Toward a Better Biblical Philosophy, Part 4 

Toward a Better Biblical Philosophy, Part 4 | Yeshuans Sunday Schooled w Shawn McCraney

Transcripts:

29th and we are in part four of a series second series on a better biblical philosophy we're taking it out there man it's getting it's getting difficult for people to get it and understand but hang with us i think it's going to unfold more and more as we go let's begin with a word of prayer we'll listen to the word of god set the music sit in silence and then we'll come back and talk about these concepts father thank you for loving us so much, loving all of us that you gave your son for the world to reconcile the fall of Adam in our hearts, our flesh, pay for the things that we do naturally

and that you have shown us that mercy. And with it, we can then walk freely by the spirit of your son be with mags and dell behind the scenes our audience here audience online and for those who will tune in in the future because in faith we walk and hope that these messages will get to people who seek we love you and seek you in Yeshua's name. Amen. every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus said to him, it is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Then Jesus said to him, away with you Satan, for it is written, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.

But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus said to him, It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Then Jesus said to him, away with you Satan, for it is written, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve. For it is written For it is written You shall worship the Lord Lord our God and in the name

you shall serve Thank you. Okay, continuing on with the theme, if you will, of the arithmetic of God's administration, where he manifestly has, does, and is going to continue to divide and unite and multiply toward his desired ends,

we must admit that the overall purpose must include that God honors our free will. Because, you know, through first dividing the dark and the light, and note, he didn't destroy the dark, and he didn't he let the dark exist, but he overcame the dark with the light in order to unite living forces with the aim of multiplying them.

This seems to be the theme that is going on through the narrative. His arithmetic was present among the nation, and some of this is repetitive. repetitive back in Jeremiah 1.10.

We remember that he said to the nation, see, I have set this day over you, the nations and over the kingdoms to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down, to build, and to plant. That is part of his arithmetic of adding, dividing, multiplying, all of that. From Machiavelli, if you know who he is, and every military action that's been on earth, from controlling a riot to fighting cancer, the phrase that we all understand in this realm is divide and conquer.

You know, you take a problem, you split it up, and it's well understood. And so separate out a problem, you know, fence it in, divide the light from it, take the good from it, the sheep from the goats, and resist the disease realm the best you can. And how we do that's another subject.

And until the health and life and vibrancy begins to multiply and is restored on earth, that is like a theme. And unfortunately, with the faith in the hands of human beings, flesh and bones, that assume that the kingdom is material, humans who believe the kingdom of God is material, believers tend to think that our aims on behalf of Christ today is to make war with dark material expressions around us.

And that's what we're known for, making war. And what we don't like, what we stand for with our rights as Christians, and that's what we do. And that's what we're known for, is making war. I just had an experience with an individual who is complaining that in our expression, we are dividing and we're not. But that person said, I will never watch this person again.

That's the result of Christianity. I will divide instead of give people the benefit of the doubt and unite. It's built into us and it's very fleshly. What makes understanding the error is super difficult if you're a Bible reader, and here's why. Because it is biblical. It's so biblical. And you know, the nation of Israel, under the law, it was all about them being separate, all about them being divided, and then among the bride in the apostolic records. So we can't be surprised. We have to work with this, that when groups like we mentioned

last week that have been led to think that world domination of the Christian faith is going to come about through the same ways that the division happened in the Bible. This is the problem we're facing. But what's forgotten is that God's models of administrative arithmetic were toward an end. He had a purpose in doing them and that we read about.

And that was to have his son come in and have victory over all of that so that we could then unite and begin to multiply out in the spirit of truth. So the ideal of divide and conquer, of course, was present even automatically in the Garden of Eden. You know, Adam and Eve had to be divided from God and the garden because they disobeyed. He divided them from the presence of God.

Then Noah comes along and God says, listen, you and seven other souls are going to be saved because I'm going to divide you out from the rest of this violent world. That's why the flood came, by the way, contextually. It was so violent that God said, I got to get rid of all of them. All right. And then we mentioned last week, Abram and Sarai, they are divided out from Mesopotamia.

And then the nation was divided out. And then the nation was put into bondage. And then God divided them out from Egypt, right? And he made them distinct and unique materially in the law he gave them and in their flesh through circumcision. Very distinct. And then through their dress and their diet, all of it divide and conquer that God was doing.

Just consider these passages that are in scripture, just to let you know that Bible readers, they read these and they don't understand the context. Ready? God says, for you are a holy people to Yehovah, Moses said this, your God. Yehovah, your God has chosen you to be a people for himself a special treasure above all peoples on the face of the earth that's in Deuteronomy I mean the Jews no wonder they have an attitude of we are the kings and the best it's right there that God says that to them right and in Deuteronomy 30, 16, it says, in that I command you today to love Yehovah your God,

to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, his judgments, that you may live and multiply. And Yehovah your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. Listen, but if your heart turns away so that you do not hear and are drawn away and worship other gods, this was the thing, and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish.

You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. So it was a blessing and curse. It was a warning. Do this and I will be your God and you'll be my distinct people separate from everybody else. In Genesis 12.

1, now Yehovah said to Abram, get out from your country and from your family and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. Or in Isaiah 52, 1, where Yehovah said, depart ye, depart ye, go you out from fence, touch no unclean thing. That was so prevalent that Peter, an apostle, he failed to understand the distinction because God said, touch no unclean thing, go you out of the midst of her, be ye clean and bear the vessels of Yehovah.

This is in the Bible. You read the Bible. You think this is what God still wants. And to me, Nehemiah 4, 6, it said, so we build the wall. They came out of captivity and they said, now we're going to build a wall. Okay, we're so distinct build a wall. Okay. We're so distinct. And the entire wall was joined together up to half of its height for the people had a mind to work.

Division. We are special. We have a wall that we are going to build. And listen to Haggai 2, 10 through 14. It's really an amazing set of passages. On the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, the word of Yehovah came by Haggai, the prophet saying, thus saith Yehovah of hosts, now ask the priest concerning the law. So he's telling them, have a dialogue with the priests.

saying, if one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment or with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil or any food, will it become holy? This is just fascinating. And the priest answered and said, no.

And Haggai said, if one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean? So the priest answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then Haggai answered and said, So is this people and so is this nation before me, says Jehovah. So is every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean. Showing that the priest said, If you even there is unclean, showing that the priest said, if you even touch something unclean, you're unclean. So be separate.

And when you read that, either as a Jew or as even a Christian, you think, we need to be separate and therefore divisionary, not united, we need to follow this biblical mindset. This dividing out and commanding them to separate as a nation, to not intermarry. There are seven nations. Actually, there's nine nations they couldn't intermarry with.

That was forbidden. Do not take wives from these other nations, right? Not all nations, just seven, wives from these other nations, right? Not all nations, just seven, right? And he's under the material law by which God divided and conquered to bring forth. Why did he do that with that nation? To bring forth a people that would bring forth his son.

And he wanted that son to come through a specific line, okay? So paradoxically, and from the once distinct and separate nation, God was going to divide and conquer again. He was going to literally take the nation he had separated out from the world and called his bride and his son, and I will be a god and you'll be my people. He literally took them once they came out of Babylonian captivity.

And he said, and guess what? I'm going to divide out from you now. You turned from me. You ran after idols. You've made the law your God. So my son is going to come through your line. And guess what he's going to do? He's going to be true Israel. And he's going to divide out from himself those who receive him.

That is what he's going to do. From them? They were like, no way. And that's what he came and did, giving even more ammunition now to Bible readers, right? Because they maintain a similar mindset. They see it in the Old Testament of God doing with the nation of Israel.

Now they see Christ and Paul and the apostles do it with Jews and then Gentiles in that day, separating out another collective. And so we walk about and we say that we're in that collective. We need to make war with unbelievers. We need to defend our borders as people and believers, we need to make ourselves a distinct people still today for the past 2,000 years.

And that means dividing with people who live differently, think differently, believe differently, all of it. It's the mindset that reading the Bible without context produces. Listen to what Paul said to the believers at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 6, beginning at verse 14? He said to them, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

I mean, I hear people talking about that all the time still. I've heard it. I've been given that to me forever. But you know, when you walk by the power of the risen Christ, you can walk in the darkest places on earth. Unbelievers aren't going to touch you because it's individual. But we're still operating under this corporate mindset, be ye not a yoke together with unbelievers, the operative word there being yoked.

I think that still applies. For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness, Paul says, and what communion has light with darkness and what concord has Christ with Belial, or what part has he that believeth with an infidel? He's making a comparison about being unequally yoked, and what agreement has the temple of God with idols? This was for that day and age, and it was very important. She was distinct.

She was as unique as that kingdom was in the Old Testament. For, Paul says, you are the temple of the living God. As God had said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, Paul says, come out from among them and be ye separate. If I've had a Christian tell me that one, I have heard it so many times. The Mormons teach it. The evangelicals teach it.

The Calvinists teach it. Every religious dogmatist teaches this. these passages as applicable to us when it comes to our engagement with the world. Forgetting that Christ said, be salt and light. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and place it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that it gives light to all that are in the house.

When do cities shine the brightest in this world? When they're in the dark. And so we, as emissaries of light, go out into this world in dark places. We don't sequester ourselves anymore because the spirit of the risen Christ fortifies us against defilement. He is in us. We are new creatures. Religion says, no, no, no, separate.

But the fact of the matter is all these things God has done as a means to unite us now through the victory of his son, to unite us, not to separate us, right? Wherefore come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. I mean, there are literally people who live like that.

How do we reach people if we don't touch the unclean thing? That's why Jesus sat with sinners and publicans. He touched those who were unclean. How do we reach them as lights unless we engage with them? But if we stay separated because we fear all these same biblical things are applicable today, we'll never do it.

He says, and I will be a father to you and you should be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. And what John said in the all familiar words of 1 John 2, listen to what he says then. Do not love the world or the things of the world. Okay? If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of this world.

Okay? And it says, and the world is passing away so the world he's talking about there is the world under the law that's the world he's talking about and the bride there was a transition there so that is the context and he says and the world is passing away And the world is passing away, and the lust of it.

You see, we don't see that anymore. We think it's still the same. The lust of it's different when you walk through by the power of Christ. It doesn't have the same effect on you if Christ in you is governing you. We lose that, and then he says, And the world is passing away, the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. How do you do the will of God? You believe and you love.

You believe and you love, right? That was to a group that needed to be separate still. Of course, Yeshua said to his disciples, if the world hates you, right? And we know what world that was that was the jewish economy if it hates you you know that it hated me before it hated you if you are of the world the world would love its own yet because you are not of the world but i chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you that world under the law that economy that heavenly and earthly economy that God created for

the Jews, hated them. And that's the context of what he was saying. And he says, remember the word I said unto you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, Jesus, talking to his disciples about what the Jews did to him, they will persecute you also. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.

This is how the apostles were able to see who were really following Christ. But all these things they will do for my name's sake, because they will not do because they do not know him who sent me. They had a different God at that time. And 2 John 1 10, if there come any to you, oh my gosh, I've had people part ways with me as a, as a friend and a brother over this one.

If there come any into you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. You know, if they don't do what you say, what you believe, don't even invite him into your house. And that's the way that they operate under the religious parameters of people taking these things and assigning them to us. For he biddeth him God's speed as a partaker of his evil deeds.

That meant then that if you brought a Jew who was under the law into your house, who rejected what Christ and Paul was saying, you would be a partaker of their deeds if you engaged with them because they were bringing back to you all the things that God had destroyed. We want to take it and say, don't go to your neighbor's house if they're bikers.

Don't go into your neighbor's house if they are Buddhists or Muslims. Don't do that. You know, if they don't agree with you, bid them Godspeed and part ways with them. And it's insanity. It's religious insanity that's not contextual. And it doesn't work either. 1 Corinthians 5, 9 says, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to have company with fornicators.

Okay? I got to make sure I don't make this too personal. I know two friends, really good friends, women. And they were friends in the same church for a long time. And one of the women was going through a real difficult time for like decades with her husband, who had left her, but they were still married. And she met a man who she loved.

And they started to do what adults do when they love each other and they're mature and they're adults. They started to have sex. And the other friend stopped. All conversation, all friendship with the woman that she knew and has done so much good in the world. Because that adult woman was having sex with another believer and said that they must be parted from because you don't have company with fornicators.

Using the Bible as a means to justify the separation, as a means to punish the other woman, make her feel guilty, and get her to stop doing through her flesh and her own will, because God would be disappointed with her. But listen to what Paul adds. Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world. He says, don't be separate altogether from the fornicators of this world.

He says, or with the covetous, or with the extortioners, or with the idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. Meaning, if you can't have association with fornicators who are out there, you must just leave this world. Go to the kingdom. Because there's no way you can even exist here. This was speaking of the bride. She had to be holy and pure. That's the context. And so it worked there.

Don't even associate with fornicators. But when we take that biblical model to them then and we apply it now, it's anachronistic and it's not in harmony with what the overall message is and was for them. But now I have written unto you not to keep company. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, this is the justification that the other sister used.

She's a sister. She's a fornicator or covetousness. You got to part ways in the bride with someone who covets. Okay, that means today if you have a good brother or sister in the faith and they say, I love my neighbors, Mercedes, part ways, cannot be around you. Does that make sense? For the bride it made sense, you guys.

And he says, but if a brother be a fornicator or covetousness or an idolater or a railer, a railer, I'm a railer, I think, or a drunkard, sometimes, or an extortioner with such a one know not to eat. I deal with extortioners and adulterers and all that all the time. They aren't going to touch the holiness of God in me because of Christ in me. The risen Lord in me does not let their ways influence at all.

That's the thing that God was accomplishing through the Old Testament and through the New Testament models. Okay? 2 Thessalonians 3.14. And if any man obey not the word of this epistle, okay, again, I've had Aaron Shafafaloff quote this to me, note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed.

The fact that Aaron said that to me and used it against me did not shame me. It made me laugh at the man. Okay, I'm not picking on him. I love him. He does what he does. But, I mean, it was used on me by him. This kind of treatment of people in the world today who have Christ in them does nothing but say, that guy's a jerk. He doesn't love like Christ taught us to do. All he does is judge and divide.

It's not chronologically supported. 2 Thessalonians 3.6, Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received from us. What does that look like? You know, 1 Thessalonians 5.

14, Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. Suddenly we have something different happening there. Be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto another man, but ever follow after that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men.

In the confluence of the Old Testament and New, and of the bride being taken and all that, we have glimmers of what God is trying to do. We have it come through things like he says, among yourselves and with all men. They start to come through through what the apostles were saying. James 4.4, adulterers, adulteresses, exclamation mark.

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Adulterers and adulteresses there are talking about idol worshipers, I'm pretty sure. And if you engage with that, that is not going to get you into the kingdom of heaven.

And then Revelation, John reports, and I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people. That's the bride. Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues. Very biblical. Very much part of that economy. You know, or how Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2.

4, no one engaged, listen to this one, it really gets misled. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who has enlisted him as a soldier. So we have the idea, Eric Hoffer wrote a book called The True Believer, and in that he speaks about how there's militaristic basis behind most organized religion, that we are moving forward as a warrior for Christ, and Christians today have taken that, and you know, you don't entangle yourself with the affairs of this life so you can please the one who called you to be a soldier. The language of warfare and soldiering has led Bible-reading

believers to sing songs like Onward Christian Soldiers. I loved that song when I was a Mormon. I used to sing it with fervor. I used to think of myself as marching into war with the cross of Jesus going on before. I mean, it's the militaristic song that Christians sing today.

Let's go forward, you know? And I used to just love it, but missing context and the fact that God has had a purpose in all of this administration of arithmetic. And that is the end result of victory that Christ had in peace, unity, love, long-suffering, mercy, mercy. Bible readers today, seeing these declarationsations both in the old and new testament maintain this mindset have maintained it continue to maintain it promote it in their material collectives and their material practices of the faith causing them to blindly overlook what paul said listen to this in colossians 1 13 he he has delivered us, that was to the bride,

from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love. He has delivered us. Or what Peter said to the bride in 1 Peter 2, 19 through 12, I mean, nine through 12. You are a chosen generation. That's a generation, by the way. Okay. It's not a people. That's a generation.

Just like Jesus said, this generation will not pass. That was a generation. The bride, a royal priesthood, male and female, a holy nation, ready? His own special people. That you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Who once were not a people. But are now people of God who had not obtained mercy but have now obtained mercy.

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may buy your good works which they observe. How do they observe it if they're not engaged with them? Which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation, meaning when he comes.

That was the preparation that the apostles were giving. Or when Paul wrote in Romans 12 2 through 11 to the saints at Rome, don't be conformed to this world, this world, that world, very different from our world, but be, ready, but be transformed in the renewing of your mind. We take on the mind of Christ in us today. We take his mind. What was his mind? He sat with publicans. He touched lepers.

He did not divide. He only did what he had to do under the basis of prophecy. But when it came to his heart, there was a purpose in this which was abundantly full of love. He says, For I say that through the grace given me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Oh boy, I wish we could really swallow that one.

But to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. I want you to remember that line, a measure of faith. I'm about to go out into the highways and byways in October and preach this message that the measure of faith which you have, you keep and you build upon that irrespective of your doctrinal denominational things. Your faith is your faith.

And in response to that faith, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Catholics, Mormons, in response to that faith, love each other. And don't believe the lies of your parents. They meant well. Don't believe the lies of your pastors, your priests, your bishops, your religious leaders. Look at each other and love each other. And let the faith grow to those who seek him, and God will grow them.

Let's bring that unity of the Spirit back to what it should have been from the very beginning. After describing the spiritual gifts they were given until they came to a unity of the faith, until they came to a unity of the faith, Paul wrote, let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. I think that's good. I abhor which is evil. Cling to that which is good.

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. In honoring, giving preference to one another. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in the Spirit, serving the Lord. And in Philippians 3.20 Paul clearly told the bride our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ showing that's what the whole context was they were waiting commentators they were wrong screw the commentators. Screw the scholars.

Our scholars haven't done anything for us to bring us to this. Nothing. All they've done is supported the schools that they trained under. How can we ever forget what our own Lord, King, and Savior said to Pilate? And this is a clarion call in my heart. He said, my kingdom is not of this world. Not. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight.

What do we need? So that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king then? Yeshua said, You rightly say that I am a king. For this cause I was born. And for this cause I have come into the world ready that I should bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. That's what Yeshua said, followers of Yeshua. You don't follow that one. You don't follow that one, no. You mold that around to your own ideas of what the kingdom should be because you read your damn Bible and it says we need to be separate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What Paul said to believers in 2 Corinthians 10, 4-6, when he said, for the weapons of our warfare, even to the bride then, ready, are not carnal. They're not material. His kingdom's not of this world. But mighty through God. Mighty through God. To the pulling down of strongholds. And he goes on, he says, casting down imaginations.

Hmm. And they were at a war then. But casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That was on them to do, and I think it's good advice for us. And having a readiness to revenge all disobedience.

People read that and they say, that's right. We need to do that. We need to revenge all disobedience within the bride. Within the bride. They had to make sure that disobedience, because they would have problems, and then the church would be open and loving, and Paul would say, no, exercise discipleship among them. So within the bride, not in the world, by the way, don't go out and exercise revenge, all disobedience in the world.

When you're, listen to this caveat, when your obedience is fulfilled, meaning when you've gotten the moat out of your eye and you can speak without hypocrisy within the bride, you exercise revenge on all disobedience. That's context. It has nothing to do with people today who have sin and aren't holy and they're unblemished going around and policing people. Who have beams in their own eyes and they're trying to get a splinter out of someone else.

Of course, we have Paul say to the church at Ephesus, finally, my brethren, be strong in your flesh. No, be strong in the Lord. And in the power of his might. His might. Ask yourself, what might did the Lord evidence in his life? The power of his might. When he was incarnate, what might did he show forward.

We know one instance that was done twice when he exercised his fleshly might by building a whip and driving out the money changers. That was the time. The rest of the time, it was all completely spiritual. And his body and his actions reflected that. And his body and his actions reflected that. Paul goes on and says, put on the whole armor of God, not of man. That you may, bride, be able to withstand, to stand against the wiles of the devil.

We read it today, that's right. The devil's out there. But Revelation says the devil's been conquered Christ said that in John he's beaten nope to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil it's right here right and it says the devil was very active in that day by the way contextually and listen to what he adds for we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Just stop right there. Even then, we don't go to war with flesh and blood. There's a reason for that. I'm going to get to it as we wrap this up. But against principalities. Against powers. How do you wrestle against this up. But against principalities, against powers, how do you wrestle against powers? How do you wrestle against principalities? Against rulers of darkness of this world, because Christ hadn't conquered them yet.

All the beings that Heizer talks about in the grand council of the heavens existed, Satan and angels and and and that would come down and that had rebelled yeah that's what he's talking about the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places it was abundant they faced an incomprehensible spiritual war that was meted out by people who were influenced by those spirits, those dark spirits.

It says, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of man. No, the whole armor of God. That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, that's coming upon them, the evil day, and having done all to stand. Okay? And then he gives them this. Listen carefully. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.

Truth. And having on the breastplate of righteousness. Both of those things speak of Christ. He's the way, the truth, and the life. He's the only righteous one. That's what it's talking about, okay? Not their own righteousness, even though it would play out that way because they had to be holy.

And he says, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of war. No, the preparation of the gospel of war. No. The preparation of the gospel of peace? The gospel of peace? Why do we miss that? And when we read and we ignore these, the Prince of Peace who came to bring peace to the city of peace? Above all, taking the shield of faith, not knowledge, not education, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, because the wicked were coming at them with knowledge.

They had to beat the knowledge with the faith. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The sword of the Spirit, the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Christ is the Word of God. Now, they have the Old Testament, but there's a play on words there, and there's double application.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto, remember Christ said, watch. You four apostles, watch, look, watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. These are direct directives to that bride. And listen to Ephesians 2, 7, and you were made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin, in the which you once walked according to the course of the world, because he's talking to a Gentile church there, according to the prince of the power of the air. Remember Paul said to high places, we don't war against flesh

and blood, but he says, you once walked according to the prince of the power of the air. That's because those demons in the divine council realm of demons and angels and all that, that was what they were warring with. Okay. And he says the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.

So he was saying those devils and demons are influencing the sons of disobedience among whom we were all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh. We were part of that group fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were nature and were by nature children of wrath. I have been a child of wrath.

I came from being a child of wrath, of violence, of anger. I still have it. I deal with it in my flesh. But we were once a child of wrath, just as the others, but God, who is rich in mercy. mercy. He's rich in mercy because of his great love, which he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. What a message.

And raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's our identity in him, where he is we are. You see? That in the ages to come, the ages to come, that's translated worlds usually. In the worlds to come, the ages and the worlds. worlds usually, in the worlds to come, the ages and the worlds, he might show, ready, this is what we are trying to preach, the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. First Corinthians 2.12, Paul writes, now we have received not the spirit of the world.

I think the spirit of the world has filled the Christian churches. Almost all of them. You know, except for the humble mom-and-pop ones that haven't catered into money and power and politics. But, you know, the spirit of the world. That you haven't received that, Paul says to the bride, but the spirit who is from God.

That we may know the things that have been freely given to us by God first John 3 1 behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us John says at that time that we should be called what the children of God do you remember what Christ who Christ said the children of God would be? Peacemakers.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Not war makers, not warmongers, peacemakers with all men. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. How did Yeshua define the children of God? Peacemakers. And then remember Paul said to the bride in Philippians 2.15 that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

Again, that idea of shining. And finally, James in James 1.27 says, remember this one? So overlooked, pure and undefiled religion, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit or be visited. orphans, and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. That was the call on them. It's really truly still the call on us.

But for them, it was unspotted from that world under the law that they had to be separate from. And in 2 Peter 1.4, Peter told the believers in that day, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you might be partakers, you might be partakers of the divine nature. That's Christ in you.

Partakers of the divine nature. Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Through lust. Okay? It doesn't just mean sex and all that. It's corruption that is in the world through lust. Yeshua said in Matthew 5, 14 through 16, you are the light of the world. You are. And that's in the present active indicative in the Greek. You are.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. We should be individual, respective, subjective. You walk in the faith that you have. You be a light unto the world in the darkest places. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, it gives light to all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Or when he said, no man can serve two masters, for he either hates the one and loves the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and loves the other, or else he'll be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You can't do it. And yet we, every church I know tries. They try.

Matthew 7, 13, 14, Christ says, enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go by it because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life. And there are few who find it. In Acts 5.29, but Peter and the other apostles said, we ought to obey God rather than man.

What are God's commandments to us today, guys? It's right there. Obey God, faith, and love. Faith and love. In Romans 8, 7, 9, Paul said, but the carnal mind is an enemy against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be. Did you see that addition? The minds we have, the bodies we have, the genetics we have, all the things we naturally come into this world with because of all these contributing factors that determine us, literally predestine us to being what we are in our flesh, not in the spirit, not with God,

but we are all predestined by the factors of our lives. It says that we're not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can we be. The idea to try to correct a person's overall physical, material person successfully in this world is absolutely impossible, especially without Christ. But it can't be.

So then Paul says, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. They can't do it. He says, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he's not his. That was to the bride in that day who by faith got the Spirit of Christ by being born from above.

I maintain with John, first chapter, the light of the Christ came into the world to all men. Romans 8, 11, but if the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the spirit who dwells in you. Gives life to these mortal, corrupt, predestination bodies and minds and our parenting and our experiences and our woes, Christ gives us a new identity. 1 Corinthians 2, 15, 16, but he who is spiritual judges all things.

Did you know that? Yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. I love that. We got Christians roaming around. I've met them by the dozens over my life, judging everybody. But he who is yet he himself is rightly judged by nobody. How can you be judged when you walk by the Spirit of the risen Christ? How can another person judge you? They don't know what to do.

know your heart. All they can judge you by is your fallen, broken flesh. Have fun. Go ahead. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Stand fast in that. Stand fast in Christ in you, the risen Lord, who moves you toward faith and love. 2 Corinthians 5.

17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And let me point out right now, that's not material. Somebody who has Christ in them, if they had a cavity when Christ came into them, they had a cavity the next day. If somebody was obese when Christ came in, they're going to be obese after.

The flesh is not what we're talking about here. We are talking about a new creature in terms of perspective. Our mind, our heart, the way we view others in this world has nothing to do with mortification of the flesh because that's a full-time job. It's religious and it never ends. Paul told the bride in Galatians 1.4 that Yeshua gave himself for our sins that he might, ready, deliver us from this present evil age.

That's not talking about our age, even though the world is evil. It was talking about their evil age and why was there evil in that age? Satan and his angels were still operative and the law was in place. By the law is the knowledge of sin. So it was an evil age according to the will of God and our Father.

And he said in Colossians 3 15, and let the peace of God, here's the point, rule in your hearts, which you were called in one body and be thankful. People who read the Bible today forget this one, when the writer of Hebrews says, pursue peace with all people. Pursue peace with all people. We live in a world of absolute warfare and chaos.

The internet, the infighting, every line is arguable. Everybody has their own way, their own God, their own voice. Pursue peace with all people. And he says to the bride and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Very plain, very plain in that day. Yeshua said to his disciples in John 17, 14, 18, 17, 14, 18, to God in a prayer, I have given them your word. And the world has hated them because they are not of the world. Just as I am not of the world.

I do not pray that you should take them out of the world. Christ says that. I'm not asking you to remove them. But that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. And God is sending us to the world.

He's not sending us to be sequestered in buildings. He's sending individuals led by his spirit without authority to go into their respective lives. You are as big of a missionary to people in the world, never even mentioning God's name or Christ's name by who you are with your friends and family and in your jobs. You are every bit of that.

You don't need to go and do some mission trip. You are the one, right? You, because God has written his laws on your mind and your heart. Will you agree with everybody? No. You have your own ideas and you are responsible for those. God lets you have that. But the love is the same. Selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional.

Colossians 3, 1 through 3, Paul says, If then you were raised with Christ, I'm reading it again, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting on the right hand of God. Because that's where he was at that time. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ.

You died, he tells them. You don't have that former man. People remember us from who we are and the mistakes we make in our flesh. Everyone remembers me from when I was a kid. I am still that guy, right? You never leave it. People remember that I've had affairs. People remember that I lost my temper once. while a pastor. People remember that I have the F-bomb.

All they're looking at is flesh that is just created by everything in my, and I struggle with coping with it as a believer. That's all it is, you see. So yes, in the Old Testament, the nation was called not to touch the unclean thing. Bible readers still believe it. And in the apostolic record, they were to be separate from the world in preparation to be taken. Absolutely.

But instead of letting these last passages sink in and reign over us as children of the kingdom in this world spiritually, we have rationalized, nationalized, commercialized, corporatized, militarized, and institutionalized the sacred saving faith of peace and grace and mercy, instead of allowing people of faith and love to just follow God according to the dictates of their conscience, to be salt and light and merciful to the world around us. We have elected to reign politically rather than spiritually.

We've allowed it. We've no one stood up and kicked against it. We have just gone along with it as if that is what the faith means. We have domination. We have wars against flesh and blood. We have demands that people must believe the way we believe. They must concur with every single iota that everybody has to be on the same page.

Forgetting that God so loved the world. Oh, the world that he gave us his son. that he gave us his son. And instead of seeing his son as having the victory on our behalf as the second Adam, fulfilling all things on our behalf and on the behalf of the Jews and reconciling the world to the Father, playing in the Greek tense in 2 Corinthians 5, having reconciled, done.

Look it up yourself. We've elected to continue to divide, to be separate, to believe that we are susceptible to doing something, believing something that God is going to turn from us on. Faith and love. Two weeks ago, I was presented with a situation that served to crack me open again. I've talked on mercy in the past.

This thing was leveling is what happened. And I really do believe that the followers of the king might choose to see something possibly, if you will, that I saw. It's just an observation. It's not a revelation. It was a realization. I didn't manufacture it. It came through a circumstance that took me so much by surprise. I couldn't believe it.

Before coming to Utah, I was driving on Beach Boulevard in California in preparation to do the show. I got a telephone call from a man and I'm going to call him Jim. And Jim was a friend of the television station and he heard Jim's a former Latter-day, was a current Latter-day Saint, but struggling. He heard that I was coming to town and was going to do this show, reaching out to the LDS.

And that was the start of a 20 year relationship relationship, really about a 15-year relationship, to be honest, and I'll tell you why. And I can only describe it, he doesn't watch our content, so I can say this if Jim is listening. Jim isn't listening, so I'm not speaking against him. He's the most effed up man I've ever met in my life.

I mean, the most effed up man I've ever met in my life. I mean, the most. You name it in the spectrum of being messed up. This dude was jacked. Like, you pick the place. In his selfishness, in his ego, in his lust, in his anger, in his revenge, in his heart, in his attitude. Everything about him was utterly fallen man broken. Okay.

Jim, he called himself a Christian, spoke all the language. I mean, this is the type he was. I'd say, yeah, we're talking about tongue-stay. Tongues? I can speak in tongues. Hey, somebody, wait a minute. Do it right there. I'd say, wow, Jim, that's pretty good. That's right, I can do it. That's Jim. carnal, egotistical, arrogant, unforgiving, oblivious to how he treated other people.

And, you know, being what I am in the flesh, we related really well. I really understood him. I knew where it was coming from. I didn't like it because it reminded me sometimes of myself. But we remained friends and the saga of Jim would scar you if I told you the week-to-week stuff that came out from Jim to my ear as his friend.

In 2018, we parted ways over a lot of different things. But I realized when we sort of parted ways and I let him know kind of what I thought about him because I had been fed up to here with Jim and I thought I'm up to here with Jim. And I thought, I'm wasting my time with Jim. I let him know, I'm done with this.

I cannot do that. You have not changed at all, Jim. At all. I am not going to waste my precious time as a servant of the Lord to sit with a reprobate like you. That was 2018. Time came and went. COVID came, all that stuff. We talked every once a year, all perfunctory, uneasy. How you doing? Jim was the same. Same Jim. His parents were high up in the Mormon corporate empire.

His mother was way up. And he was the product of that system. But he could see through the inauthentic nature of it from a young age. And it really messed him up i learned the reality of that upbringing and he came from a long line of pioneer heritage and he was the product of that underbelly that that duplicitous nature of appearing good because he appeared good but was just corrupt long story short he reached out to me two weeks ago haven't heard from him and on the phone call i listened to him about an hour and 30 minutes be the exact

same person he was when we left off in 2018. Exactly. It was all about him. This is a man who mentions money every third sentence. Money. His money. How much he earns. What he does. What he's bought. Where he's at. How do you think I'm doing? Do you think I have enough for retirement? It's endless. It's his God.

Money. Blind to his pride. An idolater of the things of this world and has had some amazingly difficult things he's faced with as a result. And I heard about that. So I said, okay, you know, when we finished, I hung up and then we got a text later and he said, can we have lunch? And I said, yeah. lunch? And I said, yeah. So I was meeting with Margo and then I went to the place where we had lunch where I was going to meet him and I was early. And in my mind, I sat there fuming.

I'd swear right now because that's what I want to do. But I'd be like, I am wasting my freaking life again. I've been sucked in again by this guy. And I wrote a speech in my head that I was going to give him and it was going to be, look, unless you change, unless you start improving, I am not going to sit with you.

I'm not going to be your friend. I'm not going to associate with you. I'm not going to be your friend. I'm not going to associate with you. You are a wasted cause in my mind because you just don't change. And I thought I could do that because I had gone through change myself and I know that it's possible for some people through Christ.

So the blame was on him. The blame was on him, just like religionists do. Okay? I had the speech down pat. He walked in. I hadn't seen him. He's in his 70s now. He's hunched over. He used to be... He used to be so strong of his virility. That's another thing he's always talking about. Dear God in heaven, his virility.

The pleasures he can bring women. Oh, he's a master. The size of his unit. Oh my gosh, it's endless. This is Jim. But he comes in hunched over. And he has a hat on. And underneath it, I can see hair that on the stuff closest to the head is pure white but on the surface is dyed black. Really insightful. He was a creature. He had become a creature of his vices.

And he came and he sat across from me. He had been weathered a visual representation of his sin. I'm not saying that happens to everybody, but I think it happened to him and my heart broke. And I just chose to drop my pre-planned speech and just to try to listen and encourage him in the spirit of Christ as it overwhelmed my heart for the man who hadn't changed. This was not my heart.

My heart wants to rip him apart. Christ in me, Christ in me gave me compassion that just broke my hard heart toward him. As I drove home, I talked to Cassidy, my middle daughter, and she knows Jim. And I told her something of which I am convinced after decades of trying to understand how to be in this world.

And I wrote it in my journal, and this is it, quote, that in this world, you can agree with me or not, all human beings are pretty much predestined by their genetics, their parents, their nurture, their experience, their defects, their opportunities taken, the things that have been denied them, their race, their experience, their defects, their opportunities taken, the things that have been denied them, their race, their gender, their emotionalism, their intellect, their will, and that there is really, truly very little that we can do to perfect that.

Very little. You can reform it, but you're not going to perfect it. I know that from my own experience. I have tried. I've been in the Word. Everything cannot perfect this mortal coil. This mortal flesh is a product of everything I just said. I wrote, and this is why God sent his Son. This is why God sent his son. This is why God sent his son.

To save us from the defects of the fall and give us the strength and opportunity to seek him as the solution, as the solution, irrespective of our upbringing, religious upbringing, nature, nurture, genetics, or cultural deficits. This is why the Apostle Paul, speaking even of himself as an apostle, said, and I wrote this in my journal, Therefore, with my mind as an apostle, I serve the law of sin.

I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. He plainly described it. He described Jim. With his mind, he tries to serve the law of God, but with his flesh, he serves sin. That's what Paul said about himself as an apostle. I went to sleep early. I got up early, 1 a.m., and as I lay in bed, I talk with Yehovah before I get out.

I give him my family. I give him my friends. I lift in bed. I talk with Yahava before I get out. I give him my family. I give him my friends. I lift you up. If I know of a plight you're having, if you're struggling, I pray for you every morning as I'm laying there, as I think of you, things about you. The Spirit brings names.

And Jim came to my mind. And I was asking God to bless all these people. And in my mind, as a realization, I was taken into the heart of God himself. I imagined being in the eyeball, the heart of God himself. Take it for what it's worth. And it's very strange because I usually am intellectual and rational rather than experiential.

And there was no drugs involved. I have to always say that now since I've made known that I use drugs on you. It wasn't a weekend. And in that place I was able to experience the depth of something I have lost through religious training. And that I had been given in my early life his mercy. And which is not for some.

It's not for believers only. It's not if you have the right doctrine, the right church. It's for all. It's for the gyms. It's for the Hindus, the Muslims, the Christian, the LDS, the Catholic, the unchurched, the unbelievers, the believers, the sinners and saints. His view is mercy. It is mercy. His view is mercy.

It is mercy. In a culminating, unplanned swoop of my imagination, I suddenly envisioned humanity as a little lamb. That's how I saw from this mindset, this imagination, God was looking upon humanity. And this little lamb seemed to have come out from a night of terror, of being lost, of being chased by wolves, of not having a shepherd, of not having any strength.

This lamb was bloody and beaten. His hair was all, it looked like it had been through a fire almost. And this little lamb was standing there in my mind's eye and it was totally abused, totally thrashed. And that was the way I saw God's mercy toward man, that we are beaten, broken, scarred, and his love and mercy for us in that condition.

I remembered learning a fascinating fact in nature about lambs, that some lambs' mothers die, so there's no one to feed them, or they're separated from different things from the mother. But worst yet, there are some lambs that are born, and they're called bummer lambs. And these lambs, they actually have video footage of a bummer lamb being born and trying to feed on the mother, and the mother nudges it away, kicks it away, treats it terribly, misuses it.

And they call it a bummer lamb because they go and try to bum milk from the other mothers, which is often rejected. And so in many cases, if the shepherd doesn't intervene and doesn't take care of the bummer lambs, they will die of starvation and indifference. remembered learning that when these unfortunate little bummer lambs become adult sheep and they're out in the flock and the Shepherd comes and these Shepherds they're amazing because they stand there and they say quietly and gently sheep sheep that's what they say sheep the first ones to run to them and jump at them and the most devoted

are those bummer lambs that he saved the most broken ones are the ones that are the most devoted and that's in the animal kingdom. And God said to my heart, I believe this is why I call the nation out. This is why I sent my son to an undeserving world. This is why I gave him a bride. And this is why I call my children from that kingdom to be in this world, a people who choose to bring this world of bummer lambs, truth and hope, to bring them into one faith and one love through the victory of my son.

And I realized that God could have plainly summarized himself in a line, I am mercy. In this world, we have no idea what contributes to the actions and ways of others. I know it's liberal. I know we want to throw down personal decisions and all the wrong choices. We do not know the totality of what contributed to the material makeup or the mental or psychological makeup of others, the way they believe or why they believe.

We don't know what a person in Kazakhstan or a person on the East Coast who was raised Catholic or Mormons here in Utah or Calvinists or feminists, patriarchy, LGBTQ. We don't know what caused people to go to that. We don't know why the Baha'is and the Buddhists and the Hindus and they all do this. We don't know why liberals are liberals or conservatives are conservatives, communists are communists, capitalists are capitalists. We are not available to that. We don't know. All we can do is make conjecture and condemn.

God wants us to have mercy. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. When we think of the nation of Israel and the bride and the purpose of all that administrative arithmetic, we can see that God had a purpose. Not to contribute to more division anymore, judgment, condemnation, but through his children to bring peace, love, unity, understanding of him throughout the world by his agape love.

That's the message of the Yeshuans. his agape love. That's the message of the Yeshuans. And because we can't read or rightly know what makes people believe like they do or live like they do or behave like they do, God has given us a solution as his children to take out into the world and it's mercy. Absolute, abject, unconditional mercy and love.

Absolute, abject, unconditional mercy and love. His unadulterated mercy for all people all the time, no matter what, no matter how long they fail to change, no matter how deeply ruined they are. The Yeshua response to all people everywhere is unadulterated mercy. As often as humanly possible with his mercy for us when we fail filling in the gaps.

Now listen, before I wrap it up. In this realm, mercy doesn't rob justice. This is a material realm. And we understand that in order for the material to exist and cohabitation with different people to exist, that people have to be assessed and discipled according to the goodness for the community. And so I am not talking about being unfair.

I am not talking about not disciplining or correcting or arresting. I'm not talking about that. Nor am I suggesting apathy to harm or evil. I'm not suggesting that at all, in this world especially. But I am suggesting that Yeshuans from the heart, the heart do not look at somebody unmercifully we say you deserve this you should have this happen this is natural in this world someone who kills somebody else you should be put in jail the laws you should be put to death that's the law you should be put to death whatever but my heart toward you is not unmerciful.

My heart toward you for the things that led you to be this way and do these things is merciful. You see the difference? Not preaching antinomianism or anarchy in the world to let everybody do what they want and say it's all good. No, no, no. But our hearts have to or should be merciful toward all people.

We remember humbly, I've gone over, I'll be done in just a second, that Yehovah said to Samuel who was looking for an impressive king that was visibly impressive, looked not on his countenance, nor on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For Yehovah sees not as a man sees. For the man looks on the outward appearance, but Yehovah looks on the heart. We remember what he said in 1 Chron Chronicles 28 9, And thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for Yahava searches all hearts and understands all the

imagination of the thoughts if thou seek him he will be found of thee but if you forsake him you will be cast off forever and isaiah 55 8 9 the living god says for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways saith yahava for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts above your thoughts.

In Jeremiah 17 10, I, Yehovah, search the heart. I try the reins even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doing. Or Luke, who wrote in Acts 1 24, and they prayed and said, Thou, Lord, which knows the hearts of all men, Thou, Lord, which knows the hearts of all men, all people. Mercy, natural byproduct of our humility before the living God, of seeing ourselves for what we really are before him.

And again, we understand the application when Christ said, Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's. That was plain. But render unto God what is God, and God, what we render to him is our heart. And from that heart of hearts toward all individuals, his mercy toward all others all the time is not a choice. It's the character of Christ himself.

I'm going to wrap it up by ending with the words of Micah. We don't have a graphic for this. Micah has God say, wherewith shall I come before the Yahava, the Lord, and bow myself before the high God. How do I do it? Micah asked way back then. Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul. He has shown me, oh man,

what is good. And what does Yahava require of thee? You know this. But to do justly, that's this life, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. and to walk humbly with thy God. Questions, comments, insights from our vast and burgeoning audience. Vanna with a baby Pat Sajak. A question. How often in our translations it always talks about fornication, you know, and I'm not saying this to excuse any kind of personal sexual behavior on anyone's part, but...

Bullshit. I'm just kidding. I can joke with that one. I mean, I'd like to, but how often does it refer to, you know, the sexual worship in the pagan temples of the time and how often is it referring to a couple of 17 year olds who have sex i don't think i really don't think it's i think it's mostly what you just said with the pagan uh diana worshipers and i also think it was fornication with idolatry that the sins of the flesh maybe for the bride it had a place but i don't think it means that i think it just means uh in intercourse with a pagan deity that they

did in the temples of diana and then also like the son who slept with his mother, things like that. But I don't think it is the 17-year-old talk. I don't. Yeah. That's my opinion. Not to justify your... Just kidding. Thank you. All right. Let's pray and get out of Dodge. And I hope that the Spirit of Christ will lead you as you're moved.

Not according to what I say, father, we submit all things to you. We seek to follow you in spirit and truth, and we seek to be what your son was. And that is merciful, sacrificial, unconditional, long suffering, that you had a grand plan in the things that you've laid out that we can read about in this amazing book we call the Bible, and that we can open our eyes to the context and see how it plays out in our lives today, and that we can turn from the tradition that has changed this beautiful faith into something that was never intended to be.

We stand on this, Father. We pray you'll empower us to be salt and light in this world. We pray you'll be with those who are struggling. I pray fervently for the Faber family who lost their mom and wife this past week suddenly, and pray for her. We pray for Jesse and his family. and his mom who is diagnosed right now, we're not sure how bad, with liver cancer, and he is so overwrought and upset and hollowed out by this situation as he only knows love and communion with her. And we pray for anyone else who is struggling and feels like your love is not there, that you're not there, Lord, let them realize you're there.

You're within them. Even if the light is just a dimly lit candle, let them see that your presence there is merciful and calling them to humbly seek him. We pray for this for the state. We pray for the future of this state, this nation, in this world.

And we pray that we all can play a part in sharing this light that you have given us in Yeshua's holy name. Amen. Thanks, you guys. Christian.