Scott, Jacob, and Andrew discuss the Sunday message. Then they discuss how important it is for the church to help fathers be the best they can be, and how we need God to be the foundation of our moral compass.
bfc4u.org,
facebook.com/bfc4u
Scott, Jacob, and Andrew discuss the Sunday message. Then they discuss how important it is for the church to help fathers be the best they can be, and how we need God to be the foundation of our moral compass.
bfc4u.org,
facebook.com/bfc4u
Welcome to Bible Fellowship churches the upper room. Our podcast discusses Sunday messages for pastor Don looks at the recent news headlines and any updates on our congregation and upcoming events. Leading the discussion is our church leadership with invited special guests. We hope you enjoy it and find it informative. To help support our ministry, please consider becoming a subscriber and financial contributor. Links to donate are on our website at VFC for you.org. Now let's get going.
Unknown Speaker :All right, well, my name is Scott Kimball and I'm one of the elders here at Bible Fellowship church and with me today is fellow elder Jacob Davis. Scott. Good. I'm doing all right. All right, we dodged a hurricane. So we had everybody All boarded up and prepped for it and then ended up not not having it here. So good for us bad for the folks who ended up with it. But yeah, that was a that was a strange hurricane and sadly appropriate for the year 2020. For sure. Right. I kind of blame a lot of this on Eric Clapton, you know, so, he did. He did invite Sally to lay down make herself at home and stick around and she sure did. Yeah. Yes, she did. While I was gone, you Jacob right off the bat. Great. And also this tonight is our sound engineer Andrew Kimball. Hey, Andrew.
Unknown Speaker :I'm doing good. I can't wait to see where this is gonna go. Yeah, right.
Unknown Speaker :It's all downhill from here.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. So always entertaining when Jacobs with us.
Unknown Speaker :Alrighty, well, first off, I wanted to go ahead and encourage folks listening to this podcast to share the podcast. Tell your friends about it. We want to try to build an audience here folks who are interested in and not only biblical truth But kind of looking a little bit at where the church needs to be today in terms of our culture, I really feel like the church has kind of lost the culture. And we need to be more involved in order to, I don't know that we can ever truly get it back, but at least be an influence on our culture. And so we try to talk about topics, news articles, and things like that, that have to do with that. So if that's something that interests you, and you think that you have friends or relatives, even if they attend a different church that might be interested in in some of that as well go ahead and and tell them about it. And we'd also like you to go to whatever podcasting app that you're listening to this on, and leave a review. And or you can even go to buzzsprout, which hosts our podcast and leave a review there. So with that said, let's move on to the Sunday message. So this week's Sunday message was in Isaiah chapter 19. And pastor Don was talking about the Oracle concerning Egypt. So I'll throw it open to you guys. First of all, any major themes or things you saw there? That kind of stood out to you and in the message, one major takeaway is that Don is not going to preach any sermons without clothes on. He wanted to make sure that that was clear right off the bat.
Unknown Speaker :Were they right? All right. Yeah. Feel free
Unknown Speaker :to edit that out later. And
Unknown Speaker :now that has entertainment value, so we'll leave
Unknown Speaker :that. That's quality content right there.
Unknown Speaker :Right there. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker :That's what people listen for Jacob.
Unknown Speaker :I know what the first review is going to say now.
Unknown Speaker :highly entertaining. I love that Jacob Davis.
Unknown Speaker :Ns, e w, not NSFW. Not safe for work.
Unknown Speaker :That's funny, at least is audio only right? All right, anything any other major topics you guys saw in the message. So I think one thing that was really cool given the content The Old Testament which is so much about God speaking through the through the Jewish people through the nation of Israel, I thought it was really cool. This chapter really shows that God loved the Gentiles to even in that prior dispensation when he's using, he's using the nation of Israel to be his mouthpiece to the rest of the world that he really loves the Gentiles. And I think that's in when he condemns sins that are present in in Gentile nations in the Old Testament. He's purely condemning the sin he still loves the sinner. And and I think we need to remember that it today he's speaking through the church as his mouthpiece to the whole world. And we're in we're convicting the world of sin, but he still loves the center and he still loves those outside the church just as he loved the Assyrians and the Egyptians in this chapter. So I think that was really cool when you consider the context of the Old Testament.
Unknown Speaker :Andrew, any thoughts?
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, that is really cool. Now I'm kind of I'm playing catch up this week because I spent Sunday morning with my kid kind of in the cry room. And then the hurricane threw off my whole normal work, weekly routine. So normally, I would have listened to it again today at work, but I didn't go to work to that and go inside and re listen to it. So I'll probably listen to it tomorrow. But it would be too late for this at that point. So I'm kind of more catching up and learning from YouTube this evening.
Unknown Speaker :Okay, that's fine. I know exactly how you feel that
Unknown Speaker :definitely can sympathize with that. I do like to point that Jacob may just not I think that is really cool. Especially when you think about in the Old Testament, it is pretty much focused on on Israel. And so it is nice to see that even in this context that that doesn't mean that God doesn't care about the rest of us. It's just That's not the main focus of the Old Testament.
Unknown Speaker :Well, the focus of the of the Jewish nation of Israel was to be a light to the rest of the world. I mean, they were supposed to be God's representative and show God's love God's character, God's justice to the rest of the world as a beacon basically. And I, in many ways, they kind of failed at that. But we can't be too critical because I think the church has kind of done the same thing. And in our zealousness to try to create our Christian nation here in the United States. You know, we've condemned a lot of sin, and we've condemned a lot of sinners along with it. And not not been. Yeah. And not been very terribly loving and in our approach, and so therefore, I think that's one of the reasons why the church has kind of lost our influence on the culture is because people are just tired of it. They don't they don't want to listen to it anymore. And, and so I think, you know, we can learn a lot from the Old Testament based on On the failures of Israel, because we're repeating them now as the church. And so anyways, the other take I had on it, one of the things that Don said that I thought was really good was even in the Old Testament, even when they were still under the contract of the law. And well, of course, he was dealing with Egypt, they weren't under the law. So Egypt, when in his he was laying out his message, he made a comment that you know, that the Lord was letting it play out. And I like that, you know, that's that kind of that idea that, you know, he doesn't have to come in and pronounce judgment or do anything, all he's got to let humanity do is just suffer under its own devices for a while, and they'll punish themselves, essentially. And we see that happen on you know, on a daily basis, and everyone wants to look at Satan and say, Oh, yeah, you know, the devil made me do it or whatever. No, it's really, it's your own sin nature. And if left to your own devices without the guidance of the Lord, you're gonna, you're going to fall into sin and you're going to do bad things. And so you're going to, you're going to suffer the consequences of those things, the natural consequences not not that God's gonna come smite you or anything like that, although he did plenty of that in the Old Testament. But I like that that even show that even in that day they kind of let it play out. The other thing Don said in there that I thought was interesting was in that second half of the sermon verses 16 on, there was all those in that day, phrases. And so he was pointing out that in that day, is really the Lord's day, the day to come. And so there was a lot of stuff in here addressed to the Egyptians, that in that day, would come to pass. And some of it is really great. I mean, he's talking about the Egyptians and the Assyrians, and the Israelites all worshipping together, all worshiping the Lord. And so the you know, that kind of points to our, our idea of what we see in Scripture, the millennial kingdom, where everybody is under the rule and reign of Christ. And that's a day. We look forward to You know, it's something that I that will be one of the great things about that day is that in that day, you know, nations that may have Ward against one another will all refocus their attentions and worship on the Lord. So I thought that was really good. Yeah. In verse, verse 19, I thought something kind of interesting. Clarence Larkin, who's one of the earlier dispensationalists, that did all the the chart mapping that kind of made that popular. Yeah, he actually thought verse 19, that the altar of the border of Egypt, he, he made a connection with that with the great pyramids, that those would be used as some way to worship worship God during the millennial kingdom, which is interesting thought, though.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, yeah. I mean, it doesn't say that.
Unknown Speaker :Say that. It doesn't
Unknown Speaker :say that at all. But it's like it's kind of a cool thing. So yeah, well, we know the Egyptians were very religious people and they have their Egyptian gods and so you know, there's a lot of altars and things In Egypt, and of course, including the pyramids, but Yeah, that'd be kind of cool to think that those might be repurposed in order to worship the Lord. Because there's some people that think that Hebrew slaves help build a lot of that. With I believe, yeah, with more monotheistic thoughts in mind.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. No,
Unknown Speaker :yeah, I believe that in verse 23, that the highway from from Egypt to Syria is pretty cool. So I don't know what that's gonna look like. So, uh, I don't know if Elan Musk is listening to our podcast or not. But that could be a Hyperloop. Perhaps. There you go.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. Bullet Train or something.
Unknown Speaker :Elan, if you're out there. leave that in the comments, please.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, he's a big fan.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, I thought so. I thought so.
Unknown Speaker :Since it, you could tell That's funny. Yeah, that is kind of interesting that it does use that term and be a highway from Egypt to a Syrian so I guess I would pass through Israel.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, that's kind of cool.
Unknown Speaker :There'll be an exit there for sure. Because they're worshiping
Unknown Speaker :together, little on ran offering and not a cloverleaf, those things are a pain. There's a are there on linear kingdom? No, absolutely not. No. Trucks flip over on those terrible. They take up so much space. That's funny. Let's see what else in verse 24, that in that day Israel will be the be the third with Egypt and Assyria blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessing blessing of Egypt, my people in Assyria makes you wonder if if that whole territory that that was a Syria and Israel and its full territories, because it's it's much larger territory that God gave Israel than what they currently occupy. And then Egypt, which is also a very large territory, if that will end up being kind of the seed of the government of Jesus when he's ruling and reigning.
Unknown Speaker :As thought,
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, because it's a large territory and you know, and according according to our theology, you know, we'll be there ruling and reigning with Christ. And so, you know, of Christians all come back from the dead to rule and reign with Christ. In theory, it could be a lot of people. Hopefully, it'll be a lot of people. Right? There's a lot of people who went to the grave thinking they were a Christian that actually weren't but but anyway, that's a bad surprise. Yeah. Me tough to think that goes back to Matthew 721 to 23. I think it was when when they say, Lord, Lord, did we not do all this in your name? He said, Get out of here. I don't know you are? Yeah, Depart from me. I never knew. Yeah, it's kind of sad because they're going to be resurrected at the end of the millennial kingdom. So they won't get to experience any of that they'll just go right into judgment. So that's, that's pretty sad thing to wake up to. No peace.
Unknown Speaker :No, no unity, no Hyperloop
Unknown Speaker :Really high on this Hyperloop idea.
Unknown Speaker :Think the word is pandering? Yeah. Okay. I got him it is. He's got a lot of he's got a lot of good ideas. All right. Anything else on Isaiah 19 anything that any aha moments or anything like that I think we kind of covered a lot of it. It's unique. It's it's something, that the fact there's so much emphasis on Egypt and is really is really striking and we just kind of blow it off really, even amongst studying the book of Isaiah that still doesn't get much coverage. But I think it shows some of the, the universe that universality of God's love and sneap Yeah, I mean, ultimately, we're all part of God's creation, right, whether you're Jew or Gentile. And so I think his love is for all of humanity, not just Israel. In some ways Israel comes under God's condemnation because he gave them a specific time. And they didn't do it. So, you know, the rest of us are all kind of swimming along in our ignorance basically, it was a good message. I really enjoyed it enjoyed going back and listening to it again. You know, something also, I would encourage our listeners to do if you get a chance, go back and listen to it, you can listen to it two or three times, I guarantee you'll pick out something that you didn't catch for, you know, the first time or two. There's always little nuggets of stuff there that seemed to pop out at you. One of the things you know, when you're in church on a Sunday morning, there's a lot of stuff going on. You know, it's it's kind of a busy place, especially with the two dads I got here with small children. It's tough to really focus and even if you are focused, you know, the studies say you're only going to remember about 10% of what you heard anyway. So it makes more sense to be able to have these available where people can go back and listen to them again a few times. The more you listen to it, the more you're going to retain. So it's important it's good stuff. Yeah, my nine year old I was reading this out loud as a 19 hour. allowed in preparation for tonight, and she came into the room. And she said, that's what pastor Don read Sunday. And I was pretty impressed that she picked that up Sunday. But mostly I was pretty guilty, because I'm pretty sure if somebody had been reading this in another room, I don't think I would recognize that as what we read in church on Sunday. So I think my nine year old kind of put me to shame there. You know, her little brains still soft and malleable and can multitask.
Unknown Speaker :That's my excuse.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, we're losing that ability. The older we get.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. And I find that when I'm, I listened at work. And so like, when I'm working, I'm doing stuff that I've done, you know, hundreds of times before following the same routine. So it's actually easier for me to kind of focus in on what I'm listening to, because what my hands and whatever I'm doing at work is kind of like muscle memory at that point. So it's kind of the reverse. That's why I tend to try to listen to it during the week when I'm when I'm working.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, that's a good that makes sense. Yeah. And having it on your You know, if your phone, you can just pull it up and put in your earbuds and just kind of tune in and tune out to what's going on around you. Mm hmm. Not too much, especially if you're driving heavy machinery. Alright, well the next thing I wanted to get into a little bit is some of the news topics. And there was a couple articles I ran across this week that I thought were really interesting. And one kind of speaks to my mind in my heart. I kind of hit up the men's Ministry of Bible Fellowship Church and, and that's really kind of where my heart lies is helping men be better men. And I think it's something that was sorely lacking in our, in our society today. And I thought this article was was really a good article. It was kind of a feel good piece. It's called the Ed mcglasson. fixing our culture starts with fathers. And it basically goes into his story a little bit, but also talks about, you know, kind of the ministry that he's doing now. He was Pastor at one time and now he's doing full time men's ministry and you know doing the thing where he's writing books and helping men's groups and things like that. And but there's a lot of good stuff in this article about being a dad and how important it is for a father to be in the life of his family, not only for his children but also for his wife. So you guys get a chance to read that and look it over a little bit and any thoughts on it? I did. I thought it was really good. And and I think your hearts in the right place because that when I was reading it, I was thinking about man, this is really an area where the church can step in and and Minister corporately to, to a nation that really to serious need in the nation.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, I agree. Totally.
Unknown Speaker :Andrew, any thoughts?
Unknown Speaker :No, I, I skimmed it earlier, but I haven't had a chance to dive in and and read it completely in depth, but I know It's something that you've, like you said, you're, you're, it's like heavy on your heart. Because you mentioned a quite a bit. And you had to head up the men's ministry at the church and stuff when we do stuff like that. And so I've, I've heard stuff along this line before, and I definitely agree. It's, it's kind of it's that ripple effect that the like, the opening thing in his article is if you want to, you don't have to look any further than the family to understand understand why our culture is falling apart. And it's like, when the families are broken, you just kind of ripples out from there, and has a huge effect on society as a whole. And that's, that's one of the reasons why, you know, father's a father that's there, first of all, but also that's doing the right things for his family is so important. But then it's also because Christ is supposed to be our example. And we're supposed to kind of have to mirror him in order to do it properly.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, absolutely. You know, there's been several studies done that say, you know, girls marry their fathers, you know, they, they look for men that kind of remind them of their dads. And there's also been studies that say that, you know, people who have good, healthy spiritual, especially in Christianity, spiritual relationship with God. It's usually because they had a good father figure in their life growing up. And so it's easy for them to relate to God the Father because their own father, you know, their earthly father was a good dad, and people who had a horrible dad at home, you know, the, the drunk, the abusive, the strict disciplinarian, that kind of thing. That's also how they view God. And it makes it really hard for them to overcome those kind of feelings about their Heavenly Father, because of the the imprint that their earthly father had on them. And so it's important and I think it's a role and I think I agree with you and I think it's a role that the church really needs to be for front end, that needs to be, I think one of our top priorities. You know, unfortunately, the church today spent so much time picking up the pieces of a broken society. We spent a lot of time and effort. I'm not saying we shouldn't spend time and effort on these things. But we spend a lot of resources, time and effort on single moms on broken families on divorced couples on, you know, all these things were where things have gone wrong. And instead of spending equal resources on helping those who want to do it, right, get it right the first time and not wait until it's broken in order to get in there and try to fix it. Yeah. at church, you know, so a couple things about this article. He did talk a lot about reconciling where there's problems, but sometimes it's not possible because the father either doesn't want to or he's past in can't. So a church should be somewhere that where there's male role models there that can be mentors and in spiritual leaders And mentors, where there should be good role models available so that the church can minister in that way, as well. And it also struck me that reading some of the examples he hadn't story, that, that the the church really needs to drive home to two people that their significance comes from God. Because there may be a situation where the father's not available for one reason or another to reconcile in to straighten this out. And if we can explain to people that our significance doesn't come from anything we do, or from me think anybody else gives to us, we are who we are. We're special because God loves us. And nobody Can't you you cannot lose that. You can, you can reject it and not want it but you can't lose that.
Unknown Speaker :You were special because God loves us and if if there's no parents in the home,
Unknown Speaker :that you're still just a special being Because God loves you and Christ died for you. So the church can address that need, where there's where there's not a happy ending the way he painted some of the stories, obviously, that's ideally but sometimes that's not an option. And and as a church, we need to drive home that, that God loves us. And he's the one that who gives us our worth and our significance and nobody can take that way. Yeah, very good. Well said. Yeah. You know, it's a good article, I found it very encouraging. So, that was a good one. The other article that I that I let you guys take a look at today was an article by Dennis Prager. And I know some folks out there either have heard of him or if you have heard of him, you may have heard all kinds of who knows what you what you think about Dennis Prager, but he's a little polarizing. He is he's outspoken and trigger word trigger is a trigger word. can be for a lot of people, I'm sure But he's a Jewish man. And he started Prager University. And if you spend any time online at all, you'll see his videos. And what he's really trying to do, and a lot of his videos is teach civics. He's trying to he's trying to get those foundational truths of our country and how it's organized and all that kind of stuff in the people's mind. He's also trying to correct some of the historical things that people on the left are trying to change today. And by putting out short videos that kind of tell the truth of the background behind certain narratives that are being pushed by the left today, and I use the term the left and I think he makes a distinction in here to the left is different from liberal, which I thought was a good distinction. When we talk about the left, we're talking about those who are openly embracing socialism and Marxism. And as the church we need to be very careful about about that this ideology because it is very hateful towards religion in general, but Christianity in particular and So we need to be on guard we need to learn more about it and understand the kind of the thinking behind it where we can make a a an accurate defense you know, what's the verse and Timothy were talks about being ready for ready for defense
Unknown Speaker :escapes me to top my head right now.
Unknown Speaker :Well things First Peter, I think has a comment about having already defense three, eight maybe? Yeah, yeah, I think that's what we're thinking of. Anyways, but the idea behind you know, he starts out the article saying that essentially the article is called the left's moral compass isn't broken. And he was saying that he normally you know, in his shows and whatnot, he talks about the left having their moral compass broken, but I think he's kind of come to the conclusion that they're just using a completely different compass. Then the way the rest of us think and as for Sr 353 15, Okay, good, thank you for looking at it. But there's some good resources out there that kind of talk about this and just the idea that people can at things from a different perspective, there's a there's a psychologist researcher named Jonathan Hite, who has a book called The righteous mind. I don't know if you've heard of it or ever read it. But it's really good and kind of talks about this principle that all cultures around the world have five or six basic things foundational things that their morality is based on. And that from those five or six things, they build their moral system. And the interesting thing that he noted in the United States is that, you know, whether you're conservative or liberal, those five elements are still there. It's just that on the conservative side, they're more concerned about things like protection and authority and, and equal treatment of the law and whatnot. And then on the left, they're more concerned about some of the other issues as far as fairness and the quality and things like that, and that and that both have a place and Society and his encouragement is that we need both in order to have a well rounded society. And that where we get into trouble is when you get into this far left extreme ideology of Marxism, because it kind of throws all of that out. It's all about power and all these things that we're talking about these days, intersectionality in canceled culture, and all that kind of stuff, all of that stems out of Cultural Marxism. And so this is one of the things that dennis is talking about in this article is that one of the things especially is that power thing, everything is based on power and who has the power to the left and in so they they look at morality based on who has power and who doesn't have power. And the people who don't have power well within the morality to do whatever it takes to bring down the people with power. And the people with power no matter what they do. They're immoral in everything. So that's why black people cannot be racist, but all white people are right You know, as sort of their ideology and thinking behind that, and that comes from that idea of power, because in this country, there are more Caucasians than there are African Americans. And so therefore, we are the ones in power. And it's it's really it's, it's, it's a terrible ideology, and it's one that has been in place now for, I guess, over 30 years, the New York Times back before they got taken over by Marxist reported 30 years ago that that they were concerned that Marxism was becoming the mainstream and colleges. And it says that today we're seeing the results of that. And so it's been coming for a long time, and I think the church largely has just been completely blind to it. You know, as long as we didn't have economic Marxism, we seem to be okay. We didn't realize the Cultural Marxism that was coming in and take and take it over the minds of our young people. And you can see it even in the way they talk about things. How Marxism has influenced everything. So, did you get a chance to look at that article a bit, Jacob? I did. So yeah, I would grade it a couple of different ways, um, for technical skill. I think he I don't think he used the term but he were talking about moral relativism and the lack of absolute truth in everything that flows out from, from that. So So yes, they The problem is when you don't have a compass, everything gets everything gets gone thrown off, because I think Schaefer talked about having the foundation if you've got a whole society built on a foundation, you pull this foundation out from under it like a bridge, and then everything you built on top of it doesn't make sense anymore. So I would give I would give Praeger points for that. The the trop trouble with articles like this, though, is a lot of times the tone. So it can be it's good for educational reasons.
Unknown Speaker :For people who already believe this to me who are already Christians, and understand the gospel to read, the tricky part is that there's good hearted people who have been caught up in Marxism and things and, and that the tone of this is a little inflammatory. So as a as a as a Christian society that are the the that those of us who are Christians within the society, we probably need to get into more of a habit of writing things in teaching things in a more evangelical fashion to be able to reach out and convince and win over people. This is a good motivation to a roomful of Christians. But if, if somebody who is because they do have morals, the moral compass is all they have. Every individual has a system of has a set of morals that adhere by so Do you want to reach out to them and explain that, that God is the moral compass upon which everything should be built and explain that lovingly.
Unknown Speaker :But this
Unknown Speaker :if somebody were to read this,
Unknown Speaker :without all the background and Christian education was read this, it would really rub them the wrong way and might help to build a wall instead of instead of winning them over. I just feel like as American Christians, we really need to do a better job of trying to evangelize people and to reach out to them. Still using the facts, but not using a combative tone. So I would give him technical points, but but not in the points in the tone arena. So that's kind of that's kind of my take away.
Unknown Speaker :That's a good observation.
Unknown Speaker :You know, and it's one of those things I think both sides do. I mean, I feel the same way when I read articles of the New York Times, you know, because they're, they're inflammatory language is in the other direction and everything they say in there rubs me the wrong way. So that's true. We are non Christians, they should be trying to lovingly convince you to be a Marxist. But that's not really how they operate. Because Yeah, right. Look, it's just a chemical reaction developed over millions of years of chemical and biological accidents. There you go. Yep. And that kind of brings back a point, you know, as far as right and left in our country is that they're so busy trying to defeat each other, that they're not looking for any kind of common ground. You know, and we've talked about this before that, you know, it's tough to find common ground when your goal is to crush your enemy. And, and so both sides seem to kind of do that and they do they use a lot. Both sides use a lot of inflammatory language. A lot of words that they know are buzzwords that the other side absolutely hates. And, and so it makes it really tough. That moral foundation theory is what that was called I was talking about earlier and there's a website called moral foundations. dot org where you can learn more about it. And the six foundations are our care harm. Number two is fairness cheating, number three is loyalty betrayal. Number four is authority. subversion. Number five is sanctity, and degradation. And number six is Liberty oppression. And so all cultures around the world as far as they can tell, have a moral foundation that kind of uses the same things. And depending on which side of those things they're on, whether they're more concerned about caring or more concerned about harm, or if they're more concerned about fairness, or they're more concerned with cheating dictates kind of the moral code that that society will develop. And so it's pretty interesting stuff and also got several YouTube videos and stuff on it. I think he did a TED talk on it. That was pretty good. Talking about this moral foundations theory and again, his name is Jonathan Haidt, if you want to look them up ha IDT.
Unknown Speaker :Anyway, some good stuff there. All right.
Unknown Speaker :on this topic, it reminds me of First Corinthians chapter nine when Paul's talking about to the Jews, he's becoming like a Jew to those under law like under law to those without law, as if they were without law even though he's really is under law of Christ. And he sums it up into the week he became like week. But he was doing it all possible to try to save man. And that's really what Christians should be doing. We should be doing whatever it takes to win over souls. For Christ not to win a not not to win, right to win souls not to win an argument because not to win an exam. Exactly. What Because ultimately, I think we got to we understand that whatever political ideas system of government or whatever we have, it's going to be flawed, right? Because it's ran by imperfect people. And so as Christians, we're all looking forward to the Millennial Kingdom when Christ is here. And we actually have a, a government that's ran by God essentially. So You know, until then we're always going to be debating over the, you know, the different parts of how our government works and what works better for the most people. And I think it makes more sense to do that from a perspective of a larger group of people instead of just those within your own bubble. All right, so some quick announcements here. One of the things I wanted to announce is we are going to start our men's meetings again, I want to begin doing a men's breakfast. I think I'm going to try to start on Saturday, October 3, and we'll I'll put some information on the website and put it in the newsletter and whatnot, at what time and they get. I think we were doing it like eight to nine in the morning, if I remember. Right.
Unknown Speaker :So right. That sounds about right.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, I think so. Yeah. So we'll probably continue to do that. And I'm going to do a little different Loaves and Fishes for breakfast, or how's that work? mess sardines. Maybe I don't know. Kipper snacks.
Unknown Speaker :depends on if you want people to show up or not.
Unknown Speaker :So, anyways, so we'll be doing some good stuff there. You know, it's a it's a one hour meaning it doesn't take a lot of time out of your day and it's an opportunity to get together with other men. And talk about talking about being a guy wouldn't you know, what does that take and how can we be better men better husbands better fathers, so good stuff. The other thing is I wanted to make you aware of another website if you're really bummed, and it's gonna get worse as we get closer to the election. The news, the articles, the Facebook posts, everything is just gonna get awful between now is there.
Unknown Speaker :Is there an election this year?
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. You weren't aware of that?
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, pretty sure some some guy named Biden, I don't know. I never heard him. So. Anyways, there's a website called human progress. org. And if you've never been to that website, I encourage you to check it out. It's very encouraging because it looks at those aspects of humanity where At least for the moment, we seem to be getting some things right. And, and so it's very, it's a very encouraging website. So if you're getting kind of down with the with all the negative news and the bashing back and forth of the republicans than Democrats, go check out that website and it might help uplift your spirit a little bit. And obviously, as Christians, we need to be stayed firmly grounded in the scriptures and not be worried and looking at what's going on right now because we have an eternal perspective. So it's always good to keep that in mind. And then I've mentioned it before the book, the righteous mind by Jonathan Haidt. It's a secular book. It's not a Christian book by any stretch of the imagination, but it's got some good information that kind of maybe help you understand where people are coming from, that aren't like you. So, which is always a good thing to do. So let's wrap things up here. We've got the Great Commission now emphasis, it's happening this weekend. Matter of fact, it's happening near mail. It'll happen the day this thing's released. So Friday The 18th is when it begins. If you haven't signed up for it already, go ahead and get signed up for it a great commission now.org I believe we pop that up real quick. Yeah, great commission now.org, all one word.org. And then, and then there's a place where you can sign up and they'll give you information. And again, the idea is, is that it's a gospel presentation that's going to get released simultaneously into social media all at once. And the idea is to make this thing go viral so that if we get a million Christians posting this thing, over a billion people should see it. And, and I will tell you the the gospel presentation, if you haven't watched it yet already, the guy's a little more charismatic than in our churches, and he's very emotional. And so it might make you might make you wince a little bit when you watch it, but it's good stuff. And I have talked to him personally on the phone and his hearts in the right place. he's a he's a good guy, and he's evangelists. And he means well and he's doing the right thing I think and I, I like the idea of what he's trying to do here. So I want to try to support him as best we can. And then the other thing is I want everybody in our listening audience here to pray that you know, the God's gonna allow you to invite three people to church this week, even if you don't attend our church, if if you attend to another church, that's fine. Pray to God I'll give you some opportunity to to invite some folks to your church are most of our churches are struggling to maintain folks, people are kind of going their own way these days. And so it's it's a good thing to try to get folks back in back into the teaching of the word because it's it's important. It's important to our society, it's important to our country's future. So any final thoughts or comments, guys, before we close? I got some websites in the look that I'm not familiar with a couple of them. So got some homework assignments here. Okay. There you go.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, good stuff. Alrighty, guys, well, Jacob, would you close us out in prayer?
Unknown Speaker :Sure. Let's try Right, your gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time we can gather together and we pray for those listening to this, wherever and whenever they may be listened to it, we just hope that we can receive your grace to be able to, to share your gospel message with the world who desperately needs it, and that we come across not as combative in tone but as loving, so that they'll know us by our love. And we just, we thank you for what you showed us and as a chapter 19 that, that you love the whole world and it's not your will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and help us to have their might right mindset. We know we're not able to do it on our own and we just beg for your for your blessings and that and that we're humble in and that we step out of the way and let you speak to the society as you see fit. We ask that Words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable in your sight. And we look forward to your kingdom. And we just ask that you give us the right heart that we can serve you, as we should here today, and we we just pray for everybody listening to this, that that they'll come know you personally that you care about them individually, and that they are significant and valuable, and worthy, and love beyond beyond any human comprehension. We just ask that you make that clear to whoever is Transcribed by https://otter.ai