have they gotten this information?

  164. Um and what has shaped their thinking.

  165. Because a lot of people are their own, like I have a here's a filter I use, I mentioned this in the message.

  166. Don't listen to someone who is their own favorite theologian.

  167. Um I don't want to listen to someone who like to learn reads their own book.

  168. That doesn't make any sense.

  169. You know what I mean?

  170. But there are people who teach, and it's like this is not this is not careful examination of scripture or even this is just like this is their thoughts.

  171. And that's fine, there's a place for that.

  172. Um, but I believe that God's word is is more powerful than just the ideas of some 40-year-old.

  173. Yeah, and you know, and I think the the idea of false teaching assumes that something is true, and I think what you think is true like really depends on like where like what your worldview is based on.

  174. Um so if you're in the secular humanism worldview of just human is king, human, I decide what is best for me, I decide the the scenarios, I decide everything.

  175. It's like, well, then nothing is true and nothing can be false teaching, and it shouldn't be avoided because that's just their truth.

  176. Um, I'm glad you said that.

  177. That'll actually be a good segue, because so far this has been just kind of streaming consciousness.

  178. And something I mentioned in the message that I I basically say we don't have time to go into all of this, is that we have to understand as Jesus followers that we we as followers of Jesus we have we have accepted what is commonly referred to as the gospel, the which is the good news, the message of Jesus.

  179. I heard a pastor say this really brilliantly that uh sometimes the good news gets boiled down to good advice, and the gospel is not good advice.

  180. It's not like here's a few tips for for better living.

  181. It's it's like news is saying something has happened and because this has happened, everything is different.

  182. And that's that's what the good news is.

  183. The gospel is the message that because Jesus did what he did, died on the cross, rose from the grave, and you can even bull that came to earth, you know, because he because he was born as a person, died on lived the life he lived, died the death he did, and then rose to life again.

  184. Uh that's it has changed things.

  185. And the message of Jesus is is very unique and it presents a worldview, like you said, a way of looking at the world and the way of looking at people that is actually very counter to the a lot of the typical cultural ways, but we don't always recognize that as Christians.

  186. Right.

  187. And and and a worldview being something that's cohesive and all-inclusive.

  188. So like we believe that the the story of Jesus includes any aspect of being a human.

  189. And so you can't compartmentalize like some aspect of it's like, oh well, I believe this about that, but then I believe the Jesus way on this.

  190. It's like it's I have such a hard time with um teenagers because they're very uncomfortable with worldviews or even embracing a worldview because it acknowledges that there um has to be some logical consistency to how you think about everything, and that's just very hard.

  191. And they kind of just want to do everything on like case by case basis.

  192. Case by case basis.

  193. And Madison, by the way, is a youth pastor.

  194. He loves he loves teenagers, spends all this time like hanging out with students and teaching them.

  195. But one of the difficulties with kind of modern youth culture is the inability to just call a spade a spade, just say that is bad.

  196. Right.

  197. Well, it's not bad for it, may not be bad for that person.

  198. It might be bad for me, but not for them.

  199. Yeah, there's a lot of but that's that's very much rooted in a worldview of relativism.

  200. So let's just talk about this a little bit.

  201. So, what I'm saying is is this idea of worldviews, there's this I know what's the name of that video game that was popular years ago?

  202. Katamari.

  203. Katamari world domination or whatever.

  204. Katamari Dimas.

  205. It's a weird word.

  206. But it's this game, and you play as this like little you start off as a little dude.

  207. And you just like roll around, and as you roll around, you pick stuff up almost like uh like like lint, you know, like you're picking.

  208. But then the the lint ball gets bigger and it starts picking and then by the end of the game, you're like picking up buildings because well, that's how philosophies and and views about life work, is as history has gone on, people have sort of picked up some stuff from like Plato.

  209. Very few people realize how much they believe about life is actually like from the teachings of Plato and Socrates, you know, and then you have you have Jesus and and then some but then other people come along, and you mentioned, you know, the kind of uh whatever is the current outrage, you know, of of the day, and so maybe it's socialism or it there's a lot of isms and a lot of these isms are the product of thousands of years of of human thought and kind of picking this up from here, picking this up from there.

  210. That actually becomes kind of a dangerous thing when it comes to our faith.

  211. Because Jesus spoke in very certain terms.

  212. And I love that you know scripture ends with this this warning about not Don't change this book.

  213. Yeah, not taking away and adding to.

  214. Um and uh and even if you're someone who's like some people would argue, well, that's just the book of Revelation, it doesn't mean all of okay, fine.

  215. Um Jesus spoke in very certain terms.

  216. And and he presented a way of looking at life and the world that's different.

  217. And if you want, by the way, if you want the most cohesive from Jesus' own mouth way of looking at at the world, read John chapter 3.

    John 3 chapter mention

  218. Jesus has a conversation with Nicodemus, and in the who's a who's a religious teacher in his in his area, and in this conversation, Jesus lays out the the gospel.

  219. Um and that's where we get John 3.16, which is you know, for God's love the world, that it came out.

  220. But we get a lot of other stuff for from that too.

  221. We get you know early early in that conversation he says, you must be born again if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven.

  222. And whatever is born of flesh is flesh, whatever's born of spirit is spirit.

  223. So we have the idea of spiritual birth that happens through putting our faith in Jesus.

  224. And then you know, toward the end of that, verse 36, uh, and he's actually in a different conversation at this point, but the same chapter, he says, you know, whoever believes in the sun has eternal life, whoever doesn't believe in the sun is is under the wrath of God.

  225. Um like he speaks in very certain terms, and we have to be really careful about allowing other philosophies to sort of attach themselves to our faith, and and we we don't want to create a cocktail out of Jesus and um other other ways of thinking, which is by the way, the normal it happens unintentionally.

  226. It's like I as an I'm an American living right now, there are things I was taught are true that I just assume are true that I haven't really even questioned.

  227. And when I become a Christian, I I've blended some of those things together.

  228. Is there a way to like get practical without calling people out too much?

  229. I think it's it's easy to say that there are philosophies that have invaded Christianity or philosophies or worldviews.

  230. And the is there a specific example because it comes piecemeal, because you don't realize that a different philosophy has invaded your worldview until you see um a behavior in your life that is like oh, like I mean, I I think I think it would be really here's okay, here's what I would say to that, practically speaking.

  231. It would be really helpful if people spent a very small amount of time studying, you know, what what are the what are the prevailing worldviews of my culture.

  232. So if you're an American, you are you've you have spent the last 30 plus years in a secular humanist society.

  233. Secular meaning no no divinity, right?

  234. Um and humanist essentially just humanism doesn't say people Okay, that's funny, because like humanism at its core does not say that people are good or bad, but uh what it does say is that humans have all that they need inside of themselves to be good, right?

  235. And so within us is the infinite possibility of being as as good as we can be.

  236. So humans don't need God, because humans have everything that they that they need.

  237. Um so humanism, there's some fruits from humanism.

  238. And uh we live in a humanist culture.

  239. And like one of the like here's a great one be yourself.

  240. Um that is an adage that is gonna be plastered onto uh bumper stickers and inspirational posters in elementary school classrooms, and most of it, if I said, hey, you just gotta be yourself.

  241. Almost everyone's gonna nod and agree.

  242. So I was talking to this kid yesterday um at the gym playing basketball, he's a really good guy.

  243. And I said, you know, a lot of he's he's a Christian, and we were talking, and I said, you know, a lot of a lot of people have bought this this idea of Christianity, which is God loves you exactly the way you are, and he wants you to be yourself and learn to love yourself.

  244. And it's like sort of.

  245. Right.

  246. That's a blending of humanism and Christianity.

  247. God loves you exactly, he does love you exactly the way you are, and he wants to totally change who you are.

  248. Right.

  249. Because that's the language of scripture.

  250. Jesus says, anyone who wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.

  251. Um, anyone who belongs to Christ is a new creation, the old has gone.

  252. It's not that we become a Christian and we just become finally comfortable in our own skin.

  253. Right.

  254. But humanism elevates humanity to the place of importance.

  255. And so in humanism, being yourself is the ultimate thing you can be because you're you're the divine thing, so to speak.

  256. And a lot of people have taken humanism and they've unintentionally, not even like subconsciously, blended it in with their faith and they've kind of created this like mashup.

  257. Um which even with that be yourself, it stands like no tests because you go, in in five years, do you want to have grown a lot?

  258. Right.

  259. And everyone goes, Yeah.

  260. Well, you want to have overcome this struggle that you have right now?

  261. Yeah.

  262. It's like, so would embracing that struggle and being more yourself help you to reach that goal, or would it hinder you from reaching that goal?

  263. Yeah, it's a it's a lazy worldview because like a lot of people go to jail for being themselves.

  264. You know what I mean?

  265. Yeah.

  266. And rightfully so.

  267. So it's like one of those like, but I was just being me.

  268. Well, you shouldn't have.

  269. And our culture will also say you gotta be yourself, you also have to discover yourself and find yourself.

  270. Well, how can I how can I discover my if I if I can't, if I don't know who I am, how am I the authority on determining who I am, right?

  271. And that actually brings up another one.

  272. There's an idea called Gnosticism, which was uh uh it's G-N-O-S-T-I-C, that's Gnostic.

  273. So Gnosticism, this isn't Gnosticism is a really ancient uh Greek worldview that early in the church's history started to seep in, and the and the church leaders were like, nope, no, no, no, no, no.

  274. And one of the things about Gnosticism is the idea of like special knowledge.

  275. I went into this a little bit in the message.

  276. God like zaps some revelation to you and only you, right, that then acts as doctrine for other people as well, correct?

  277. Because there's there's the Holy Spirit which can help us discern things that are for me and only me, but it doesn't act as some new doctrine that contradicts the word.

  278. This is like new revelation can come.

  279. Right, and and I am the sole authority on it because I have it.

  280. And so, and and this is a very, very politically charged example, and just know I'm not saying anything more than I'm saying on this.

  281. I can give a less politically charged example if you're what would you give?

  282. Mormonism.

  283. No.

  284. And that's still politically charged?

  285. No, I just don't want to talk about that.

  286. Okay, let's move on.

  287. No, no, no.

  288. I'm just I'm I'm I'm not prepared.

  289. Hold on, I'm trying to think of my brain.

  290. Let's do this.

  291. Let's do this.

  292. Um No, say what you're gonna say.

  293. Well, I was gonna say transgenderism.

  294. Yeah.

  295. Because um, because in transgenderism, and again, I'm not saying anything more than I'm saying.

  296. I'm not I'm not a psychologist.

  297. I think you're saying more than you're saying by not saying more than you're saying.

  298. No, I you have when you talk about this stuff nowadays, you just have to say, I'm saying what I'm saying, and I stick by what I say today.

  299. Alright.

  300. Um, so transgenderism.

  301. The idea there is a person, which by the way, I know people that that that's their experience.

  302. And so I'm not, yeah, okay.

  303. It's where a person says, I I am something that no one else can perceive that I am.

  304. Right?

  305. And so if I said to you I'm a girl, well, it's like genetically you're not, you could test that, and it's like, hey, genetically you have the DNA of a of a of a man, and anatomically, you're you have the parts of a man, and all of these things, but but in our culture, which has really bought into to Gnosticism, but I say that I am, and therefore, because I am the authority of myself, um, and now you have to submit to my doctrine, my doctrine about who I am.

  306. And I'm look, I'm just saying that's Gnosticism.

  307. That's the idea that I I hold special knowledge that even if no one else can verify it, it is true because I am the authority, I'm the I'm the the knower of this knowledge.

  308. And and like what's hard is that doesn't line up with our faith.

  309. That that that that mindset doesn't line up because our faith is a submission to God, where He is the one that tells me who I am.

  310. Yeah.

  311. And He is the one that has authority to it's His knowledge, not mine.

  312. And it's and I surrender to that, but but if you become a Christian and it's like, well, this is just me, and I'm the one who determines that I'm me.

  313. That's that's not true.

  314. Well, it's you surrender to that, and then you're also given authority to um subdue your own body, like with your own desires and your own everything.

  315. And so whether it's um the desire to do, I don't know, to like spend every Saturday night at the at the bar or whatever, it's like, well.

  316. Your Christian freedom in Christ gives you the ability to say, I don't need that.

  317. I don't need to succumb to I'm not a slave to my I'm not a slave to my flesh, I'm not a slave to fear, I'm not a slave to urges, desires.

  318. I can tell myself no.

  319. Because my spirit is not under the authority of my flesh.

  320. Yeah.

  321. That's that's a that's a Christian view.

  322. But but yet in our culture, the phrase well, I was just born this way, this is just who I am, that's you know, accepted.

  323. And I think what we just have to be careful about as Christians is to say, hey, uh do I actually believe the gospel?

  324. Do I actually number one, do I know it?

  325. Do I know what the the core message of scripture is?

  326. The and some of the some of the assumptions that that message, you know, like the when Jesus says you must be born again, well, there's a core assumption there that something didn't go right the first birth.

  327. Because why why do you need to be born again?

  328. Yeah.

  329. And he says, well, because you were born of flesh.

  330. Now you need to be born of spirit.

  331. And and if I say, well, I was born this way and that's a good thing, I'm not saying everything about our birth is bad.

  332. Um, but if I'm always appealing to, well, this is how I am, I'm not appealing to a redeemed version of myself.

  333. I'm appealing to that under, it's just not.

  334. And I think, honestly, I think that the the church is doing an okay job talking about this personal dynamic.

  335. There's other like corporate, more more wholesale um false teachings.

  336. Like one one that I was just thinking of that we could potentially move on to, and if we don't want to talk about it, we don't have to, is the the idea of like the church is an American institution.

  337. Oh no, I'm actually glad you said that.

  338. So patriotism.

  339. Yeah.

  340. I would view patriotism as another ism.

  341. That like humanism, I would do humanism, Gnosticism, relativism, the idea that there is no and a lot of these blend together, that's what I'm saying.

  342. Over time they've they've merged and they've influenced each other.

  343. Relativism, the idea that there is no absolute truth, which is an absolute truth if it is true, which is funny.

  344. Um and and patriotism is an interesting one because that's a sneaky one, right?

  345. There's a lot of people who are like American Christians, but the American comes first.

  346. Yep.

  347. And it's like it's like it's like pro gun, pro-god, pro wall.

  348. And you're like, why?

  349. Like, right?

  350. Why are those all mixed together?

  351. It should be like God.

  352. I'm somebody who has uh I'm definitely pro-God.

  353. Yeah.

  354. And I don't own a gun, but I support other people's rights to own guns.

  355. And so, but but the point is But it's like, oh, you took the American flag off the stage.

  356. Not that we had an American flag on the stage, but churches have American flags on the stage, you know?

  357. Yeah, and obviously as Christians, we're commanded to uh pray for our nation, we're commanded to uh support our leaders and pray for our leaders.

  358. That comes from scripture.

  359. By the way, that didn't begin with America.

  360. When when that was written, it was when like Nero was the the it was it was people when we're sawn in half.

  361. Like he's saying, pray for your emperor, like pray for your leaders.

  362. These leaders were actively persecuting them.

  363. But the point being that a lot of people have have taken American values, um, which by the way might might some some of which are really useful in society and really good.

  364. But whenever, whenever, okay, whenever Jesus comes back and remakes the world, it's not just gonna be like America.

  365. Yeah He's not gonna just make the whole world America, right?

  366. Right?

  367. It's like America will no longer exist.

  368. Yeah.

  369. And his kingdom is is other than that.

  370. So so any ism that we allow to like blend with our, we just have to be really careful.

  371. Um some things are made stronger by blending, like you can make an alloy out of two metals and that's a stronger version of um, but most things are made weaker by like if you take alcohol and pour a bunch of water in it, it's weaker.

  372. If I well, yeah, and and your faith shouldn't be tied to the current goings-ons of the American government, of the world.

  373. It's like if your faith is that wishy-washy, it's like you're probably not believing in an all-powerful, infinite God.

  374. You're probably believing that the current political situation is what's going to save you.

  375. Yeah.

  376. So there's a lot of freedom actually in knowing that you don't have to have that patriotism thing be the defining factor of your faith.

  377. Yeah, so if you're a Christian, um it's like don't don't let your politics trump your uh don't let your politics trump your your faith or even shape your faith.

  378. Your faith should shape your politics, not the other way around.

  379. Right.

  380. Um and be a person of conviction, and it's fine to have strong it's fine to have passionate political leanings, it's fine to have those things.

  381. It's it's that's that's great.

  382. Um unless you're a jerk all the time.

  383. About it, yeah.

  384. But but again, and I think what this boils down to is the idea of what's core to your life.

  385. The gospel message, uh, if you really believe it, it has to like displace other things.

  386. It doesn't play nice with like like uh an obvious example would be like sexism.

  387. Um it's funny that some people will use the the Bible as like a sexist thing because the gospel so clearly uh displaces sexism.

  388. And here's why we know that history.

  389. Yeah.

  390. Because the nations in which the gospel has taken root and hold happen to be the nations where women have the most civil rights, the most freedom, the most equality with men.

  391. Because the gospel message displaces the idea that some people are more important than others.

  392. Right.

  393. Um to really accept the message of Jesus, it requires a displacement of other ways of thinking because it it's so absolute in its terms.

  394. Yeah.

  395. You know, Jesus doesn't say, hey, you know, a good thing might be to consider, I don't know, maybe being like born again or something.

  396. You know what I mean?

  397. If you want to, but you know, it's all cool if you don't.

  398. Every gotta be you, man.

  399. He says, There's no longer Jew and Gentile, but if you guys want to stay in those separate groups, you're fine.

  400. Yeah, you're cool.

  401. Yeah, whatever.

  402. No, he says, you must be born again.

  403. Um and that's just that's what I love about Jesus.

  404. He and also what I get to struggle with with him is he doesn't he does not leave a lot of wiggle room.

  405. Um, you know, and we uh we have to deal with that.

  406. So those those philosophies, those false teachings, be really, really careful with listening to anyone who and usually it's by because they're trying really hard to please people, be popular, uh even just like say incendiary things that are like gonna get a big buzz or whatever.

  407. Or they just want they they they might even do be doing what they think is the best intentioned thing.

  408. That's absolutely true.

  409. And they they may have been fooled fooled by things too.

  410. Yeah, and so so the idea there is I guess know the gospel, know the message of Jesus.

  411. Um, you know, the Bible Project, I again we we point them out a lot.

  412. They they are just a phenomenal resource for really anyone, regardless of where you're jumping in your faith.

  413. Um but if you know, if you really know the gospel, learn to recognize, okay, well, what other philosophies have shaped?

  414. I mean, this is literally like a 30-minute Google search.

  415. What are the core philosophies that have shaped you know the culture that I'm part of?

  416. And and a and a little bit of research there, you'll see it.

  417. And when you see it, it's like you recognize, oh, this isn't the gospel.

  418. This is this is humanism.

  419. And I gotta, I gotta, I don't need that.

  420. Yeah.

  421. You know, so yeah.

  422. I think that's all I really have to say.

  423. This probably could have been said much shorter.

  424. Yeah, but you know.

  425. Cutting room floor, it's just a conversation.

  426. That's what it is.

  427. All right.

  428. You gotta go, don't you?

  429. Yeah.

  430. Where are you going?

  431. I have a meeting with a counselor.

  432. Are you okay?

  433. Yeah, I'm okay.

  434. Counseling is healthy.

  435. I know.

  436. I do.

  437. I have a meeting with a counselor every Tuesday at 1 30.

  438. Nice.

  439. As of the time of this recording.

  440. I don't need it every week because I'm not that messed up.

  441. Oh man, I need it.

  442. She told me that I have to start coming in twice a week.

  443. Is that bad?

  444. Three times a day.

  445. Like is that bad?

  446. I thought that was like I was doing great.

  447. It was like a bonus time.

  448. Bonus time.

  449. Yeah.

  450. All right.

  451. Hey, thanks for listening.

  452. Um, this is the cutting room floor, and his hands church, and anyone else listening to this, we love you guys.

  453. Bye.