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Do you have questions about God, faith, or about different religions, different churches, and different ideas? We all do, but often we are scared to ask them. In this message, Pastor Mike Novotny answers some of the many questions posed by the congregation.
The episodes are the weekly sermons from 922 Ministries (St. Peter and The CORE) of Appleton, Wisconsin.
Q&A Sunday
January 1, 2023 - The CORE
Pastor Mike Novotny
I was meditating this morning, preparing my heart and praying for Q&A Sunday. I was reading these words from 2nd Timothy chapters 3 & 4.
All scripture, the whole Bible, is God-breathed. I'm from inside of God from his heart, this whole book and all scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God, that you may be thoroughly equipped for every good work in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living, and the dead. And in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge. Preach, the word be prepared in season and out of season. Correct. Rebuke. You can encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come, when people will not put up with sound Doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them. A great number of teachers say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths, but you keep your head in all situations and endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
And Jonathan, that's our goal today. Preach the word in season, out of season it's useful. We need it. Not everyone likes it. Some people will turn their ears away from it. But our job today is to hear the questions of God's people and to give them God's answers from God's word. So, you ready for a question? Number one, I am and we already have a number of great questions coming in and just a reminder that you can upvote questions and I'm already seeing a few that have been uploaded a lot. So we're going to start off with one of those. Right near the top that has been uploaded by a number of people.
And the question is this: if a child passes away who was never baptized, how does God deal with their souls? That's going to be the first question we think, you know, I thought we'd started off on a little bit of a light note. Again, get the heavier questions later.
Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's really half of answering. A question is knowing the person who asked the question, right? So I'm guessing the challenging part of this is not that you know, what's the technical Bible answer? It probably comes from someone who is in that situation, you have a child. The child is sick, passes away. You want to raise that child to be baptized to know the word of God to read Bible stories but then maybe expectedly maybe not. You lose the child and what does God say about that? There's a couple of just biblical things that we can say. For sure. We know that from the earliest moments of our existence, we have the need to be saved by Jesus.
Us. If any of you are parents, you know, you don't have to wait until they are 13 for kids to do bad things. You don't have to teach them to do bad things. The Bible says, in Psalm 51 verse 5, “Surely I was sinful from birth, sinful from the time, my mother conceived me.” So we do know that kids don't, I mean kids look innocent and beautiful but give them a bit, right? They'll prove that they are, you know, not just good but there's a lot of sinfulness in their heart. And so that's a problem. We need to remedy that. God says children are sinful, humans are sinful, they need to be forgiven. The second thing we learned is that God has a way for them to be forgiven. Some Christians call this. The means of Grace is like the means, or the ways, that God connects us to the Forgiveness that we need through the Bible through baptism. And so whenever a parent has a child like the urgent message that God says is this child has a spiritual need that needs to be washed away by the blood of Jesus. Give this child the Word, give this child the gift of baptism. I think a passage just like 1st Peter 3 verse 21, “Baptism saves you by connecting you to the resurrection of Jesus.”
So, if you're a parent, you know, sometimes we like well I want all the family to be in town and I just wanted it to be this memorable date for us, like now. When you have a kid, the urgency is on to connect the sinful child to the only Savior from sin. Right? So, two things that we know, for sure, from the Bible children are sinful. Psalm 51:5, Jesus is the forgiveness for every kind of sin for every single age. But that wasn't. Your question, was it? Action is what happens if God forbid something happens, before that moment, is this awesome passage in 2nd Timothy, chapter 3. Believe it or not I just read from verse 16 about verse 15. Paul says, how from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Baptism, is one of the ways that God can wash away the sins of a person of a precious soul but it's not the only way. And so the Holy Spirit as parents are praying and talking about Jesus and talking about his love. This passage says from infancy. Not from kindergarten, but from infancy. Somehow, the Holy Spirit is working through the word of God, to make even little ones wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. So I would give comfort to a parent that John the Baptist leapt in the womb of his mother when he heard Mary's voice in Luke chapter 1 and God can do great things that we can't see through the power of His word and the power of the spirits. And if God forbid that moment comes like where we don't have a lot of chance to do that. I mean, all we can do as Christian parents is to entrust that child into the hands of God. Who always does what is right and he never does what's wrong. So my answer is from day one. Let's give our kids as much of Jesus, as we can in the word and a baptism. And if something happens, we trust that God that child into the hands of a God who never makes mistakes
Good. Very good. No, that's it. That's it. Very tough. It's a tough question. Emotionally. I'm feeling for your wife right now. After she pours her heart out to you and you say good. Yeah, many prayers to Mrs. Erin, favorite musicians are a special breed. Yeah, you really are. Thank you for that. All right, here's a question that I think is very foundational in the Christian faith. In something that I think People are wondering, is our religion is really founded. Our Christian Faith is really founded on the fact that God is a Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God, three persons. Yeah, if someone is not fully on board with that teaching or doesn't understand that, it doesn't truly believe that, are they still a Christian? So you're asking, can you be a Christian without believing in the Trinity, yes. My answer, I think would be no. If you believe in like God the Creator, but don't believe that Jesus is divine, how could you be saved, right? If Jesus was just a guy or a religious founder? Who died 2,000 years ago and across? How could that possibly help you? He would just be another person. He has to be God for his death on the cross to count as the ultimate payment for your sin. So you know, we might grow in our understanding of how the Trinity works. Great mystery that doesn't fit neatly into the human brain. But I would say, you know, someone thinks that Jesus is less than divine. It's impossible for them to be saved. It's just, think of the Pharisees in the New Testament. They believed in God, but they didn't believe that Jesus was God in human flesh. And Jesus said to them frequently if you don't have me then you don't have the Father. So there's a lot of religions that believe in some higher power, some God, but the Christian religion, the faith that we believe saves us and gets us to Heaven is dependent on that Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one God carried out the plan of our salvation. And I'm trying to think of a Bible passage that would prove that: Galatians, chapter 3, says that unless Jesus came to take our curse as the very Son of God, then none of us could be saved. I think the passage says, cursed is anyone who is dependent on doing the works of the law, but only Jesus can take that curse away by being hung on a tree.
So, yeah, I would say knowing the Trinity, knowing who Jesus is, is a necessary part of being a Christian, making it to heaven and being saved, oh, John 14:6 Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, except through me. So if you just have some belief in God as Creator, but not Jesus as Savior, you can't possibly get to Him. Was that also good? I think you're not worried about, I'll give you this them up.
This, we should tell you. We also love Jonathan to be up here to push back a little bit. So if I dodged a question or don't exactly get to the heart of a question or you think, say, something as a follow-up to the question, he's allowed to do that, too. I felt pretty solid know basically that the Triune God is very important. Yeah. In being a believer in the Christian faith that is foundational. Yeah. The early Christians in the centuries, after Jesus came up with different. It's a faith called Creeds, maybe for the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the early Christians wrestled with that. And some false teachers said, no, the Holy Spirit isn't God or Jesus isn't God, they wrote statements of faith. And said, if you don't if you don't believe in this God, you don't believe in the God of the Bible and what the God of the Bible, you have no Savior. So, yeah, I would, I think I'd stand by that. You need to have the Trinity to be a Christian and to be saved. Okay. Here's a thing, one that really can spark a nerve for a lot of Christians. Especially when in regards to their sins, has been uploaded number of times. Why can't I feel sorry for sins that I happily commit? If I don't repent, are they still forgiving even though I would do it all over again?
Yeah, that's a great question and who do any of you feel as bad as you should for every sin you commit? You're impatient with a grouchy person at work. You just break down crying. I've sinned so deeply against God. The difficult answer, your question Jonathan. Because when it comes to like the strength of our faith or the strength of our repentance because of sin, none of us is perfect.
Good. No. It's anyone feel as bad as they should about their sin? No, I think the Bible would make a distinction when it comes to. Can you commit a sin? No, it's a sin. And if you could go back and do it all over, still say yes to that sin I think if a person could say, yes, I know I did it. I'm happy. I did it. I don't care what God says about it. I would have grave concerns about a person's faith like that. All right, if you claim that you love God, how could you like knowingly slap him in the face with your sin and just smile and say? I wish I could do that again. And the answer is, no, that's not faith.
So book of Hebrews chapter 10 talks about this. It says in verse 26 if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. So, those people call this living in sin or living an unrepentant life, Right, this isn't for those of you who are struggling, like you just all you're impatient all the time. You look at pornography and you hate it. It's like I'm not talking about struggling with sin or even constantly struggling with sin as fast as just talking about someone who deliberately does it. I intended to. I'm not ashamed of it. I'm proud. I did it. I would do it all over again. If you say that, it is impossible that the love of God exists in your heart. You can call yourself whatever you want. Religious, spiritual, Christian, you are not what the Bible says, it's time to repent before you're consumed by the Raging Fire that will consume the enemies of God. So, you take the fForgiveness of Jesus seriously. Take what Jesus says about sin, seriously, it's bad. It's actually so bad that it put him on the cross to pay for it. So, don't minimize that, see sin for what it is. Repent of it and then run to Him for all the Forgiveness that you need.
Do you think so when I was in grad school studying to become a pastor, I drove Zamboni at an ice rink, like the coolest job a human could ever have besides being a pastor. And now there's this young guy who's the goalie on the high school hockey team. And I knew this kind of religion and he went to church. Sometime it came out to me, he was Catholic, I think he said, hey Mike, do you do confession? And I said well, like yeah, like do people come to me and talk about their sins and confess and I said, yeah sure. You want to talk about something. It's like yeah, I'd love to. So prom is coming up this Friday. Okay. Well, you know, Mike, it's his prom. Okay. Yes, I was just wondering if I could confess to you before I do what I'm about to do at prom, it's not a confession. Repentance is not just a box you check. Okay, I'm officially sorry. God, whew. It's like something you grieve. Like God loves me. God doesn't love this, but I did this. And the more we think about that, the more it's like, man, God has been so good to me. He loves me. He's forgiven me. He sent his son for me. And I'm choosing something that God doesn't like. Like that's the center of repentance and it prevents a Christian from deliberately, keeping on doing things that God does not like,
So on that Pastor Mike, if I think what maybe some people might be feeling from this question is they understand the extremes that you know, you can be burdened by so much guilt or you could just be. I should be. But I'm not whatever that middle space. Yeah, I know I should feel guilty about this more. But I can't. I'm not in that. Can be maybe a scary place for some people. What are some, maybe practical tips, or what are some things you would say to that person to maybe get them to a place where maybe you want them to be? Yep. Yeah. There's no magic Bible bullets to make yourself feel as bad as you should when you sin. I think for me what does it to things is just looking intently at the goodness of God. Like if you sin against someone who's kind of a jerk to you, you probably don't feel that bad about it. They had it coming, you started it, you said it first. But if someone is entirely good and kind and beautiful to you, and you, you do something bad. I think that really grieves you, Like wow, what's wrong with me? That someone could be so good to me and I could be so bad in return. So I think it's not just like realizing. Oh, the Bible officially says, this is wrong. I think it's realizing that the Bible comes from a God, who has been so good to me since day one. One. And once he's a big, beautiful God, in my heart to sin against him is just a deep kind of grievous error. I think the strength of sorrow and repentance comes from making God big get life in your heart, for sure. Yeah. Good number of people are questioning, kind of more of a practical thing. If we look upon our cross, there are four letters: INRI. INRI. What does it mean? That's basically what everyone's asking. Why do we have four letters up there? And what do they mean? How tree and fit, so we
That was the worst joke I've ever tried. So, when Jesus was crucified, the Bible says above his head, was the charge that Pontius Pilate the governor put, like, here's why this guy's dying on a cross and it was written in Latin. I think it was written in Greek and Hebrew or Aramaic. Forgive me for not knowing that and the charge was in Latin Yeezus. Not surenos 4X to the Orem INRI. Jesus, not Serena's Jesus of Gareth Rex King you to Orem of the Jews. So, because he claimed to be the king of the Jews that was considered an assault against Caesar, who was the King of the Roman Empire. That was the charge that they stuck him on the cross. So, INRI, is this ironic thing where he claims you the king of the Jews. He was. They killed him for it, and then he proved he was the King of Kings by rising from the dead. It's great looking at their level. I like the crown of thorns right underneath that sign to remind us. Yeah. All those things yeah. What king would be pierced for our transgressions but Jesus did Here's a maybe a more practical question about our church. And I did not submit this, because it's worship related. Cool, just want to let you know. Alright, I also did not upvote it 25 times to make sure God answers.
What do we say to people when there are disagreements about worship style? So, maybe they come from a church where you're supposed to dress up in a nice suit. Yep. And appear respectful man, or the music doesn't have a loud drum set or what do we say to people who think that a certain worship style brings off a disrespect towards God. Stop it. Next question. All right. Yeah. Yeah, is there any hints in all of the scriptures? That when Peter went to worship God or the early Christians gather they put on their best robes and polish their sandals.
There is none. It's a human tradition about how we dress or what kind of music we have. How long a church service should be, you know, what would Christians from Africa who sometimes walk from their Villages and spend three to four hours worshipping God? Would they judge us for like you sang 4 songs and call that church? And we'd be like, oh yeah, it's our tradition. Its custom, its culture. But does the Bible give us any right to judge each other on our man-made Traditions? Can I go to a church where the pastor is wearing a robe. I swear robe. My last Church, by the way, and say you're too formal, you think you're above everyone else? No, it's a tradition that tries to communicate. Hey, we love God. We give him our first and our best. If you dress casually in jeans to say, is God, an approachable God. And my sinner just like you. So I'm not going to wear some fancy outfit button shirt, take it or leave it. But the Bible says, let's not add or subtract anything from the word of God. So if you're judging anyone for something they do, that's not Biblical. Like that's a problem. That's adding rules that the Bible says are man-made and not Biblical. So, preach, a 50 minute sermon or a 50 minute sermon bang on the drum kit playing organ, wear a robe not. Jesus doesn't care. Believe the things He says. Behave in the way He wants you to behave, you'll have plenty. Do without figuring out what kind of instrument other Christians are using to worship their Savior.
I need to prove that with a Bible passage. Jesus said,
Some wear jeans are okay, jeans are okay, it's in the Greek, you know, he warned the Pharisees, your teachings are but rules made up by men. All right, so be really careful. If you're going to, we should judge each other by our behavior and our beliefs, but only, if it's Biblical the word of God is truth. So you might have a preference that's okay. You might connect in a certain way, whether its traditional hymns, or modern bracelets. That's okay. As long as you're worshipping, Jesus. That's what the Bible cares about this. Matthew 15, I think memory serves.
Here's aQuestion, actually, I think, Pastor Michaels summarizing, a few of the questions, which really should have been the first question to ask, because you talked about how we need, are answers from God's word. So let's go back to them, how can we trust that those words on those pages are absolute truth. People make the argument, the Bible has been translated. How do we know that it hasn't been changed? There's so many different versions. How do we know which one? They seem to contradict. Yep. Where do we? How do we lay that Foundation? Foundation for people. Hmm. You just ask, like, seven questions. Can you answer all of them together unless in less than a minute? Yeah, that's great. Right? The more you get to know people from different cultures and backgrounds, the more you realize there's lots of different books that claim to be holy. The Muslims, have the Quran, the Christians have, their Bible Buddhist have their own sacred writings Hindus have the same. There's the Book of Mormon. There's, you know, so how do we know that like this book? The Bible is the one that we should believe is my three-part answer: the prophets, the apostles and Jesus,
So, some Look, why do you preach about it? Why do you want everyone to read it? I'd say Prophets, the Apostles and Jesus, the prophets in the Old Testament predicted, in hundreds of different ways. Things that came true long after they wrote right. So these predictions about Jesus would be born at this time in this place. In Bethlehem, Micah 5 verse 2, he be born of a virgin, Isaiah 7:14. Psalm 22 said, he would be crucified before crucifixion was even invented like the Empire where it would happen. Jesus would be raised in Galilee; he would rise from the dead. That Psalm 16, there are like reading Isaiah 53, and in its entirety. He was buried in a rich man's tomb. What? Even do like, how rich the guy was whose tomb, Jesus laid in, there's tons of predictions at all came true in Jesus and approves that who can make that up, who could possibly know that hundreds of years before it happened, that must prove that the Old Testament comes from a God who knows all things.
Second the apostles, the apostles in the first century would have known whether or not Jesus was the real deal and they were willing to die for their faith. Right. So imagine this like someone arrests you for being a Christian and let's say you made up the story about Jesus. Yeah, you were, he said he was God and he rose from the dead and he's running heaven right now and then they stretch you out till like flog you and rip the flesh off of your back. Before nailing you to a cross where you slowly suffocate and die. Would you hold onto a lie? If you know, it was a lie, would you make up a story that would cost you your wealth, your health, and your very life? Would you be tortured for something you made up?
And the answer is no, the apostles were not like Seventh Generation. Christians were just taking it by faith. They knew what Jesus said and did and they're willing to die for their faith. They suffered for it, read the book of Acts and you find the proof. So the prophets their prophecies, the apostles and their suffering and finally my favorite, the message of Jesus every other religion in the world operates by a single system. Do enough good things. And you'll have good things happen to you in the Life to Come. All right, fix your karma, do enough? Good things. Balance the scales, do enough, good things. Make up the good in the bad. Do enough good things. Jesus came along and he preached something so different. You had to wonder like where did this come from? If no one else came up with this. Jesus came up with is, I'll do all the good things you need. So the person like you who's done bad things can be rescued and saved, It's the uniqueness of the Gospel. John 3 verse 16. God, so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life. Someone push me like why I believe the Bible is my three-part answer, the apostles, the prophets and the message of Jesus himself. I think maybe a little bit of this question. I know I asked seven questions at one time but you did. Yeah.
How do we know that Isaiah was unaltered later after Jesus came? Yep. So that it did all fit. Yep. How do we know that what Isaiah wrote before Christ is actually actually what he wrote? I love this. How many of you have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls before? Yeah, so they found in this cave, right next to the Dead Sea, which is kind of south of Jerusalem. I think. Back in the early mid 1900s, the shepherd found these like big kind of canisters, jars. Inside was almost an entire copy. This massive Scroll of the book of Isaiah The copy was dated to before the time that Jesus came. So, all those prophecies, I mentioned Isaiah 7, especially Isaiah 53 about the coming, the suffering, the death, the resurrection of Jesus. We know for a fact, we literally have the copy, you can see it in Jerusalem.
Now of a scroll that says all of those things before, Jesus was even born. So the claim that people took the Old Testament, Jesus came they edited a bunch of parts so that it would kind of fit the story of Jesus. It just doesn't work. Historically, you can Google it. Just look at the Dead Sea Scrolls, amazing find. I'm so grateful that goat climbed into that cave, and that Shepherd threw a rock and it shattered. I investigated, and we found an amazing answer to that question. The Bible has not been altered or changed. In fact, when they found that copy of Isaiah, I think it predated the oldest copy known to that point by a thousand years. And when they compared the two copies, they were 99% identical. So if it's proof that Christians who believe the Bible is the word of God. Haven't been changing it, altering it, erasing it, making it, you know, edited for their culture. They've been faithfully passing it on from year to year and copy to copy. Good, thank you for answering two of my seven questions.
Appreciate that, two out of seven. The struggle are so many good questions coming in and we're already at the end of our first break, so or not. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. Yeah, well, I was going to ask a quick hitter. A combination of two questions, that's for our church. What does 922 stand for? Yep. And what do what do this, the you first, that our volunteers, we're on our t-shirts? Yes, does that stand for so? Okay, so 922 Ministries. That's like the umbrella of our church campuses Saint Peter in the core, it comes from a Bible passage First Corinthians 9 verse 22. And that's the passage that says the Apostle Paul speaking about his philosophy of ministry and he says, I have become all things to all people, so by all possible means I might save some. So Paul and say, well, this is my style, I'm a traditional guy, I'm a progressive guy, he said, know if there's anything I can change about myself to reach someone who doesn't know Jesus. He says, I'm willing to change. I become all things to all people, so that by all possible means. I might save some. So you should know this, the philosophy of our church is that as soon as you become a Christian and get connected here it is no longer about you.
It's about the people that you know and love that don't have this connection to the saving message of Jesus. So get this is like your grandma not connected to church. Then whatever you can do to reach her. If it means going face-to-face to visit her or writing her a letter because she's not on Tik-Tok or Instagram, you change what you do to reach her. Where are you a parent who just doesn't get all this social media stuff, but your nephew or your niece has no connection to Jesus and you don't see them enough. Then what you should do is do whatever you can to connect with them. The Apostle Paul says, it doesn't matter. My culture doesn't matter. My preference is, I become all possible things so that by all possible means I might same some, so philosophy of our church, which we Express in those two words on our t-shirt is not me first. Welcome to the church. That makes it all about me. As you first, how can I serve you? To be honest, that's difficult for all of us. Right? Sometimes I just want to come to church and do my thing instead of introducing myself to people. I don't know. It's hard to put other people first. Sometimes I want to sit at the end of the row, so I can have an easy exit to the bathroom, or the coffee instead of moving in. So someone has a better seat. Sometimes I want to take the parking spot closer to the door set of parking three blocks away. Let's do that. I'm a member of this church. I give offerings. It's not about me. When Jesus came to Earth, he didn't make it about himself. He came to serve, and so, as followers of Jesus who have received his love, that's our heart too. How can we serve people, show them the love of God and bring them closer to their Savior.
Thank you. We wear those shirts all the time and they're everywhere. And I've often wondered someone walks in like, wasn't me yet. Why are we wearing shirts that just have two random words on it? But yeah, there's a meaning for it. There's a reason for it. Indeed. Okay, let's take one more question. Yes, one more. I'm assuming this person has a connection to someone in the military but their question is, is it okay for a soldier to kill someone in battle, you know, and that can apply to, I think a police officer as well in a certain situation. Yep. When I lived in Phoenix, for a number of years, crime was a very real thing they had to deal with. We had an actual break-in into our house while we were home. Yeah. And there's always been a conversation when we lived there. About what to do in matters even of self-defense. If I have to defend my family, what does God say? In certain situations? Is it okay? Or is it very clear? You shall not murder, period. There's a difference in the Bible between the Commandment “You shall not murder” and the authority to carry out justice. That's given to certain spheres, like the government, which would include the military, or the police, right? So Jesus said, you should turn the other cheek, remember that? I think it's Matthew Chapter 5 like don't get revenge on people as a matter. If someone strikes, you on the right cheek, you don't get to punch them back. So he taught a personal message of forgiveness, and mercy, and patience in Matthew 5, But when we look at passages that talk about the governments, Romans 13. I think 1st Peter chapter 2, the Bible says that God has given the government quote, “the sword”. So that people who break the law are afraid. So, a parent's job, a police officer's job, the government's job is that if you want to break these laws, you should be afraid. We will make it hurt. We will find you will put you on a timeout. And in some cases, it might have to go to the point of to keep you from breaking the law, we might even have to take your life. So in Romans 13, it talks about the sword and you didn't use the sword to slap someone in the back of the wrist, use the sword to kill someone.
So is there a time when an officer can save lives. He'll have to take a life. Yes. Is there a time when a government, if you know, I'm in a country that's being invaded and people are coming at me with guns? Should I turn the other cheek? Nope, I should pick up my gun and shoot them first, right.
God is a God of Justice and when Justice is being trampled on, God gives the government the right and responsibility to fight back so it's messy, it's complicated. Christians have talked about what some people call the Just War Theory. Like when is it okay for us to go to war with other people, not just to get money and land to make things easier, but if we have to defend ourselves and the lives that God has given us. Yes, the government has the right to do that. So I know police officers from our church who've had to take someone's life. I know some of you have served in combat or that was just like a necessity. It's not a sin, that's not wrong. In fact you are the way that God is keeping people safe and protecting freedoms. So you can actually take a life in a military context with a clear conscience because of Romans chapter 13.
This is hard, man. Well we haven't even gotten to the hard questions yet that's around to, all right? You want to introduce us to our a little break here? Our next song? Sure. I maybe have people stand. We talk about that. Why don't wait too long? We stand, we're going to sing a song is called Nothing, but the Blood will be a video on the screen. Feel free to sing along. And again, if you still have questions, feel free to submit them. We're trying to sort through all of you guys have great questions. So let's take a moment and sing together and stretch.
Oh Pastor Mike. We have just a ton of questions coming in and way more than we have time for. So a reminder we will go back and try and answer a lot of these we can on social media. So I'm going to really try and Target some of the most up voted questions. Okay, we have here. So I think this one is it speaks very near and dear to my heart and maybe this is more of an advice question, but our children are growing up in a world that that we feel. We can see is getting more and more hostile towards the faith. It's hard to raise kids in our modern day culture. So how do we teach our kids? Good spiritual discretion as they grow up in a world that has so many Temptations? Yep. Yeah. How do we raise our kids? That's an easy question. I'm sure to how do we raise our kids? How do we raise our kids in 30 seconds or else. Timers going on?
Imagine if you're a first century Christian you're living in the city of Rome and literally downtown Rome. It's like temples to Zeus and Aphrodite. Temple, prostitution. The butcher selling sacrificial meat that they offer to Apollo like we are not the first Christians have challenging situations to raise our kids. And so what do you do? The Bible says in Proverbs I think it's 22, verse 6, train up a child in the way they should go. I said, train them. Deuteronomy 6 maybe the best passage on Christian parenting says, don't wait until Sunday it says love the Lord your God with all your heart, talk about God when you're sitting at home, when you walk along the road when you're in the car, when you're on the streets, like the way to raise a kid, to know, the beauty of God, and the Forgiveness of God is to talk a lot about God.
That is so important for modern Christians to know because since like the mid 1900s, when this thing called youth ministry started in the church, Christian parents delegated discipleship to the professionals. And they lost the best opportunity to shape their kids to love Jesus. Do you moms and dads know this, especially you dad's that if you bring your kids to church and drop them off at the youth group, but you don't talk about God at home. do you know the statistics massively say those kids will leave their connection to the church and maybe to Jesus as soon as they're out of your home, But if a mom and a dad, I don't know what it is, especially a dad if he's passionate about God, if he loves God, if things happen at home and he apologizes for his sins, if he loses his cool with Mom and says, Jesus wasn't okay with me treating your mom that way if he runs for forgiveness to the Cross, if he prays when they're scared. Like if a mom and dad do that, they will show their kids a God, who is so good and compassionate and forgiving and Powerful that this world won't have anything better to offer. My second piece of advice is watch commercials and shows with your kids and then talk about them. Spiritually. You may think I'm a bad parent so there's a show on MTV called Ted Lasso, it's about soccer. So I really got into it at last. I was like the super lovable character, my wife and I watched it and I'm like we should watch this with our kids. So we wanted to say, parents never happen to you that. You don't realize how much swearing and sex is in a movie until you watch it with your children. Like I didn't remember that part at all. Sorry, I could choose like, okay, I'm not going to do this, this is bad for me to teach my kids, bad things. You can judge my parenting, but I said, why not talk about this is what the world is. Giving my kids when I talk about it. Hey, kids in this episode, like six different people were hooking up who aren't married. Seems like they love each other. Seems like it brought them closer together. What do you think about it? God says, we should wait until marriage to have sex. All right, so if I have those conversations with my kids little on, when they get into the world, they're going to have seen it. They're going to have thought about it. Going to have talked about it with an Open Bible. So I think one of the ways we train up our kids in the way they should go is just talking in those day-to-day moments. Why do people believe that? Why do you think people behave that way? Why do we try to behave differently? Why do we believe in Jesus? That's the way we train a child. According to Proverbs 22 verse 6. Raise your hand. If you think I'm a bad parent for letting my kids watch Ted Lasso. Alright, that's unanimous. Thank you. A lot of small hands. Here's a question, that's kind of a combination of a few questions that I'm seeing here, and it deals with how many different religions and even in the Christian faith, how many different denominations there are? If how do we know or how do we feel about the churches that maybe teach something differently? How do we know first of all, that we're confident and our denominational teaching and how do we relate with people of different denominations? Sure how do we treat them? How do we address their teachings? Let's talk about that Dynamic a little bit. How many of you grew up Lutheran in this room? How many grew up Catholic? A bunch. How many grew up in like a non-denominational church. Baptist, Presbyterian, like Pentecostal. There's all kinds of backgrounds and man, that can be so complex and overwhelming. So I get why a lot of people ask the question.
I would say, number one, like we have to come to our own personal convictions not just that my pastor said or my priest said or my parents believed, we actually have to grab the Bible. Because 2nd Timothy 3, all scripture is God-breathed to realize like I believe this because this is where the Bible says it. So how do you get to heaven? It's not. “Well, here's my truth.” I believe it's through faith in Jesus because that's what John 3:16 says. God so loved the world He gave His only son that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life. So I believe this. And here's the Bible passage to prove it. What do you believe? Baptism does her person I believe it saves them by the power of God. 1st Peter chapter 3, Galatians, 3 verse 27, right. So we have to have a Bible passage to back up so it's not just my mom and my dad, my pastor, or my priest. So, that's where you got to start. Lots of people say, I don't care what different denominations say, I actually think that's a cop-out. Right? There's different teachings in the world and you have to come to your own personal conclusion, based on your own personal study, if you have time to watch, Ted Lasso or The Office, you have time to read the Bible. All right, so invest your time to actually figure out what you believe about God and the faith. Which begs the secondary question, then why do people end up in such different spots? One answer to that question is because there are some people, actually some denominations that believe this is the word of God. And there are other churches and denominations right here in our community, who believe this contains the word of God.
You're a difference. Some people say I'm one of these people. This is the word of God. I've seen other pastors, clergy members, who believe this contains the word of God. So many years ago, I was interviewing some pastors and priests in my community to talk about sexuality and Christianity. And I knew that different churches in the community did different things. And I, you know, I studied all the Bible passages and I wondered well, how do we come to such different conclusions on this? Some people say this is okay. Some people say this isn't okay. Some people say you need to repent of this, other people say, no, you need to embrace this and accept this. Why are we so different? And I remember interviewing this pastor, I'm like, hey, so here, the Bible passages that are leading me to conclude a Button on your website. You don't agree with the conclusion. Why do you think that? And this is his quote to me, he said, “Well Mike, because we know better than Moses. And we've learned more than the Apostle Paul did 2,000 years ago, he would never understand what we know today. In fact, there's a Methodist Minister who said and I quote, “Because we know better than Jesus. Your second cousin who hasn't been to church in a decade? It was a pastor leading a church.”
His belief was the Bible contains some good things, but it also contains a lot of bad things and they need to be replaced with what we know today. So why do you have different clergy different people, different churches, different denominations, come to different conclusions? A huge thing. That separates a lot of even within Lutheranism or Methodism or Presbyterianism is, “Is this the word of God from cover to cover?” I believe that all scripture is God-breathed. 2nd Timothy 3, verse 16. So Jesus believed or does it just have some nuggets of Truth, like real fruit juice in a Hi-C juice box. It contains something good, but it's not entirely something good. I think that's one of the answers to that big question. So, maybe a follow-up to that is, if I have a question about the Bible and I approached two people who both do believe. It is the word of God, cover to cover. Yeah. But they come to different conclusions. Yep. Am I just at liberty then to make my own conclusion or what do I do when I'm truly trying to seek what God is saying? But I'm confused.
It's a deep question or whatever might be. Yeah. So what I did in In grad school at Seminary we had a class called Dogmatics. It was not the study of dogs, it was the study of Dogma which means “doctor” in our teaching. We will basically, you know, we get to the section on communion, for example, or the Holy Spirit. And there would just be like, 50 pages with every single Bible passage in the whole Bible that brings up the Holy Spirit or communion or the Judgment Day. So, you know, maybe there's one passage where it's kind of unclear, is that saying a or is it saying be? But if you take that one passage and then you read another passage in the third passage, in a fourth passage and all the passages and you put them together. It's really hard to come to some really different examples, right? So the best thing that you can do, let's say you have a question about salvation: who gets to Heaven, who doesn't? You can literally type into a Bible Search engine, I do this all the time, like Bible Gateway.com, the Word salvation, click return. The internet will do the work for you and you can read everything. The Scriptures have to say about the topic of Salvation. It's going to save you from personal bias from, you know, denominational preference. It's going to get you back to actually what the Word says. So I think if we do those steps, it's going to save us from tons of those differences, distinctions and divisions and bring us together around God's Word, which is truth.
Are you ready now for the most up-voted question? The most of what? A question. Yes. And it's not. Why are you the way that you are? No, it's not. No, it's this. Please comment on “The Chosen” TV series.
How many have seen at least one episode of “The Chosen”?
I got to say I 98% adore it.
The 2% is, you know, sometimes when you're making a show or a movie about Jesus, you have to take some artistic liberties. You know, what did Jesus look like? You got to pick an actor. Are you right about it? Are you not right about that? They walk together, lying, how fast did they walk in? What formation today? Don't you have to make decisions as a director that aren't necessarily in the Bible. So, you know, there's a bunch of that stuff. It's like how did it happen? That way they're not happening that way you can debate and quibble. I think what I've Loved about the show is how absolutely lovable Jesus himself is. My youngest daughter one day, we were watching an episode and if we give it to our family can get through an episode of The Chosen, without one of us crying is a rare occasion and like, Jesus, he's so strong when he defends the poor and the judged. He's so incredibly loving with people who are he's like this perfect combination of power and love and we get to the end of the episode of my youngest daughter's got tears in her eyes. She looks at me and says daddy, who loves Jesus so much. And I think this is an actor. Like that's some dude like you and me doing his best impersonation of Jesus and he's so like magnetic and attractive and it just makes me think what, what do you think the real Jesus is like, if you could have seen him with your own eyes, and someday you will, like how mad he is going to move us all in such profound ways. And so I love the show. I've always loved Christian Media. Some of its super cheesy, but this is so well done. It gives such great context the apostles and Jesus were actually real people who did life with real people. And yet Jesus shone so brightly that you couldn't not love him. So, quote, the worship director from our church, it's good. Excellent. Thank you for that in Jesus as a rating, five star review. It's kind of yeah. I think what I've appreciated about the show is something that I don't think about much while reading scripture, and that is the humanity of Jesus. Yes, early on Jesus cracks, a joke about how terrible Andrew’s dancing is, yes. And someone asked him Jesus, can you Can you fix this and he jokes? Well, there's even some things I can't even and my, my daughter who was 10 at the times, like I never knew Jesus could be so funny. Yeah. You know. So we see that. Jesus was a real man. Yeah. And also true God at the same time. Yeah. They take everything that people are except the sin and that was Jesus, right? Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 says he was fully human in every way He was tempted to get tired. He was exhausted. He got hungry, he crashed. You make fun of your dad for falling asleep in his, in his armchair during the game. Jesus did that in a boat like he was fully human. He just never ever send. So let's not like take half a human being like Jesus was floating around it. Some like Halo, he's fully human in every way except for the sin. That's why people could relate to him so well. All right, here's another one of the top uploaded questions and because there are so many questions and so many good questions. If you want to jump back in and upload a few more that you really feel you would like answered, that'll help us and guide us towards questions because there are so many good questions in here but here's I think a very difficult one but a very good one that we need to talk about and that is How do we interact with our neighbors who identify as transgender, Etc, or other things? So I don't think the question is necessarily to address transgenderism, or maybe homosexuality. But the question sounds like, how do I talk to them? How do I interact with them? How do I treat them? Yep.
It's as easy as it is complicated.
Right? So we have all kinds of neighbors, family, members, co-workers, friends, who don't believe the things that Christians believe or behave in the ways that Christians try to behave. That could be with just a buddy, who's sleeping with his girlfriend. It could be someone in a same-sex relationship. It could be an atheist, could be a Buddhist, could be a cousin who stopped going to church a long time ago. So what do we do in those situations? The number one? Most important thing is to love in a really practical ways that you don't be standoffish in the driveway. Like, well I don't agree with your lifestyle just yet. The Bible says, love people, like serve people, be there for people and invite people into your home. Have someone at your dinner table, like let the love of Jesus shine. So we live in such a selfish world, where everyone's always rushing and doing their own thing and they got their head down, their own to-do list that if you just actually show compassion and take some of the time in your schedule to serve people, I can almost guarantee you they will notice it. And then while you're seeing them up close, let the beauty of the Christian faith shine within you.
In Matthew chapter 5 verse 16. Jesus said, let your light shine so that people see your good deeds and praise your father in Heaven. So you're leaving friends at your dinner table, you find out there was an accident or your dad's got cancer or you're really sick but you're not afraid. Like they would be afraid. You're not fearful of the future because you believe in God who runs the show. You believe in a god who’s forgiving. God has prepared a place in heaven for you. And I guarantee you in those moments, they're going to know even if they don't say it, that there's a difference between the way they live and the way that you live. And when that moment comes, they ask about that difference. The Bible says, 1st Peter 3, verse 15 always be prepared to give an answer for those who ask you for the hope that you have, but do it with gentleness and respect. So someone's like, aren't you afraid? Gently and respectfully say, I follow Jesus.
My Jesus died to make me perfect. My Jesus rose from the dead, so that death wouldn't have the last word. I mean, why would I be afraid?
And they're going to sit there and say what, Then the Christian faith stops being about like Sunday schedules and rules. And you know what you can and can't do with your body or your money. It starts being as beautiful and as big and a supernatural as its intended to be. So there's a time to get to the truth to call people to repentance to say, if you're going to enter the family of God, you can't just do whatever you want in the household of God, he's going to come into the kingdom of Jesus. You don't get to be the king. That's only Jesus. And he gives the commands, right? So, there's gonna be a time to say, hey, give up your old life to have this life with Christ. But who's going to make that exchange? Unless they know how life with Christ is a beautiful, powerful and glorious? It is so love with no strings attached, like people see up, close the difference that your faith makes and I bet you they're going to take a step of curiosity and ask you for the hope that you have. I wonder if part of this question is, what if they don't, what if they don't take a step forward into the hope that you have and instead? Yeah, I wonder if there's a fear of they're going to call me out as not being accepting, not loving because I don't accept them in a certain way. I could see that fear crippling some people, myself included.
Yes, I am. So I just quoted Matthew 5:16. Let your light shine before others.
Five verses before that. Same sermon Jesus said, blessed are you when people insult you because of me rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you. If you are going to suffer, someone's going to make fun of you and it's because of Jesus. Good for you.
If someone's going to take a distance from you and say you're judgmental or bigoted or whatever and it's because you love Jesus, rejoice. And be glad because you just proved that you're not in this world and living this life to please people you’re here to follow God for the great things that he's done for you. So if people ask us all the time, like what's the perfect way? I can talk to my friends. So they repent of their sins and become Christians. And I would say there's a good way, but Jesus himself did not figure out a perfect way for everyone to like him. He called people to repent and to change their ways, they couldn't be their own Gods. Some people hated him so much, they put him on a cross. So I would say, do the best you can. And if people throw it back in your face, even if he tried to be loving, run to Matthew Chapter 5 and say, I am blessed in this moment and like the apostles in the book of Acts, I'm going to rejoice and be glad that I get to suffer for the beautiful name of Jesus. Rejoicing the misses. Suffering, though is much easier said than done and I wonder if that's even looking through some of these other questions when life gets tough and even if it's because of Jesus, you read that passage and say the apostles. They got beat up and flogged and then they ran away. Happy smiling! Yay! Yes, that's I don't feel that way Pastor Mike. Yep. The problem is we live in a homo YOLO culture. Right? You only live once false, you actually live twice and the second time, the eternal life is much much much, much, much longer, and that's what the apostles knew. Like it could be bad, they could persecute me, they could put me to death because of my faith but that's like an inch on this mile long rope of Eternal happiness that I have because of Jesus. So I think the only way you can rejoice in the midst of suffering and not to make light of suffering, the Bible has a place for that but you can see Suffer with hope because you know as bad as it gets, this is so temporary.
And like the Pains of Labor it's going to be over and then the glory of being with God is going to begin. So I think the only way you live out your faith in a world like this without being crushed or compromising is to have that eternal view. 2nd Corinthians 4:16 says, we might be wasting away, outwardly, but inwardly, we are being renewed day by day because we fix our eyes on what is unseen, and what is eternal. Thank you for that. He's just waiting for you to go. Like yes and that John the Baptist is chosen. We're running out of time? We are. This next one's gonna impress you. Okay. I will I look forward to it. I should not. I should not have made that bed before the question. This one, I think can really apply to pretty much every single person here. And that is the Bible says, do not worry, do not be anxious. Yeah, I think you could even throw anger into the mix to a lot of things that are very emotionally driven. Yeah. Where is that line? The moment that I have a whirring thought or an anxious thought? Am I sinning before God? Or is that not where that line is? Is it more? I'm fighting against that thought. So, I'm not sinning yet. Like where is that become a sin against my god. Oh, I can't prove this biblically but I think my best answer is it's not a sin, the first time. But it is the second.
Let's imagine a stunningly beautiful woman was not wearing a lot of clothes. We’re confused because it's the Wisconsin winter. She walks into church and I noticed her as a guy like “oh wow” yeah there's something about me that's very interested in looking at her a little bit more. I noticed her. The first time is that a sin? I would say no, that's the temptation. What do I do with my second look is the question. Like there's Temptation. No, I want to honor my wife want to be faithful to Jesus so I'm going to look away. So I think in that case I haven't sinned. I face the temptation and I resisted it. I think the same way when it comes to worry and anxiety. I mean stuff is going to happen that makes us so worried. We're going to be confronted with temptation. The doctor says this or the boss says this or you get the email or text that claims that just a natural human reaction is, oh man. But then what do you do at that moment? Just fix your eyes on the situation do you freak out, and you're anxious and you can't escape it. Or to the best of your ability to do, turn to God and say, God, I'm really afraid right now. Help me. I know that you're with me. I'm so grateful for that. So in Philippians, chapter 4, that's the famous passage. Where Paul says don't be anxious about anything. His next line is but in everything by prayer and petition with gratitude offer your requests to God. All right, so in the context of, and I know a lot of you struggle with anxiety, is a constant battle for you is man, when that comes to assault you as fast as you can, just cry out, God help me. And just like a lot of people in this room, like not lusting after other people is difficult and can be a battle for a long time. Maybe for you, worry and anxiety is the same thing, but here's my encouragement to fight to run to God. To know that it is really difficult work. That's what temptation is. It's tempting, but someday very soon when Jesus comes back, you will be rid of that Temptation and finally set free, but until then run the race fight, the good fight and cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you. Yeah, the better.
I feel, I feel like you didn't mean it. That's what happens when you fish for a compliment, huh?
Yeah, it was pretty. So I mean, what I hear you saying is that if I am in the fight, I'm good, I'm fighting but I should be concerned if I don't have the desire to even fight and just say it whatever I can I can't stop it. So yeah maybe even with more compassion because I know and love people who struggle with worry like just to come. I mean we were worried about how much we worry, right? And we're anxious about the fact that we're anxious and telling an anxious Christian who severely wrestles with anxiety to stop. Thanks, I think what I would want to do is maybe go away from the law, a little bit. Here's how you should live and just go back to the Gospel and say, God's Got You. I know you're worried about how that work projects going to go. God knows, he's gonna take care of it. I know you're freaking out about what you said and you're wondering what people think of you. Listen, God loves you, no matter what they think. I think I want to get back as soon as I could to the promises and the bigness and the beauty of God and let that calm and anxious and troubled heart.
Excellent, thank you for that. Yeah, Pastor Michael is helping me sort through some of these questions and he said that there are a number of questions about communion. Yes. So I'm going to kind of focus on one. That's right. Here is when we receive communion, Jesus said, it's for the Forgiveness of sins and to do this in remembrance of me. Yep. So their question is, by taking communion, is there an actual forgiveness of sins happening or is it just to remind us that Is did forgive our sins at the cross, which one is happening in communion. Take and Eat This. Matthew 26, Mark. 14, Luke 22, take and eat, take and drink for the Forgiveness of your sins. So often the word for in the New Testament is the Greek word. That means with the goal of I'm doing this for forgiveness, with the goal of forgiveness. So I would say in a very real way, Jesus promised God gives us this promise and communion and he's given it for the Forgiveness of our sins which would make some people ask. But aren't we already forgiven? The Bible says Jesus died on the cross for our forgiveness. So, if he did everything at the cross, why do I need to come to communion or come to baptism for the Forgiveness of our sins? It doesn't make much sense. It actually does. How many of you have been in a romantic relationship before? Yeah, bunch of you when you're in a romantic relationship, you know, that people try to express their love for you in a whole bunch of ways because it's easy to miss the one way. All right, so if I say to my wife while watching a soccer game on the like the iPad, hey, honey, I love you. She says. You could. You help me with dinner? I already said that I loved you.
Yes. Now show me your love in a different way, right? So you plan dates and you help with dinner and you dress up and you give compliments and you speak their love language, and you give them a background. But just there's all these different things that come from the same spot. I want you to know that I care about you. I prioritize you, I'm for you and I love you. The Bible is the exact same way, it could just be the Bible. No communion, no baptism or God forgives us and saves us. But as sinful people, we doubt that all the time. Is this really for me? And then you get baptized and it's not just speaking to hundreds of people. It's literally water that was put on your personal head and God's name. Father, Son and Holy Spirit was put on you. And then you come to communion and you come up in the pastor doesn't say Take and eat each. Not you, you're pretty bad. No, you to take and eat and you can taste the bread. And, you know, the promise of forgiveness is personally for you repeated week after week, month after month and year after year. So those three things, the Bible and baptism and communion are God's three ways. According to the scriptures where he's saying, I love you, I love you, we're good, we're good. I forgive, you know, you think you're not forgiven, I know you feel that you're saved. Your savior overwhelms us with the gospel and the good news of His love. So, that's what I would say. Does it? Do we remember Jesus' forgiveness at the cross? Yes. Is it for the Forgiveness of our sins in the moment? Yes. So the natural follow-up question and someone asked this to is if that's the case, then why do we say some people shouldn't, or can't, come to communion? Yep, because the Bible says that 1st Corinthians 11. So, apparently in the ancient city of Corinth a bunch of people were like messing up communion really, really bad. Some people are getting drunk on the wine. Really. Eating all the bread before the third shift workers could get there for the communion celebration. And so Paul writes this huge section and 1st Corinthians 11 verses 17 through 34. And at one part, he says this, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ, eat and drink judgment on themselves.
The Bible says a warning that communion is like a good medicine. But just like when you go to your doctor, they don't put all the medicine in like the lobby area and let you just pick your own. The doctor wants to talk to you, examine you, make sure this is the right thing for you. That's why in the same way, we're pretty cautious with communion. We want the pastor to sit down with people and examine you. What do you believe about communion? Do you recognize the body and blood of Christ? Do you know what this is for? Do you know why we as a church are celebrating this? And after we have those conversations we know oh yeah we are in Union with what we believe. So now we're ready to be in Union as we celebrate the body and blood of Christ with the bread, the wine, So, I would say, did you know, in the early church? If you wanted to join, I think this is right. You would have to spend two, to three years studying the Bible with the community before you could take communion with them. Yeah, years. So when we ask someone like, hey would you talk to the pastor at least once? So you're like, oh, who are you to judge my faith? Well no, but we're people who believe what 1st Corinthians 11 says and like hopefully good spiritual doctors want to examine you. Make sure you're good to go. You believe these beautiful things about communion so you can celebrate them with us. I think I heard a pastor once and it always stuck with me regarding communion. The church is not in the say, business, just not business, but church is not in the business of harming souls, and we don't want someone's souls to be harmed by taking communion with the passage of reference there. Yes, I was thinking of set. The last church I was at, some of you have heard the story. We were giving communion and I kind of gave an announcement. Hey, if you're one of our guests here today, I can't wait to celebrate communion with you, but I love to talk to you first. Just hang out today. Catch me up. Our church will talk and hopefully we can celebrate this the next time around. Well of course, sitting in the way back row, was this guy has a very very very pregnant girlfriend like nine months pregnant and their two-year-old and they came up to the front of the church and because I don't know, it might have been coincidence. I think because God has a sense of humor, like everyone was taking communion kind of left in one big group and then it was just the three of them and me up in the front. And they kind of kneeled down in the front of church. And I know this is the right decision or not, but I thought I'm going to give them communion and I'm going to talk to him afterwards. Just make sure we're all good on the same page. And so, you know, I give the bread to the guy, take and eats and little two-year-old puts his hand out. It was a brand new pastor, I'm like a year in, so I just kind of wink at him and smile and I go over to the girlfriend and they start looking at each other. Like why are you skipping our kid? I'm thinking of it because he hasn't examined himself. I'm guessing he's just doing what Mom and Dad are doing. So I'm like take it take and eat take this Enigma and I look up and people in the congregation. Are they stop singing the song and they start looking at the new pastor what is this guy going to do? So we get to the wine and you know you're taking drink for the Forgiveness of your sins and the guys holding the wine of the girls holding wine. Thankfully a little kid and try to grab the wine and the woman who's really pregnant she says to her boyfriend. Is this real wine? And I'm like, yeah, take a drink and she's like, is this Gonna Hurt Me physically? They are arguing with each other. He's like, just drink it. Just like I can. I'm pregnant. It's a just drink it, you're embarrassing me. I can't, I'm pregnant, fine, he says. Takes his grabs hers. Boom.
And I'm just sitting there, like,
Go in peace question mark. Now thankfully, thankfully afterwards they came to like our Bible class where we go over all the key. The key doctrines of the Bible, we get to the communion lesson, she grew up in church, he grew up in church. They thought they knew what communion was and I actually talked to them and they raise their hand and she says, Pastor, I didn't know any of this, do you remember that? One time we came to communion at your church. Yes, I do. Yeah, I remember that very well. So that might be an extreme example, but that really taught me early in Ministry a lot, you know, a lot of people grow up in church, they just do what Mom and Dad do, but have they ever studied, what 1st Corinthians 11 or Matthew 26 says, in a lot of cases and this isn't being judgmental, they haven't asked them. What do you believe about communion? Why do you believe it? A lot of people can't explain it in their own words, so we want to be cautious. So we don't do any harm to souls but it's always for the good of everyone who takes it. I'm Pastor Michael just messaged me with multiple exclamation points “Starting point class”. If you want to learn more about the teachings of the Bible about communion, he goes through all of that in starting point class. Make sure that we understand what we are taking and receiving and amen. Who do you think one or two more questions? Yeah, I was thinking, probably, one more, we're hitting almost an hour and a half here right now. So here's, I think this might be a good question to end on. Someone asked, just We say the phrase a lot “God has a plan for my life”. Hmm we know he's in control, he's watching over us. Yeah, and I think what they're trying to reconcile is yet I'm allowed to make my own decisions about my job. How many kids we want to have all those sorts of things? So how do we reconcile those two knowing and trusting God's plan. For us, it is good He has a plan for us, but I think we all can say we've made some bad decisions too in our lives. So we ruin God's plan for our life. Oh man. Let's not end on this question because it's incredibly complicated. So remember at Seminary we talked about the will of God was a really thick section because theologians use words like the consequential will of God. And the antecedent will of God, they break this down because sometimes like you make a decision and God overrules it. So in the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul says I was going to this city and then the Holy Spirit stopped me from doing so.
I thought I had free will to go to the City and then the spirit said, nope, detour. There's other times where God, who hates sin, allows people to sin, doesn't turn you into a robot who like, I have to be nice to all the people that I need. Like you can make your own choice and disobey God but then God has a way of turning that into the good of his church and uses it to refine people, bring people closer to Jesus so you know, God's plan, God's will for my life. It is actually incredibly complex. What we can say is this. The Bible is clear that God wants us to follow him and obey his word. The Bible is clear that when people disobey his word like they did, when they put Jesus on the cross, there's a worship song that says God, you take what the enemy meant for evil, you turn it for good. So God has a way of taking even the sins that people commit against you and using it to drive you closer to Jesus. So yeah, what's God's plan for my life? Did He want me to do that or not? Was I obeying him or not? I think we found the Bible. What's really clear? You can move here, move there. Take this job, take that one day, this person dates that one, but if you follow the clear teachings of the Bible, that's how God's will is done. And that's about as much as we can say about the will of God. Okay, so maybe let's end on one easier. Maybe later, question.
And that is, if I'm trying to share my faith with someone who's not religious, what book of the Bible should I start with talking through with them?
Luke. And why you said it was the last question and I answered it. And why shouldn't they start with Revelation? How much? Let's scare them with Revelation. Yeah. So if you don't know the Gospel of Luke was written by a first century in the medical doctor, really mart guy who turned into, like a historian of Jesus. And the very beginning of it says that he didn't just like, hey, here's my thoughts and personal beliefs about Jesus. Luke says, he did this very careful research to put together an orderly account. He interviewed eyewitnesses. So this is like the well-researched documented for century biography of Jesus. And what it does is from even before Jesus' conception all the way up to his return into heaven. And it just walks you through, who Jesus was, what Jesus said. And what Jesus did. So if you have a friend, actually, this is a really great way to connect with people. Some people aren't interested in organized, religion or the church but they're very curious about Jesus.
And that simple Invitational. Like I don't sometimes you and I talk about spiritual things. Would you ever want to like, like read one of the original accounts of who Jesus was? I know some pastors say he was like this, some pastors are wrong and some people think Jesus was like that and people aren't always right. But we actually read like, literally, it's going to take you three hours half of a Netflix season. They are about to watch. Would you like to read with your own eyes with me and see who Jesus was? There's an old Christian Theologian named CS Lewis, you've heard of him, he was an Oxford, I think, scholar, who was an atheist, and he became a Christian. And he said, you know, if the Gospel of Jesus Christ is like a lion. The best way to convince people of the power of the Lion is to just let it out of the cage. Right? You don't think I'm up with some persuasive speech, to convince someone to be a Christian. Like, let them see the real Jesus, with their own eyes read this. Was he not compelling and amazing? Did you not love people who didn't deserve it and then connecting people with that Jesus, because faith comes from hearing, the message is the best way to bring people to Faith.
Jonathan, two thumbs up. All right, it feels like we just started. I know we did not just start, not just start. No, it's time for lunch. But we have another opportunity at 4 o'clock, 4 o'clock. If you want to get other set of questions, questions, Jonathan and I will be back. All right. So we talked about baptism, we talked about communion, we talked about Suffering. We talked about sharing our faith. We talked about unbelieving, friends. We talked about the Trinity, truth of the word we talked about the Trinity, it's a lot to process. So here's what I want to say to you. We love at nights to Ministries to be the kind of church where you can ask questions and they don't have to wait 52 weeks.
All right, so on your communication card in your life groups with your pastors, the reason that we are here is to help answer your spiritual and biblical questions. So even if it's your first time, you never have to be shy. We don't have all the answers, but Pastor Michael, and I have studied for a long time and worked with a lot of people you're not going to shock us or embarrass us. The questions aren't dumb or ignorance. We would love to help. Answer the spiritual questions that you have. So from here now, it's a blank check. Ask whatever questions you want. We're in. Do our best to give you a Biblical answer.