0:00:00 - 0:00:22 Today, we're going to be briefly touching on the topic of teaching the gospel. This is in response to question I received and I decided to um to give away some, some things that are in a book that I've written but not released. But I want to do so in the briefest of, of, of uh ways. So we're not going 0:00:22 - 0:00:45 to be quoting tons of scriptures. I'm not going to be giving you lengthy explanations for things. What I've done is I've plucked out some extraordinarily valuable ideas and I'm presenting them without, without the volume of surrounding breadth and depth that they deserve in order to get you something 0:00:44 - 0:01:06 much earlier than it would otherwise be given. And so please don't disregard these things as unimportant. I tell you they're, they're extraordinarily important or inexpensive because they are extremely expensive. It's just that someone else has paid the price for you. So let's do it. Ok. First, let's 0:01:06 - 0:01:26 talk about, there's two parts to this. The first is proceeding in the way a lot could be said about the way, but basically, it's the path of coming to know God better than you do or I should say and coming to be more like him than you are. And this diagram will be familiar if you've watched the videos 0:01:25 - 0:01:47 on this channel. Um There's different versions of it that we've used to illustrate different ideas, but here's where you start. And then as you approach Jesus, you don't actually, you don't actually go in a straight line because you overshoot in your modeling, you're, you're trying to be like him and 0:01:46 - 0:00:00 then you find out that you've gone too far or not far enough in some ways and then you correct. But over time, the idea is that you're zeroing in on, on how he actually is your estimate of how he is is closer to reality and also your own character draws nearer to his as it becomes more like his. OK. 0:00:00 - 0:02:31 So, um what I this presentation is not about the gate, it's not about getting onto this path, but uh just for the sake of, of mentioning it because it's very important and it also underscores the fact that none of this stuff matters very much that we're talking about right now, for those who have not 0:02:30 - 0:02:50 repented of their sins, who have not drawn themselves into complete alignment with how they understand Jesus to be right now, which is right here. That's why it's the gate. OK. Now, you stay in that path as you maintain alignment with how you believe him to be. So, don't think with these sways, we're 0:02:50 - 0:03:11 talking about sinning or departing from your understanding of how He is. That's not what this is about. This is about your, your, your increasing the accuracy of your estimate, but your estimate will be off. So you remain fully aligned with how you sincerely believe God to be. But how you believe God 0:03:11 - 0:03:35 is, it's, it's never going to be perfectly like he is. I mean, I mean, 100%. Ok. Uh but again, these could be very deep topics if it just depends on how steeped you are in false tradition, how, how much effort it takes to get you out of that, but we're just keeping it brief. All right. So here are just 0:03:35 - 0:03:55 some references. Again, we talked about this almost endlessly, but this is the path of becoming, of learning more about how Jesus is and then becoming more like him by always living exactly according to your current estimate of how he is. Now, that is the highway of holiness referred to in the scriptures 0:03:55 - 0:04:15 . Here's one of my uh favorite translations of that particular verse from Isaiah 35 8 and a great road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the highway of holiness, evil minded people will never travel on it. It will be only for those who walk in God's ways, fools will never walk 0:04:15 - 0:04:38 there. Ok? But it's, it's not, it's not a fixed pattern. And then here you go. And this is a checklist of things and then that's it. It's not that it's a process. The path of God is a process. It's the process of becoming more like Him. It's not the process of choosing to obey Him more fully than you 0:04:38 - 0:05:01 have. That's repentance. That's the gate. You're not on this path at all. If that's where you are in life, you're not even on this path yet. That's, that's just the beginning. Ok? But for those who are on that path, this is, this is what you're going through. And one thing to note there is, and this 0:05:01 - 0:05:24 might surprise you when we talk about, you learn more about how Jesus is, you become more like him. Your mind will automatically go to Sunday school and you're just thinking about, you know, shirt and tie religion and that's not real religion. That's, that's at best. It's a tiny sliver, but usually it's 0:05:24 - 0:05:48 , it's totally off completely. Ok. So what is it, what is this path? I've talked about this before? I'll talk about it again. Well, the highway of holiness, it's, it's the entire domain of mortality in every single thing you're thinking about. What would Jesus do in my place and then you do it now. That's 0:05:47 - 0:06:12 thoughts, that's feelings and actions and it's not just what you believe, quote unquote, right? That's, that's ridiculous. So, it's, it's expansive in terms of, it's everything you do and think and feel and feel. You can't want to sin and think that you're on this path. You're not, this is in first John 0:06:12 - 0:06:33 53, I believe. He says he, he's giving a list of things that, that you can apply to test if you actually love God because it's an easy thing to say that you love God. Or you just say, well, I believe in God. Well, do you mean believe like the devils believe because they believed in Jesus too? They, they 0:06:32 - 0:06:57 not only called him the Son of God and the Christ, but in Mark, it says they actually worshiped him. So, if your idea of, of living the gospel is quote unquote, believing Jesus or even going to church and quote unquote worshiping. Well, the devils do that too. So, what's the difference? So, um, that's 0:06:56 - 0:07:14 not what this is about. You actually have to know how he is and, and you need a way of knowing what he would do in your place and people are at a loss for this and they just say, well, I don't, I don't know because I mean, we, we have the 10 commandments or this or that, but I don't know what that means 0:07:13 - 0:07:36 about, um, how I should act if I'm playing a soccer game or, uh, what I should do on a Tuesday night with my free time. Well, here's the answer. And again, we don't have time to go into this. It's not the point of the presentation, but if you'll take it and you'll study it out. You'll see and you do 0:07:36 - 0:08:00 it, you'll see. The highway of holiness is everything that strengthens, improves endures has greater long term value. It's, you have to learn, not just about how Jesus is in terms of some shirt and tie religion, but you have to learn everything about everything he created, right? You have to learn all 0:07:59 - 0:08:21 about yourself and other people and reality. And then you have to have to actually develop and use your brain to evaluate what has the greatest value and prioritize your whole life and go after the best things all the time, all the time. And that's how you get on and stay on this path. These aren't different 0:08:21 - 0:08:40 things here. OK? And just as a side note, maybe this should be its own video. But if you're listening to this and you're not watching it, you are making a mistake. This is, you're, you're fooling yourself into believing that you're accessing something of value, but you're not taking the necessary time 0:08:40 - 0:08:58 and effort to get out of it, what you need to, some things you might be able to get away with just listening to. But there are visual components to many of these presentations. And if you're just doing it a little bit, you're probably causing yourself more harm than good because the Holy Ghost is going 0:08:57 - 0:09:19 to reveal things to you when and uh in accordance with the sincerity that you lend to these windows. So when you minimize that. Uh Not only are you going to get less revelation, you're going to fool yourself into thinking you're, you're getting what you should out of it. And the biggest problem with 0:09:19 - 0:09:41 that is that if you come back to it later, your mind will already be filled with the lower resolution version, you're not giving yourself space to get everything you can out of it anyway, moving on what's also going on as you progress here is that your model for how God is, is going to improve. So you're 0:09:40 - 0:10:04 going to change and also your understanding of how God is is going to change and both of them are going to get better, which is synonymous with more like God. Your idea of God will become more like him and you will become more like Him as you go down this path. OK? That's part one. So part two, helping 0:10:04 - 0:10:30 others proceed in the way. All right, check this diagram out. So, yeah. OK. Sorry, I just want to make sure I didn't make a mistake. So on the left side, these are two pictures on the left side, you have this, this narrow beginning that that spreads out as you go think of these dots as your feelings 0:10:29 - 0:10:49 , thoughts and actions. OK? Or I should say the feelings, thoughts and actions of a person, not you of a person, this is the person you're trying to help. This is the person you're quote unquote, trying to teach the gospel to. Now, remember when I say that already? You should, you should be thinking 0:10:49 - 0:11:10 , I mean, a lot more than your Sunday school teacher because this is the definition I'm using. It's everything, the domain of this function is everything. It's not just what do you do when you're a priest and you're walking down the road and you see someone who's been some Samaritan, I mean, I'm sorry 0:11:10 - 0:11:30 , some person that's been beaten up and left for dead. No, I'm talking about like, what do you eat for breakfast? Right. Everything. It's everything. And what would you do when you see someone beaten on the side of the road? Of course. Right. But the gospel is not meant to be like, there's a perspective 0:11:29 - 0:11:49 that talks about that, that considers the cons in the constitution. It considers the government being limited to what's expressly granted to it that the rights of the government are limited to what's expressly granted in the constitution and the rest remain with the people. Ok. That's a, that's a perspective 0:11:49 - 0:12:14 on constitutional government. Well, that's not the way the gospel works. It's the opposite, it's the opposite. The gospel applies to everything. Everything is a subset of the gospel. But the writings we have might seem to be specific to some subset in that it's your job to model how those things apply 0:12:14 - 0:12:36 to everything. When Jesus says, who is, who is my or when someone asks Jesus who is my neighbor and he tells the story of the good Samaritan. You should be thinking, how does this apply to everything in my life? And you have to weave together all those lessons that are all across the scriptures into 0:12:36 - 0:12:58 one cohesive model of God's will of how God is. That's another point. God's will is no different than how He is. They're one and the same. He doesn't have arbitrary rules that he preaches but doesn't live by. There's resolution of those instructions and uh there are higher versions, but it's all one 0:12:57 - 0:13:17 thing and that is how he is. They're one and the same. Anyway. So this is some person you're trying to teach the gospel to quote unquote, which a better way of saying that is, here's a person you're trying to help improve. That's what, that's the simplest way of describing the highway of holiness to 0:13:17 - 0:13:36 be holy is to be different and better. So this is, you're trying to help someone be better than they are that's teaching the gospel. Ok. So how through their feelings, thoughts and actions. Well, however, they are, what happens is as they get better. There's the changes they must make as they get better 0:13:36 - 0:13:58 , there are more and more changes from where they are right now that they have to make. Now, this is interesting because I think most people think that the more like God, you become, the fewer the changes you have to make. I mean, that's kind of what this is. Right. But it turns out that there are so 0:13:57 - 0:14:24 many differences in how you think and feel and, and do that you have to go through and, and one way of reconciling the fact that this gets bigger as you get better and this gets more narrow as you get better is to understand that what God would do in different situations. It's massively more complicated 0:14:24 - 0:14:53 , then something you could delineate in 10 rules or 12 rules, which is more popular today, I think, right? And certainly three rules. Meaning if, if my job was to take someone off the street and explain to them how God is as far as I know it, we better be sitting there for a year cause I have a lot to 0:14:53 - 0:15:14 say, OK, if, if the way I'm doing that is helping them apply how God is to some specific situation, we're going to have to talk about a million different specific situations. Now, what's the scriptural backing for that? Again, you can make a really long argument for this, but consider what John said 0:15:14 - 0:15:38 at the end of his gospel, there aren't enough books in the world to fully describe how God is. And yet how did he describe how God is in the briefest terms? He said, God is love. God is love and that is the most accurate three word representation that I think is possible. OK. But God is in three words 0:15:38 - 0:16:04 , he's one word He is the word. Do you, do you get what I'm saying here? Maybe I can break it down more. If you really understood what love is, then all someone would have to do to quote unquote. Teach you the gospel is say God is love. Now, that's three words. That's not a bunch of different dots here 0:16:04 - 0:16:30 . That's three words. But you don't understand what love is. You have no idea, which might seem like a ridiculous thing for me to say. But I promise you, I could make a rock solid argument with enough time. Now. Um What about a one word argument? Yeah, you could say Jesus. But in order for that to work 0:16:30 - 0:16:53 , you'd have to know the being whose name that is. And if you don't, then that doesn't work. Do you see this is a little about how to illustrate this, but that's, that's not really totally on topic. I'm just trying to justify this, this diagram. OK. So your task in preaching the gospel consists of moving 0:16:53 - 0:17:15 people up this picture. Now, let's take a look at this picture. This one starts broad because now we're talking about each of these dots. Here is a, is a person and they're different. There are massive differences between people in their feelings, thoughts and actions. They're very different. OK? But 0:17:15 - 0:17:42 the task here is as you do this, what's going to happen is the set of people you're doing that for, they are going to all unify in Christ, meaning their feelings, thoughts and actions will converge, they'll become more similar. Now, what's, what's this about? Um There's a lot to this but, but to bring 0:17:41 - 0:18:05 it to our specific application, the first thing we need to make clear is what you're moving towards is not how God actually is because you don't know that only God knows that he has a name that no one knows, except those to whom it's given to fully understand God. You would have to fully be like Him 0:18:05 - 0:18:31 . If you're not there yet, then what you're drawing someone towards is not this. It's actually your model of how he is. It's a, a an imperfect estimate. Now, it's fully sincere. You believe that it's completely correct, but it's not, it's just the best you can do right now. Now your job is to take a 0:18:31 - 0:18:54 person from where they are to the very next increment and this is incremental. It is sequential. It is progressive. It's step wise, you can't jump them straight to a higher level. It's not gonna work. Your job in teaching the gospel is to help people is to identify the smallest increment of improvement 0:18:54 - 0:19:20 from where they are and to help them make that change. So one important thing to note here is not only are these things sequential, but you have to do the breadth before you keep going in the depth. So a lot of people on this planet are hung up for this specific reason. I asked God about this one time 0:19:19 - 0:19:45 I asked him uh about some people that I'm pretty impressed with. And I said, how is it that these folks are so amazing in some ways and so terribly bad in others. And he said, they're not honest, they have not integrated their, their passive improvement. They're focused on one narrow aspect and they 0:19:45 - 0:20:08 have, have uh ascended as far as they can with those constraints, but they have to look into other things in order to keep going. You can't be like God in just one way. And if you are, you're not going to go very far in all the other ways or that one, it limits you. You have to go breath before you keep 0:20:08 - 0:20:33 going. OK. So uh what about on this side? Well, again, you're not uniting people in how God is, you're uniting people and how you are because that's your model of God, remember? And also here, it's how you are. This is this, this bothers people, but it's because they don't understand the gospel, right 0:20:33 - 0:21:06 ? They're way down here. Paul said, be followers of me as I am a follower of Christ when Jesus said be like me, do the things that I do. Yes, he was saying that as Jesus as the son of God. But it's true of every servant of God in levels. This is very important. OK? So your model of God will be how you 0:21:06 - 0:21:26 actually are. If you're living this. Now again, if you're not actually living according to your model of God, none of this applies to you because you're not even on the path. You're a fake Christian and you have your, your marching orders, which is to repent and you've already been given everything you 0:21:26 - 0:21:45 need to do that. So we're talking about the people who are actually through the gate, which there are very few. But this question was asked of me. So I'm answering it. Um And the person who asked it is ready for this. So you all get it for free. So, congratulations and rejoice because of the way that 0:21:45 - 0:22:07 faith works. Ok. So this is how this works, right? All right. So let's break this down. This is our last slide. This is the practical application of everything I've, I've pulled you through here. When you interact with others with all people at all times, your job is to observe and persuade towards the 0:22:07 - 0:22:30 next increment of improvement period. That's what it means to teach the gospel. That's what it means to live the gospel. This is exactly what Jesus did throughout his whole life. Not just the last three years, you do this by asking what God would do in their place. You see you're a adapting your model 0:22:29 - 0:22:50 to their circumstances and then you ask, what can I do or say to help them become aware of what God would do in their place because sometimes they're not even aware. That's an option. If someone says, oh, as soon as I graduate from high school, I'm going to join the military and you don't think God would 0:22:50 - 0:23:13 do that. And you think instead of doing that God would, in their situation, God would open up a florist shop, then your job is to now help them believe that that's a possibility and one they should do so, um, you have to also to make them aware of the option if they're not aware already and then help 0:23:13 - 0:23:39 them see why it's the best option. Persuasive argument. Now, really what that does is not so much tell you how to do something, but it says what to do and it points you in the right way because now you, you do know how to become more aware of what God would do in their place. But how do you persuade 0:23:38 - 0:24:04 them? Well, that's another can of worms and one that you can go look at on your own for now. So you can tell right off the bat, this is a very active thing. It takes a lot of resources and also it requires you to not be a doofus. So you need to actually become more intelligent, more eloquent, more articulate 0:24:03 - 0:24:29 these, these aren't optional things in the gospel and any limit you have in any of those things will absolutely impact your ability to help others. Ok. Now, as you go through this and you apply this to your life. You need to remember that this isn't just about pray, read your scriptures, the Sunday school 0:24:29 - 0:24:51 stuff. That's not what this is about now. That might seem overwhelming or limiting. But it's actually, it's the opposite. It's the opposite because it might be daunting to, you know, find some random person on the street and if your task is to sell them on the idea of reading scripture, good luck. That's 0:24:50 - 0:25:13 not going to be easy. If you've got like a five minute interaction at a bus stop, are you going to take someone up? You know, 10 levels from where they are? No, but what can you do? Well, assess the situation, find the smallest increment of improvement and then help them become aware of it and help them 0:25:13 - 0:25:35 to get there. Your job isn't to give them your entire model of how God is your job is to apply that model and give them the smallest step towards improvement in their lives. It's every single situation, every single idea everything in mortality. You know, if you're, if you're, how do you live this in 0:25:35 - 0:25:53 your own life? If you're walking through the house and there's a piece of trash on the floor, you pick it up. If you see your kid running around being a crazy person, that's not what Jesus would have them do, right? So you apply the model and you give them a step for, for improvement you see. So it doesn't 0:25:53 - 0:26:16 matter if a picture is crooked on the wall or if a person's crooked in their life, it's the same thing and it all matters. OK? One thing that's not on the slide that I feel impressed to share with you is that this is not just about uh outward expression of your own model, like, like it's not, it's not 0:26:16 - 0:26:37 just a one way flow from you to them. This is actually the absolute best way to find people that know better than you do. In other words, it's in teaching that you are taught not just by God because He will tell you what to say and he will give you revelation as you ask him the questions to help others 0:26:36 - 0:27:00 . But you're going to encounter people who during your rational argument with them, they will actually present better reasons for how they are than what you thought was something better and you will learn from them anyway. Finally, I just want to underscore this idea that you're only meant to hit the 0:27:00 - 0:27:22 very next thing. OK. Now, now what's maybe even more important than that because we've said that a couple of times this one, I'm not sure we talked about, I mentioned how this takes a lot of resources. If someone ignores or rejects you, you need to find someone else. So when it comes to doing the greatest 0:27:22 - 0:27:42 good for the world, you have to be working with the people that are going to improve the most from what you could possibly do, you're trying to maximize your unique contribution to the world. And that means you can't be spending your time with just continuously trying to get this person to the next thing 0:27:41 - 0:28:03 when you've already done your best and there doesn't remain anything better that you could try. You have to move on and go to someone else. You can come back to them if there's a reason to. But if not, you need to vacate and, and free up your resources for people that have a higher likelihood of greater 0:28:03 - 0:28:30 benefit from your interactions with them. So um this is for example why I spend almost all of my morning time writing books and not making these videos because uh the books are for much greater benefit to people who will receive that benefit than these videos. So, um anyway, with all that, I'll leave 0:28:30 - 0:28:33 it at that and uh I hope this has been helpful.