1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,080
Welcome to the Love and Context podcast, engaging in unscripted conversations with your hosts,

2
00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:07,320
Ben and Spencer.

3
00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:11,420
Whether you're tuning in from your car, your office, your home, or anywhere in between,

4
00:00:11,420 --> 00:00:15,140
we are so happy to have you join us today.

5
00:00:15,140 --> 00:00:21,040
Our mission is simple, to explore the Bible through a powerful lens of love.

6
00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:26,200
Together we'll uncover fresh insights and gain deeper understandings of how we can love

7
00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:29,560
God and love the people in our everyday lives.

8
00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:34,840
So buckle up and join us on the spiritual journey as we discover timeless wisdom that

9
00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:39,680
is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.

10
00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,920
Without further ado, let's dive right in.

11
00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,000
We're back, Love and Context podcast.

12
00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:47,000
I'm Spencer.

13
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:48,000
I'm Ben.

14
00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:49,180
I'm Sarah.

15
00:00:49,180 --> 00:00:51,920
And Sarah's back with us, just in case you all are wondering.

16
00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:53,440
Yeah, two weeks in a row.

17
00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:55,320
We didn't scare her off last time.

18
00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:56,320
No, no.

19
00:00:56,320 --> 00:01:00,000
We were actually, before we started recording, we were just talking about how we all have

20
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,520
our own little things, little quirks.

21
00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:06,000
So it's just funny because you guys are saying that.

22
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,880
And then as you're saying these little quirks that you have, I'm sitting here and I'm legitimately

23
00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:10,880
like, what are mine?

24
00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:15,520
Because my brain was just having a legitimate brain fart of what are my little quirks,

25
00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:16,520
but I don't know.

26
00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:17,520
Probably just need to ask your wife.

27
00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:18,520
Probably.

28
00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:19,520
I was just going to say, I'm not falling for that trap.

29
00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:20,520
Yeah, I'm not falling for that trap.

30
00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:21,520
Nope, nope.

31
00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:22,520
Go talk to your wife.

32
00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:24,520
I'm not falling for that trap, especially when we're recording.

33
00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:25,520
No.

34
00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:28,040
I wasn't asking you to tell me.

35
00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:30,920
I was just like, my brain was just farting as you guys were talking about that.

36
00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:32,540
I was like, okay.

37
00:01:32,540 --> 00:01:34,740
So we are still in Deuteronomy.

38
00:01:34,740 --> 00:01:37,280
Last week we talked about this idea of worship.

39
00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:38,280
What is proper worship?

40
00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:39,280
What's improper worship?

41
00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:43,520
What does worship actually create in you, which is generosity, to be a generous type

42
00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:47,480
of person, because that's the kind of person God wants to bless, right?

43
00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:55,480
If God is Genesis 12, it says, I'm going to bless you so that all nations would be blessed.

44
00:01:55,480 --> 00:02:00,480
So that is contingent on you actually doing something with that blessing.

45
00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:05,480
Often we like to, as Christians, we like to live in the land of the blessed ones rather

46
00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:09,640
than actually realizing we're a conduit of grace and mercy and goodness from heaven to

47
00:02:09,640 --> 00:02:10,640
earth.

48
00:02:10,640 --> 00:02:11,840
Right?

49
00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:16,120
So in Deuteronomy, Moses has been going through and he says, remember, remember the 5th of

50
00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:17,120
November.

51
00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:18,120
No, that's not it.

52
00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:19,120
Sorry.

53
00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:20,120
I did that the other day too.

54
00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:21,920
That's a different, that's something else.

55
00:02:21,920 --> 00:02:25,920
You know what's so sad is the fact that like kids just don't understand what that even

56
00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:26,920
means.

57
00:02:26,920 --> 00:02:27,920
I know.

58
00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:28,920
It's so sad.

59
00:02:28,920 --> 00:02:29,920
Oh, I know.

60
00:02:29,920 --> 00:02:31,480
Look, and now we're old people talking about the old days.

61
00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:34,200
I'm going to tell this story really quick here because this is great.

62
00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:39,920
So we were at the Art Walk and we're walking around and we stopped at the chocolate shop.

63
00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:42,580
And of course, James had to have chocolate, right?

64
00:02:42,580 --> 00:02:44,600
And they said, do you have a phone number to put in?

65
00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:48,160
I said, yes, 8675309.

66
00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:50,840
And they're like, that's not enough numbers.

67
00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,880
And I was like, well, it's from a song.

68
00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:55,160
And they're like, oh really?

69
00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:56,160
What song?

70
00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:57,160
And I was like, you know what?

71
00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:01,840
At this point, I feel too old to continue this conversation.

72
00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:06,320
I had a kid tell me I was ancient the other day because I was born in the 19s.

73
00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:10,920
And I was like, yeah, we're done with this conversation now.

74
00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:12,840
Oh man.

75
00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:14,680
All right.

76
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,080
So we come into Deuteronomy 16.

77
00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:20,480
So if you have not read Deuteronomy 16 through 18, which by the way, Spencer, last week we

78
00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:24,760
forgot to say that to people, there's this new fangle technology called a pause button.

79
00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:25,760
Click.

80
00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:27,600
You just, boop, pause.

81
00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:30,580
You read that and then you come back because we're going to assume you've read that when

82
00:03:30,580 --> 00:03:31,900
we're talking about it.

83
00:03:31,900 --> 00:03:36,080
So it's 16 through 18 was what we're going to be covering today.

84
00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:40,180
And now that you're back, it's a miracle of pause button.

85
00:03:40,180 --> 00:03:41,680
It's coming on the heels of last week, right?

86
00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:46,260
Remember in the Levi's, not forsaken the Levi's leading into generosity that every seven years

87
00:03:46,260 --> 00:03:47,560
you're going to set your captives free.

88
00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:49,680
You're going to let the debts be freed.

89
00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:53,320
And then he says, Hey, I want to ground you a little bit more in your history, help you

90
00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:55,040
remember things a little bit better.

91
00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:56,040
Right?

92
00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,680
Now, once again, this is to the next generation because the first generation is dying out

93
00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:00,680
in the desert.

94
00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:03,600
This is the next generation that Moses is speaking to.

95
00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:05,200
Remember where you come from.

96
00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:06,200
Remember what God did at Egypt.

97
00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:08,960
Remember what he did in the desert because you're going to go into the slant and take

98
00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:09,960
over it.

99
00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:12,020
He's commissioning this new generation as well.

100
00:04:12,020 --> 00:04:15,840
So the first one he wants, he brings up is he talks about Passover and why is Passover

101
00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:17,260
important?

102
00:04:17,260 --> 00:04:21,100
Because they remember that you were a slave in Egypt, that it was by God's mighty hand

103
00:04:21,100 --> 00:04:26,280
that you were brought out and that his name was given to you there.

104
00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:28,200
The name of God, Yahweh.

105
00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:30,960
I always was, I always am, I always will be.

106
00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:33,960
It's an important thing to remember.

107
00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:36,520
The next festival he talks about is a festival of weeks.

108
00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:41,960
We also call that Shavuot and in the New Testament church, we call that Pentecost because they

109
00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:45,960
occur at the same time and it celebrates the giving of the law or in the New Testament,

110
00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:47,800
the giving of the spirit.

111
00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:53,100
It reminds them of who they've committed themselves to and it reminds them of the ceremony between

112
00:04:53,100 --> 00:04:57,160
them and God where he gives them the 10 words and he says, this is who I am.

113
00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:01,480
A few episodes ago in Deuteronomy, we talked about the 10 words and we talked about how

114
00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:03,080
there are actually 10 commandments.

115
00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:06,460
There's actually five commandments expressed two different ways, right?

116
00:05:06,460 --> 00:05:10,440
And this interconnectedness of like learning to respect God and respect the people around

117
00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:15,100
you, which will eventually lead to you loving the people around you, right?

118
00:05:15,100 --> 00:05:16,480
This is the celebration.

119
00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:20,000
So they have Passover, remembering where you came from, Festival of Weeks, remembering

120
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:22,440
this ceremony with God, right?

121
00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,480
Remembering your identity that is being forged in the nation.

122
00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:27,940
And then there's the Festival of Tabernacles, right?

123
00:05:27,940 --> 00:05:31,040
So the Festival of Tabernacles is where they go out into the desert and they're building

124
00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:32,040
these.

125
00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:33,040
Sukkots.

126
00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:34,040
Sukkots, yep.

127
00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:35,280
Also known as Sukkots.

128
00:05:35,280 --> 00:05:37,720
And they remember how God provided for them in the desert.

129
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:41,560
Isaiah is going to say how he led you like a bride.

130
00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:46,160
About how his cloud of protection surrounded them the entire time.

131
00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:48,520
Probably also remembering how their shoes and clothes didn't wear out and they're like,

132
00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:49,520
man.

133
00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:50,520
One of my favorite ones.

134
00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:51,520
Look at your sandals.

135
00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:53,200
They never wore out.

136
00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,280
Could you imagine if you had like, because you've probably got some favorite shoes, right?

137
00:05:56,280 --> 00:05:57,600
Oh, I've got some that are mine.

138
00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:01,680
I've got some that were, I'm like, yeah, yeah, like don't judge.

139
00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:03,000
But yes, I have them.

140
00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,840
If I could have them forever and never have them wear out, right?

141
00:06:05,840 --> 00:06:06,840
Oh, for sure.

142
00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:07,840
Yes.

143
00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:10,740
One of the most popular shoes in Alaska is something called an extra tough.

144
00:06:10,740 --> 00:06:11,900
It's a fancy rubber boot.

145
00:06:11,900 --> 00:06:16,960
It's really brown and they are not like adorable, but everybody has them.

146
00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:18,960
And so they've kind of become like a fashion statement.

147
00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:19,960
Right.

148
00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:20,960
Right.

149
00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:24,000
But you can get the ones that have like the designer on the inside and then you, then

150
00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,720
you roll the extra tough down and then it's like a church shoe.

151
00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:29,240
Or a colored extra tough.

152
00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:32,800
It's actually not uncommon in Alaska to see people lead worship in extra toughs.

153
00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:33,800
Just so you know.

154
00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,120
Or preach in extra toughs.

155
00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:38,860
There are people who if they could buy one pair of extra toughs and they would never

156
00:06:38,860 --> 00:06:41,240
wear out, it would be like a dream come true for them.

157
00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:42,240
Right.

158
00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:43,920
I was thinking about the clothes thing.

159
00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:44,920
Right.

160
00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:48,160
So they're remembering three, the three major, these are the three major pilgrimage festivals

161
00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:49,160
as well.

162
00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:51,920
Passover, festival of weeks and festival of tabernacles.

163
00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:52,920
Right.

164
00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:56,200
So Passover, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot.

165
00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:59,440
So Moses is making sure that they remember where they come from.

166
00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:01,760
The next section is actually a really interesting section.

167
00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:05,080
He's actually talking about authority and like how to make sure there's proper authority

168
00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:08,200
in place for judgment, for regular life.

169
00:07:08,200 --> 00:07:11,440
Because as opposed to being a wandering bunch of nomads, they're actually going to be sitting

170
00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:13,480
in one spot.

171
00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,440
And if you think your kids fight in the car when you're driving, wait until you put them

172
00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:19,840
in a room together.

173
00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:22,520
Right.

174
00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:24,120
Like it's just, it's just happening.

175
00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:27,460
Like we were talking about with Pastor Nick and we were talking about how the Israelites

176
00:07:27,460 --> 00:07:32,080
were grumbling and I was like, you know, grumbling is like, and I was like, you've been driving

177
00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:37,640
the car and you just hear this rumble in your backseat and you're like, you know, it's coming.

178
00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:38,840
You know, it's coming.

179
00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:39,840
Yeah.

180
00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:42,640
And like that's, that's how I often look at these, this whole thing about grumbling in

181
00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:47,840
the desert is like, there's just this low hum and Moses was like, can we get some like

182
00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:50,320
quail maybe that'll calm them down.

183
00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:52,680
So, so he says a couple of things.

184
00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:55,560
He says, Hey, first thing you need to do is you got to appoint some judges.

185
00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:56,560
Right.

186
00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:57,560
There you want one from every tribe.

187
00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:01,340
It makes sense because you don't want to deal with being like, Hey, you know, the Judah guy,

188
00:08:01,340 --> 00:08:03,040
he said blah, blah, blah.

189
00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:06,800
And I'm from the tribe of Benjamin and they have always had it out for us.

190
00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:13,040
I mean, you can't have that Baptist judge judging me as a Nazarene.

191
00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:14,400
Not that we would ever run into those problems.

192
00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:15,400
Right?

193
00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:16,400
Yeah.

194
00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:18,080
He says you actually need to have some, some in every town.

195
00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:20,940
Now, one of the things that I love that he talks about the judges, and this is really

196
00:08:20,940 --> 00:08:26,480
important for us to understand as Christians and as we talk about justice in the world,

197
00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:29,920
they are not supposed to pervert justice.

198
00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:35,580
They're not supposed to show partiality because of wealth specifically.

199
00:08:35,580 --> 00:08:43,360
They don't accept bribes and they follow justice and justice alone for this key, key phrase

200
00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:47,600
that you may live long and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.

201
00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:51,920
Now what is the implication if they don't do those things or if they rather they do

202
00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:55,960
those things, you're not going to possess that land long, right?

203
00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:56,960
Right.

204
00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:00,080
Because you're going to actually start to eat yourself with corruption.

205
00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:03,800
And an interesting thing about corruption, it usually starts small, but it rarely stays

206
00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:04,800
small.

207
00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:05,800
Right.

208
00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:10,920
I mean, because we were just talking about all these Passover or all of these Jewish

209
00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:17,160
festivals, I had the, I would say a blessing being a nanny to an Orthodox Jewish family

210
00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:18,680
in college.

211
00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:24,640
And so I got to learn about what it meant to be living by the Torah and, you know, to

212
00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:30,520
walk to the shul on Saturday and get ready for service and, and to, to realize that we

213
00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:34,720
all had to be within a mile radius because you were walking to your shul and, and to

214
00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:36,800
have the congregation split.

215
00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:41,800
And it was very rare for women to ever be in there because Orthodox Jewish women don't.

216
00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:48,620
But one of the things I got to do during Yom Kippur is, I believe it's pronounced Yom Kippur.

217
00:09:48,620 --> 00:09:50,640
You can say whatever you want to say.

218
00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:54,640
I'll say it my way because I lived with them for two years.

219
00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:58,360
No she's definitely right by the way I'm being facetious.

220
00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:01,960
But the family I lived with, her name was Linda, the mom, and she was getting all the

221
00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:02,960
yeast out of the house.

222
00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:04,920
And I was like, Linda, what are you doing?

223
00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:10,320
And immediately I was brought to that scripture where we talk about, you got to get the yeast

224
00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:13,000
out because that little tiny bit.

225
00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:17,960
I love to bake bread and take seriously that scripture where it talks about Jesus is the

226
00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:18,960
bread of life.

227
00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:19,960
And I'm like, bread's good for you.

228
00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:21,440
So carbs are carbs in me.

229
00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,220
We have a great relationship, but it grows.

230
00:10:25,220 --> 00:10:29,280
And that's what God is telling Moses to tell the Israelites to do.

231
00:10:29,280 --> 00:10:31,440
You can't have any of that.

232
00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:34,120
No seed, not even a little tiny morsel.

233
00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:35,120
Have you seen yeast?

234
00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:36,120
Yeah, it's tiny.

235
00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:37,120
It's tiny.

236
00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:40,120
But it's going to work it through everything.

237
00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:45,080
You have to maintain, especially if you're going to be a person who administers justice,

238
00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:49,160
which plays into the fact that he then says, don't worship the gods around you, specifically

239
00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:50,880
Asherah and Baal.

240
00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:53,360
Because Asherah and Baal are definitely the ones that are going to deal with the most.

241
00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:56,440
There's going to be some Dagon, there's going to be some Melek, but mostly they're going

242
00:10:56,440 --> 00:10:59,280
to be dealing with Baal and Asherah.

243
00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:01,160
Trust God with your fertility.

244
00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:04,000
Trust God with your harvest.

245
00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:05,440
There's going to be no sacred stones.

246
00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:09,480
And if you do see somebody doing evil, if you're not the judge, but if you see somebody

247
00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:13,560
doing evil, leading people astray, serving other gods, I love that he says, hey, you

248
00:11:13,560 --> 00:11:16,760
got to investigate it actually thoroughly.

249
00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:20,320
These are not baseless accusations that are being made.

250
00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,280
And then if it is actually proved, you're going to take them outside of your community.

251
00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:29,400
It's a testimony of two and three witnesses and no one by the word of one alone.

252
00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:34,720
The witness, by the way, must be the first involved in the carrying out of the sentence.

253
00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:38,240
So back in the book of Numbers, we had this conversation about the test for the unfaithful

254
00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:39,800
wife.

255
00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:43,400
One of the things that you have to do is you have to come and bring them before the priest.

256
00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:47,280
Now, if you are a wife and you know that you haven't been faithful, you're like, sure,

257
00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:50,000
let's go eat the dirt.

258
00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:53,440
You know before you even get there that nothing's going to happen because you didn't just like

259
00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:55,360
you didn't step out.

260
00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:57,600
So then you have to bring it to the priest and you actually have to go and do this.

261
00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:00,200
It gives them like this recourse in the same way right here.

262
00:12:00,200 --> 00:12:06,080
What I'm seeing in this, in this conversation is like, you can't just make a baseless accusation.

263
00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:09,460
If you're actually saying, Hey, this person stepped out or this person is like leading

264
00:12:09,460 --> 00:12:10,720
people astray.

265
00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:16,760
You actually have to put your faithfulness to God on display because if you're lying

266
00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:20,500
and you take up arms against him and you pick up a stone to stone them, you've actually

267
00:12:20,500 --> 00:12:23,360
just committed murder and God's going to know that.

268
00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:27,120
And you're going to be the one who throws the first stone.

269
00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:32,280
So you actually have to be involved in the process, which makes it so much more poignant

270
00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:35,720
in the book of John when there's this woman caught in adultery, which by the way, the

271
00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:39,560
man's not there because apparently they caught them in the act, but he wasn't there.

272
00:12:39,560 --> 00:12:42,800
I listen, I've been married long enough that you're caught in the act.

273
00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:43,800
Two people are there.

274
00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:44,800
Right.

275
00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:46,160
At least at least two people.

276
00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:47,160
Yeah.

277
00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:51,040
And so they brought out and he says, whoever is without sin, you go ahead and cast the

278
00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:53,040
first stone.

279
00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:58,040
Now they know they can't throw the stone because they're actually be testifying against themselves

280
00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:03,320
because they're trying to pin the sin on her and they were actually witnesses to the whole

281
00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:05,000
thing.

282
00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:07,440
They're trying to hold one person accountable and leave the other one off scot-free.

283
00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:08,440
Right?

284
00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:11,800
Now there's, there's a ton of different places you can go with that passage, but they just

285
00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,880
dropped their stones with the oldest being the wisest dropping at first and being like,

286
00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:15,880
yeah, we don't have a case.

287
00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:16,880
We got to drop it.

288
00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:17,880
Right.

289
00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:18,960
But same thing here.

290
00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:22,540
You can't pervert justice, which is exactly what's happening in that section of John.

291
00:13:22,540 --> 00:13:26,440
They're trying to pervert justice to catch Jesus in a gotcha moment.

292
00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:27,440
Yeah.

293
00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:32,720
And I just, it's, it's so crazy to me that he just uses Torah against them.

294
00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:33,800
Right?

295
00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:36,040
Because like, if you're actually going to be the one who's the witness, you got to throw

296
00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:37,040
the first stone.

297
00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:40,160
I just, I think that it's, it's really important with justice.

298
00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:42,840
Like there, there's a, there's an accountability that if you're going to be the one accusing,

299
00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:46,080
you actually have to come forward and actually do something about it.

300
00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:47,080
Right?

301
00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:48,080
Right.

302
00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:53,160
Now I want to caveat this and talk about, there are crimes in America where there are

303
00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:57,200
people who are the weaker party that are abused and they're like, well, why don't they just

304
00:13:57,200 --> 00:13:58,200
step forward?

305
00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:03,440
It's really hard and you need to support people who are going to step forward and talk and

306
00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:08,440
you need to believe them and you need to do whatever you can to reach out to them in their,

307
00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:09,440
in their circumstance.

308
00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:11,600
You know, I'm not going to get super specific because I don't, I don't think that's necessarily

309
00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:15,400
appropriate for the conversation, but it is like a whole nother podcast.

310
00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:19,080
That's a whole nother podcast, but it is also our responsibility to make sure that those

311
00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:22,720
who are being marginalized are not.

312
00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:25,480
So I want to make sure that caveat is in there for anybody who's listening, who may have

313
00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:26,840
dealt with that situation.

314
00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:30,240
We are not saying that every single person, like they had the responsibility to speak

315
00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:32,960
up because they didn't, it was nothing.

316
00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:33,960
It is still something.

317
00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:38,680
And I think we also just need to add one more, just a little caveat as followers of Jesus,

318
00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:42,700
we are called to stand up for those less fortunate, right?

319
00:14:42,700 --> 00:14:44,000
We are called to do that.

320
00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:49,480
Now we want in doing that, part of that is empowering those people to be able to speak

321
00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:50,480
up for themselves.

322
00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:51,480
Correct.

323
00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:55,360
Because a lot of times what I've seen, at least in my life is I've seen people stand

324
00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:56,880
up and say, well, this is going on.

325
00:14:56,880 --> 00:14:57,880
This is going on.

326
00:14:57,880 --> 00:14:58,880
You need to step in and do something.

327
00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:05,000
When reality, when that's brought to my attention, I'm like, okay, right now it's just one person

328
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,440
said something against somebody else saying something else.

329
00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:08,440
Right.

330
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:11,880
So if we are going to stand up for people, we have to come alongside them and empower

331
00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:14,440
them to actually be able to speak for themselves.

332
00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:18,640
Even though that's going to be very difficult and probably very painful.

333
00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:19,640
Right.

334
00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:23,360
I do appreciate that it's like you have to be, you have to thoroughly investigate.

335
00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:26,000
Now I, there's also a caveat here that Moses gives them.

336
00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,280
He says, Hey, by the way, if it's too difficult for you to figure out, bring it to the priest

337
00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:32,360
or an appointed judge above them to actually figure it out.

338
00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:37,020
It's interesting that the American legal system actually has like the court, Supreme Court,

339
00:15:37,020 --> 00:15:38,560
and then the Supreme Court.

340
00:15:38,560 --> 00:15:39,560
Right.

341
00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:41,200
It's not that dissimilar from what Moses is talking about.

342
00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:45,520
He's like the Supreme Court doesn't hear every case, but they do hear cases where they can't

343
00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:48,080
figure out what to do with in a lower courts.

344
00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:50,600
And then it says you have to do whatever they tell you to do, which at that point you're

345
00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:54,560
just like, it also, let's, let's make sure that it's a good accusation because you're

346
00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:58,760
also bringing it to the priest who is over and maybe a couple of tribes over an entire

347
00:15:58,760 --> 00:15:59,760
region.

348
00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:02,080
Like, let's make sure we're actually bringing some things that actually matter here.

349
00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:03,080
Right.

350
00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:09,240
My favorite section of what comes up is next is talks about Kings very quickly in Israel.

351
00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:14,240
They're going to say, we want a King just like everyone else.

352
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:15,240
Yep.

353
00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:16,240
Right.

354
00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:18,400
And this whole thing that's going to come up a lot of times, I want this like everyone

355
00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:19,400
else.

356
00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:22,560
I want this like everyone else, like all the other nations around us.

357
00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:24,720
Look at them over there.

358
00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:26,040
What's the problem with that?

359
00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:27,760
You're not supposed to be like everyone else.

360
00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:30,560
Torah has been saying this over and over again.

361
00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:33,640
You are supposed to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests.

362
00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:34,840
You're set apart.

363
00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:38,520
You're different than everybody else because you're putting a story on display.

364
00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:39,880
But Moses does give us some guidelines.

365
00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:42,320
He says, Hey, you're probably going to end up with the King anyways, because well, he

366
00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:45,880
recognizes the stiff neck, stubborn nature of Israel.

367
00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:49,320
And he says, but if you do, you're going to point who God chooses, not who you want.

368
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,040
And he has to be from Israel, not from outside.

369
00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:52,040
Okay.

370
00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:53,680
Those are good categories, right?

371
00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:55,680
Now this is what I love to, love to point out.

372
00:16:55,680 --> 00:16:56,680
Okay.

373
00:16:56,680 --> 00:17:00,920
He says, but he should not be from outside Israel or get a lot of horses or send people

374
00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:05,400
down to Egypt to get those horses or take many wives or accumulate large amounts of

375
00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:07,300
silver and gold.

376
00:17:07,300 --> 00:17:13,120
But he should write himself a copy of the law, read it every day, study and revere God

377
00:17:13,120 --> 00:17:17,720
and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites.

378
00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:21,600
Now some of you who are listening, as I read that list, you're like, man, that's, that

379
00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:22,600
sounds really familiar.

380
00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:24,840
Well, let's, let's talk about second Chronicles one 14.

381
00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:31,400
Spencer, can you pull up second Chronicles one 14 through 17 and read the head for us?

382
00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:37,700
So second Chronicles one 14 through 17, Solomon built a huge force of chariots and horses.

383
00:17:37,700 --> 00:17:41,680
He had about 1400 chariots and about 12,000 horses.

384
00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:46,800
He stationed some of them in the chariot cities and some near Jerusalem.

385
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:52,640
The King made silver and gold as plentiful in Jerusalem as stone.

386
00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:58,920
The valuable cedar timber was common in the sycamore figs that grew in the foothills of

387
00:17:58,920 --> 00:17:59,920
Judah.

388
00:17:59,920 --> 00:18:04,240
Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and from Sicilia.

389
00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:07,200
The King's traders acquired them from Sicilia.

390
00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:12,920
At that time, chariots from Egypt would be purchased for 600 pieces of silver and the

391
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:15,900
horses for 150 pieces of silver.

392
00:18:15,900 --> 00:18:25,240
They were then exported, exported to the King of the Hittites and the Kings of Aram.

393
00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:27,560
So where do you get those horses from?

394
00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:28,560
Egypt.

395
00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:33,000
And I wonder if the writers of Chronicles have read Torah.

396
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:35,880
Maybe when they're writing that book, when they're, when they're pointing out these things,

397
00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:36,880
huh?

398
00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:37,880
You and your sarcasm.

399
00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:38,880
Oh man.

400
00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:39,880
Let's be honest.

401
00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:44,160
If we were 39 episodes in and people still haven't gotten that I'm sarcastic.

402
00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:45,160
It's true.

403
00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:46,880
They, we, I don't know what to do for them.

404
00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:47,880
It's true.

405
00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:50,760
Sarah, I think I asked, can you look up second Chronicles 9 13?

406
00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:51,760
Yeah.

407
00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:57,400
The scripture says that each year Solomon received about 25 tons of gold.

408
00:18:57,400 --> 00:18:58,560
Hmm.

409
00:18:58,560 --> 00:19:02,360
25 tons of gold.

410
00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:04,920
It's a lot of gold.

411
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:09,880
Not only that, one of the things we know about Solomon is he has a massive number of wives

412
00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:11,200
and horses.

413
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:15,440
And so if you know Torah, which the authors of Chronicles would, this is Chronicles, by

414
00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:16,920
the way, I don't know if you guys are familiar.

415
00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:20,000
It's actually speculated to be one of the last books written.

416
00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,200
There's a reason why in the Hebrew Bible, it's actually the last book of their Bible.

417
00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:24,320
Right.

418
00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:26,520
It's looking back over their entire history.

419
00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:31,960
When they look at Solomon, they're actually talking about, Hey, Solomon was not doing

420
00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:33,640
what Kings were supposed to do.

421
00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:36,000
Like he was doing a lot of things that Kings were supposed to do.

422
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,380
Now, that does not mean that everything Solomon did was bad.

423
00:19:40,380 --> 00:19:42,480
Because they also talk about Solomon asking for wisdom.

424
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:43,480
Right.

425
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:47,520
And Solomon opening the temple and how they fell on joyful faces and that they said the

426
00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:48,520
Lord, he is good.

427
00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:52,920
The Lord endures forever, which is actually a position that we as Americans actually find

428
00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:58,160
ourselves in frequently where there's a lot of things that we do really well, but there

429
00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:03,280
are also pieces that we have betrayed our very calling.

430
00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:05,120
Right?

431
00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:08,280
It's really tempting to try to demonize a person over one thing.

432
00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:09,280
Yeah.

433
00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:11,320
A woman is a pastor.

434
00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:12,940
Somebody is a charismatic.

435
00:20:12,940 --> 00:20:15,440
Somebody speaks in tongues or does not speak in tongues.

436
00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:18,640
I've seen it from both the Pentecostal and the non-Pentecostal perspective.

437
00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:23,280
We try to demonize people because of a theological perspective that they have.

438
00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:30,080
The reality is nobody, everything that they do is right, nor is everything they do wrong.

439
00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:34,360
We are all justified by the grace of Jesus Christ and trusting in his faithfulness.

440
00:20:34,360 --> 00:20:35,700
We couldn't do anything about it.

441
00:20:35,700 --> 00:20:40,920
And once we've done that, the job for us is to figure out how to get along and work together,

442
00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:41,920
right?

443
00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:42,920
Follow after him.

444
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:44,880
So this is going to seem really silly, but it ties in a little bit.

445
00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:45,880
No, I like it.

446
00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:46,880
Do it.

447
00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:47,880
All right.

448
00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:49,680
So I actually have a litmus test for churches when I go visit them.

449
00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:54,920
And what that simply is, is I just wear a hat and see how they respond.

450
00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:59,000
Because I've got legitimately have gone into churches where you walk in with a hat on and

451
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:03,640
they're like, who's going to go tell him to take that off because he's in the house of

452
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:05,500
God type thing.

453
00:21:05,500 --> 00:21:07,760
And I've gone to churches who welcome you with open arms.

454
00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:08,760
Yeah.

455
00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:09,760
Right.

456
00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:12,920
The reason I do this is because when you go into a church, I'm going in with the assumption

457
00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:13,920
that they don't know me.

458
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:14,960
They don't know if I know Jesus.

459
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:16,680
They don't know who I am.

460
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:17,680
So are they going to be welcoming?

461
00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:21,640
Are they going to, are they going to say, Hey, here's an outsider that we want to welcome

462
00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:22,640
in?

463
00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:25,080
Or are they immediately going to be like, Hey, we want you to look like, look and act

464
00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:30,960
like the rest of us because this is our standard, which in most cases when they do the latter

465
00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:34,360
of the two, it shows that their standards not necessarily love.

466
00:21:34,360 --> 00:21:35,360
Right.

467
00:21:35,360 --> 00:21:36,360
Yeah.

468
00:21:36,360 --> 00:21:37,480
Standard being love is a really big deal.

469
00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:40,600
I want to point out, like, if you don't think that people should wear hats and doors, you

470
00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:43,280
are totally justified in having that feeling.

471
00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:45,480
You're just not justified in judging other people by it.

472
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,560
Like, so if you don't believe that you should wear hats and doors, don't wear hats and

473
00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:49,560
doors.

474
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:50,560
Teach your kids not to wear hats and stores.

475
00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:51,560
I'm a hundred percent for that.

476
00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:52,560
Right.

477
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:54,720
I like, you should instill your values into your kids.

478
00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:55,720
Yeah.

479
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:57,440
The problem is you shouldn't instill your values into other people.

480
00:21:57,440 --> 00:21:59,560
You need to instill God's principles into other people.

481
00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:05,040
One of the places that we tend to get ourselves in trouble is we tend to take our convictions

482
00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:07,960
and we turn them into commandments.

483
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:10,460
And that's a really dangerous place to be.

484
00:22:10,460 --> 00:22:13,140
And I think that you should live by your convictions.

485
00:22:13,140 --> 00:22:16,840
If you don't believe that eating meat is an appropriate thing to do, you should live by

486
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:17,840
that conviction.

487
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:19,720
It is not a commandment though.

488
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:20,720
Right.

489
00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:21,720
Or like pork.

490
00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:22,720
Yeah, absolutely.

491
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:23,720
Yeah.

492
00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:28,440
I think that's a non-controversial things that we've got a couple in our church that

493
00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:36,960
they keep kosher because they're not Jewish, but they believe that the Torah had some understanding.

494
00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:39,240
And so they refuse to eat pork.

495
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:42,640
And so she'll say, Hey, you know, what are you serving at tonight's dinner?

496
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:43,640
Right.

497
00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:47,120
And she's not asking me going, Oh, I can't believe that you wouldn't take into consideration

498
00:22:47,120 --> 00:22:49,120
me and my spouse's dietary belief.

499
00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:50,120
Right.

500
00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:52,440
But she's just saying, okay, I just need to know.

501
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:53,440
Right.

502
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:54,440
I'm still going to come.

503
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:55,440
Yeah.

504
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:56,440
I'm just going to make sure I'm going to eat beforehand.

505
00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:59,360
And I'm not going to let that divide what's supposed to be taking place at this event.

506
00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:01,520
I'm not going to let this cause a break a fellowship between us.

507
00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:05,680
I'm not going to let my personal conviction cause a break a fellowship between us.

508
00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:06,680
Yep.

509
00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:10,160
Boy, if that there's not a politically charged message in there.

510
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:14,200
I mean, how many times in our churches are we dividing ourselves over silly politics

511
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:18,320
when those are convictions and you need to actually figure out ways to live in unity despite

512
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:19,320
your convictions?

513
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:20,320
Yeah.

514
00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:24,240
Well, even within marriage, there's things that maybe there's a conviction one spouse

515
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:26,160
has that the other doesn't.

516
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:30,080
When my wife and I got married, she was a vegetarian.

517
00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:37,280
And I, and if you don't need to know me long to know that like hamburgers, you give me,

518
00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:41,160
you give me a pack of hot dogs and they can't fire that pack of hot dogs will disappear

519
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:43,880
so fast in our marriage.

520
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:47,200
We've had to cook differently, right?

521
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:48,760
Cause I still, I still eat meat.

522
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:52,160
She, she eats some now, but she used to not.

523
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,680
And when she didn't, we just cooked meals differently, right?

524
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:58,280
We would look at meals, be like, okay, we're going to cook this for dinner and we're going

525
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:02,520
to cook meat on the side and the meat can be added into it for myself or anybody else

526
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:04,080
who was over who wants it.

527
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:08,720
And then for my wife, she's like, then she has the vegetarian option, right?

528
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:10,320
It's it's we take these things.

529
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:13,480
We often can cause division with them when really it's like, when it's really like, we

530
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:15,080
don't need to divide over this.

531
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:16,080
Right.

532
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,680
There are simple solutions that can often resolve these issues.

533
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:20,680
Yeah.

534
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:21,680
Yeah.

535
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:23,680
It's perfectly okay for people to have different convictions.

536
00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:26,360
Like we, even in the last episode, we were talking about giving like Sarah and I have

537
00:24:26,360 --> 00:24:30,640
different perspectives on giving, like we're going to live in grace, but we both agree

538
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:33,400
that as Christians we're supposed to be generous.

539
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:35,000
That's who we're supposed to be.

540
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:36,000
Right.

541
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:41,000
Because we're going all the way back to the very most basic, the two things.

542
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:42,000
We're loving God.

543
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:43,000
Yep.

544
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:47,500
So we're saying, okay, God, you're going to convict us of what to do with this exchange

545
00:24:47,500 --> 00:24:54,440
of trusting you and wrestling with giving you 10%, 13%, 5%, calling it a tithe, calling

546
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:55,440
it an offering.

547
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:58,920
We don't need to get stuck in that, but what we're wanting to ask one another is Ben, are

548
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:01,600
you loving God with your possessions?

549
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:05,080
And then are you loving others with what God has entrusted to you?

550
00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:07,040
If your answer is yes and yes, I'm done.

551
00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:08,040
Yep.

552
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:09,040
Exactly.

553
00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:10,040
All right.

554
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:11,040
Then we're like, sweet.

555
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:12,040
Everything else is noise.

556
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:13,040
Yeah.

557
00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:14,040
Exactly.

558
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:20,880
And there was dictates here saying that you should not get from these places.

559
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:22,360
And specifically, he's the king.

560
00:25:22,360 --> 00:25:24,480
So he has very specific instructions.

561
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:29,360
And when you have higher authority, you have a higher responsibility.

562
00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:31,400
To whom much is given.

563
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:37,240
And in Solomon's life, if you look at his life, it wasn't like he woke up one night

564
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:42,880
and he's like, I'm going to order 12,000 horses from Egypt.

565
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:43,880
It was a gradual...

566
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:44,880
You can get on Amazon Prime.

567
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:45,880
It wasn't a 2 AM bad decision.

568
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:46,880
Not a sponsor.

569
00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:47,880
Not a sponsor.

570
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:48,880
Right?

571
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:55,520
It wasn't a 2 AM bad decision.

572
00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:59,120
But it was a gradual thing in Solomon's life.

573
00:25:59,120 --> 00:26:04,160
It wasn't an overnight like, hey, I'm going to go have multiple hundreds of wives and

574
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:08,720
concubines and order 12,000 horses from a country I'm not supposed to order them from

575
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:09,720
and all this stuff.

576
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:10,720
Right?

577
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:11,720
Right.

578
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:14,520
And there's so many things he could have used to justify.

579
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:17,760
He could have been like, oh, I need to marry this person for this political alliance because

580
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:19,240
it's going to help the nation.

581
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,920
Because you justify a lot of the things that you do where you're doing these types of things.

582
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:23,920
Right?

583
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:25,960
You justify stepping out from what God calls you to be.

584
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:31,600
Well, let's just take it even a step farther because it's in numbers where we're told that

585
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:36,380
the things that we don't deal with, the generations that come from us are going to deal with them

586
00:26:36,380 --> 00:26:39,160
later on for up to three generations.

587
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:48,720
So if we knew that David had a hard time complying with these commands and directions for David

588
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:52,800
to consecrate himself and to strip off all those things that were going to cause him

589
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:58,640
not to fully trust God, we're seeing that the things that David wasn't willing to trust,

590
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:02,320
he let things just sit and grow.

591
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:06,000
He let the yeast get into his home and that got to Solomon.

592
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:11,000
Well, and on a personal note, I think we all have kids, right?

593
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:16,360
We can all think of things in our life that we're saying that stops with me and it's not

594
00:27:16,360 --> 00:27:18,000
being given to my kids.

595
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:19,000
Correct.

596
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:20,000
Yes.

597
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:23,720
That's the responsibility of parenthood is to recognize, to do the hard work of recognizing

598
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:30,440
generational things in your family and say, hey, it stops here because I would hope that

599
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,000
I like, my parents raised me well.

600
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,560
All three of the kids turned out.

601
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,800
One of them turned out real well and the other two, yeah, they don't listen.

602
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:39,800
But then the-

603
00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:40,800
They got it right towards the end.

604
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:41,800
But then here's the thing.

605
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:46,280
It's like because they were good parents, it enables me to be a better parent.

606
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:47,280
Does that make sense?

607
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,160
It is because of them I can be a good parent.

608
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:53,400
And I would hope that my kids, when they grow up and they become parents, they are better

609
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:54,920
parents than I am.

610
00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:58,840
And we keep pushing that down so that we get better and better, glory to glory, as we would

611
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:00,460
say, right?

612
00:28:00,460 --> 00:28:03,760
So that they're not dealing with generational things that I dealt with or things that came

613
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:07,200
up in my life or hurt that came up in my life or bitterness that came up in my life.

614
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:08,840
I don't want to pass that on.

615
00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:10,920
I want to make sure that stops with me.

616
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:12,640
Now to your point, you talked about the third generation.

617
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:17,560
I want to tell this quick story before we get into chapter 18 about a guy by the name

618
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:19,600
of Josiah, right?

619
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,080
In the Bible.

620
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:26,720
He reads the book of the law and he's like, oh man, we haven't been doing any of this.

621
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,760
Now this is after God has said, it's already, you've reached the breaking point and that

622
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:32,480
it's going, it's going to end here.

623
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:36,000
When God is about to bring judgment and Josiah reads the law and he goes, oh, we haven't

624
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:37,000
been doing any of this.

625
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,040
So he cleans house.

626
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:41,080
Like he goes through and he cleans house.

627
00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:44,320
Now the interesting thing is God says, I've already spoken, so it's going to come.

628
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:51,320
But because of your faithfulness, Josiah, one person for an entire nation, because of

629
00:28:51,320 --> 00:29:00,540
your faithfulness, it's not coming in your time because of one person.

630
00:29:00,540 --> 00:29:04,640
It was delayed 40 plus years because of one person.

631
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:13,680
So what happens when the people of God turn and serve, repent and live for righteousness

632
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:15,760
as a nation, as a nation?

633
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:16,840
Yeah.

634
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:18,200
What happens when we do that?

635
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:19,200
I'll tell you what happens.

636
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,960
It's called revival and it shook the very foundations of the earth.

637
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:23,960
Come on.

638
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:24,960
Right?

639
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:25,960
Yeah.

640
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:28,620
Like this is why people pray for revival, right?

641
00:29:28,620 --> 00:29:34,360
But you have to be willing to have less of yourself in order for revival to happen because

642
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:37,400
we're pursuing something greater than ourselves.

643
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:39,400
Right?

644
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:42,760
So one of the things we've talked about frequently about the priests is the priests don't have

645
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:43,880
an allotment.

646
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:44,880
Don't neglect the priests.

647
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:48,260
I want to point out that you actually don't need to feel too bad for the priest though,

648
00:29:48,260 --> 00:29:53,640
because they don't have an inheritance in the land because God is their inheritance.

649
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:54,640
Sounds pretty good.

650
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:57,080
That sounds like a pretty good like trade off to me, right?

651
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:58,080
Yeah.

652
00:29:58,080 --> 00:29:59,080
Okay.

653
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:01,120
Well, I don't get land, but I get God.

654
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:03,920
Like the guy who spoke it into existence, I get him.

655
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:07,440
Like that sounds pretty good to me, but you do need to keep making, make sure they get

656
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:08,880
their fair share so they don't go hungry.

657
00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:14,320
So if you see Sarah Harney on the road, she needs a hot dog or a hamburger or something.

658
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:18,000
Cause me and my 88 children need food.

659
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,280
Oh, I always joke.

660
00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:21,280
Five kids, right?

661
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:22,280
Five.

662
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:23,280
Yeah.

663
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:24,280
Yeah.

664
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:25,280
Ranging from how old to how old?

665
00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:26,280
My oldest is going to be 16 in March.

666
00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:27,280
Oh my goodness.

667
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:28,280
My oldest just turned seven.

668
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:30,320
Oh, your oldest is going to be driving?

669
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:31,320
Yeah.

670
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:32,320
Don't.

671
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:36,120
It is, it is a lot for me right now to manage.

672
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:37,120
Okay.

673
00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:40,040
By the way, this whole section about you need to make sure that they're taken care of because

674
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:41,040
they don't go hungry.

675
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:43,760
It's actually interesting if you look at the beginning of Samuel and talked about Eli and

676
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:46,120
his sons and how they were actually abusing this.

677
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:47,120
They were abusing it.

678
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:48,120
Right?

679
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,440
Like they, the priest actually abused this thing that was actually supposed to feed them.

680
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:52,440
Right.

681
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:54,360
And so they started to view- To the most marginalized population.

682
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:55,360
To the most marginalized population.

683
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:56,360
Let's not even, let's, let's leave.

684
00:30:56,360 --> 00:31:02,480
Let's get to the, what Phineas was doing with what God had entrusted him to do.

685
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:03,480
Right.

686
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:04,480
Okay.

687
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:06,920
This was with the least of, the least of the least.

688
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:07,920
Yeah.

689
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:08,920
Let's screw over the widows and the orphans.

690
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:09,920
Right.

691
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:10,920
Exactly.

692
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:11,920
Let's go ahead.

693
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:12,920
They, they're flush.

694
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:13,920
Yeah.

695
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:14,920
Yeah.

696
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:17,040
So one of the reasons we wanted to start in Torah with love and context is everything

697
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:19,920
that comes after this is built on it.

698
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,920
Like when you get to Samuel and you see what Phineas is doing, you're like, well, hold

699
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:24,160
on a second.

700
00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:25,320
What?

701
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:26,320
Have you not read Torah?

702
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:27,320
Yeah.

703
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:28,320
Like you're a priest.

704
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:29,320
Are you not familiar with Leviticus?

705
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:31,320
What are your job is?

706
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:32,320
Right.

707
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:36,040
It's just, it's one of those things that's like, Hey, I had this conversation with Spencer,

708
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:39,840
I think a few, few episodes ago when we're talking to people who say, they're like, Oh,

709
00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:40,840
I read the Bible all the time.

710
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:46,000
And then you talk to them and you're like, I'm not sure you do because they're like,

711
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:50,040
there's some pretty important stories that you seem to not know about.

712
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:54,200
Or how many times have we been in a conversation where someone takes a verse completely out

713
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:58,720
of context and we're like, Oh, did we read what was mentioned before that?

714
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,400
Or just right after that, before we're going to use that.

715
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:02,400
Okay.

716
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:04,440
I don't know if you know this, but Paul actually said I can do all things.

717
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:07,080
The verse taken out of context.

718
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:09,840
It's so good.

719
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:10,840
So good.

720
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:15,840
Well, but I mean, there's examples of, so an example of this, Jeremiah 29, 11, right?

721
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:16,840
Right.

722
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:18,800
Where, where everyone's like, Oh yeah, it's great.

723
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:20,000
And then they take it as like blessing.

724
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:21,760
I was like, read the verses before.

725
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:22,760
Yeah.

726
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:27,200
And God is saying, this is going to be miserable for you, but you're going to find me in the

727
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:28,200
misery.

728
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:29,200
Yeah.

729
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,440
It's like, Oh, he's the, he goes and he's like, uh, I know the plans I have for you

730
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:32,440
plans to prosper you.

731
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:38,240
And it's like, because you're going into captivity and you're, you're going to feel pretty miserable.

732
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:39,240
You're going to live in homes.

733
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:42,760
This is the hope in the midst of captivity, right?

734
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:47,040
Which God always gives people hope even in their captivity.

735
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:52,160
You know what he also does though, that even in his discipline or judgment, you know, as,

736
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:55,960
as these are coming and, and these are commands, these are actually calls.

737
00:32:55,960 --> 00:33:00,840
When we read these passages in the Bible, each chapter actually says a call, like Moses

738
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:01,840
is giving a call.

739
00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:07,260
He's standing up in front of them and he's basically telling them, God's telling us the

740
00:33:07,260 --> 00:33:08,760
right way to do it.

741
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:09,760
Yeah.

742
00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:14,760
And it's going back to that relationship of you get, well, and, and to our point, when

743
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:18,120
we talk about Leviticus, when we talked about the law, a lot of times when we interpret

744
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:20,840
law, we're like, Hey, this is a thing that if you violate, you go to jail.

745
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:21,840
Right.

746
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,600
And the law isn't for you to know what you're doing is right or wrong.

747
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:30,800
It's actually, it's meant to create you into a more ethical, righteous driven person that

748
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:37,560
if you actually follow the law of Torah, your nation would be full of justice and equality

749
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,400
and mercy and mercy and grace.

750
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:42,000
And that you would actually love people.

751
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:45,440
Well, there would be no one hungry because every three years you would be making sure

752
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:49,560
that allotment went to the widows and the orphans.

753
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:51,160
And here's the thing that happens in the new Testament.

754
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:53,400
You know what ends up happening in the new Testament when they start selling their things

755
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:58,760
and feeding people and taking care of people whenever they have need revival happen.

756
00:33:58,760 --> 00:33:59,760
People saw what was happening.

757
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:01,200
They're like, I want to be a part of this.

758
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:04,720
I want to be a part of the people who legitimately care about each other.

759
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:05,720
Yeah.

760
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,440
Francis Chan, who we talked about, we've talked about a couple of times and I do love me some

761
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:10,960
Francis Chan.

762
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:11,960
He made a statement.

763
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:15,680
He says, have you ever gone into a church and you were overwhelmed by the presence of

764
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:16,680
love?

765
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:19,600
He's like, what would be, what would it be like if you walked into a church and you could

766
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:24,920
actually, you're like, oh, I know those are Christians because of how they love.

767
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:27,280
I'll tell you what happened.

768
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:28,600
Shake the very foundation of the earth.

769
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,560
It's called revival.

770
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:34,620
It's driven by love God and love other people.

771
00:34:34,620 --> 00:34:37,920
And out of those things, you start seeing miraculous signs and wonders break out because

772
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:43,720
you love people and God pours into you and then it flows out of you.

773
00:34:43,720 --> 00:34:49,520
So as you, as we continue through 18, you get where you get to where he says, Hey, don't

774
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:50,520
do these things.

775
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:51,520
Yeah.

776
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:52,520
Don't do these other things.

777
00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:55,400
Like don't do these other things like offer children in the fire.

778
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:58,800
Like in, and you read, if you read this from a Westernized context, you're like, you're

779
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:01,360
like, Oh, you're like, okay, easy, done.

780
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:02,360
No problem.

781
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:03,360
Right.

782
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:07,040
Go do some painful homework and do some research of the worship of Malek and a few other things

783
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:08,040
like that.

784
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:09,840
You'll see what we're talking about.

785
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:11,120
Don't practice witchcraft.

786
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:12,120
Yep.

787
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:15,080
Don't practice humans or deviation cast spells.

788
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:16,080
I believe that's division.

789
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:18,200
It's no, I'm not playing with you.

790
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:19,200
Don't practice division.

791
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:20,200
Those mathematical.

792
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:21,200
Oh, that's true.

793
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:26,520
Don't practice mediums or spiritualists or consult with the dead.

794
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:27,520
Yeah.

795
00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:28,520
And why are all these things being mentioned?

796
00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:31,520
Cause people really want to point out these and they're like, they're like, Oh, we got

797
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:35,760
to, but this is what the worship of the other nations looked like.

798
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:36,760
Okay.

799
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,560
Well, we need to look for these.

800
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:41,520
No, stop looking like everybody else.

801
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:43,840
That is what Moses is saying.

802
00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:44,840
Yeah.

803
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:46,520
Look like who God called you to look like.

804
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:47,520
Yeah.

805
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:49,960
I, one of the things I find, so your kid just started sports, right?

806
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:51,320
Some of your kids have started sports.

807
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:52,320
Okay.

808
00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:54,840
I always think it's really interesting as I can you imagine if when we taught kids to

809
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:58,980
play basketball, we, we only stressed what out of bounds was and not how to properly

810
00:35:58,980 --> 00:36:02,160
stay in bounds instead of teaching how to dribble and how to move and how to shoot and

811
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:04,600
all these things we only talked about out of bounds.

812
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:05,720
Yeah.

813
00:36:05,720 --> 00:36:07,840
Like they would never learn anything.

814
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:11,380
In fact, what we would tell them, we said, these are the things that you need to do.

815
00:36:11,380 --> 00:36:13,800
And then if they step out, we're like, Hey, that's something you need to avoid.

816
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:17,440
And this is what you should do in order to avoid this.

817
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:18,440
Right.

818
00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:22,760
We have a tendency in the church, we say, Oh, you need to avoid this behavior rather

819
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:26,760
than talking to them about what they're actually supposed to be doing instead.

820
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:30,020
If you actually are worshiping God properly, you're not going to find yourself worshiping

821
00:36:30,020 --> 00:36:31,780
God like the other nations.

822
00:36:31,780 --> 00:36:34,840
So maybe instead of talking about the ways you shouldn't worship, you should actually

823
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:39,400
emphasize the ways to worship and trust the spirit of God to actually do his work.

824
00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:40,400
Amen.

825
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:44,680
To your point, Spencer, like as you look just looking further, let's talk about the prophet

826
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:46,320
that God's going to send.

827
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:47,320
Right?

828
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,160
Because if these things happen, if you keep going astray, God's going to raise up somebody

829
00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:52,360
who's going to come and talk about it.

830
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:53,360
Yeah.

831
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:55,800
Like that's forewarning or Moses forewarning, God's going to send you prophets when you

832
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:57,480
get off track.

833
00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:02,240
Which can we just pause for a second because so often people can look at the Old Testament

834
00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:07,800
and I have fallen trapped to this that when I was in the crux of people wanting to remove

835
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:12,280
me out of ministry for whatever reason it was, I was like, I'm waiting for the God of

836
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:13,280
judges.

837
00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:17,760
You know, the God that comes and just smites them and it's just like decimate them, kill

838
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:20,200
them, get rid of it.

839
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:25,600
We're seeing God come and give some very clear guidelines and we know that he disciplines

840
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:27,660
those whom he loves.

841
00:37:27,660 --> 00:37:30,240
So we're supposed to be going, okay, these are going to be kind of painful.

842
00:37:30,240 --> 00:37:33,040
They're not going to be easy because we're looking over here and we're like, we kind

843
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:34,040
of want that over there.

844
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:36,280
That looks way better than what we have here.

845
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:41,880
But God is saying, no, listen, I need you to do this.

846
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:45,240
You've got to look different.

847
00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:49,480
There's got to be something different where people are going, what's happening over there?

848
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:50,480
Right.

849
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:54,120
When I think about this story and I go all the way back to Abraham when God is going

850
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:58,080
down to see if Sodom is as bad as everybody says it is.

851
00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:01,280
And Abraham has a conversation with God and he says, he's a, what if there's 50 righteous

852
00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:04,920
people and he talks them all the way down to 10?

853
00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:08,220
Now the question I've asked and when we were on the podcast, I said, well, what if Abraham

854
00:38:08,220 --> 00:38:10,960
talked all the way down to one?

855
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:12,840
If he kept engaging God on coming down.

856
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:16,480
I was like, but the thing is the conservative estimates on Sodom and Gomorrah is that there

857
00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,860
was around 250,000 people in that region.

858
00:38:19,860 --> 00:38:24,320
And God says if there's 10 righteous people, he can turn the city.

859
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,120
10.

860
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:33,540
And so when we think about the state of Alaska has like 750,000 people.

861
00:38:33,540 --> 00:38:38,480
If there is 30 people who are dedicated to the righteousness of God in this, in this

862
00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:43,440
state, you can turn the state, you can turn the entire state.

863
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:49,120
Those of you that are living in California, there's 39 million people and God says, it's

864
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:53,640
going to take maybe a thousand, maybe a thousand in that entire city.

865
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:57,000
What, which a lot of like Christian people will call out and they'll say, oh, it's a

866
00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:58,000
cesspool of immorality.

867
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:01,920
And I was like, but if there's a thousand righteous people there, you turn the entire

868
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:02,920
state.

869
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:07,880
There's 375 million people in the United States of America.

870
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:12,440
This is coming and it's actually revealing God's character that it doesn't take much

871
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:13,480
with me.

872
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:18,600
So often when we come in our worship, if we're not careful, we can come with scarcity mindset.

873
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:22,560
I mean, going back to prior conversations that we had about tithing and judging people

874
00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:26,440
and how they worship is that a lot of times we come with like, Ooh, I don't know if I

875
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:27,440
can trust God with this.

876
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:33,000
I don't want to come undone like David did when, when the arc was coming back or I don't

877
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:34,560
want to be like Hannah.

878
00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:37,000
When Samuel shows up and goes, what are you doing woman?

879
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:38,400
You're drunk and it's midday.

880
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:41,480
And she's like, I, she's coming undone.

881
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:42,480
Yeah, she's come.

882
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:45,960
She's, she's telling God she's not coming undone just to the air.

883
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:46,960
Yeah.

884
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:48,920
She went to the temple.

885
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:51,840
She went to tell God directly, I'm undone.

886
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:56,200
Can you imagine if you were at Shavuot Pentecost and the, and there start speaking in strange

887
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,840
tongues and they're like, and he's like, guys, we're not drunk.

888
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:00,160
It's nine o'clock in the morning.

889
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:01,920
We literally just started Shavuot.

890
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:05,640
Like, there's no way that's not what's happening here.

891
00:40:05,640 --> 00:40:06,920
This is not Purim right now.

892
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:07,920
This is not Purim.

893
00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:11,360
Like that is not what's happening.

894
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:15,560
And so like to your point in talking about like the judgment, like people look at the

895
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:18,040
prophets, they're like, Oh, they're here to prescribe judgment.

896
00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:22,840
No, they're actually here to provide hope if you turn around.

897
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,240
Because God always has an exit plan for us.

898
00:40:25,240 --> 00:40:26,640
That's what he tells us.

899
00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:28,720
The prophets not there to condemn you.

900
00:40:28,720 --> 00:40:31,720
They're saying if you keep on this path, this is where you're headed.

901
00:40:31,720 --> 00:40:33,100
God's not going to stop it.

902
00:40:33,100 --> 00:40:34,880
It's time to turn around and God will bring you back.

903
00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:39,080
Well, and God has gone as far as to say, Hey, I'm going to provide proof through some of

904
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:41,840
the most ridiculous battle plans you can think of.

905
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:47,240
Hey, why don't you take the nation and march around this city one time a day.

906
00:40:47,240 --> 00:40:49,680
And then on seventh day, do it seven times, then yell.

907
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:50,680
Right.

908
00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:51,680
Here's the thing, Joshua.

909
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:53,240
I need you to go and lead the fight.

910
00:40:53,240 --> 00:40:54,240
Yeah.

911
00:40:54,240 --> 00:40:58,080
Because Jesus is going to stand on the mountain and as long as his arms are in the air, you're

912
00:40:58,080 --> 00:40:59,080
going to kick butt.

913
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:00,080
You're like, no worries.

914
00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:01,080
It's going to be great.

915
00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:02,080
Yeah.

916
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:03,080
Right.

917
00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:07,200
Soon as his arms get tired or Gideon where it's like, Hey, there's an army of about 120,000

918
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:08,200
people or so.

919
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:11,480
And then Gideon's army gets whittled down to 300 and God's like, all right, now we're

920
00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:12,480
ready.

921
00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:13,480
Yeah.

922
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:14,480
Right.

923
00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:15,480
Or Jehoshaphat.

924
00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:17,800
Hey, I'm going to just lay here and prostrate myself as the king and I'm going to call

925
00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:21,320
all of you guys and we're going to fast and we're going to pray and then we're going to

926
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:25,280
show up tomorrow morning and we're going to go and look and see that the entire enemy

927
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:27,600
has been defeated before our eyes.

928
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,520
I think it's Oswald Chambers.

929
00:41:29,520 --> 00:41:33,440
He has this quote where he says, the only way to be successful in ministry is to be disinterested

930
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:38,320
in ministry and profoundly interested in Jesus.

931
00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:40,120
I think it's sometimes interesting.

932
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:43,360
We're going to talk about prophets in just one second, but I think it's sometimes interesting

933
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:47,140
when people talk about, they're like, Oh, well you need to make sure that you're doing

934
00:41:47,140 --> 00:41:48,140
things for the church.

935
00:41:48,140 --> 00:41:50,240
And I was like, well, you do realize that the church isn't the building.

936
00:41:50,240 --> 00:41:51,800
It's actually the people.

937
00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:55,160
Like you here with us today, you're part of our church.

938
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,720
We're part of the church of our city.

939
00:41:57,720 --> 00:42:01,640
And just because we fellowship in different buildings, we're part of the same family,

940
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:03,280
even though we disagree at times.

941
00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:04,280
We're the ecclesia.

942
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:05,280
We're the ecclesia.

943
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:06,280
That's what we are.

944
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:07,280
Yeah.

945
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:10,600
I want to point out this section on prophets because I think this is something, especially

946
00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:15,120
when we talk in our mini series about prophecy, people are going to come back to this section

947
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:18,000
and misapply it constantly.

948
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:21,680
He's talking about how do you test to see whether a prophet is from God or not?

949
00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:24,160
And he says, you know, does it come to pass or does it not come to pass?

950
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:26,360
And if it doesn't come to pass and you need to put them to death.

951
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:27,360
Okay.

952
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:29,200
Once again, this is, this is conquest language.

953
00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:32,880
This is Torah language and it's not necessarily literally mean put to death.

954
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:33,880
Why do we know that?

955
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:37,360
Because we look at traditional Judaism and it doesn't happen.

956
00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:38,360
Okay.

957
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:39,520
Now does death mean death?

958
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:42,380
Of course it means death, but it also just means they need to be done away with.

959
00:42:42,380 --> 00:42:43,960
They need to be put outside.

960
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:47,080
And I know I get a lot of people who really disagree with me that they're like, ah, no,

961
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:50,880
it's about, you know, we're and I was like, okay, but you can't completely decimate a

962
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:54,560
population and still have foreigners among you.

963
00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:58,080
So we're missing something in the context of this conversation.

964
00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:01,220
And a lot of literature at that time will say when they're, where they say something

965
00:43:01,220 --> 00:43:04,000
very serious to say put to death.

966
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:06,140
It doesn't always mean literally put to death.

967
00:43:06,140 --> 00:43:08,680
If you want to believe it means a little bit to death, that's fine.

968
00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:12,080
But you got to square how that means, how that fits with love, got in love with other

969
00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:13,080
people.

970
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:15,320
But there's things you put to death in your life, right?

971
00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:18,960
And it's in your, and, and we're obviously not dead, right?

972
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:19,960
Right.

973
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:22,200
Like I've put to death some bad habits in my life.

974
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:23,200
We're told to do that.

975
00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:24,200
Yeah.

976
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:25,200
Yeah.

977
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:26,200
Yeah.

978
00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:28,920
And the only reason I bring that up is because I want to make sure that like there is, there's

979
00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:34,200
a very serious strain of militant Christianity and we need to be very careful that we actually

980
00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:37,280
look like Jesus and not what we want Jesus to look like.

981
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:38,280
Yeah.

982
00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:39,280
Right.

983
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:40,280
Yeah.

984
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:43,000
So this whole thing about prophets, we're going to talk about this more in our mini

985
00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:48,480
series, but the point of prophecy is actually to bring hope of correction.

986
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:49,480
Amen.

987
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:50,480
Not condemnation.

988
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:52,520
Amen.

989
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:55,620
Even the prophets of the old Testament are not responsible for the condemnation.

990
00:43:55,620 --> 00:43:59,920
They only bring what God has said.

991
00:43:59,920 --> 00:44:04,480
I have known people in the churches who use prophetic words to speak condemnations into

992
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:05,640
the kingdom of God.

993
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:06,640
Yep.

994
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:07,640
That is not your job.

995
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:08,640
Yep.

996
00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:11,140
Holy spirit is perfectly able to convict.

997
00:44:11,140 --> 00:44:15,920
Your job is to bring hope and purpose into the people around you.

998
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:16,920
Amen.

999
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:17,920
Yeah.

1000
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:19,280
And I'm going to leave it at that because we're going to talk about that in the future.

1001
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,080
If you have further questions, put them in our Q&A.

1002
00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:24,320
Sarah, we've liked having you.

1003
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,120
So write into us if you really liked having Sarah here.

1004
00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:30,000
If you didn't like having Sarah here, we're just going to delete that email.

1005
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:31,000
So just for warning.

1006
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:32,000
We'll pray for you though.

1007
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:33,000
Like we will pray.

1008
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:34,000
Bless your heart.

1009
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:35,000
We will pray for you.

1010
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:36,000
Yes.

1011
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:37,000
We love you.

1012
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:38,000
And we really enjoyed having you.

1013
00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:42,440
We're going to pray for you in that mini-series and for some other things.

1014
00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:45,820
Is there anything that we can be praying for you for or something we can do to be supporting

1015
00:44:45,820 --> 00:44:47,120
you for our listeners?

1016
00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:52,400
I think that just being willing to have these conversations and wrestle with them.

1017
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:53,400
I love it.

1018
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:56,720
I'm glad that we can have these conversations, Ben, because I know that just like what happened

1019
00:44:56,720 --> 00:45:01,800
today where you and I can clearly disagree over our personal convictions with what God

1020
00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:06,640
has asked us to do with what He's given.

1021
00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:11,720
I think that this is when iron is sharpening iron, we actually get to see the heart of

1022
00:45:11,720 --> 00:45:12,720
God.

1023
00:45:12,720 --> 00:45:13,720
Right.

1024
00:45:13,720 --> 00:45:18,000
And I get to see that the uniqueness of you and your bend and your understanding and your

1025
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:23,680
convictions are actually coming from the heart of the God that created you to be that way

1026
00:45:23,680 --> 00:45:25,960
and created me to be this way.

1027
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:29,240
And he's just delighting because he's going, yeah, iron sharpens iron.

1028
00:45:29,240 --> 00:45:30,240
Yeah.

1029
00:45:30,240 --> 00:45:32,080
Ben, you got some things to learn from Mama Sarah.

1030
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:34,280
So suck it up when she corrects you.

1031
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:37,520
And hey, Sarah, you got some things to learn from Ben and Spencer.

1032
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:41,440
And it's okay to be corrected and have to rethink that.

1033
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:44,080
Mostly from Spencer, not much from Ben.

1034
00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:48,520
So no, I just encourage listeners, don't surround yourself with people that only agree with

1035
00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:54,720
you because you're going to have a very, very limited understanding of yourself, of God,

1036
00:45:54,720 --> 00:45:55,720
of others.

1037
00:45:55,720 --> 00:45:56,720
Love it.

1038
00:45:56,720 --> 00:45:58,720
Thanks, guys.

1039
00:45:58,720 --> 00:46:04,060
So if you are looking to find more of us, you can find us on the wonderful podcast places

1040
00:46:04,060 --> 00:46:07,480
such as Apple, Amazon, Spotify, not Google.

1041
00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:08,480
Sorry.

1042
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:11,320
You can also find us on Tickety Talk, the Instagram, the Facebook.

1043
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:14,560
Ironically, if you do Google us, you will find us, but you're not going to find us on

1044
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:15,560
Google podcast.

1045
00:46:15,560 --> 00:46:16,560
It's true.

1046
00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:18,360
If you Google us, you will find us.

1047
00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:23,640
There is a website, loveandcontext.com that you can email us at loveandcontext.gmail.com.

1048
00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:28,320
There is also a little merch store if you want to buy merch, loveandcontext.store, I

1049
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:29,320
believe.

1050
00:46:29,320 --> 00:46:30,320
Yeah.

1051
00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:32,240
And so if you want to buy merch, you can do that as well.

1052
00:46:32,240 --> 00:46:36,400
So you know if you do buy merch, all those proceeds just go to supporting local ministries

1053
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:37,400
in our area.

1054
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:38,400
Correct.

1055
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:39,740
So we don't keep any of it.

1056
00:46:39,740 --> 00:46:43,200
And if we have any of our prayer warriors that are listening, pray for Pastor Sarah.

1057
00:46:43,200 --> 00:46:49,500
It's hard to be a faithful disciple that is female and a pastor.

1058
00:46:49,500 --> 00:46:53,260
It's a hard road because you're supposed to love people and oftentimes they're not loving

1059
00:46:53,260 --> 00:46:54,640
you well.

1060
00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:55,740
And so we want to love her well.

1061
00:46:55,740 --> 00:46:59,160
So if you've got a prayer warrior out there, add her to your list.

1062
00:46:59,160 --> 00:47:01,400
She would definitely love for you to intercede for her.

1063
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:02,400
Yeah.

1064
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:03,400
Thanks, Ben.

1065
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:04,400
You're welcome.

1066
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:06,360
So until next time, see ya.

1067
00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:07,360
See you guys.

1068
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:08,360
Bye.

1069
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:10,680
That's a wrap for today's episode.

1070
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:15,840
We want to extend a heartfelt thank you for tuning in and spending your valuable time

1071
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:16,840
with us.

1072
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:22,520
We hope that you found today's conversation insightful and that you take something meaningful

1073
00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:23,520
from it.

1074
00:47:23,520 --> 00:47:27,320
If you have questions or comments, we would love to hear from you.

1075
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:33,920
Reach out to us at loveandcontext.gmail.com and we will be sure to get back to you.

1076
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:38,840
Remember you can always engage with our content on all your favorite listening platforms,

1077
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:42,600
including Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and one.

1078
00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:48,120
Don't forget to follow us on social media at love and context on Instagram and Facebook

1079
00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:49,120
for updates.

1080
00:47:49,120 --> 00:47:50,120
Are we recording?

1081
00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:52,520
Yeah, we've been recording for 19 seconds.

1082
00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:53,520
Oh, sweet.

1083
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:54,520
I did the last intro.

1084
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:55,520
Just give me a second.

1085
00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:56,520
I got to scratch my head.

1086
00:47:56,520 --> 00:47:57,520
Oh, I burned myself.

1087
00:47:57,520 --> 00:47:58,520
What are you laughing about?

1088
00:47:58,520 --> 00:47:59,520
No, keep going.

1089
00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:00,520
He's got some, no, you got to tell me now.

1090
00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:01,520
No, keep going.

1091
00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:02,520
It is not pertinent to the conversation.

1092
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:03,520
Sorry, I was getting, I'm amped up now.

1093
00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:04,520
I had my coffee and I'm feeling good.

1094
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:26,520
Here he goes.