Is Marvin Winans Unbiblical? 10 Qs with Mike Winger (Ep 66)

All right, this is the last stream for this year, at least as far as Q&As go. And we have an interesting topic to cover today, at least to start it off with, because I will be going to your guys' questions in the live chat.

What did Marvin Winans do? That's the question. I mean, really, is it biblical? But there's been some confusion and some drama over this. So I'm going to unpack it and try to have a reasonable, thoughtful Christian response to it. Use it as a teaching moment. And the reason why it's coming up is because giving is something that every church does and needs. Like your church needs your support for them to continue.

It's healthy to give. We should be giving self-sacrificially as Christians. We should give with our whole hearts. We should give willingly, not by compulsion. Nobody forcing us. No one... no one trying to push us around to give, but we joyfully offer self-sacrificially to the work of the Lord. That includes in your local church, that includes helping out the widow next door, that includes helping out...

the poor, and the people around you. That includes helping out your loved ones, your family as they get older, or as they're unable to take care of themselves. All of this is very true. So I'm not opposed to giving. Giving is a good thing. But...

Question number one, did Marvin Winans in his giving day, did he break scripture? Did he go, was he unbiblical in this? And I want to... also let you guys know this it could feel like this i'm chasing drama or something like that i'm really not uh i like to use things as teaching moments i realize that it it will it will be effective and help people learn and grow but his ministry um

They reach out to people all over the world for giving. They're asking for people online to give. They've asked their church members to fundraise to friends and family and people that they... may be able to reach on social media to fundraise in order to then give to the local church. So they're very big on giving. They're doing it publicly. They're doing it in a large way. And so it's appropriate for us to publicly examine that and to think about it and to do so graciously.

but not like people who can't call balls and strikes. You know what I mean? Like you want to call it like it is. So was it biblical? Was Marvin Winans giving biblical? Now let me play for you the clip that got everyone's attention.

And then I'll be going to your guys' questions after we do this. But here it is. This is the clip that got everybody's attention. I even made a video response to this, a short, that I just removed from the internet. I will explain why. Okay? Let's walk through it all full transparency. i roberta mccoy giving faith and stand in unity with the vision of perfecting churches sowing this seed of a thousand dollars

plus $235 and receiving the blessings to come to all that participated. Now that's only $1,200. Yes. Y'all not listening to what I'm saying. If you have a thousand plus a thousand That ain't what I asked you to do That's what happened. And what looks obvious when you first watch the video is that this woman came and he wants her to bring $2,000. She only brings $1,235, I think she said. And that, he says...

He still takes her money. He still keeps the money. But he goes, that's not what I asked. It sounds like what he's saying is, I didn't ask you to bring $1,200. I asked you to bring $2,000. You didn't. Shake my head. People laugh. And so people, this went viral.

right there was there was articles written about it and then recently it got a lot more traction and attention you know the way things are this happened in october and so a couple months later um there we go it's it's suddenly everywhere i also did a response to this and responded to what it looked like then then their church actually made a video that looked like a a news

uh broadcast and maybe it was i don't know there was a video that came out where him and this woman were explaining what really happened and he was saying it wasn't what they thought it wasn't that i was telling her you should have brought more money and you didn't it was actually that i was

telling her she just came out of order. He had asked for the people who were giving to line up in a particular order, and she didn't line up in that order. And so he was merely saying, not there's something wrong with the amount you gave, but simply...

you came at the wrong time you guys aren't here listening to my instructions which is a very different kind of correction um and so yeah that that that got my attention and then i asked because someone sent this to me and they're like mike we think you should pull your video down

And I'm always open to that if I got something wrong. And I still thought what he did was bad for other reasons. I'll explain in a moment. But I wanted to see the original. So what I'm actually playing for you, this is on your screen right now. This is...

The original footage, you can kind of see how long it is. It's like a three-hour sermon or three-hour service. There is no sermon, really. And for three hours, I watched this whole video for three hours. They do some music. And by the way, their music's amazing. And Marvin Winans has an amazing voice, very gifted singer. But this service is just one person. See the line of people. It's just one person after another, after another coming up to give money. Like I'll just click to a random spot.

okay all that participate amen now you just did that today okay that's fine you know i don't need it yeah so they walk up they read something listen to what they do I minister Dante Davis and wife Andrea Davis and family, giving faith and standing unity with the vision of Perfecting Church of sowing the seed of $1,000 plus another $1,000.

and receiving the blessings to come to all that participate amen amen they do this for hours a couple hours of the sermon is just just the line so if you look at the the bottom of your screen there you'll see the giving starts around right around there okay around 38 minutes in and it goes on until about I'm scanning here to find it okay here's the end of the giving

Right there. And then he wanders on stage and starts singing. Really beautiful voice. Two hours and 36 minutes in. So it's about two hours of just a line of people giving, giving, giving, giving, giving. When they give, they come up and they announce the amount that they're going to give. And then they...

make a proclamation of faith that they're going to participate in the blessing which in the context of this church and of this ministry means they're going to be financially blessed by god among other things they're they're gonna they're gonna they're giving

and they're also going to get, and they're believing they're going to get that. Now, if you're doubting that at all, I just want to understand the full context. Here's a little clip that will help establish that from the same sermon. Sorry, not a sermon. From the same giving day. Come on, sweetie. All right. I, Sister Anita Blackman, give in faith and stand in unity with the vision of perfecting church, a soreness seed of $2,050 plus one.

Plus one and receiving the blessings to come and all that participate. Now, if you think you're going to get a blessing because of what you've given, I need you to praise God like you got it. There we go. Okay.

This is where there's a tricky middle in the issue of the prosperity gospel versus like biblical giving and self-sacrifice. What we don't want to say is, I will give and the Lord will do nothing for me. I don't want to say that. That's not like a rule. That's not like a theological statement or belief that Christians are supposed to have, that those who give God will certainly for sure not bless you in any way, shape or form.

That is not true. There will always be a blessing in a sense. The problem with the prosperity message, and this is where I want to bring scripture into this, is that they act as though the blessing is current.

right now physical prosperity in this life it is financial blessings they quote micah you know i will open the windows of heaven where god is not talking to christians under the new covenant he's talking to those under the old covenant because that's part of the old covenant is the tithes that's old covenant and all this stuff it's the muddling and the mixing of the old and new testament in a way that doesn't distinguish

And, you know, God's redemption plan, basically you're lacking good theology of scripture that happens constantly in prosperity preaching. They are always quoting the old Testament. They sometimes quote the new, but they tend to avoid it when it comes to the topic of giving and receiving. Because the new says some stuff that they don't actually believe. So let me give you an example. Let's examine if this is biblical.

In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus gives his Sermon on the Mount. And now we're here in the New Testament and we're looking at something specific that Jesus teaches that relates to giving. Is the giving going to bring a financial blessing in this life? That is. the question so jesus says do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven

where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. Now, the blessing that Marvin Winans is talking about is significantly intended to be treasures on earth, which moth and rust destroy. That's what's intended by that. That's the nature of the prosperity message. That is the nature of the prosperity preaching. It is you want to lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. That's the agenda. But Jesus has a different agenda. No, lay up treasures in heaven.

Right? For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That where your treasure is, there your heart will be. So this is like the radical difference with Jesus talking to us about these issues. He's saying, hey, I want you to care so much about eternal things. that you are living your life with a view towards investments or blessings that have eternal value, not temporal value. This is a really significant issue. This is why Paul, the apostle, is willing to lay his life down.

Peter is willing to go and die and be killed for his faith in Christ because he knows he has eternal rewards, eternal treasures. And he talks about this in 1 Peter and Paul talks about this. This is really consistent New Testament teaching. We have an eternal...

thing that's the real true value the temporal blessings are nice but they don't even remotely compare to that which is eternal and the the temporal blessings are not promised in that way they're just not only only verses you can take out of context Jesus himself was poor. He has nowhere to lay his head, right? When Jesus, his family gave the offering in the temple,

There was two kinds of offerings you could give for your newborn son and the purification that happened. Then one was for normal people and one was for poor people. Two birds. If you were poor, you gave the birds. Guess what? Mary brought birds.

because they were poor and and it's just simply not some guarantee of god oh but what about the gold frankincense and myrrh well that probably just paid for their sudden flight over to egypt for a time before they came back to nazareth because they wouldn't have had the money to fund that trip

So they probably spent it all on that. So at any rate, this is really significant to understand this. This is biblically true. So the reaction to the video saying, oh, he's rebuking you for not bringing enough money. That was...

Partly true, but only in an implication sense. He's rebuking her for getting out of order, but it drew attention to this ministry and to this method of fundraising, which I'd like to analyze. Scripture tells us not to be like the Pharisees when you give. And it's exactly, oh man, tell me if you don't see, if you don't see exactly what Marvin Winans is doing and as a pastor, he's telling his people to do is the opposite of what Jesus told us. to do let me find the passage here real quick um

Matthew chapter six still, and it says here, therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory from men. Now, Here's the order in which the events happened in Marvin Winans church. They first had, this is why she got rebuked. They first had the people who brought 2000 or more dollars. They were to line up initially. Then people who brought.

a thousand dollars were between one and two thousand were to line up and give that's when she was supposed to give then the people who got less than a thousand, whatever amount, then they can all line up and give. And every person announced their amount. And whenever they had a lot, like they brought four grand, they brought 28 grand, whenever they had a lot.

Winans goes, wow, wow, wow. So they're getting glory from men. And when they had a little, it was like, that's nice. This is the opposite of what Jesus taught. Surely I say to you that they have their reward. You want reward? You already got it. It was all those claps. It was all the people thinking highly of you. It was the applause and appreciation that they got. I mean...

Look at here. Let me see if I can find another quick example for you guys. This would be interesting I think to you if I can find it towards the big Let me see not towards the very beginning, but a little bit further on There's a moment where two of the ministers come up and they're called up by name specifically because he really wants to highlight them. He wants them to be like a center point of discussion.

And this is them right here. Okay, here we go. Let's watch this part and see if this is not getting glory from man for your giving. This is being discussed by me openly because they broadcast this to the world on YouTube and wherever else. And it ends up being an example because here's what happens. Money-grubbing ministers, they will use these same methods.

They will learn from Marvin. Let me get you guys on the right screen there. They'll use the same methods that Marvin Winans is using because they work. This is an incredibly effective way of fundraising. It's just unbiblical. It's un-Christlike. It's something that Christians shouldn't do. And I'm going to... Try to make that clear biblically today to think biblically about everything. But here's an example of it. Exactly not what Christ wants us to do. Come on, come on, Cindy.

It was good while I lasted. This is a couple and they're a married couple and they both separately fundraise using their influence because they're spiritual leaders in their communities to get other people outside the church to donate. so they're fundraising outside their church for reportedly for a building fund although i'm not sure if it really is for that i'll explain why in a minute i andre healy give in faith and stand in unity

with a vision of perfecting church, of sowing this seed of $1,000 and $8,130. And how did that happen? How did that other $8,000 happen? Did you hear all the wows? Wow. Glory, glory. You get your glory from men. That's all you get.

because i started reaching out to my friends there you go we had we had the platform i can't i just thank some of my friends yeah now he wants to read the name of every person that's giving so that everyone can give them credit they can have full credit publicly for all their donations I want to thank Tanya Williams. She sold a seat of $25. Teresa G, $100. Tracy Gordon, $100. Dionne Hackett, $25,000. $1,100. Praise the Lord. Okay.

Then the wife comes up and she raised even more money than the husband. And he said he wanted her to go second because she raised more money. So this is a big highlight, big glory to man moment. Praise the Lord. It was not a competition. I just told the Lord I just wanted to beat Elder Healy. Amen. That's all my prayer was.

I, Cindy Flowers, give in faith and stand in unity with the vision of Perfecting Church, of sowing my seed of $2,000 and receiving the blessings to come. And I also want to announce. my contributors through my giving campaign. Amelia Dolling, $50. Angela Haddon, $50. Dr. Shelley McIntosh, $50. Leandra Holmes, $50. Elder Charles Clifton, $50. she goes on for quite a while okay let me see if i can skip to where she gives you the total

He's here today brother Garrett DC right $500 Williams 1000 tools. Can you stand brother day? So my giving platform raised seventeen thousand one seventeen thousand dollars That's not all oh that's not all i have she's getting even more credit coming i have checks today with me that i went and picked up i have a thousand dollars from royalty cleaners and reverend horror sheffield sold $5,000. So my total contributions was $23,150, my seat of $2,000.

I am giving today $25,150. Wow. He says, wow. Oh, glory. Yeah, back to what Jesus actually said. When you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

But when you do a charitable deed, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be done in secret. And your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. So that's the biblical idea.

Right. Don't be like the Pharisees. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Jesus says you cannot serve God and money. You can't serve both. Your money will serve God or your God will serve your money and your money will actually be your God. And that's the fear with this kind of giving. This is why in my short video, I responded very strongly to Marvin Winans and I suggested leave his church.

Get out of there. This is not a healthy environment. There's a money idolatry going on. I would actually say that's still true. I just misunderstood the video I was watching. So as most of us did. because of the clip, the way it was presented. So I did my diligence, watched it. Now I removed my short. I'm making a longer video now to explain it in more detail because I don't want to let go of the actual important bit, which is that this is not healthy, not Christian.

It is opposed to Jesus, the way that they're doing this. Now, what is happening here is Marvin Winans is actually, think about this. He's actually as a pastor. He's changing every year. They do this giving day at least once a year. At least they have the past few years. I've found several videos from 2024, one from 2023. At least in the previous years, they do it for multiple services.

I don't know if this was one joint service or if there was a whole other service afterwards. The amount of money that they gave was a lot, okay? I listened for a while. I stopped when there was still a full hour left of giving. So it was about two hours of giving. I stopped listening when there was another hour of people in line who were going to give, but I tallied the totals. So in that time...

he announced a total of over $400,000 that were given on that one day. Then there was still a lot of people in line. Now, granted, those people in line were now giving $1,000, well, less than $2,000 each, right? Maybe there was a couple exceptions, but they were giving less than $2,000 each for the rest of the video. So it wouldn't have been like another $400,000, but it would have been some significant amount. This is supposed to be for a building fund.

But the way that he, and I'll come back to that in a second, but the way that he talks about this and the way he does this, okay, I'll just shoot straight with you guys. These leaders, like Marvin Winans, they sit around and think of ways to get people to give more money.

They think of how they can construct the service, how they can order the events. They think about when they're guest speakers at a church, they look and they go, if that pastor's poor, if he doesn't look like he's well off financially, then I want to do my own.

offering request because i just don't trust he's not going to get enough money out of the people if he could get money other people well he wouldn't be poor so they think about this stuff when they go to churches they think about how to get the most out of people financially they plan things with each other they will go to each other's churches right then when i go when i visit your church say i'm one of these these money focused pastors and i go to your church

And then you give me a big old offering. You give me $30,000 for one day, for one Sunday service, 10 grand, like some significant amount, $80,000. And then what happens is you come to my church and I return the favor and you get a similar offering. Why is that? Why not just keep? Because this won't get reported on any tax forms, on any 990s or anything. This will not show up on my income. Nobody will know that I made this money. Ah.

Or sometimes they'll separate the cash out from the checks because they don't want to report everything to the government. I'm not saying Marvin Winans does all this. I'm saying that happens in these circles. And so you have to be aware of that when you're evaluating this type of thing.

Speaking of which, when you do this kind of thing, this sort of engineered, thoughtfully created giving moment where you think, let's have them stand up and announce how much they give. See, a couple of years ago, two or three years ago, Marvin Winans would just have them walk up.

to the pulpit and they would just hand over the checks and he would still do the thing like if you're going to give a thousand or more come up okay now if you're going to give less come up and you still order them but they would just drop the check in Then last year, 2024, they decided for the first time they were going to have people actually announce the amounts they were giving. And then they added this thing they read.

where they're like sort of ritualistically invoking a blessing from God, like I'm giving you this money, God, and I'm expecting return on it. And they added that into it. So that, it seemed to me, blew up the giving and got their giving to go a lot bigger.

which corresponds to their 990 forms, their tax forms. So Marvin Winans tax forms show that in 2024, he made more money than any other year. The first year they did this giving where they would announce the giving, that was the first year they made more money than ever. before allow me to show you on your screen 2024 here i'll do 2023 first so 2023

This is what they now, they very well may have more money coming in than this. There may be other sources of income as well, like when he guest speaks and things like that. I don't know. But executive compensation. was all to him $340,000 to Marvin Winans. That total $344,000 represented 43% of total expenses, meaning that

Of all the money that was spent by the church, if you give a dollar and they spend your dollar, 43 cents of it went to his paycheck. That's not necessarily a bad thing, depending on the context. So if you have a pastor who is making... $70,000 a year for his career. And yet that is 80% of the giving that comes into the church. I would not critique or criticize that pastor at all. It's just a smaller church.

the giving that comes in, it needs to substantially go to pay for the ministers. And I would say that's important. He should be doing that. And depending on where he lives, that may not be nearly enough money for him to survive.

I'm not here saying pastors shouldn't be paid or they shouldn't be paid well. They should be paid well. Scripture says, let those who serve well as elders be counted worthy of double honor, which implies more pay. So they should be taken care of. But I just want it to be known.

This huge giving day where tons and tons of money comes in. It's supposed to be for a building fund. And it seems like, at least as far as the reported expenses go, the majority of it, or 43% of it in 2023, went right to him.

But in 2024, they did something different. That's when they added people announcing their giving. People actually saying, my name's so-and-so, I'm giving this much money, and I'm going to get a blessing from God because of it. In 2024... his compensation jumped up to $444,000, still equaling 44% of the income or the gross expenses of the church, whatever the term for that is.

The contributions go up. His amount goes up percentage wise, it seems. And every year that they filed, as far as I could see, he's always made around 40% of the income. I wonder what 2025 would look like because they made a lot of money. for this day of giving. There's more interaction. This is the first time in 2025 where he actually asked people,

I want you to fundraise outside the church. Call your friends, call your family, go on social media, do a fundraising campaign. Every member of the church fundraise campaign for the church for their building project. What is their building project? Well, it's a church building that has been in progress for almost 20 years. They've been trying to build it. It's installed for various reasons I don't understand in the courts for who knows what reasons I didn't look into it. But...

If you're doing this fundraising campaign and you're, and if the 990s, which they may not, if the 990s are actually reflecting the giving, first off, those numbers seem small and I'm confused by it. It seems like there's something missing on the 990s, but. I could be completely wrong. I don't want to make a judgment call for what it seems. That's not safe or fair or wise. I just do want us to realize don't draw too many conclusions from the 990s because there's...

probably more to know about them. That's really what I'm trying to say here. But based upon the information we have from the 990s, it just looks like a lot of money is going into the pocket of the leader. I doubt they'll file a 990 in 2025 after I've made this video. They might, but they probably won't.

We'll see. We'll see. But there's lots of ways if you just want to hide how the money's moving around. There's a lot of ways to do that. There's just not the kind of controls you think there are for nonprofit ministries. It just isn't. I don't think his church would be bothered to know he made $444,000 last year that they're aware of. I'm sure he did speaking engagements. He has a musical business thing that he does that he probably gets money from, from that. He, who knows what else, but, um,

But I don't think they'd be bothered. And here's the reason why. Because prosperity preachers have already figured this out a long time ago. What they do is they tell the people, of course I'm doing well. Of course I'm well off. And God wants you to be well off too. Now.

Give me some money and God will bless you. And they're buying into this thing and they're being lured by their desire for money. The prosperity preacher will lure you by your desire for prosperity. They're not selling themselves as a rich person. They're selling you as a rich person and themselves as an example. that it works so the pastor being rich the pastor having you know a nine two thousand dollar suit uh or a rolex um or driving some crazy expensive car or shoes that cost like 1500 bucks

This is seen as proof of concept to them. This is something that I think a lot of people don't understand. A lot of evangelicals don't get is it's not considered a bad thing when you find out that your pastor is filthy rich in the prosperity movement. It's considered proof. that it works, but it's a pyramid scheme because the money is all being funneled to them.

but they're not giving to you. There's just, God will somehow promise you financial blessings. And then they put on stage whenever somebody does well in the congregation, they get up and they go, I started tithing no matter how much it hurt. And God has blessed me this year. We made more money than ever.

And they put up only the affirming testimonies, right? And it just becomes this sort of feedback loop. It's just there. Now, scripture says we're not to give by compulsion. That's a teaching in scripture. When you give, don't give by compulsion, meaning you're not to be compelled to give like that. We're being sort of pushed or pressured in a negative way. And yet that's what's being set up. Marvin Winans Church says, we're going to have first whoever has.

two thousand dollars or more they're all going to give get up in front everybody gives you clap now if you have only 20 bucks you can give but you got to give two hours from now at the end of the service sit in the back let me tell the this is exactly what james says how dare you say to the rich man come sit here in the front let me let me take you oh man let me take you to the passage because um um it's just it's too relevant

It's too relevant to what we're talking about right now. Sorry, just a second as I find what I'm looking for. So in James chapter two. We read this. My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention.

To the one wearing the fine clothes? And you say to him, you sit here in a good place. And to the poor man, you stand there or sit here at my footstool. Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Marvin Winan says, hey, if you're going to give $2,000 or more, come stand here in the good place. Get up in front. Everybody right here, full of energy, beginning of the service. Everyone's still here. Everyone's still paying attention. You give first. If you have $20 to give, You got to wait a couple hours. You go and wait. Okay. I still want your money. I'm not trying to insult you, but you could have done better.

That is the implication. Now, is this being compelled to give? Is this giving by compulsion? I mean, I would think it's something along these lines. It certainly violates the heart of what scripture communicates about giving and money. He asks for people in his, and also imagine the pressure if you're a minister at his church. He has a separate section of people where he goes, okay, now I'm going to call up just the ministers who are going to give $2,000 or more.

Now, if you're a minister on staff at his church, you know you want to be in that line. You do not want to be there the next time there's a staff meeting when you're sitting there going, I only gave a thousand. You do not want to be that guy. This is absolutely pressure, giving pressure and creating a sense of... of compulsion now you might think i don't think you know in fact he says in the video he goes we're not given by compulsion he announces that to the church but

Marvin Winans went to was sued actually in court over this. He had fired a housekeeper because she wouldn't tithe to his church. He was paying her a paid employee and he was demanding that she pay 10% of her income to his church. That is illegal, of course, but it's also exactly what he says he doesn't do. We don't give back compulsion. He was forcing her to do this lest he fire her. And based upon their 990 forms, that meant...

10% of her income went back to the church and 44% of that went back to his pocket. So he was basically getting a discount, a little discount off services. Craziness, craziness. So how much money is really going into it and how much is... I mean, you could do the math. They got videos for three or four years up on their YouTube channel. You could find them. They're called Giving Day. And...

You could sit and do the math and you can add everything up and you can ask yourself, what is really going on here? They're building. Maybe it's going to be done. I don't know. All I know is this violates scripture over and over again. If we're going to think biblically about giving, then we have to realize.

You will not be as effective of a fundraiser if you do it Jesus's way. It's just not going to work. You will not be the ministries that raise the most money, generally speaking. Now, this is always exceptions because maybe God's just doing a great work.

Maybe something special is happening. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. But generally speaking, the ministers and ministries that raise the most money, the best fundraisers out there, are violating what Jesus commanded. And that's why they're so good. But money talks. So people keep doing what they're doing. All right, we're going to go to your guys' questions. This is the last Q&A, I should say. I don't have a live stream playing for the rest of the year.

You know, maybe I'll suddenly change my mind and do one randomly. But I'm going to go to your guys' questions from the live chat. My name is Mike Winger. My goal is to help you learn to think biblically about everything. And that includes giving, finances, and all this. We want to be... Generous givers, not selfish. We want to be looking to God to provide for us when we give, but not expecting financial outpourings. That's different than God providing for you. All right. Question number two.

um okay deity says hi mike in your view does ethnic israel have a divine right to the holy land today according to scripture um so there's there's a couple things i'll mention on this one of them is The level of heat versus light, like light meaning understanding and clarity and heat meaning like people being angry or passionate or overreacting.

is way out of balance when it comes to Israel. And people often don't hear what you say. They hear you say things you're not saying. So let me say what I'm not saying first. I'm not saying Israel is always the good guy in every situation. Israel is faithful to God and they're the people of God in a sort of faithful sense. I'm not saying that modern Israel doesn't do sometimes horrible things. I'm just not saying any of those things. But I'm going to try to answer your question.

Biblically speaking, does ethnic Israel have a divine right to the Holy Land today, according to scripture? Now, the way that I understand this is that there's a difference between a conditional promise from God and an unconditional promise from God. And very simplistically, as I understand the Old Testament, the promises of God to Abraham regarding the land of Israel, the physical land, okay, is that it's perpetual and ongoing and that promise is never taken away. It's also not conditioned.

on anything. So what you can do is you can compare God's promises to Abraham earlier in Genesis with God's teachings through Moses in Deuteronomy. So let me, for a counterpoint. In Deuteronomy, they walk through the valley as people cry out from the left and right on the mountainsides.

And they're calling out blessings and curses. And he goes, if you do well, it'll be well with you in the land, right? If you do this, I'll bless you. I'll provide for you. You'll have crops and you will have honor amongst your neighbors. And you guys will be pleased.

everything will be wonderful there will be actual prosperity this is where you get prosperity preaching in the old testament is israel if you obey me i will prosper you and then on the other side it's if you disobey if you disobey me

i will curse you i you will suffer you will experience pestilence you will experience famine you will experience your enemies coming and taking you out of the land now some people take that and they go well that's what happened god took them out of the land they lost the land But when you look at this in the context of an underneath Abraham's promise, right? Because Abraham and Moses are two different situations. Abraham had promises that were not conditional at all.

And it's frequently where the Old Testament, when they lose their land or lose things, that they cry out about the promise of Abraham. Oh, Lord, remember Abraham. Remember your promise to Abraham and restore us. On the basis of grace, on the basis of promise.

right a picture of the gospel itself because they could never enter the land because of their works and their goodness they could never enter the prosperity and fully experience it because of their goodness but there still remains this promise that's unconditional to abraham so read through genesis specifically

I mean, start in 12, read through the story of Abraham and all of the promises God makes to Abraham and ask yourself, are these unconditional promises about the land of the physical land to his physical descendants? Now, at this point, some are getting a little.

derailed in their mind on this topic because they're going to say, Mike, the current Jews aren't really Jews. They're not really Abraham's descendants. Now, I don't believe that, but my point doesn't depend on that, okay? My point would be... Well, whoever the Jews are, if you think it's not really them for some reason, there's still a promise to Abraham about his descendants inheriting the land. That's still a promise, that it will be theirs and theirs perpetually. So that's number one.

Now there's the second issue, number two, which is that in the New Testament, there is a prophecy about a bunch of Jews coming back to God, religiously, spiritually, returning to the Messiah. getting saved and having a great revival and i'll read it to you guys now it's romans 11. now you combine these two together oh there's a promise of perpetual but then there's also this promise of a bunch of jews basically

being messianic, being true Jews, where they're saved. So let's read Romans 11 together. I say then, has God cast away his people? Certainly not. For I am also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew.

Or do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they've killed your prophets and torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life? But what does the divine response say to him?

I have reserved for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace.

But if it is of works, it is no longer grace. Otherwise, work is no longer work. This is actually one of my key verses when I deal with either Catholicism or Orthodoxy. It's been all day thinking about that. This is the big deal. Anyway, so... this present time there's a remnant according election of grace okay so what does he mean by that he's like it's not like god has said forget israel i just want i'll just do gentiles now i don't care about the people of israel no no no verse 7 what then

Israel has not obtained what it seeks. What is happening? If God doesn't cast them off, what is it? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it and the rest were blinded just as it is written. So a significant number of them are blinded. God has given them a spirit of stupor.

eyes that they should not see, ears that they should not hear to this very day. And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see and bow down their back always. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not. Now he shifts in verse 11, as I understand Romans. Now he shifts to ask the question about like, what about like...

Okay, so there's a remnant. There's like a number, some smaller number of Jewish believers in Jesus. And they're the ones whose eyes are opened. And they're the elect, it says. And then you've got... the rest of the of the israelites the rest of the descendants of abraham what about them is it is it just over for them and god's only activity is now primarily just within the gentiles and a minority of jews

I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not. But through their fall to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Why? Because we're supposed to be evangelists to them. Now, if their fall is riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentiles.

How much more their fullness, right? In Acts, it was the rejection of Jesus by the Jews that caused the gospel to go out that much more into the Gentiles. So it was riches for the Gentiles. But how much more their fullness? What is their fullness? Well, their fall is them rejecting Jesus. Their fullness is them what? Receiving Jesus. So now he's hypothesizing, he's discussing what it would be like if the Jews, a bunch of them got saved. If they enlarge, not just a remnant, but enlarge.

Jews turn to the Messiah. For I speak to you Gentiles, and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. If by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are of my flesh and save some of them.

Ah, he wants them saved. They're of his flesh. It still matters. Now, in Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek. What we mean here is that you get to be saved without becoming Jewish. You get to be saved without... having to give up your jewishness it doesn't matter in christ jewish or not you're saved but that doesn't mean that jewish doesn't mean anything or that god doesn't care about the fact that abraham has actual descendants

Those of his flesh, it's still a category. Jew is still a category. It's just not something that impacts how you can be saved because you simply are saved by believing in Jesus. Jew, Gentile, it's all the same. For if they're being cast away as the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Think of Ezekiel's dry bones. Israel, in a large, not remnant, right? In a large scale.

their acceptance would be life from the dead the rejuvenation of the people for if the first fruit is holy the lump is also holy and if the root is holy so are the branches right the root being you know abraham or you could refer to christ but the branches are the jews and if some of the branches were broken off those are the unbelieving ones and you being grafted being a wild olive tree were grafted in among them and with them became partaker of the root

and fatness of the olive tree we join in with israel do not boast against the branches but if you do boast remember that you do not support the root but the root supports you see i am the one who is a gentile grafted in

I'm not a natural branch. Okay. I'm not a Jew. Jews are the natural branches. There's still a distinction or a difference rather between them, but there's no distinction as far as how they can be saved. It's only through Christ. So do not... boast against the branches but if you do boast remember that you do not support the root but the root supports you you will say then branches were broken off that i might be grafted in okay this is kind of like a boasting thing right

Oh yeah, God got rid of those Jews so he could stick me into Christ. He could put me into this salvation thing. That's why he got rid of them. Like, he likes me better. And he's like, well, you're making a point, sure. But it was because of unbelief they were broken off, not because of...

their unrighteousness. You weren't plugged into Jesus because you were more righteous or better. You just trusted Christ. You can take no credit for that. You can't boast against them. All you did was believe. You both had sins. the jew the non-jew the saved the unsaved they all have sins that need to be covered by the blood because of unbelief they were broken off and you stand by faith do not be haughty but fear for if god did not spare the natural branches he may not spare you either

This is an ominous thing. Since he's talking large scale, he could be saying, you know, God could move where he's not actually working that much among Gentiles anymore. And it could reverse where he's working amongst the Jews and not the Gentiles as much.

And then you, then you might, um, might have some humility thinking about that. Doesn't say that that will happen, but he says he may not, as in God could do that too. Therefore, consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell severity. but towards you goodness, if you continue in his goodness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. So there's a threat that's there.

And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in for God is able to graft them. And again, we're not talking about a remnant or a few Jews. He's talking about a significant number because there was already a remnant of Jews that were grafted in. They were not grafted. They were natural branches who...

received the messiah when he came for if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree how much more will these who are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree

He's going to do more now. It's not just hypothetical. He'll talk about how it's actually something that's going to happen. For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel.

until the fullness, until meaning that it's temporary, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come. And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

For this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. So there's many verses that talk about how Israel fails and they get rejected by God. But there's also these constant like affirmations that there will be this eventual time where they will be serving God. walking with God, knowing God. So there's a land promise and there's a salvation future prophetic promise. So that, I mean, that's my answer to you. And you're like, but the Talmud.

I wouldn't be surprised if we already had Talmud comments in the live chat. But the Talmud, it says evil things about Jesus. It does, and they're evil things. And if you're a Jew who gets saved, you have to reject the Talmud, or at least a lot of it, right? Significant parts of it.

There's some things that are great in the Talmud. There's things that were actually Christian teachings. It really looks like Messianic Jews who were believing Jesus, that their teachings entered into the Talmud in certain places too. It's a complicated book. And there's also some stuff in it that's evil.

And there's a lot of stuff in it that you're just going to be like, I don't know. This is really very important. There's other stuff in it that's like really wise and very good. It's a complicated book. Work, I might say. So you might think, well, there are enemies. There are enemies.

Israel, they reject. You cannot, you know, when I went to Israel, we did trips there. I did a little Bible study on the Temple Mount. And our tour guide told us who was Jewish and a believer in Jesus. He told us, hey Mike you know when you do your bible study he goes try to make it look like you're a tour guide like point at buildings and like point over here at this building or that building and he goes don't like hold up your bible and make it look like you're preaching

because then things can get kind of ugly this was this was what he's taught me because of whether it was the the jews doing it or the muslims or both who would have been upset with me thinking that's a christian pastor in the holy land trying to be you know because you've got you got the jewish building there you've got the temple mount for i'm sorry the muslim building there um

which is like their way of trying to mark their territory anyways so i you know i was like trying to be careful about how we did that yeah there's some some even sometimes hostility there because as verse 28 says concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake what do you mean by just all jews are enemies for your sake or israel the nation is enemies for your no it's saying that in relation to the gospel

They're currently rejecting it and fighting against it and turning away from their Messiah and denying their savior. And so, yeah, in relation to the gospel, they're enemies. But of course, Jesus dies for his enemies and we're told to love our enemies.

So this is a verse that's often taken part of this verse out of context by people who just want you to hate Jews. That's not what's being taught. Look at the whole verse. Concerning the gospel, they're enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

Who is this group that's beloved for the sake of the fathers? Unbelieving Jews. Unbelieving Jews whose branches that have been broken off, they are still considered beloved and it's still for the sake of the fathers. Meaning that even though...

The grace of Christ will only be upon those who receive Jesus. God still has a plan and he still has a special relationship with the people of Israel. That's what scripture is teaching. Concerning the election, they... unbelieving jews are beloved for the sake of the fathers why because god made unbreakable promises to abraham abraham isaac jacob right before long before the law showed up and said if you disobey you lose it

There is something else that can fall back on, an older truth, the promise, read Galatians, read Romans 4, the promise that God made that was unconditional, that is still, excuse me, still hanging over their heads, still available to them. right for the gifts and calling of god are irrevocable right unconditional for as you were once disobedient to god and yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience even so these also have now been disobedient that

Through the mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all. And it goes on. This is God's plan for Israel. I think that Romans 11, whatever you're, now you might say, but I'm post-mill or I'm pre-mill or I'm on-mill. I don't think that's relevant. Okay. I mean, it matters. I'm not gonna pretend it doesn't matter.

But I think that what I just read in Romans 11, you should slot that into whatever your eschatology is. Because this is God's, he's just saying, this is what's going to happen. This is the plan. Those two things, Genesis, Romans 11, that's my answer to your question.

I do think that we have good reason to, I mean, more than just good reason. I'm being, I'm being, as I sometimes do, I'm being very gentle in my terminology here. We have, it's like really solid, really solid. biblical support for the fact that Israel has a land claim and a prophetic future. Now, that being said, that being said, when I say Israel has a land claim, does that mean Israel at any given year, pick a year in history.

They're supposed to be in the land. That's actually not true, right? So this is where it gets complicated, but only because I want to take all of scripture. There are times in the word of God where God removes Israel from the land. Babylon comes and takes them away, and he has Jeremiah telling the people, don't resist, just go. God is removing you from the land. Now, perpetually the land's going to belong to them, but for now, they're out of it.

He goes, in 70 years, you get to come back. But for now, just go and submit. There will be a whole generation of Jewish people who live outside the land, live, born, die outside the land. And then you can come back. In that interim, when Babylon carried them away, they were not supposed to be in the land.

even though the limb belonged to them. So it can be complicated. In scripture, it's complicated. Sometimes God uses the enemies to come in and take over Israel for a time. And I don't know in modern day what God is doing with all that stuff.

I don't have some spiritual discernment where I can tell you this is when Israel is supposed to be in the land. This is when they're not. This is when this like is Gaza supposed to be part of Israel right at this exact moment prophetically. And I'm like, I mean, this is more of a political.

discussion about the actual true history of the whole Gaza is real thing. And I just haven't spent a lot of time on that. So I'm not going to try to weigh in on that. I'm not afraid to, but I'm afraid to mislead people because I don't know the answers and I pretend to. So it can be complicated.

But I think we have those two pillars. The land, yes, perpetual promise through Abraham. That's perpetual. The timing, that's in God's hands. But there will be a great revival amongst the people of Israel grafted in. receiving their Messiah. And it looks like there will then be like the future of Israel as this Jesus loving nation in the land. Will it happen in my lifetime or?

10 000 years from now i have no clue all right question number three this comes in from uh andrea who says how do we serve the lord biblically sometimes i feel like i don't know how to serve the lord um Interesting. So I think that if you want to serve the Lord biblically, I think that I recommend reading the book of Acts and thinking about the way that they're serving the Lord in the book of Acts. And you have a variety of ways.

of doing it um you can even read um the gospels too and so like let's say you're reading matthew and you read about how or luke and you read about how jesus is traveling and he's teaching and he's teaching them to then teach others the things he teaches them. So you learn what Jesus says and you communicate it to others. That's one thing. But he's also being supported by, notice this kind of stuff in scripture. He's being supported financially by women.

There's a group of women who are financial supporters for Jesus to help him. And now he's not rich. He's not getting $444,000 a year. But he is being provided for and helped on his mission by women. So there's sponsoring those who are doing great ministry work is a way to serve God. In the book of Acts, we read about Stephen, who he's helping distribute food to the widows.

We read about them saying, don't forget to take care of the poor and the widows among you. So that's a significant part of serving the Lord is taking care of the weak and those who are in need around you. Visiting those who are in prison, not forgetting fellow believers. Romans, excuse me, Hebrews talks about this. not forgetting those who are persecuted. And so there's so many ways to serve God, but you serve God by having godly character.

in galatians it talks about the fruit of the spirit just walking in those things in in first corinthians it talks about not only the fruit of the spirit but but doing spiritual things for the purpose of love and grace to others not a performance thing or to get attention on yourself like all of these things are ways of serving god and i just say go for it so read scripture and go for it that may seem like a simplistic answer but i think it's

the best one i can give you all right number four um jr says and you know youtube changed the way it does your guys usernames it no longer shows the name you chose it shows your at sign so

If you hear me read a weird name, it's just because YouTube changed the way they're doing it. So at JR says, can you explain the trend about finding our true identity? Jamie Winship and others talk about... knowing your true identity is it more specific than who we are in christ in the sense like we're redeemed um okay i'm gonna i have to i don't know who jamie winship is so i'm a little bit in the dark on the context of your question so i'm gonna guess

forgive me if i'm guessing wrong but there is in the charismatic church especially like the bethel um uh morning star jesus image uh todd white um these guys People don't notice this, but these guys have a really, really strong emphasis on teaching identity. Like you'll get up and you think, oh, now they're going to teach me about spiritual like healings and miracles. And then they get up and they do a whole lecture on identity. Identity is the core.

identity is the center of their theological focus but what do they teach about identity um sometimes they teach some weird stuff sometimes it's good stuff there's some real health in knowing that you are a child of god

And this is healthy. Like it brings peace into the heart of a Christian to know that in your identity, when you said redeemed as an example, like think about this, like I am redeemed. We used to sing a song when I was like a teenager and it just said, I am redeemed, washed and clean. I am redeemed.

And I remember loving that song, even though it's super simplistic and repetitive, but I loved it because I really believed it. Like I am redeemed. I am washed and clean. I am forgiven. And when you say that and you actually believe it, That's an identity thing that's valuable. You think, I am a child of God. I am an actual adopted son of God. And the girls can say biblically they're sons of God too, not because they've become male, but rather...

positionally, you get a full inheritance. That's the idea of we're all sons in God. We're saying you get a full inheritance. That we will rule the heavens and the earth with Jesus for all eternity. That God will wipe away every tear from my eye.

because of who i am in christ that i've been clothed in his righteousness like this these are identity things that are so powerful in your life this is what makes you evangelize because you know who you are in christ right this is what makes you courageous to go through hardship because you know who you are in christ

So yes, I love the idea of identity and teaching it. Sometimes it can get a little bit skewed and identity can turn into like an ego pump where I'm just getting puffed up in myself. Like I'm royalty. I'm royalty. And well, it does say we're kingdom of priests, kings and priests, but it's a little different when you, you know what I mean? It's just different when you're, I'm royalty and you start feeling a little bit too much.

Of that sense of entitlement. Of that sense of I deserve. And that can be part of the identity thing. So we have to be careful. We have to be thoughtful. Because I also know.

that i am utterly dependent upon god's grace that there's nothing in and of myself that i offer to god my sonship is not because of my dna and because of who i was it was because of my adoption in christ my righteousness that i carry with me is not because i did anything to earn it it's because christ closed me in his righteousness and he took off the filthy rags of my sin and my fake righteousness and he suffered and died for it my

promise of eternity is because of nothing i've earned so when you couple this with total gratitude and dependence upon god and a sense of not superiority but just thankfulness that's healthy but the identity stuff can turn into an ego

pump and that's where i think it becomes dangerous and it can also do things like it can be important in these identity teaching circles to deny that you sin as a christian this is a tricky one i'll try to unpack it really quickly here to move on to the next question but

I want to know I'm forgiven and I want to know that I don't identify. I'm no longer, my identity is not someone who is in rebellion against God. And in that sense, I'm not a sinner in that I'm not living a life of ongoing active rebellion against God. Okay. That's fair to say that. But I sometimes hear them teach like, you're not a sinner anymore. You're not a sinner anymore. And what it sounds like they mean is you don't sin anymore. Like you just don't sin.

Now, this is kind of Todd White's thing, right? I have a video coming out about Todd White as soon as I... Actually, I got it ready to record finally. I'll record it, then I have to submit it to a lawyer. It's the first video I've ever had to send to a lawyer. You'll see why. And make sure that everything's...

gonna work um that i'm not foolishly opening things up to like a lawsuit or something and um and i have to show it to the witnesses and and i'd like to get their uh their feedback on it before it goes public but But Todd White, he seems to teach that like from the second he got saved, he was just like, or shortly thereafter, totally sanctified, right? Like no sin, never gets bitter at anybody, never gets overcome by anger, nothing. And which is of course not true.

But that's part of the identity teaching. Because he goes and teaches that identity to others. And he goes, you, when you know who you are in Christ, you can never get mad. And you can, he goes, I've lived 16 years without ever looking with lust. And I've never lied in my entire Christian life. And I've never done it.

And he's presenting this as like a standard for others based upon his view of identity, which is that he doesn't really sin. That's a weird, wrong identity. Christians sin. Read the New Testament. There's tons of talk about Christians who sin.

and the sin that they have to confront and deal with so identity that tries to hide the fact that i sin that's not real identity that's delusion and we'll go to question number five reflection says what is the minimum one uh must be okay what's the minimum one must believe in order to be saved romans 10 9 but anything else what about polytheists who believe it or if someone said yes lord jesus died and rose but his death wasn't for our sin all right let's look at romans 10 9.

It says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Okay. That's true. But was it meant to be interpreted? in a minimalistic fashion? I think no. I think that Paul has, for instance, if I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I believe that God raised him from the dead, but I have zero repentance or remorse over my sins, like none.

I go, I like my sins. I love them. I'm going to keep doing them. But I do confess Jesus as Lord and that God raised him from the dead. Is that what Paul meant? Paul meant you could do that. What if I am a Mormon?

What if I'm Jehovah's witness? Although actually they don't believe God raised him from the dead. Well, no, they do. I mean, okay. They don't believe he physically raised from the dead. So they believe he raised, but not physically. And so they could actually say this. Jesus is Lord. God raised him from the dead.

Just not physically. Obviously, Paul defends the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus, and anybody who denies that is denying the resurrection. So there's theological weight that's behind these. So when you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, that has to be a true confession.

And if I'm truly confessing Jesus as Lord, then that means I'm not living in continual rebellion against God. Okay, so repentance is actually implied in here, right? Because when I confess Christ as my Lord, if it's a true confession, then that means he is actually the Lord of my life. So I have my heart yielded to Christ, not just a statement from my mouth. And if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, well, we mean the him that is Jesus, who is God almighty in the flesh.

who died on the cross for my sins, even though that cross isn't mentioned here. But that's what's implied there. And God raised him from the dead. We mean the bodily resurrection. So even in a tiny little statement like Romans 10, 9, there's elements that reveal there's more theology going on here than you might first notice. So if you're confessing Jesus, but you got the wrong Jesus.

Or you say, Lord Jesus, but he's not really your Lord. That's not a true confession. That's a deception. If you say you believe God raised him, but you don't believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, then no, you can't be saved.

But what's the minimum one must be? You could believe that and be saved. I think somebody could even be confused. Please hear me carefully. Someone's going to grab a clip and make a video about this. But I believe that somebody could be confused where they don't even know that Jesus is God. They don't know. that jesus is god but they also don't reject that jesus is god they simply are so new to christianity that they just don't know that much but they did hear that god sent his son

So they know he's the son of God, but I don't know what that means yet. And Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and he rose from the dead, and they're like receiving. The Holy Spirit's working in their life. They go, I believe it. I confess. I submit to the Lord Jesus. I'm like, that guy's saved.

He will find out Jesus is God over time and he'll accept it and embrace it. And if he rejects it, then I would doubt that his salvation was genuine in the first place. Right. But so, I mean, what's the minimal you could know? It feels like a little bit of a scary question to ask because people could take. what I describe as the minimum you could know, and they'll take it as prescriptive, a prescription for here's the minimum you should know. And that's dangerous.

You want to know everything you can about Jesus, everything you can about God. You want to be adding knowledge. You know, Peter talks about adding knowledge to our faith. And we do need to continue doing that. but the basic basic basic minimum is that like there's a god and i'm a sinner and that jesus died for my sins and rose again that like that basic thing and i receive that truly i'm saved i think that that is enough

based upon what I read in scripture. Because belief in Christ is the thing. So there's a lot more theological content you want to have and that should be in place.

But I'm not going to make all those things like requirements for salvation because that's not true, I don't believe. All right, let's go to the next question. Joseph Bays says, Hi, Mike, could you help me understand impassibility? I've heard that God doesn't have emotions, meaning we can't move God to feel. What about Deuteronomy 32, 21, which sounds like we can move God to feel things? Yeah, this is complicated. And I admit going into this discussion here.

it goes a little over my head as well. Okay, so I know I have more to learn about this. And there may be something I share right now that is like, it wasn't 100%. Right. Because I just know I don't have the full knowledge on this. But as I understand it... Divine impassibility, this idea that God does not feel emotions effectively, or he doesn't have changing emotions, you might put it that way, it connects to divine simplicity.

That is a philosophical doctrine about God's nature. It says God is not composed of parts. Now, I know all this language sounds so weird and it feels very foreign to us. It's not how we normally think about things. But when they say God's not composed of parts... What they mean is that God is just one thing, and then they draw that out logically, and they go, and because God is only one thing, this sort of divine simplicity, because of that, God doesn't have emotions.

the way that you do as a human. So he's not like, I feel angry now, or I feel love now. There's something else going on there. And how they describe it is where it goes over my head. Because when they try to describe the emotions God does feel, I feel like they're describing non-emotions and things that don't make sense to my brain. However, this doctrine of divine simplicity is considered a core doctrine by many Christians. I don't agree with that. I hope I'm right. I don't agree with that.

And at least it hasn't been demonstrated to me that it's a core doctrine. It's one of those things where someone goes, well, if you deny this, then you have to deny this other thing. And this other thing is core doctrine. And I'm like, people, even if you're right, that logically the denial of divine simplicity equals.

would logically entail the denial of some core doctrine it doesn't mean that it does entail it because people are often not logical they just hold together truths that aren't necessarily logical so if there's a christian who said

I believe Jesus died and rose and you need him for salvation. And then they also believed in karma. I'd be like, you're wrong about karma, but I don't think it means you're not Christian. I think it means you're being illogical and irrational and you're having thoughts that conflict with each other.

that would not make any sense. Or if they said, Jesus is the only way, he's the only way. And he goes, but you know, Buddha was kind of a prophet from God too. I'd be like, whoa, red alert, red alert. That's a very dangerous thing you said. But it doesn't mean you're not saved. Like, I'm not going to heresy label you that quickly. I'm going to say this is a serious problem with the thing that you just said. Anyway.

So you've got divine simplicity that leads to a view of God's emotions that he doesn't have. He doesn't change states. He doesn't have emotional states, which then leads to the question of what about times where he's angry or loving or whatever?

he's feeling things in the old testament right and they go that's just anthropomorphism god is being described in human terms to help us understand him better and we'll go to the example you mentioned here it says about the jews they have provoked me to jealousy by what is not god they have moved me to anger by their foolish idols i will but i will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation i will move them to anger by a foolish nation

So this is a really good verse you've picked out because it doesn't just say that God has emotional states or something like that. God has a changing emotional state. That's what the verse is implying. He was not provoked to jealousy and now he is provoked to jealousy. He was not angry and now he has been moved to anger and he's been moved to anger by the actions and activities of humans. This would imply that divine impassibility is misunderstood.

or misunderstanding the um let me think how else to explain this the the next thing i'd say is um the way that i've heard this answered from those who who hold to divine impassibility is that this is merely language being used to describe things that are not the way that they sound. And here I think, I'm gonna put back on your screen. I think that that, I need a better answer than that for me to adopt this view of impassibility personally.

And if I'm wrong, I want to be corrected on this. I want to learn and grow. But I can't just hold to a doctrine because I feel like the theological pressure from people around me who disapprove me strongly if I don't hold to it. I'm like...

The simplest understanding of scripture here implies that God actually has emotions. And you'd have to have a pretty strong argument to tell me that over and over again in the Old Testament, I have to like go, well, that doesn't mean what it sounds like it means.

I just have a pretty strong argument for that. So I don't think that that's the case. I think God has emotions, and yet I do not deny any core doctrine, of course, of who God is. I just know I'm going to be accused of being a heretic again. for this but i'll i'll share the truth and be transparent with you guys um yeah so that i i hope i've answered let me just reread your question make sure i did um

Help me understand divine impassibility. I heard that God doesn't have emotions, meaning we can't move God to feel. What about Deuteronomy? Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you on that. I don't, I want help understanding it too. uh if that's a doctrine i have to hold here's what i actually think happened my theory about divine impossibility is that it comes from deep philosophical considerations about god that became enshrined as doctrinal commitments when they

Biblically speaking, they don't have to be doctrinal commitments. All right, I'll move on to something less convoluted. Number six? Number seven. Yeah. Amy Mosteller says, My son is bothered by free will because it causes so much pain and suffering and that God foreknew we would sin. How can I encourage him? Thanks for your ministry Amy, I don't I mean, I wish I knew how old he was I would

handle it differently depending on the age of the person. One way you can address this is you can highlight certain elements that you don't take away this idea of free will or that it does introduce pain and suffering into the world because it absolutely does.

But you can highlight, you can zoom out and you can go, let's look at God's larger picture for creation. Because here's what happens, especially when you're young. You look at the snapshot of your life and in your mind, you instantly treat it like that's eternity.

right like what you see happening right now that that's how things always will be and biblically that's not true this is a very temporary season of time that we're in where there's free will and people are choosing i mean there will be free will in a sense in heaven as well but there's free will and people are choosing

god or rejecting god they're sinning they're causing harms they're also doing great things but first step i'd say is tell them about eternity in heaven there will be a group of people who have freely chosen to love god and serve god they will live out joy and glory in that freedom with the Lord for all eternity. There will be no more suffering.

And all the comforts we receive in heaven will help us to overcome all the pains we've experienced on earth where he will wipe away every tear from our eye because it's so wonderful that we're okay with what happened before. That's easier.

to say than to accomplish but god's going to accomplish it for real so that's one thing i'd say another thing i would mention is talk to him about the cost of losing free will so for instance um say son do you you know that i love you right and he's gonna say yes mom of course i know you love me or dad it's amy so probably probably mom um yes mom i know you love me and she says what if i was a robot

What if you found out that I was a robot and I was programmed everything I did was pre-programmed into me and that i didn't actually have any i never could make a choice to love you i never anytime i did something for you i couldn't do otherwise i never made a sacrifice where i thought i'm gonna love my son and take care of him even if it cost me i never once did that i always just follow my programming

Would that affect the way you feel about my love? Let him work on that for a little bit. Because free will is a necessary condition for genuine love. It just is. God doesn't want robots. And I don't want a robot. If my wife was programmed to love me, it wouldn't be real. It'd be fake. I'd be constantly trying to pretend that it mattered that she loved me. But it was just like ones and zeros that programmed her to do that.

So you look at the idea of free will or imagine like a great hero who makes a great sacrifice. He sacrifices himself to save others. And then you're like, well, he was just programmed to do that. Like he had no free will. He couldn't choose whether to do that or not. It was automatic. If you don't have free will, if you really get rid of free will entirely, are we even souls? Are we even alive? Or are we just automatons? I think that would be some things I would present him with.

Um, but the choice to be a hero or the choice to love that comes alongside with the choice to be a villain and the choice to hate and they go together. And the way that God reconciles, I think that the problems that come is that this is a temporary time. where people make their choices, and then there's an eternal joy that's coming for those who choose Christ, and there is punishment for those who reject him based upon their free choices, and it will be perfect justice. So...

There's a few thoughts that you can share with him that I hope you will find helpful. I think in scripture, we see free will exercised all the time from the garden on. And imagine, maybe you can give another analogy, say, so in the garden, Adam and Eve are there in the garden, right? And she says,

and they are told not to eat at the tree but they do it anyways that's pretty messed up right but they get the consequences of their sin and your son's like where are you taking me with this i feel there's there's a catch and there is a catch and here's the catch imagine if we took away free will as you would like

Adam and Eve get put in the garden. Adam and Eve are forced by God's choice without their consent, without their free will, because they have no will. There's no power to consent in anything. They eat of the tree.

in order to fall because god just programmed them to and then he punishes them for it and he might say but no mom i don't i don't want i want them to not eat of the tree and we only live in glory and we only live in perfect harmony except there's perfect harmonies fake it's all fake free will is a precondition for genuineness for realness in relationships so um something to think about all right um number whatever we're on let's look at

How do I develop a belief? Oh, this is from Araba. How do I develop a belief in Christianity? It feels very difficult as an analytic person. I've been looking into apologetics, but still can't develop faith. And I strongly want to live righteously. First off.

I love you. That's wonderful. I'm grateful to have your question. And I know what it can feel like looking around and seeing all of the stuff that goes on and thinking like, how do I figure this out? One of the things I counsel you with first is... It's okay to be patient with yourself, patient with the process, to just take your time. There are certain things that you can do to help develop a belief in Christianity. And that might sound weird. I just talked about free will.

And I believe that that's true even of your beliefs, that I influence my own beliefs with my free will. For instance, if I want to, if I think, how do I develop an analogy? How do I develop more conspiratorial beliefs? The answer is easy, isn't it? It's obvious. I'm going to go listen to Candace Owens. I'm going to go listen to, which I recommend you guys stop listening to her for your own spiritual health. But I'm going to go listen to a bunch of people who promote conspiracy type stuff.

Because if I expose myself to more of it, I am more likely to believe it. So you can make choices in your life that will affect your beliefs. And that's a positive thing. How do you develop more belief in Christianity? Well, you said you're delving into somewhat into apologetics. I think that's a fantastic beginning. I have a video series called Evidence for the Bible. I'll recommend you check out. Just type Mike Winger Evidence for the Bible playlist. Just Google it. It'll come right up.

There's other stuff as well. There's all kinds of things you can find. But analytic people are welcome in Christianity. Christianity stands up great to analytic people. Christians don't always do so.

i would counsel you with this when you are talking to a believer and you ask your analytical questions and you sense they have never thought about this before i've had this happen many times in my own life especially when i was younger and i was going through my own doubts about god about christianity about the bible about jesus

And I started asking hard questions to Christians around me, not to challenge them, but to ask them for help. You know, like, how do you know this? Or how do we know that? And I found that almost none of the ones around me had a clue how to answer my questions. They never even thought of them.

make up these answers off the spot that just made them look bad. And I just thought I won't talk to them. They don't know. I don't want to mess them up with my challenging questions. I'll just leave them alone. But I did find some resources that helped. So one of them, especially at a much younger age for me, was Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ. Got ahold of that book, saw it on a discount table, and got it, or was it free? I don't remember now.

And I got it and read it. And it was like that opened the door to a new way of thinking about apologetics and stuff like that for me. I also looked into other stuff like evidence for the resurrection, things like that, that really helped me a lot. And I'd recommend you check those things out.

Those are good avenues to look into. And I have looked into things like supposed contradictions. I have a few videos on that. If you just type my name and Bible contradictions into a search engine, you'll see some videos. Those to me are usually smoke and mirrors and they don't...

But they also, it doesn't get to the heart of the issue. Like I want to know that Jesus rose, that God exists. Okay. These are the things I need to know. God exists. Jesus rose from the dead. The Bible's reliable and trustworthy. There's like evidence of divine inspiration in scripture.

And all those things are abundantly demonstrated if you do the work and dig. So don't get discouraged when you talk to a Christian who doesn't know how to answer your questions. That's fine. They never struggled with it, so they haven't thought about it, so they don't have an answer for it. Find the ones that can't.

Dig deeper on those types of issues. I hope you find that helpful, but I'd encourage other stuff to go to church. Just start attending. Start attending and realize that you're not going to church to be like, Okay, show me how perfect all this is. You're surrounded by a bunch of people just like you or like me who are just like, you know, we all have our issues. But you're making an effort to draw near to God. And God says, draw near to me and I'll draw near to you. So pray.

Go to church, start engaging in those things and start asking God, reveal yourself to me and be patient. It may take time and that's okay. And I pray that God would open your heart and open your eyes to see the truth of Jesus so that your analytical mind will not. have you resisting christ but have you pushing you to christ last piece of advice i give you is this be aware of our own sin nature when i went through doubts um i was in my 20s major doubts about christianity

This whole season I went through. When I went through that, I found myself radically tempted to do things I normally would never do. It was weird. And it was as though this sense of removing the... that confidence in the truthfulness of christianity was like replaced by just temptation to do stuff i normally would would not do because i'm christian even though i'm tempted to do them those things beware

the drive of temptation, because lots of things drive our beliefs. One of the things that drives our beliefs is what we want. We often believe what we want to be true. And there can be desires for Christianity to not be true or for me to remain agnostic.

It can be that I feel that way because I just, I don't want to give up this sin or I want to start committing this sin. And so it becomes a thing where I'm actually desiring. Well, I'm, I'm part of me desires God and part of me desires sin, you know? Be aware of those things and fight that spiritual battle. Because if Christianity is true, if all I'm saying is right, then you are in an actual spiritual battle for your soul.

And the enemy, Satan, as well as your own flesh will pull you away from Christ, even as truth may draw you to Christ and the Holy Spirit is going to pull you and the truth is there for you to find. Be aware of that tug of war. So God bless you. All right. Question number nine.

uh clara is this is i cannot read these names some of them i keep thinking i'll trust god easier if i get more questions about god answered but i'm sad about things like unmet godly desires remembering god's promises doesn't help how do i fix this okay This is such a good question. I'm going to reread that first part. I want you guys to think how many of you guys have felt the same way. I keep thinking I'll trust God easier if I get more questions about God answered.

I already told you guys I went through this like season of doubt. I've mentioned it in the past, but I remember getting, I had major intellectual questions, right? How do I know the Bible? was handed down reliably? How do I know that we even have the right books in our Bible? How do I know that...

The verification of these things is true. Is this really fulfilled prophecy? Was it even written before the thing happened? How do I know that? And I started answering all these questions. This is what affected my ministry and why I do apologetics too is because I had to do it for me. What was weird is I came to firm belief in God's existence, which I never really fell off the wagon on that in any way. It seems abundantly obvious that God exists and there's no better explanation.

for the existence of everything else. But firm belief in God's existence, firm belief in the resurrection of Jesus, that it was historically substantiated, like that the evidence pointed you in the direction that Jesus did in fact rise, that...

the Bible has been preserved, that there haven't been any great conspiracies and switching our books around and stuff like that, that there aren't a bunch of contradictions. And even that there is prophecy in the scripture that has been fulfilled. And I don't mean like thousands and thousands. I mean, there are.

some really good examples that evidentially can be supported to show prophecy in the Bible having been fulfilled. It was written ahead of time, happened after, and it wasn't fulfilled by a conspiracy, but by natural human events. But I didn't feel any better. I didn't feel better. I still felt the same as when I was like in this major faith crisis and it wasn't in it anymore. And that was the weirdest thing to me because I like you.

I kept thinking, I'll trust God easier if I get more questions about God answered. And I didn't. In some respects, I didn't. And I remember just deciding, I'm just going to trust you no matter what. I was waiting for, I was thinking all this evidence would make my heart feel better. Intellectually, I trusted more, but not emotionally. That's what I mean by in some respects. Intellectually, I was like, this seems solid. I could defend this. I now hear atheists.

and they give an accusation against christianity and i was like that's a bad claim and i could i actually have better arguments against christianity that i've also think are proven wrong so i'm just not intimidated by anymore but um

But I didn't feel better. I still had that psychological doubt that I just didn't know how to put my finger on. And I remember one incident, I'll tell you guys, I drove to the beach with my guitar and... went out and i was feeling like total spiritual turmoil total spiritual warfare like nasty and i drove out to the beach and i sat down alone at the beach and playing my guitar and i sang worship songs and i thought

somehow in my mind i felt like this is like an act that was going to like sort of help me out it was like me putting my foot in the ground saying i'm going to trust in christ i've got all the intellectual reasons but i'm just dealing with all this emotional stuff i'm going to just trust in christ and

And I played worship for a little while and sang, and I did not feel anything. I didn't feel any better at all, not in any way, shape or form. And then I got my guitar and I walked back to my car and I remember praying, well, I don't feel any better.

Lord, I'm just going to trust you anyways. I'm just going to choose to trust you no matter what. Period. End of story. That's it. I'll just trust you. And I drove away and I still didn't feel better. And I got home and I still didn't feel better. But... I did what I said I would do. I would trust the Lord with all my heart, lean not on my own understanding, acknowledge him in all my ways and he'll direct my paths. That is an act of

intellectually substantiated, evidence-informed faith. Yes, I have the support. Yes, I've got the apologetics. I've got all that. But I still had to make a decision that I was just going to choose to trust God with all my heart. Not against my intellect, but sometimes against my heart. I made that choice. I don't regret it. And that muscle of faith or that strength of conviction grew and grew and grew and grew. Eventually, I felt better.

I feel better now. I feel great. So I would encourage you with that. Sometimes, so questions answer. problems, they don't always fix your heart and your heart needs to just focus on God, trust in God, no matter what. And if, after you hear me say this, you may be like, I trust you, Lord. And you're like, I still don't feel any better. All I want to tell you is that's okay. That's okay. Give it time. Seek the Lord.

Wait on the Lord and he will renew your strength. Wait on the Lord. Okay, let's look at number 10.

I have difficulty knowing what the Bible means when it says that someone who sins after being saved was never saved. I know that's a very simplistic version, but it has always caused me anxiety. Yeah, well, so Jaser, I'm not sure if I actually teach the thing that you're having a difficulty with. The idea that someone who sins after being saved was never saved, I've never taught that. And I...

And I don't think people should teach that. I think that Christians do sin. In the letters to the churches, Jesus warns several groups of Christians about the sin that they have in their camp. In 1 John 2, it says, if anyone says he has no sin, he's a liar and the truth is not in him. If anyone says he does not sin, right? He's not telling the truth. So Christians do sin.

So be encouraged by that. From what you wrote, what you have a hard time with, you should have a hard time with because that's not what scripture says. Now, you said never saved. So I'm going to venture a guess that maybe there's just a little bit of a...

disjoint in me understanding what you were trying to explain and that you're saying i have a hard time people who with people who say that if somebody like abandons christ that they were never really a christian maybe that's the part that you're having a hard time with

And I'm a little bit on the fence on that one. And so I never say that ever. Oh, but you were never really a Christian. I just don't make that claim. I don't think that's helpful. I think we do that because it makes us feel good about our faith, but it doesn't do much for evangelizing anybody.

And it doesn't make a lot of sense, especially to non-believers. So there's a sense in which you can say for sure an atheist, for instance, was never a Christian or that he doesn't believe he was. I had a conversation with him. I'll share this with you guys. I had a conversation once with an atheist and he was committing himself that he used to be a Christian. He was a worship leader and he was like, I used to be a Christian. I did all the Christian things. I was very Christian.

I said to him, you mean you used to pretend to be a Christian? And he got kind of offended by that. And I understand why. But I explained to him what I meant. And this is, you're going to think I'm disagreeing with what I just said a minute ago or not. Let me explain.

I said, you used to pretend you were a Christian. And he says, what do you mean? I said, well, Christianity, what does it mean to be a Christian according to Christians? It means that you are born again. You are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Your sins have been forgiven by Jesus. And you are now walking in the light, right?

Do you believe that that was your experience? And he's like, it took like 20 minutes to get him to say it. But finally he goes, no, I don't believe that because I'm an atheist. I don't believe there is a Holy Spirit or there is a God or that Jesus does anything to anybody. Nobody's forgiven. None of that's real.

So I said, in your worldview, you think you were faking being a Christian. You were faking being born again. You were pretending you were forgiven. You were acting like you were filled with the spirit. Took a long time, but he finally got to the point where he agreed with me. Because logically speaking, if you are a former Christian,

and you actually reject God's existence, or you reject Jesus, or you reject the Holy Spirit, or you reject the gospel itself now, you think it's not even true, you think you were faking. That's your worldview, not mine. You believe you were faking.

You have to, or else you're not logically consistent. I thought maybe I was going to make some real ground with him because here's what I wanted him to do. Here's my hope that he would look back at his life and he would go, I had some experiences that I can't explain on atheism. Maybe God is real. I can't really abandon everything. I can say that I'm not a Christian now, but I don't know how to abandon everything I ever experienced there.

maybe there is something to it that was my hope that was leading him to that place instead he just got offended and later was like he said i was never a christian and i was faking it and i was like oh you didn't yeah i just got reinterpreted um

Now, in my view, he may have been a real Christian. He may have had a real Christian faith, really been saved and lost his salvation, or he may have been... a suit like someone who was faking the whole time and they were never really saved because I just honestly don't have an answer to the question of once saved always saved I will add one thing because every time I say this there's videos made about it if you want to make a video about it you're welcome too

I'm not above criticism and I'm sure there's times I get things wrong and it's fair for me to be publicly critiqued for getting things wrong. But I'll just add this for the detail. My understanding of scripture is if a person loses their salvation, it is not because...

They sinned too much and God couldn't forgive them. It is not because they weren't good enough and didn't do enough good works. It is because they left the faith. They abandoned Christ. They turned away from Jesus. That's the real question. Now, am I saying people can do that? I don't know. I'm saying I don't know.

And so I have to be open on that topic either way. So yeah, probably some of the most criticism I get is for this view. One of these days, I like to be able to answer this question better. I want to say once saved, always saved. There are some warning passages in scripture that I don't know how to interpret with that perspective. In Ephesians, on the other hand, this is just wrestling with, you know, think biblically about everything. You want to make sure that...

your interpretation is consistent with all of the relevant passages of scripture, not just one of them. Well, one of the relevant passages is Ephesians, where it talks about what it means to be in Christ. You are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Guarantee of your inheritance, Ephesians says.

right you are holy and without blame before him in love this description in ephesians seems like a once saved always saved description to me it really does then you go over to hebrews and you and you look at the passage and you go These seem like legitimate warnings about people actually losing their salvation. They really do. And I've heard lots of interpretations. I'm not new to this. And I don't yet have an interpretation of those that works.

with once saved, always saved, that I agree with. Maybe I will whenever I get back to the book of Hebrews and we go verse by verse through the book and maybe I can give you guys an update and a more official teaching on this. So...

That's what I have to say about that. You say you have difficulty trusting, excuse me, difficulty knowing what the Bible means when it says someone who sins after being saved was never saved again. So this is not something I say, depending on what you're... what you're meaning by it but this is the final q a for the year of 2025 i don't plan on doing another but i do have some video stuff coming out as soon as i can get it cleared by an attorney

It's just weird. I'm laughing. The whole situation is just crazy to think about this. But I have a video coming out for announcement sakes about Todd White. And it's going to be showing the people behind the scenes who've been covering up for Todd White. There's a number of them. I have a lot of information. It'll be a long video. I've got emails and I've got recordings and voice recordings of different people.

I can't tell you all the people because I'm afraid that they will take action to stop this video somehow. So it's just gonna have to drop when it drops. But I will say it's not just Todd White. It's the people behind the scenes, including significant charismatic leaders who've been covering up.

For each other for a long long time because I want to expose not just to expose not just for the fun of it. It's not fun at all But I think if I shine a light on the problems that cause bad leaders to never be accountable we can actually change that problem and bring some reformation into churches, the charismatic church in particular, but obviously this applies to other churches as well. There's plenty of churches that have the same.

kinds of issues and there's plenty of churches that are not they're great they they have real accountability they they have leaders who when they fail there are other leaders around them who will not just let them get away. They will lovingly seek for their restoration whenever possible, but they will hold them accountable because they agree that they have to protect the sheep, protect the people, and hold up the standards of Christian truth, even if it's hard. And we need more of that.

and less of cover-up. So the Todd White video is coming out when it comes out. Okay, and then I have a little bonus question. This is from one of our mods who says, what's Mike's favorite Christmas tradition or memory? Favorite... What is a good Christmas tradition? Um... So...

i'm laughing i often laugh when i'm not supposed to so forgive me that's just a character trait of mine um i we uh i had like not a great childhood and so um christmas traditions and stuff like that like they're all like mixed in with some stuff that is not pleasant and so my favorite Christmas memories are when I was a kid probably just when you

first walk out because i'm this i'm a kid this is what kids are and you see the presence under the tree and you're like i'm gonna open this stuff you know um just to get stuff um we uh we would hang out and then our family would all get together later in the day and then everybody would just get drunk. My favorite Christmas tradition as an adult was just the time I spent with my wife.

Just opening each other's cards and gifts and It's special it's special and it's a counterpoint to a lot of stuff I saw as a kid I'm not saying my life was terrible, but it's just hard for me to find a favorite to be honest So sorry to me to get all dark on you there

But just, yeah, sit with my wife and open our cards and looking at each other's gifts. We don't usually get a lot of big stuff for each other for Christmas, but little things there. It just seems real special to me, you know. That's it. all right so god bless you guys merry early christmas christmas is not pagan go ahead and enjoy it just don't just don't treat christmas as if you're a pagan and you'll have you'll be good um that's it i guess

Man, I feel like there's something more I should tell you guys, but I'm just stalling, I guess, for time. So, Lord bless you guys. Keep you. Make a space to shine upon you. May God give you courage if you're dealing with difficulty and hardship where you are like, I can't, I don't feel better, God. No matter what, I don't feel better. In some cases, you just say, okay, I'll trust you even if I don't feel better.

I'll just choose to trust you. Man, that is a stalwart faith. That is a faith that can test, get tested by fire and still last. So I pray that you guys, you guys are doing good. Whatever struggles you have, you're looking to Jesus for them.

All right, let's pray. Father, we ask for your blessings upon everybody here, all the people watching or who will watch, that they would grow in Christ, that they would know Jesus more, that if they're unbelievers who are who are like they're they're thinking about it they're considering it lord show them how brilliant you are how brilliant your word is and how truthful jesus is and then help them to overcome and really put their face faith and trust in you

God, we ask that you remind us now that we are called to be children of God and ambassadors in this world, that we're on a mission. We're not just waiting and occupying here, but rather we're evangelizing and witnessing and... Everything we do matters in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.