“Stump the Pastor” Question and Answer session with Stephen Davey

To access video of our morning together, click the Jumpshare link below.

https://jumpshare.com/share/Q90ZPaDxyNIje91kq2Dn

Stephen Davey 

WOW April 8th 2026

Topic: “Stump the Pastor” Question and Answer session with Stephen Davey

Below are synopses of the spontaneous questions that were asked, with the approximate time on the recording that each question was answered by Pastor Davey:

1. (7:40) What does the bible say about cremation?
2. (13:45) How and when did Jewish Christians learn that animal sacrifices were not required?
3. (21:51) What happens to a child who dies without an understanding of the gospel or before professing faith?
4. (33:15) Explain free will. Does free will give us the choice to believe or not? Does the Lord take over my mind to say yes to him?
5. (39:15) How to handle musical groups and people who are Apostates?
6. (43:15) In 1Corinthians 6:9-10 regarding adultery, homosexuality, fornication.  What is the statement mean you will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Does does the kingdom mean?
7. (46:25) What significance is there in changing the reference from Christ Jesus to Jesus Christ?
8. (51:44) When we ask other to pray for us do their prayer outweigh our prayers?
9. (56:09) Praying thy will be done?
10. (57:42) Ask what every you want and you will receive it if you believe it? 
11. (1:00:55) Can you explain the reason and spiritual significance of this portion of scripture in Mathew 27:52-53 where these resurrected saints went into Jerusalem?
12. (1:03:02) When Lazarus was raised from the dead wouldn’t it have been disappointing to Lazarus?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning, everybody. I'm so glad to see all of your friendly faces. And I'd love to hear all the hens clucking too. It means we're in the right place and fellowshipping together, and what a great study we've had this year. Thank you for joining us this morning and filling up the room. I'm excited for what lies ahead. Let's go ahead and open in prayer. Dear Lord, we love you so much. Thank you for Wednesdays. Thank you for your word. Thank you for leaving it for us, that we would get to know you better by reading it. Thank you for the fellowship of believers, that we can meet here together and come closer to you as we come closer to each other too, Lord. Please be with us this morning. If there's anybody in here that is hurting, Lord, I just ask that you would come with your arm around her and say, be of good cheer. Whether you say it through the birds in the air, the flowers in the fields, Lord, or even just in our heart, through your Holy Spirit, we're so thankful that you are still with us today and encouraging us on our walk on a regular basis. Thank you for Paul's life and what we have learned from studying it. I just ask that you be with each of us today as we ask our questions of the pastor, would you fill him with your Holy Spirit that nothing that is said would be contrary to what you want us to learn today? May each of us have open hearts, willing hearts, teachable hearts that would be willing to learn what you have written for us today, and that our pride would not stand in our way from learning, but that we would step forward for you and invite others to make those same same steps for you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, all things. Amen. All right, ladies, I am so excited. Does everybody have their questions already for Pastor Davy today? Okay. I wanted to tell you so Pastor Davy is famously not a big fan of cats. Have you heard that? So he it's kind of a shtick he does. My husband does the same shtick with dogs. So Mary Dom has a real issue with my husband because he's not a big fan of dogs. So I just have to tell you that when my son was about five years old, he came home from his cousin's house and he just was like, Mom, you know, Gabe, my cousin, his neighbor is giving away free kittens. We could have a cat for totally free. And he was so excited. And I I, you know, he has very severe food allergies. He was at the time he was allergic to milk, eggs, soy, and beef, and could die if he had any of them in any amount. It was really bad. Anaphylactic reaction, right? And so um I said to him, you know what, bud, I've never told you this before. I said, but I'm actually allergic to cats. And I said, There's just no way that we'll ever have a cat in my in our house. And he was so disappointed, and a couple seconds went by, and then he said, Well, you don't have to eat it. But that same son, about a year later, had a stump the pastor question, which stumped his mother. And that was this. We were homeschooling at the time. He was about six years old and not a fan of homeschooling. And he had come home from Sunday school that day and he had learned that in heaven you have a new body. And he came home and he said to me with just such purity, Mom, did you know that when we get to heaven I get a new body? And he said, This kind of kind of chokes me every time I say it, he said to me, Does that mean when I'm in heaven I can eat anything I want and eat the same thing as everybody else? Not just about make you cry. I had no idea it was that big of a deal for his life. And then uh he said, But Mom, do you think they'll do school in heaven? I said, No, Nate, I don't think they'll do school in heaven. He goes, Well, if school's not important to God, then why is it important to you? So that would be my first stump the pastor question, I will tell you. I'm so grateful for Stephen Davy. If you saw any of my four children the very first day we came here, they were uh somewhere around the age of five all the way up to 13, and we sat in the pews that very first day and we looked down. My husband actually took a picture during church because he couldn't believe how attentive they were to Stephen Davy's teaching. They all had their notepads out and they were all taking notes as to what he was teaching because it was really from the Word of God. So excited to have him here today, and he volunteers this every year. He does say that we're his favorite, so we're just gonna take full credit for that. So Stephen began the uh seminary here that's attached to the church. So all of the professors that we've had come in speak for us this year have been from that seminary, which has just been such a blessing to us to get that level of teaching here. He also began Wisdom for the Heart. Has anybody on the wisdom journey this year? Right? So this is a 10 minutes a day sermon that he's given the entire way through the Bible, from Genesis all the way to Revelation in 10 minutes a day, a fantastic journey. But really, Wisdom International has begun so that we could pre-he could preach the gospel around the world. So you can hear him in many different languages as AI has made it possible to translate him and his voice into different languages around the world so that it can be heard around the world, including now the prisons. They've started a prison fellowship and getting these messages in there. But with that, we get him right here in our room with personal questions that we get to ask. So I have given Stephen many of the questions that you guys have sent to me. So um, but sometimes he likes to just say, everybody raise your hand and let me know uh what questions you have. So we're gonna give him the flexibility to do whichever one he wants. So with that, here is Pastor Stephen Davy.

SPEAKER_06 6:12

All right. Oh, there we go. Thank you. That's fine. Thank you. He did a great job stalling. He did a good job. I don't know why, I thought it started at 11. That's what's in my calendar. Oh, I do. Okay. Uh so sorry. Well, I got uh pages of questions uh from Terry. Um thanks for the cat stuff, too, by the way. I've got a little sign in my office that says uh I actually love cats, but I can never finish a whole one. Disgusting. All right. Uh what we'll do is uh wow, um go through these questions and uh they'll they'll you know I'm sure uh yield others, so feel free to raise your hand. And and uh I I understand the objective is to stump the pastor, so I'll I'll tell you if I'm stumped. Oh, thanks. Yeah. Okay. Um and and I think what I'll do too, I don't think I have another appointment until a little later, so I'll stay. Am I when I'm done, we're done? Okay, I'll stay up here. If you have any further questions we didn't get to, I'll stay and and um answer as best I can. Okay. All right. So the first question is uh what does the Bible say about cremation? Um I don't know if you you're wondering if I'm thinking about this personally. Uh I have people now ask me, when are you retiring? Um uh I'm not, by the way. I'm not planning on it. Uh that's a whole nother story. But uh the Bible doesn't say anything about it. That's an easy question to answer. I think if you go back in history, obviously um there is a there's a sense of of there's a special sense uh toward the body, and there's an understanding that that body that returns to dust and might be scattered, who knows where, and those buried at sea, uh whatever, that that matter is gonna be reconstituted by the miraculous power of God. Uh he's gonna put you and me back together and just heal everything, but we're still us. Um, and uh that's kind of the mystery of the resurrection. But um so uh that there's respect for that, um, but there's there's no prohibition against uh cremation. Early on, uh it would be a pagan practice, they didn't respect the body um and had no future for it. So um the Egyptians changed that in their world and mummified the body, had great respect for it, believed that it was actually living in that state, which isn't true. Um, all the little clay figures and all the money and all the little gifts, you know, didn't didn't matter. Um so if you ask my personal opinion, my personal opinion is um there's a real benefit to a graveside. There is a memorial to that, there is somewhere children can go, grandchildren can go, and look at look at the verse they put on their tombstone, look at the testimony that is, and then look at the place that'll be disrupted one day. Um, and the world will have to try to understand that. Oh, and they won't be able to. So I I personally think there's something healthy about having a place uh to go to and the testimony of a resurrection of whatever's in there, reconstituted and resurrected. That's my opinion, and so I'll be buried. In fact, uh I can tell you where I'm gonna be buried. Lot number 22 in that in that um Methodist graveyard that's on the corner of our property. Yeah, somebody's been immersed, baptized, gonna be buried with all those Methodists out there. Isn't that great? You know, I used to joke in my greenhouse class that uh, you know, we don't own that cemetery, by the way. That belongs to the church that's Caddy Corner or uh across the corner. I can't remember the name of it, Methodist Church. Macedonian Methodist, thank you. And I I just used to joke, you know, uh uh I'll never be buried there because you know I'm I'm I'm a Baptist. And uh a couple came up to me and uh a few years ago and said, Well, we've come here from that church, and uh we we were on the the cemetery committee, and uh we've purchased you and Marcia two lots. And um and uh so she said, you just have to go pick them out. So I I waited seven years to do that. There was just something about it. I didn't want to pick out my lot. It's like okay, the last step. So, but I actually did. Uh Marcia said, you know, honey, you really need to go over there and pick it out, you know, choose it. So uh they they eventually realized I wasn't going over there, and so they sent me a diagram and said, here they are, you pick it. So I picked two right by the little path, right off the parking lot. So it'll be real easy uh for people to get to if they ever want to come over. And uh, but uh I used to take my seminary students out there and uh when I taught homiletics and and to teach them and to illustrate to them the fact that we have absolutely no power in ourselves. There's there's nothing in me that's able to do anything. It's the Spirit of God. So even as I'm praying, coming over here, I I'm not sure what I'm gonna say, but God knows what you need to hear. And maybe something that I say that he provokes me to say will matter. Um, but I I would take my students out to that cemetery and I would say, okay, pick a text, 1 Corinthians 15, and then I want you to read it, and then read that person, that person's name, and say, now rise and see what happens. And I really hope nothing would happen. If it did, it blew my illustration, you know. But so I'd have them all out there, and they'd be saying, Rise. I'd say, say it louder, you know, rise, you know, you're not you're not saying it louder like Elijah, you know. Uh so they'd say, and I'd say, see, you can't raise the dead, neither can I. And so you're gonna preach to dead people. They're spiritually dead, they're not alive, and you cannot bring about a spiritual resurrection either. God's spirit has to do that, and so you know, um, I haven't done that in a few years, but uh at any rate, I I think I think there's special places uh for a wonderful testimony for the believer, and um I I I encourage that. Okay, any follow-ups to that? Yes ma'am. No. Okay, all right. Let me uh let me read the next one. Um in Acts we learned of Peter's experience with the sheet to learn that they could eat other foods. Praise God for that. Uh and the discussion on circumcision. Well, how and when did Jewish Christians learn that animal sacrifices uh were not uh required? Great question. And it's it's uh it's not spelled out that at this point in time it it it's over. We know as they understood the gospel is that there was no need for sacrifices, and that that would have ended, I think, fairly quickly. But you have to understand the New Testament isn't written. So they're they're they're writing it'll take 40, 50 years uh before they get the book of Hebrews, let's say. Hebrews makes it very clear, you know, that Jesus Christ was offered once for all. Uh Hebrews 10, later on in the chapter, where there is forgiveness, there is no more sacrifice for sin. So um they they would have to understand the gravity of that, and if you can imagine growing up in the Jewish world, suddenly you don't have to go stand in line with your turtle love. That would probably provoke an immense amount of insecurity and questions. So God in his grace allowed the New Testament to be developed, the apostles would teach, and um and I would say probably 30 years somewhere in there they they ended. We do know in the book of Acts that uh they're still going to the temple to pray during the hour of prayer. We do know that Paul even was going to do the rites of uh ceremonial cleansing um and pay his vows at the temple, and of course, he never did make it because he was arrested. Uh there are good theologians who think that Paul was making a mistake, he might have been to do that. That would have confused the believers to go through that rite. Well, we we're not told, we just know he didn't do it. And he was arrested and never came back, and of course, eventually ended up in Rome and was executed by by uh Nero. So it's still ongoing. So the synagogue was still ongoing. You know, this is where the apostles went to reason uh uh with the Jews, beginning with scripture, beginning with the Old Testament, how the Messiah had to be crucified. That was very confusing to them. Um, that the Messiah would suffer first before um coming back in glory, and Isaiah 53 would be explained and those prophecies would be expanded on. However, I will say this 8070 is significant because what happens in 8070, though the temple is destroyed, there's nowhere to go. There's no temple, there's no sacrifice, there's no place to hold uh the Passover. And uh so that would have been sort of this shocking revelation, I'm sure. And to this day, by the way, uh the Jews have nowhere to go uh if they want to hold to Judaism. So they ceremonially um recognize certain things, but there's no high priest today. Uh the Jewish nation isn't aware of the tribe from which they descended. Um and uh that's part of God's plan, by the way. He set them aside. Romans made it very clear 8, 9, 10, 11. And now Jesus is winning a mixed bride, a mixed bride of Jew and Gentile. What does it take for a Jewish person to go to heaven today? The same thing it takes a gentile person. They have to trust in Christ as their Messiah. Uh, and Jesus, by the way, was mixed blood. He wasn't, he wasn't 100% Jewish. Uh, if you go back to Matthew, remember in his genealogy, who do you find there? You find a Hittite by the name of Bathsheba, you find a Moabitus by the name of Ruth entering into this genealogical record, and so Jesus mixed blood is winning a mixed blood bride. So we get in. I'm a gentile, and I'm really grateful for that. In fact, Paul says that what is happening makes the Jewish people back in his day, I'm not sure if it does that today, but it made them envious. How can a gentile be part of God's covenant plan? And that's gonna take several years to develop. But in AD 70, it's gone. It's not gonna start again. They're gonna try in the tribulation, they're gonna build a temple. The Antichrist brings peace to the Middle East. There's no peace there, there will not be peace there until the Antichrist. Uh Isaac and Ishmael have been fighting for how many, how many thousands of years? And they don't even understand why. But there's just such hatred. Well, that's gonna be settled. A temple's gonna be built hurriedly. Uh, but you know, when you hear things about, you know, they found the red heifer and whatever. I've I've seen the red heifer come and go now over 50 years. Uh, that heifer never lives long enough to see it, you know, happen. They gotta have the ashes of a red heifer, the ceremonial cleanse the altar. Uh, don't get excited about that because that temple is not gonna be built until you and I are gone. The Antichrist is not revealed until we're gone. People ask, well, should I get the chip? You know, and uh and yeah, sure. They're putting chips in cattle. Uh I I I wouldn't have any trouble putting the chip in a child. Um will the Antichrist use that stuff? Well, sure. He's gonna use everything he can. But we get the benefit of all this technology. It's not the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast is put on individuals who choose to worship the Antichrist. So people say, Well, should I get the barcode? Should I get a credit card? Should I, you know, go cashless, should I get the chip? Do whatever you want to do. If it helps you find your dog, that that's great. Don't put a chip at a cat, let him get lost. Let him go, let him go. So don't don't be afraid of that. Um and by the way, uh oh, that's another question, maybe. Uh so I'm gonna ramble here by all right. Enough on that, unless you have a follow-up. Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

I just wanted to make sure I understood. Did you say that present-day Jews do not know which line they cut?

unknown 20:32

No.

SPEAKER_06 20:36

Um you have, I mean, you uh a Jewish person's last name might be Cohen, that's a priest, but there they're I I I this is my opinion, Terry. Okay, so just know that this is um this is not from a verse. But I think that God is gonna allow some kind of discovery to facilitate the return um to that sacrificial system. The antichrist were used to deceive the world, but uh all the genealogical records were kept in the temple and that was destroyed. And the temple was destroyed. It's gotta be on that mount. That's the sacred place. Well, uh the Muslims have that, the Arabs have that. Uh I've been up there, and uh, you're not going up there if you have any Jewish blood in you. You're not allowed, and they're certainly not going to allow a temple to be built there. That's why the Antichrist is so mesmerizing, he probably performs a miracle. Um, signs and wonders are gonna take off during the tribulation, and uh and the world will follow up. So does that answer your question? Okay, another what happens to a child who dies uh without an understanding of the gospel uh or uh before professing faith that is that is a such a a wonderful question um the the we all want some kind of an answer to to the eternal destiny of a child especially an innocent child the church has tried to deal with that over the centuries um uh the church before the reformation the catholic church um developed the sprinkling of a baby um to deal with what they believed uh to be the original sin so that was done very soon and that dealt with original sin which meant that if the child died they went to heaven um the the Protestant church um uh didn't believe that and uh uh still sprinkled you go back in time they're coming out of the Catholic Church which is why sprinkling was still uh a preferred method although you had immersionists going all the way back as far as we can track it because the Great Commission makes it very clear we are to baptize who? Disciples go and make disciples and baptize them and there's no reference in the New Testament anywhere of the baptizing or the sprinkling of a child. So the efforts to you know solve the issue with water I think are are an attempt but it's a false attempt I think what we ought to do is just deal with what the Bible tells us. And the Bible gives us enough clues to be able to come up with our answer. I think if you go back all the way to the biography of David you're probably familiar with his baby dying and he says that my child can no longer come to me but I will go to him and he's not referring to the grave he's referring to a reconciliation a reunion and he he begins to eat and he he gets back to life because he understands that uh now that the child won't be healed that he'll still see his child um you have uh you have this age of accountability expression that we've sort of developed uh nobody knows what that age of accountability is right because there isn't a verse that tells us but we do have verses that talk about uh a child for instance in Deuteronomy chapter one that talks about a child not knowing good and evil or the distinction between the knowledge of good and evil you have Jonah being rebuked for uh not having sympathy for children who don't know their left hand from their right hand uh they're innocent and um and then you have of course the great judgment in Revelation 20 where uh every unbeliever is judged no believers there that's just for unbelievers that's the final judgment of all the human race of unbelievers it's called the Great White Throne Revelation 20 you can read about it and what does what does Jesus do? Jesus is actually the one on the throne um he opens the books and and judges them based on their deeds their transgressions and a child has no record of a transgression because it takes a certain age to understand they're violating the authority of God. So at what age does a child understand that? I mean a little can a little two year old sin oh man you better believe it at least mine did um but do they understand what they're violating? No and so there's no record there would be no books to open for a child because of their uh innocence and of course Jesus at one point brings a child and says you know you got to have their faith to get into the kingdom of heaven the innocent trust and so what you do see in children is that innocent very uh innocent yet profound faith uh it takes a while to grow up and get past that and then knowingly rebel which you and I did right so you you don't have a record of transgression you have an inability to understand the distinction between good and evil and then I think to me the capstone is Romans chapter one where Paul says they are without excuse he's referring to all of the all of those who will be judged by God and what is it that makes them without excuse you know I'm sorry right that's right and that's seen in what what is what has he revealed his power in creation so uh and that that settles another question and that is what about those that have never heard of Christ everyone has heard of creation they see it and Romans 1 says it's a demonstration of his invisible attributes his power and so because they reject that Paul says they are without excuse so I like to think of more than one gospel there's the gospel of creation and what does mankind do it rejects it. So no matter where you go in the world what are they doing? They're worshiping the stump the tree the river the eagle the evil spirit isn't that interesting where they come up with that the law of God written on their heart they they know they've grown old enough to understand the knowledge of good and evil they know they're defying the good this this creator and instead of worshiping him they worship the creature and so you have all these false gods what are they they're they're they're crafted from creation the bull of the eagle so you see these pictures going back to Egypt of a god who has the head of a bird and wings and they're worshiping the creature and uh giving it divine power they're worshiping the sun I was watching a documentary you know this planet Earth I love those documentaries but I have to turn the volume down I just like seeing the pictures because the volume's all about evolution you know and it talks about then you know she said then 13.5 million years ago and I thought oh man are you guessing or what at any rate so I'm just watching this but then she made the comment the narrator about the sun and even said and it is the source of all of life and I'm thinking that you're you're still back in Egypt you know during Moses's day and and just still still believing um in the in the power of creation the deifying of creation and the rejection of the creator and uh they are then without excuse so how old do you have to be to understand creation and know there is a creator you've got to be old enough that takes maturity um so I I like to remind because I get asked this question in greenhouse class in my new members' class I like to remind them of J. Vernon McGee's view that the age of accountability is 20. And he got that from the fact that when the spies Joshua and Caleb came back and said we can go into the land everybody over the age of 20 was held accountable and they died in the wilderness everybody under that age or I should say under the age of 21 20 and under were not held accountable. So he believed the age of accountability was 20. We just don't know for sure um I would like to think Jay Bernard McGee was right. I hear testimony after testimony of people who are you know they grew up heard the gospel accepted Christ and then fell away and then at 18 19 20 somewhere in there they had this uh uh this moment where they were under conviction and they gave their heart and life to Christ and uh that could very well be that age at which they would have been held responsible all right any other follow-ups about that that's a big question yes ma'am right that's right yeah they would they'll go up too so so what what's happening with these babies I mean if you think about it life begins at fertilization so you've got um you've got uh miscarriages you've got abortions you've got stillbirth infant mortality um we're not told but I give you my opinion uh I there there's there's this incredible nursery program in in heaven because I don't think they immediately become 21 life doesn't life has to develop there has to be memory uh you know it it it would be it it'd be meaningless for a baby to die and suddenly be 20 and have no memory now there are some that could argue that well Adam was created at 25 and he was just fine um and that would be true uh but probably mystifying um but for a child especially to go from four when you start having memories five and suddenly be older so I don't know I don't know if this is part of the ministering part of angels in and with the redeemed those that are in heaven if they're developed uh I I I I don't know I do know this there aren't any old people in heaven um I'm always troubled by these people who have near death experiences and they come back and they say I saw my grandfather and I'm thinking poor grandfather he never got young he's still old he's he's an old man he looked just like he did when I I think that's tragic um I'd hope he'd get back to 25 but they're gone just as if they died uh they're gone and certainly the resurrection and the rapture would take them there. Okay any other follow-ups on that next question um explain free will oh good another easy one how much time do we have um as long as you oh they the question goes on um does free will give us the choice to believe or not does the Lord take over my mind to say uh yes to him this this is this is a great question there are volumes on this question but I'm gonna boil it down uh to a few minutes if I can um the answer to that question is both exist free will and divine sovereignty sovereign election and we know that because the Bible teaches both in fact it's been my practice over the years to emphasize whichever one the text is emphasizing because you go to some texts and they're emphasizing sovereign election Ephesians 1 before the foundation of the world okay now immediately you ought to just say I don't understand that one. Okay the circuits fry when you try to go back into eternity past so you'll never understand that it will help you to just live with attention that you don't understand that. Okay you really can't explain that that's the mystery of God in eternity past but think about the fact that election is is not for the unbeliever to to comprehend anyway our our gospel is not okay I'm gonna go find the elect you know Spurgeon said if that was our role we'd go you know if if if a big E was on the back of people we'd be we'd be going around lifting shirt tails you know to see if there's election if they're elect. That's not our role our role think about this that doorway right there over that doorway the message to the world is whosoever will may come it's the Philippian jailer. You know when he heard Paul and Silas he was hearing Paul preaching because he understood the gospel because he cuts right to the chase after the earthquake the singing and so he says to Paul what must I do to be saved Paul did not say well you're obviously elect don't worry about it you're in no belief and you'll be saved. So there is something you have to do so that means nobody goes to heaven unless they say yes to Jesus nobody's going to heaven unless they exercise their will in saying I believe and by the way that's what we understand right so you have a moment in your life I pray that you know you've said I believe in Christ as my Savior you're not going to heaven without that and so that's the message. Now you walk through that door as a believer now oh I'm one of the whosoever wills and the world is categorized into two simple categories the whosoever wills and the whosoever won't. So I'm a whosoever will I walk through it then I look back over it and it says elect before the foundation of the world as if it's a wedding gift. And think about a wedding because so much of this is wedding terminology or the bride you know he came to pursue us uh he's our kinsman redeemer uh we're outcasts idolaters but we'll say your God will be my God and we're redeemed like Ruth so I mean think think about think about the beauty of this um if you're married are you are you married because he proposed to you he finally proposed to you are you married because he proposed to you or are you married because you accepted his proposal both so are you a believer yeah why he he he loved me he he proposed marriage to me and I said yes and then one day he's gonna come and take us to his father's house you know the Amish understand that one that's what happens the son takes his bride to the father's house who's built on and that's where they live and so that's what we're waiting for. We're waiting for our groomsmen to come and take us that's where you get the advantage. See you can emotionally feel that it's kind of weird for us guys you know to think about that our groomsman's gonna come and we're his bride but you can you can feel it we can't we just say it uh we don't feel anything anyway okay that's just that's the brutal truth so we're waiting for our groomsman and um all right follow up question to that anything else yes ma'am what's going on there? Yeah sure sure well if it's the truth you can keep singing it um you know we don't we don't want to be I I know there's a movement today you know that hey that chorus was written by you know so and so or that church or whatever I've never bought into that simply because I'm a musician and if you study the history of music for the church it's it's pretty do you sing Fanny Crosby's hymns well she left her husband wouldn't retire or wouldn't reconcile and she wrote a lot of those hymns while she's living in the home of PP Bliss and his wife and so yeah I sing those songs because they're true. So we'll we'll we'll we'll look at the lyrics and uh and then we we will be careful. But yeah we we've had some great songs written by people that have you know come out as homosexual or they've left the faith and whatever uh I've I've got some books in my library that were written by men while they were in the middle of an affair. It just blows my mind. But uh I usually throw them away I I I read dead men now that's pretty much who I try to read um but uh yeah they're perfect as scriptary yeah um but what you're describing is what the Bible defines as an apostate apostasy is someone who you thought believed, who said they believed who looked like they believed and then they said you know what I don't believe that anymore that's an apostate I'm very careful to say that's an apostate to anybody because they might be a prodigal and prodigals return to the father's house. So I want to be careful and really it's not up to decide up to us you know the disciples came to Jesus at and asked him this very question and he told the parable about the wheat and the tares and the enemy sowed weeds uh tares among the wheat and the disciples you know said hey let's go let's go take them out let's go find them and he said no let it grow up and then and then there'll be a harvest at the end in other words I'm gonna take care of that so we have to be careful I I know there are good men who just can't stand the thought of an unbeliever being in the church and so they're gonna try to skin the cat and get him out uh I don't know why that analogy came to mind but at any rate they're gonna get rid of them um I don't think that's our mission I I think it's just it's just let let's let's try to reach them keep the bridge built as much as we can you know and put the plank down on that bridge and toward that apostate that prodigal that disciplined individual and if they pick the plank up and hit you over the head with it well you'd know you okay that's as far as you can go but they might lay one down themselves and then you move a little closer. But uh John wrote about them he said you know they left us first John 2 I think they left us because they were not of us if they had been of us they would have remained with us but it was to show that they were not truly of us because they were asking this question 2000 years ago hey I thought they were Christians and they left us and he said well they were not truly of us that's an apostate I have a letter in my file um written by uh Joshua Harris I had preached for me who wrote I kissed dating goodbye and bestseller and he just he said I am no longer a Christian and uh and he's now apologizing to uh all kinds of people who are deeply involved in sin and uh so I I just I just have that in my file and every once in a while I come across it that that's the definition of apostate and um that does exist. Okay follow-up to that thank you for asking okay um in 1 Corinthians 6 9 to 10 regarding adultery homosexuality fornication uh what does what does the statement mean you will not inherit the kingdom of God does that what does the kingdom mean um in the gospels the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God is used okay I I I see what you're saying. Paul is saying that he he lists several different categories of sinners now we have to be careful and use the word unrepentant sinners because we're all sinners and we all can commit all these sins from sexuality adultery Fornication. Fornication is the word for sexual activity outside of marriage. Adultery is sexual activity with somebody who's married to somebody else. Homosexuality is sexual sin with somebody of the same sex. The Bible clearly says they're all sinful. Don't listen to the church at large. The church at large is apostate. They have abandoned the truth. These are sinful actions, sinful lifestyles. They're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. All that means, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of heaven are used interchangeably. We could probably slice and dice a little bit, but in that passage, it would be simply a way of saying heaven. Okay? That's what he's talking about. You cannot get into heaven if you are an unrepentant individual. And that would relate to anything. By the way, be careful of saying homosexuality is like, okay, the world's worst, because Paul has not finished Romans 1 yet. I mean, he goes on and he now describes even deeper depravity, and right in there is disobedient to parents. As a child, I didn't. That that's an it's just sin. Sin's sin. And uh we're we're guilty of all kinds of sins. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 6, I think it's the very next verse he says, but such were some of you. But you were cleansed, sanctified. So, you know, the church in Corinth had former homosexuals, former adulterers, former embezzlers, former drunkards. Those are all those are all sinful ways of living that have terrible consequences, and uh some more than others. Um and I would say homosexuality has um has some more severe consequences um than others. They're sinning against their own body and will pay the penalty of that, but they can be repented of and so they can inherit the kingdom of heaven. Okay, any follow-up to that? Uh what significance is there in changing the reference from Christ Jesus to Jesus Christ? Uh that's a good question. Um, I think it's interesting that as you get into the epistles, the apostles don't often speak of Jesus simply as saying Jesus. They add Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus or the Lord Jesus or the Lord Jesus Christ. And and there's a reason for that. Jesus is his human name, he was given at his incarnation. Prior to that, he was simply God the Son, he is pre-existent, he, in their plan, took on flesh, so God the Son became human, and his human name is Yesus. There are a lot of Jesus running around today in Latin America. That's a very common name. So you know that it's special to us because it represents the incarnation. And so if it's first, that's probably what's being emphasized. The fact that he became man, he joined the human race. If it's flipped, it's probably emphasizing Christ Christos, that he's the anointed Messiah. So if you look around the context of that verse, you might see why he's putting in that order. Or the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord. Again, that was very common. Curios. The the Caesars adopted that for themselves. They claim to be the Lord. They even use the word Soter, Savior. You know, the Caesars in Paul's day were called Lord, Savior. Um, and uh, but for us, it was he's truly the Lord. He's the only Lord. There's only one Lord, right? The Bible says. And um, so it's emphasizing his deity, Lord. The Old Testament Septuagint, which was around in Jesus' day, that's the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It's called the Septuagint. Jesus quoted from it, Paul quoted uh from it. Um, it was simply a translation of the Hebrew text. Well, the word for Yahweh, Jehovah, is kurias. That's the word used for the Lord Jesus, kurios. It is a tremendous statement that He is Jehovah, He's Yahweh in the flesh. So guess what that means? You are truly a Jehovah's Witness in the right sense, because He's He's Jehovah, He's Yahweh. So that's why I think it would be emphasized in those texts. They're trying to drive home the point that he is divine, he's human, divine, and the anointed Messiah. Okay, any follow-up on that? Yes, no.

unknown 49:22

This is a kind of one thing.

SPEAKER_04 49:23

I'm gonna think it because I don't want to go out now, but um I consider me. I feel like that's absolutely honored. Um there's a part of me that says I I don't know. I don't think this is but it is why I just feel like sure.

SPEAKER_06 50:17

Uh it is it is a special name to us because of what it represents, uh, which is why none of us name our children Jesus. First, we know they're not gonna act like them. Second of all, we want to we want to keep that name for him. But you go elsewhere in the world today, and it's very common. It's very common names. Um, I don't think it's unbiblical to do that. Um, and uh the apostles did use it alone, just rarely, but they did. Um and um it's awfully hard to write lyrics if you include all of his titles because we could keep going. There are many names for him, and they all signify something. I I do think it can be trivialized, and uh I I personally don't use Jesus alone often. I I'll I'll typically add the Lord Jesus or the Lord or Jesus Christ, um, because I want to exalt it, but that doesn't mean I'm diminishing him if I don't. Okay. Yeah. You there was a question I was looking ahead because they did ask a question about uh prayer. Um, yeah, this question here. Uh when we when we ask others, it's not exactly the same question, but do we have any follow-up on that? Because I'll sort of segue into this one. Uh when we ask others to pray for us, do their prayers outweigh our prayers? I thought that was an interesting question. Um Well, I have prayed with people before, haven't you? And you feel like, okay, they're really getting close to the throne, right? Don't you love to pray with those kind of people? But what does the Bible teach us? The question goes on to say, does God listen to them more than us? Because Matthew 18 says, when two of you get together on anything at all on earth and pray that I will answer. Okay, that's a very good question because I do believe that it's a distortion of prayer that comes out of that text being misinterpreted. Uh, first of all, we are taught to pray in in you know the Lord's name, in the sense where John 14 says, if you ask anything in my name, you know, I'll respond, I'll answer. I like to think of that simply as saying, well, we pray in Jesus' name, and we end a prayer by saying, in Jesus' name, amen. All we're doing is saying, okay, I I hope I just prayed a prayer that Jesus can sign his name to. Because if he can't, I'm not going to get that. So it has to be according to his will. And so that's what we pray, thy thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We don't pray that our will will be done in heaven. We pray that his will will be done through us on earth. Um, so the the prayers of okay, two or three gathered. Um, there's this doctrine of prayer that's just so uh misleading. And it's the view that if I pray by myself, I'm only gonna get so high, you know, above the ceiling. If I can get you to agree with me, then we're gonna really make something happen. If I can get two of you, it's done. Okay, it's a done deal. So there are some things I want. So if you'll agree with me, so you got this doctrine of agreement out there, and a lot of it's just sheer you know baloney. Um God hears your prayer all by yourself alone. He's not going any lower or higher because you didn't have somebody agreeing with you. There's something significant about joining with others and praying, certainly. Uh, we see that in scripture. There's the unity, or to be eager to maintain the unity, the spirit, the bond of peace. That that's that that's what we pursue as a church family. There's a special sense of encouragement by the Spirit of God when we gather. That's why Hebrews tells us, don't forsake the assembly, as some already are. So even way back then, people are skipping church. They're they're they're missing out. Uh, because we provoke one another unto loving good works as we see the day approaching. So that that's the that's the reason we're meeting. So as we pray together, certainly there's a fellowship and a unity. God is pleased with that. But that doesn't mean that because you have two people praying with you, he's gonna hear. So, what is he what is he talking about? He does say, we're two, we're three of you are gathered together in my name. There I am in your midst. Well, look at the paragraph, and it's talking about church discipline. Matthew 18. The two people are witnesses that verify the claim that this person is unrepentant. And if you agree, I'm with you. You're free to discipline them. That's not telling you that you don't get answered unless you have two people praying with you. Okay. The context is discipline. And you'd never discipline anybody in the church unless you have those witnesses. The Old Testament system, uh, you had the verification of witnesses. That's why they had a tough time putting Jesus on the cross, right? Because they couldn't find two people to agree until they finally had these two concoct. They're probably paid by the priest to say he's gonna tear down the temple. All right. Any follow-up to that? Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

My next question would be when I'm praying, so when I'm praying, I'll say um your will be done.

SPEAKER_06 56:04

Someone always says to me, Why are you saying well, because that's how Jesus taught us to pray, right? Pray in this manner.

SPEAKER_02 56:13

Right. So when I say that, I always think it as romantics or thinking.

SPEAKER_06 56:21

Well, they they might think you they might think you're lacking faith. You know, uh, I've I've had people tell me that. Um there is a there is a a challenge that that we're to pray in faith, believing. What are we believing? That I'm gonna get that F-150, or that I believe God will do what He wants to do, and I'm gonna trust that. That's praying, believing, in my interpretation. So think of uh I think of James Um chapter four, where you know, people he where he said, Don't say that I'm gonna go to another city and I'm gonna start a business and I'm gonna profit from it. No, say if the Lord wills. That to me is that's the capstone. That that's also the foundation of our praying, if the Lord wills. That may be a greater statement of faith. Lord, your will be done. Some of you, what you're going through right now, the greatest statement of faith isn't, okay, I know God's gonna give me this thing, or I'm God's gonna do this for me. No, it might be I'm surrendered to your will. Your will be done. That's a great statement of faith. Okay. Follow-up? Yes, ma'am. I don't have that one memorized. I've got everything else in Mark memorized, but not that verse, you know. All right, that's probably saying something like um, you know, ask whatever you want, and you'll receive it.

unknown 58:01

If you believe it.

SPEAKER_06 58:02

If you believe it, yeah. Sure. You take that verse like you do other verses, and you when you interpret scripture, there's something called um comparison or the analogy of scripture. Let scripture complement scripture by explaining it, because I can take a phrase and and build an erroneous interpretation around it, unless I'm looking at other passages on the same subject. That's why I land where I land. And that phrase, if I took that out, um I'm gonna say, okay, God didn't give me this because I didn't believe enough. And uh, but if I take that verse and compare it with other verses, I'm gonna get a better picture. I can go to James and I can um if I had a if I had a Catholic priest um and I've talked to them, um, he'll say to me, Stephen, you know, you um you believe in solafide? And I'll say, Yeah, I do. And you know I do. Faith alone. You see on my pulpit, sola scriptura. Well, if you look closely, I've got all the other solas carved into there now. And one of them is sola fide. It's another one of the five Reformation solas, which means we are saved by faith alone. And he'll say, Well, you know, the only time in the New Testament the word faith and alone ever appear is in James where he says, So you see that Abraham was not justified by faith alone. And I'll say, Yeah, you're right. But I go over to Paul, he'll use Abraham as an illustration, and he'll say, so that you see that Abraham was justified by faith without works. So I've got two, I've got two contradictions here. And and and that's where we've got to study what was James trying to prove. What's what's Paul trying to prove? James is talking about justification before mankind, people. That can't be by faith. Nobody can see your faith. I can I can say I've got faith, so they see my works. So I'm justified to them by my works. Paul is defining justification by faith before God. He's giving us a theological definition, and it is not by works, it's by faith alone. So authorial intent is very significant, and that helps that apparent contradiction. So, with prayer, you know, you look at one phrase, it looks like, man, I gotta, I got it, it's all up to me. Well, put that with other passages, and especially how the Lord taught us to pray, and uh, and we come up with, I think, a better definition. Does that help? Okay, I'm I'm almost out of time. Um when Lazarus was raised from the dead, well, no, there's a question before that of similar. Uh, can you explain? Uh can you explain the reason and spiritual significance of this portion of scripture in Matthew 27, 52 to 53, uh, where these resurrected saints went into Jerusalem. Um, that's a great passage. Uh Jesus rose from the dead, and when he did, certain believers, Old Testament believers, rose from the dead as well, which meant they came out of the caves. They didn't they didn't bury them back then, they laid him on a ledge, and then after they decomposed, they would clean the bones, put them in an ossuary, a bone box. So obviously, these people hadn't reached that stage. Maybe they had, I don't know. Bones could have come together. At any rate, they're showing up in Jerusalem. Now you'd wonder why in the world didn't the whole city believe. Because it faith is not established by a miracle. Uh it it it it can deepen unbelief, which is why the Pharisees wanted to kill Lazarus. Uh, we're told in the Bible that they they they they uh plotted to destroy or kill Lazarus as well as Jesus. Why? Because it's irrefutable evidence, you'd think, and at least they figured it out. But why didn't everybody believe? Well, but God still did it, which is really wonderful, because I think it encouraged those who were waiting for the Messiah. This is a validation, and here they show up. Imagine who might that be. I've I've explored that with our congregation before, just sort of imagining. Um what if it was Adam? Wouldn't that be great? You know, what if it was Joshua? Uh, what if it was Samuel? Um, now here's the question, and I think they asked this, you know. That's in the next question. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, um, wouldn't it have been disappointing to Lazarus? And uh, I'd have to say, probably. Uh I don't I don't know. We're not told how Lazarus felt. We're told how Lazarus smelled, but not how he felt. We have no verse on that. But there's the mystery there. We we don't know. Um, and that gets into the theological discussion, which we don't have time for, because what happened to someone when they died? Well, you know, Luke's Luke's account of the of the rich man and Lazarus, not the same Lazarus, a different one, is very telling. That's it's not a parable, that's an account, a narrative that shows us beyond the grave. You have this, you have this man, former beggar, who's now in Abraham's bosom, which is an expression for paradise. And you've got this rich man who is an unbeliever, and he can see Lazarus. So that's where you have this two compartment of Hades um belief, which I believed, I believe in. Um, and and and until Jesus died, he descended and led captivity captive, Ephesians 4. I think it's four. Um, and I think that's when he took the Old Testament saints to the Father's house. But up until that point in time, you had two compartments. One was torment, one was paradise. That's why Jesus said to the thief, today you'll be with me where? In paradise. The garden of the garden of God. Um, there was some kind of visual ability. Uh, uh it doesn't exist today because there's no saint anymore, there's no believer anymore in paradise there. That's been that's been taken to the Father's house. So when a when somebody dies today, if they're an unbeliever, where do they go? They go to Hades. We're told in Revelation 20 that Hades will be poured into the lake of fire after the final judgment. So, in a sense, there's nobody in hell today. They're in this is the torment place of waiting for the judgment that's gonna come at the end of human history, Revelation chapter 20, they'll be poured out. So Lazarus, he goes to paradise, he goes to the father, uh Abraham's bosom, and he gets called back. You know, there's where the mystery starts, okay? Had that call. But think about it. Was he disappointed? I don't know. I I gotta stop with this, but um imagine you, you're Lazarus, and you're asked by the Lord, would you like to become one of the one of the key validating testimonies to the deity of my son? Would you like to do that?

unknown 1:05:56

Sign me up.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:57

Sign me up, right? There we go. And uh yeah, so uh bless his heart, he had to die twice. But uh um but he became uh uh one of the signature evidences of the Lord's of the Lord's power. Because remember, right before then, he tells his sisters, Mary and Martha, um and uh he he says, I think it was to Martha, he says, Do you believe? And she says, You know that I believe that you are God the Son. And he says, Yes, I am the resurrection and the what? And the life. And then he says, Well, why don't we just go prove that? And they go immediately to the cemetery where he says, Lazarus, come forth. And it's great he said Lazarus, because if he hadn't, then everybody's coming out. So he says, Lazarus, just you come forth, and Lazarus comes out, and he proves he is the resurrection and alive. All right, right at time. Um, I'll stay up here if you have any follow ups. Uh, because I I do have some time left over. Terry, thank you for the invitation and uh look forward to coming back again. Thank you, girls.