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I'm Andy Johnson. Welcome to the Church of Biblical

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Sanity. Topic of today's Sunday sermon is Bat

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Shit Crazy Rambling. An introduction about lamps

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and light. First, if your spiritual path brings

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you to a place where you're better able to nurture

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yourself, others, and your community, I honor

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your path. And if Christianity is the vehicle

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that moves you closer to that place of universal

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love and nurturing, I have nothing but respect.

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And if your path is different, if it's Buddhism,

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Islam, Judaism, first -person's tradition, I

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honor that as well. Psalms 119, 105, your word

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is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

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Biblical scripture is said to be the living word

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of God. And if your path brings you to a place

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where you harm yourself, your community, or others,

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your spiritual path has some weeds and thorns.

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If sown your seed among a rocky path, your path

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has become dark. Your word is a lamp to my feet.

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So let me provide a little Bible -based light

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to your spiritual path. It's not right to beat,

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bully, and kill. It's not right to take oil from

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another country. It's not right to destroy the

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planet we all live on. It's not right to take

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Greenland because we need it. It's not right

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to protect wealthy white men who raped young

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women and were part of sex trafficking. It's

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not right to falsely accuse your enemies because

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you want revenge. And it's not right to deny

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food and healthcare to so many when you have

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so much. Part two, bat shit crazy. On my Facebook,

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one of my Bible -believing, Jesus -loving conservative

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Christian friends commented on an earlier talk.

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They said, quote, do you really think that this

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batshit crazy rambling will sway anyone to the

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right side of all of this? Unquote. And it's

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a very good question. I'm not trying to sway

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anybody. I'm not trying to convince anybody of

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anything. I realize Jesus could come back and

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right across the sky and mile -high letters stop

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abusing ICE. Stop using ICE to abuse and intimidate.

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and some still wouldn't change their views on

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things. Some would still insist it's part of

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God's plan, to which they are privy. And that's

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just the way of things. Now in Genesis, we're

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told that we are made in the likeness of God.

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Each of us has a bit of the likeness within us.

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And I'm hoping my bat -shit crazy rambling will

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touch some of the likeness tucked deep down inside

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of some people. And perhaps the likeness will

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start to talk. But I have no illusions or expectations.

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The likeness calls us to do what we can. And

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I'll go to marches and other events. I'll give

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money to feed the hungry immigrants trapped in

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their houses. And I'll do my Sunday sermons until

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people get sick of me. I give it another week

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or two because that's something I can do. Listen

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to the likeness. The likeness calls us to do

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what we can. And what ice is doing is evil and

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wrong. There aren't two sides to this. The likeness

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compels us to speak out against evil. Part three,

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new wine and old wineskin. If you believe the

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Bible to be the word of God, then the word becomes

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a living document. Hebrews 412, for the word

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of God is alive, and active, sharper than any

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double -edged sword, it penetrates. Even to divide

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in soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges

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thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Alive and

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active. To be alive is to grow and to change.

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To be active is to cause change. So as a living

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document, the word grows and changes. It says

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different things to us at different points in

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our lives versus take on new meanings, deeper

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meanings. The living word speaks to the likeness

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and the likeness speaks to us and we grow and

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change if we're alive. In the book of Ephesians,

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St. Paul tells us that we've been made alive

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with Christ. And nothing that's alive stays the

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same. To stay the same is to wither and die.

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Which brings us to our verse of the day, Luke

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5, 37 to 39. And no one puts new wine into old

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wineskins. or else the new wine will burst the

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wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will

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be ruined. But new wine must be put into new

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wineskins, and both are preserved. And Noah,

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having drunk old wine, immediately desires new,

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for he says, the old is better. You cannot put

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new wine in an old wineskin. The wineskin is

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our belief system. It's our way of seeing things.

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You cannot grow and change. You cannot learn

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new things and you cannot have new experiences

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and go back to your old ways of thinking and

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believing. You cannot put new wine in an old

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wineskin. The wineskin will burst. Now when I

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left Grantsburg, Wisconsin some 50 years ago,

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I hadn't actually read the Bible. I believed

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what people said in it. I had to believe other

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people. My wineskin was pretty small. Couldn't

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hold a lot. So 50 years ago, I started studying

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biblical scripture. I read the Bible. I read

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things about the Bible. I read things about other

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religions. I had conversations and new experiences,

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met new people, listened, reflected, and learned.

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And many of these new things could not be contained

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by my old wineskin. So I had options. Option

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one would be to reject the experience, which

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would be to discount all that I learned or say

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it's evil or of the devil or some such thing.

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Option two was to reject the wineskin, which

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would be to reject my belief system. And option

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three was to get a new wineskin, a bigger wineskin,

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one that expands to accommodate all the new wine.

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Now, many of my Bible -believing, Jesus -loving,

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conservative Christian friends are faced with

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similar options. New information that they're

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seeing doesn't fit within their wineskin. Their

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wineskins have become data resistant. They're

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reading a dead Bible, not a living Bible. At

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the direction of our president, they're seeing

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good Americans do horrible things to our immigrant

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neighbors. and this doesn't fit within their

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wineskin. Now, they can't reject their wineskin,

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so they discount the data. It's fake news. It's

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half the story, they say. My Bible -believing,

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Jesus -loving, conservative Christian friends,

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pray to God to help them, to bless them, to protect

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them, to do this and that. And they're so busy

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telling God what to do, who to bless, who to

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protect, that they don't listen. They can't hear

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the likeness above all the prayer and praising.

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And I imagine sometimes God wants to say, would

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you just shut up and listen? Those sitting in

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detention centers are hiding with their children

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in basements. They're praying to God. We have

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the likeness within us. Why aren't we helping

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and protecting? The last part, rethink. And no

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one having drunk old wine immediately desires

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new, for he says the old is better. It's hard

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to change the way you think about things. Is

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my bat shit crazy rambling going to sway anybody?

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Absolutely not. Paul had to be struck blind before

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he became Saul. Saul had to be struck blind before

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he became Paul. And very few of us have a road

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to Damascus experience. But after seeing Renee

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Goode and Alex Pretti murdered in cold blood,

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I can't put that new wine back in an old wine

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skin. I view the world a little differently.

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I didn't think that sort of thing could happen

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in our country. And after I see my conservative,

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Jesus -loving, Bible -believing Christian friends

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say nothing, I think of their religious path

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a little differently. I'm not going to sway anybody,

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but perhaps The likeness will speak. There are

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travelers on the road, people, who've been beaten,

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robbed, and left on the side of the road. Why

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are you walking by? Stop the abuse. Stop ICE.