Video Transcript

0:00:00 - 0:00:23 This uh topic is really important. What cours with what you seek. That's what we're gonna be talking about. Ties, the Steam Ties are a whole lot that happens every day in your life. And certainly every day in mine, I have a lot to say about this, but we're just gonna touch on it very briefly today. Um

0:00:22 - 0:00:47 I wrote down some notes on this, this morning and it just so happened. Someone sent me an email uh after that, that overlaid some of these topics and I thought, what the heck, let's make a presentation. So in that email, most of which is pasted here, this person writes one of my greatest desires is to

0:00:47 - 0:01:08 continue to bless my Children, my wife and friends during times of illness or distress with a little instruction beforehand. I think there can be greater power than what's been given in the past. I'm gonna pause here. One of the lines in this email that I didn't paste over. Maybe I should have. The first

0:01:07 - 0:01:35 line was I have a question for you and hopefully, um you can answer this without what did, what did he say going to def con four or five or whatever. Um He, he, he expected that I might have an intense answer for him and he was requesting that I reply with lower intensity. And here's the, here's another

0:01:35 - 0:02:01 lesson that's not the point of this presentation, but it is actually quite related. Why did, why was Jesus so extreme in his reactions to people? And he was maybe that's news to you, but you can go read it. Um The reason is that when you have a different understanding of cause and effect, then you can

0:02:01 - 0:02:27 see a network of consequences for the same inputs that another person does not see or, or that's very different in intensity than what another person sees. And um the consequences that remain hidden are almost always more intense than the ones that are obvious, which is counterintuitive. But the hidden

0:02:26 - 0:02:53 stems in large part from uh a lack of awareness of connections and also from the fact that most people view consequences in extremely short time frames. And so you have to look at second order, third order and so on downstream consequences through time. In addition to seeing things that are quite directly

0:02:53 - 0:03:15 related, but maybe not. So obviously, and we've talked about all sorts of things like that on this channel, like one specific example that I've brought up before, uh because it touched my own life in terms of siblings and my family. Um in, in, in um it's cheerleading, it's cheerleading and sports in

0:03:15 - 0:03:35 general school sports in general, they, they ha they have a lot of consequences that are direct, that people don't seem to, to notice. And so that's a great example. You might think that me bringing that up all the time, seemingly, uh, school sports or public schools is another one. you might just say

0:03:35 - 0:03:55 , man, I wish he would shut up about this. He just keeps going on about it. We get it. I don't agree. Let's move on. But if you understood the consequences, then you wouldn't, um, you wouldn't feel that way, right? Or maybe I should, maybe I should approach that differently. If you, if you, if you listen

0:03:54 - 0:04:16 to the magnitude of the consequences I described for that, then you'll understand why I won't shut up about it. Even if you disagree with that mapping of cause and effect, even if you don't think that those consequences occur, it should make sense why I don't shut up about it. Same thing with talking

0:04:15 - 0:04:42 about, uh, male and female relationships. That's something that I drawn on and on about. Well, it's because the consequences are so high anyway. So, um, speaking of things that cour if you ask me a question that, that directly addresses an intense topic, you're gonna get an intense answer. OK. So if

0:04:42 - 0:05:05 that bothers you don't ask, um, and this is, by the way, uh, because so many things do have extreme consequences. This is a key reason why you read how hesitant people were to ask Jesus questions all through the New Testament. They, they had questions and they held them back, even the disciples because

0:05:05 - 0:05:29 they were afraid of what he would say in response. They, they, they had been trained to realize that they just had no idea when it was coming. And uh that's because they were vastly unacquainted with the consequences of reality uh versus Jesus. OK. Continuing to read the email. Uh He quotes acts chapter

0:05:28 - 0:05:47 917 through 18, which says, then Ananias went to the house and entered it, placing his hands on Saul. He said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit immediately, something like scales

0:05:46 - 0:06:05 fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again. He got up and was baptized and the writer continues, when you get blessings of comfort, direction or healing, how do you approach it the way I've done it in the past doesn't seem correct in the past, you know how it went because this person is from an L DS

0:06:05 - 0:06:24 background. And so he knows that we have that common experience. This is a for those of you who don't know, this is a pre pres prescribed ritual in the L DS church of laying on your hands and giving someone a blessing, quote unquote. He says, do you lay your hands asking me what I do. Do you lay your

0:06:24 - 0:06:40 hands on your wife's or children's head and use oil? Do you follow any pattern if you use oil? How do you consecrate it or maybe it doesn't need to be consecrated because a person using it is holy. I know this is elementary but I still have the rest of my family attending church and I'm not sure how

0:06:40 - 0:07:07 to proceed. Ok, let's get into it. First point, please, please, please. Can we stop putting new patches on old garments? By the way, the things I'm gonna say from here on out are not necessarily directed to that person. There are many other things going on that for which what I'm going to say directly

0:07:07 - 0:07:27 apply to which these things directly apply spanning many people. So just allow me the the versatility to use this as an example of why this information is necessary, but you're free to apply it to whatever your situation is. I know for a fact that at least some of you have situations that have nothing

0:07:27 - 0:07:51 to do with that email, but for which this information is completely relevant. Ok. So for all people, please stop putting new patches on old garments. Uh We're gonna give you more, we so academically, I'm I'm going to show you more things, more structures, more representations to help you understand how

0:07:50 - 0:08:13 to detect when you're doing this and more reasons of why not to do it and what you could do instead. But, um, just don't do this. So let's address this in context. So many people in, in this specific context, so many people leave churches and they think they're gonna find something that's just like what

0:08:12 - 0:08:38 they came out of, but a little nicer and it's like people who lease a car, put a bunch of miles on it and then they go trade it in for a new lease on this year's model with fewer miles. That's not the way gospel progression works. That by and large, you'll really struggle to find examples of tiny increments

0:08:37 - 0:09:01 of improvement. It's difficult, right? Almost always. It's this huge step, huge step. Now, sometimes when, when I'm talking about this, I emphasize the small steps and this is a really important role, a teacher has a gospel teacher, whatever that might be, you know, your friend, your parent, your spouse

0:09:00 - 0:09:29 , whatever random person on the street. But um and, and there's a place for that. Ok? But small changes can only yield small changes, imagine that, right? If you're looking for enormous differences in outcomes, you're not gonna find that in a tiny change. This is factor one and we're gonna build on this

0:09:29 - 0:09:55 in a second. But here's factor two. When you're in an institution that has filled your head and your life with the illusion that what you have is everything God has to give. When you come out of that, you're not just gonna pick up the actual fullness of what God has to give because you're nowhere near

0:09:55 - 0:00:00 that. Your whole life. You've filled your whole life with nonsense, emptiness, vanity. You have to unlearn all that garbage and you have to get clean of it and you're basically starting at square one. So, so I'll address specifically people coming out of Mormon traditions here, like the L DS church,

0:00:00 - 0:10:43 there is immense truth and value in, I'll say Mormon doctrine. But again, please forgive me for broad brushing here. I just, I can't give nonstop disclaimers to, to be super, super, super specific um like mathematically precise in this, there's huge value in there. There's, there's some nice babies in

0:10:43 - 0:11:11 that bath water. OK? And you're not gonna get them anywhere else. But this is like teaching someone an alphabet and they know the alphabet front to back, but they're completely illiterate, meaning they can't read and they can't write, but they, they know the alphabet. You, you have building blocks, you

0:11:10 - 0:11:32 do not have a place to stick them and you have no idea how to use them. You have no idea what they're worth. You have no idea in many cases what they are because there are layers and layers and layers of false tradition all through it and and it's all gotta be cut away and cleaned up and purified and

0:11:32 - 0:11:49 rarified, right? And it's like, it's like when you've got some kind of a physical sample of something in chemistry and it's come through this really rough process, there's a whole different process to refine it and you put it in a centrifuge and you have to take stuff out and put stuff in and there's

0:11:49 - 0:12:24 chemical reactions and if you've got tons of raw ingredients, but as far as rubber hitting the road, you don't have hardly anything Jack Diddley squat when it comes to actually knowing God better than any random person on the planet. Hopefully, that's said with enough emphasis. OK. Now let's read two

0:12:23 - 0:12:46 scriptures. One's from Mark 1238 and 39. And then we're gonna read Luke 14 8 through 11. And this is about, I wanna highlight what the Pharisees did and how Jesus said, don't do that, do this instead. And then we're gonna apply it to your situation. And he said, unto them in his doctrine, beware of the

0:12:46 - 0:13:16 scribes which love to go in long clothing and love salutations in the marketplaces, in the chief seats in, in the synagogues, in the uppermost rooms at feasts. All of these things were outward indications of the value, spiritual value of a person in false religion. Jesus explicitly taught quite opposite

0:13:15 - 0:13:42 indications of real value. He said, let's just go down the line which love to go in long clothing. Uh Well, that one could get a bit technical, that one could get a bit technical. So I'll just say when he washed the disciple's feet, what did he do with his fancy robe. He took it off a lot. Cannon should

0:13:42 - 0:14:03 be said about that. Let's keep rolling. Love salutations in the marketplaces. What did he say about how people would treat you? The more like him you were you became. He said the more like me, you become, the more people will treat you like they treat me. The servant isn't above the master. They're going

0:14:03 - 0:14:27 to try to kill you and they'll succeed in many cases. And before they get to that point, they'll say all kinds of false things about you because you're living like I would in your place. Ok. What about the chief seats in the synagogues? We'll get to that in a second. That's the next passage we're gonna

0:14:27 - 0:14:47 read in the uppermost rooms of feasts. So now let's roll into the next one. When thou art Bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room lest a more honorable man than thou be Bidden of him. And then he'd have to tell you to skedaddle and he that bade thee and him come and say to thee

0:14:46 - 0:15:07 , give this man place and now begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art Bidden go and sit down in the lowest room, then when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee friend go up higher, then shalt thou have worship in the presence of him that sit at meet with thee for whosoever

0:15:07 - 0:15:41 exalt himself shall be abased and he that bleth himself shall be exalted. One of my favorite examples of this is this woman, this foreign woman who comes to Jesus and asks for a blessing. And he said, the children's bread is not meant for the dogs. And she says, but don't the dogs get the cramps. And

0:15:41 - 0:16:09 I tell you, it is extraordinarily pleasing to the Lord for us to assume that we are nothing so that he can show us how wrong we are because we're created in his image. But his image is a potential state. It is not our actuality. We are only as valuable as we are like God. The worth of souls is great

0:16:09 - 0:16:34 and there's no greater joy or, or greater sacrifice you can make than to help someone achieve more and more of that potential because we have the potential to go all the way, but it's potential. It's not actuality. And you can only achieve the potential by reconciling to actuality. And down here, we

0:16:34 - 0:17:03 all start at zero because we're all sinners, we all start in that state. No, let's talk about the principle that greater blessings require greater law or as Papa John put it better ingredients, better pizza, forgive my frivolity. But it's a true concept. It's like one aspect of truth is you see it all

0:17:03 - 0:17:25 over the place. Once you know the principle, it's everywhere. And if it's not everywhere, you can extend it into whatever place it isn't and, and make the world more like heaven. Um OK, so this is what I have to say to this guy and, and any of the folks that have the same ideas, if you want to continue

0:17:24 - 0:17:50 to pour oil on someone's head and recite some prescribed words and say whatever the heck, you hope to be true, you will continue to get the same exact results and sometimes it will be good and sometimes nothing will happen. And sometimes the exact opposite of what you said will happen. If you want something

0:17:49 - 0:18:14 greater than that, you're going to have to find something greater than that. And God's power comes through being like him, period. Full stop. And a story, if you want something greater, you're going to have to become someone greater than you are. If you want something greater than what you have, you

0:18:14 - 0:18:39 have to become someone greater than you are now many churches, including the L DS church, they teach that you can have some increment of God's power independent of any changes you make to become like him or in exchange for something you can do that has nothing to do with becoming more like Him. That's

0:18:39 - 0:19:01 not true. There's no such thing as I don't know, side ordinances or something. There's no sideways ways of becoming more like God or having more of his power, they don't exist and if they do go find them, right. But if they existed, you wouldn't be coming to me, would you? Because you'd have them already

0:19:01 - 0:19:22 , you know, that dumping oil on someone's head and acting like it. You know, you're rubbing their head like a genie's lamp and making wishes, you know, that doesn't do anything and whatever it does has nothing to do with that. You know, that already. So, you know that people in the world who don't have

0:19:21 - 0:19:47 the L DS priest of permission slip can do all those same things. So if this, if you were Moses and you were doing the miracle dance off with Pharaoh's priests, we'd all be in big trouble. Israel would just stay slaves because there'd be no difference. So what exactly are we comparing this against? And

0:19:46 - 0:20:10 if, if there's nothing there that's unique, then maybe our understanding of what might take its place needs to be very different or open to being very different than having any similarity to what we're seeing. So, what would these differences entail? Would it be? I mean, we're seeking for differences

0:20:09 - 0:20:35 in power, should we expect differences in form or are there other differences? We ought to be open to one major difference? I'll solve the puzzle for you is the what it costs, what it costs you. So let me ask you in the, in the, in the L DS faith, what does it cost you to quote unquote, get the priesthood

0:20:35 - 0:20:57 ? It's a horrible phrase. But let's use it because that's what they say. Well, usually in most cases what it costs you is nothing except being a fairly decent child to your parents who are already L DS. And so you just kind of grow up and do the things they expect you to do, which by and large aren't

0:20:57 - 0:21:24 , you know, it's not asking much and shazam, you get your priesthood permission slip. Well, that's not what we read about in the scriptures. Ok? Even, even the priests under the law of Moses who inherited their, whatever they had, they had very rigorous standards that they had to live. It wasn't just

0:21:23 - 0:21:47 , hey, uh don't drink these things that really won't make a huge difference in your life and don't smoke, which you shouldn't do anyway because it's super unhealthy and Shazam magic power. So, in the book of Abraham, which is a Mormon text right there at the very beginning of chapter one, we read this

0:21:46 - 0:22:09 and I apologize for the wall of text. Read this story about how Abraham found out that there was greater. There was something greater out there that we can call this priesthood. You can read verses one through four. I don't think it's necessary to do that, but he responded by searching for it. He desired

0:22:08 - 0:22:30 something. He had an idea that it was worth something and he, he figured it was better than what he had. Now, even if you're only vaguely familiar with the story of Abraham's life, you know that he made sacrifice after sacrifice. After sacrifice, he left his, his homeland, he left his friends, he left

0:22:30 - 0:22:55 his family. He faced trial after trial where he put everything on the line for God. He, he roamed as a nomad his entire life through a land that that was only his through future promises. And then one day after all this and the many specific sacrifices that he went through in life in terms of how he

0:22:55 - 0:23:19 reacted to challenging situations, having people and things taken away from him and all these other challenges. Well, he met Mel Kick and he being an extraordinarily wealthy person. It's kind of an ancient times, Elon Musk. He gave a tithe of everything he possessed and he left that interaction, having

0:23:19 - 0:23:45 the priesthood that we call the Melchizedek priesthood. So if you're seeking that sort of outcome, but instead of living decades of consecrated life and, you know, living wisely enough to accumulate that kind of a fortune, which in Abraham's case is God's will to bless him that way. But he was an extraordinarily

0:23:44 - 0:24:11 practical pragmatic Godly man, which we could talk about. But it's, it's beyond the scope of this. And he was living in a time where the laws of justice were in effect in the world's culture to such an extent that that resulted in immense wealth. Anyway, if you, if you think that you can get the same

0:24:11 - 0:24:33 thing just by writing somebody an email, so not only is that not gonna work. I'm not saying this person emailed me saying, hey, you're like Melchizedek. Why don't you bless me with the priesthood? That's obviously not what the content of the email was. But in effect, in effect, this is he's seeking for

0:24:33 - 0:25:01 greater power to do the will of God. And we, we, you know, we call that priesthood. So not only does it not work that way, but it also shows that that anyone that thinks that it's that easy. And I'm not specifically picking on him again, like a whole lot of you think that just by watching a youtube video

0:25:00 - 0:25:23 , you're gonna get these tremendous treasures of light and truth, which you do. But there's a lot more to it than all that. And a lot of what's missing is an understanding of the cost and the benefit and it, it doesn't do any good to get a gift of tremendous worth. If you don't understand, it has tremendous

0:25:23 - 0:25:49 worth. And if you don't live it, we a recurring thing that you're gonna hear from me if you haven't already is we need to stop pretending that the real thing is just like the fake thing that the full thing is just like the partial thing. It's not, that's new wine in old bottles. It's patching old clothing

0:25:48 - 0:26:22 with, with new patches, it's uh with new, new cloth. It's continuing to see things as a child when you become a man or woman, you gotta move on. You need to understand what things cost, what things are worth and then you need to pay the price to get them to live them. So God, God is extremely impeded

0:26:21 - 0:26:45 by our lack of correct value. This is why He pushes gratitude so hard. It's not that he wants credit for anything. He doesn't care about that. He wants us to have joy and you can't have joy in something that you don't value. You know, L DS priesthood is given in this, in this extremely inexpensive way

0:26:45 - 0:27:16 and no surprise is not worth much. You don't, you can't do anything that anyone else can't already do. So if you want more, you need to learn what has more value and what it costs and then you do what it costs. So let's apply this to Ananias because you mentioned a Ananias in the email. But she cherry

0:27:16 - 0:27:39 picked the blessing that he had. God spoke to him directly told him to go to Paul and to heal Paul of his blindness. Well, that looks shiny and attractive, doesn't it? Well, I wanna be like Ananias. Do you, do you? You remember what Jesus said when his disciples? I think it was Andrew and John, I don't

0:27:38 - 0:28:03 remember asked to sit beside him in his kingdom and he said, I have a baptism to be baptized with. Are you willing to drink the bitter cup? And they said, yes, we will. I'm not sure if he believed them. But I think, I think he understood that they were sincere as far as they could understand in a very

0:28:02 - 0:28:24 limited way, the magnitude of what he was saying. But he said, well, tough. It's not mine to give, but there was a price to be paid to have that. And what he was saying was, look, you're asking for this, but you have no idea what the cost is of what you're asking and if you knew you probably wouldn't

0:28:23 - 0:28:43 want it. The same thing happened with the rich young ruler when he said, Jesus, what do I have to do to have eternal life? I've done everything I know consistently. And Jesus basically says, you trust me, you don't want it. And he says, no, I really do. And Jesus says, OK, we'll sell everything you have

0:28:43 - 0:29:08 and give it to the poor and follow me. And the guy says, I changed my mind. I don't want it. And Jesus said, I told you, of course, that's a very rough paraphrase, but that was the spirit of the exchange in part. So what did Ananias do to have that experience? Well, we don't know, right? We don't. There's

0:29:07 - 0:29:35 no uh here's the full story of Ananias book. OK, that I know of. But one thing we do know is that the disciples at that time, they had to sell everything they had and give all the money they had from everything they sold to the apostles, which Ananias was not one of them. So here's a question. Do you

0:29:35 - 0:29:53 want to do that? I mean, I don't think there are 12 apostles that I know of floating around anywhere today. But suppose there were, suppose somehow Peter James John, all the original guys were still around. Would you scurry off and, and just immediately sell everything you have and, and just give it

0:29:53 - 0:30:22 to them cause I don't think you would, if, if you won, let me know and I will retract my statement. I don't think I know anyone who would do that. I would do that. I've done more than that. I've done more than that, but I don't know anyone else who would yet. And that's very important. OK. So this person

0:30:22 - 0:30:48 asked me, well, what do you do? It doesn't matter what I do. So when, well, this, I was gonna share a story from the scriptures that, that I see is very directly related to this, but I'd have to explain it so much that it wouldn't, wouldn't do any good. Um What I do is irrelevant because you don't have

0:30:48 - 0:31:09 all the context and you don't live all the context, right? These things, they cour that's the point of the title of the presentation today. These things cour if you want the experiences of Ananias, you need to take them all. Not just the ones you cherry pick you want. If you wanna be like Jesus, it's

0:31:09 - 0:31:31 not just about making loaves and fishes. You also have to get nailed to a cross. You have to have everyone in your life betray you and let you down when you need them the most you have to do all these other things that I'm not going to talk about that. Jesus went through it all goes together. Do you

0:31:31 - 0:31:58 really want that? And if you do, I'll show you how to get it in this presentation. Get ready. So the only way I can share what I do is by sharing all of what I do. And that's exactly what I'm doing in this, in this labor I do of writing these books and living the life. I have to, to have something to

0:31:58 - 0:32:25 write, obtaining what goes in them. And so if you want a different way, some kind of shortcut or alternative, you'll have to ask someone else because I don't have one. I don't know of one when, when Jesus said I am the way I believe him, I don't think there's some other way. OK. Now let's transition

0:32:24 - 0:32:43 to the example of the loaves and fishes. This is AAA very important point yet example of this, the principles we've been discussing. So I'm gonna summarize the back story. Of course, this happened twice. We're gonna talk about the first one. So these people that came by foot to a desert place, it was

0:32:43 - 0:33:03 far away, just like John, the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness So Jesus intentionally, he went off into the middle of nowhere. Why? Because it provided the people with an opportunity to demonstrate their faith by doing something they would not otherwise do that had a cost. And even though that

0:33:03 - 0:33:28 cost didn't, did not directly produce what Jesus did as a response, he was, he was able to transform that into what he could do to produce the response. I don't know if that was overly cryptic. He was creating a ladder of faith like all gifted gospel teachers do. I don't mean gifted in the way the world

0:33:28 - 0:33:51 would mean that, I mean, who actually have something to share from God? That's the gift. It's not magic though. It's a, it's a, it's a process and he's impartial so anyone could do it. So he stations himself in the middle of nowhere and then he waits like a little gospel trap, right? Of the best kind

0:33:50 - 0:34:12 . And then they come out and he goes fantastic and then he healed. It'd be funny if that was a, actually a verse in the account. Fantastic. So he heals, they're sick and afflicted. They, they all come out there and he heals them and that's what they were expecting because that's what he did right when

0:34:12 - 0:34:33 he was in the towns. So now he left, he made it harder to get the same blessing that they got for really low cost. He was a blessing delivery truck. And then he says now you gotta come to the store guys, if you want the same product, the price just increased. Right. And so they, they're, you know, miracle

0:34:33 - 0:34:55 junkies now. And so they go out to find him no matter the cost. But as far as they know, and so they go to this desert place and they don't have food and they just, all they care about is getting to Jesus. And so not only does he heal them because they paid the price to enable him to pay the price. But

0:34:55 - 0:35:22 he also miraculously feeds them and then they blow it by trying to force him to be their king because they say, you know, free food. That's a nice thing. So then he leaves, he actually flees from them at the mountain and then he tells his disciples to, to leave and meet him on the other side of the lake

0:35:22 - 0:35:43 . And so then in the night he walks across miraculously, you know the story. So in the morning, they the the crowds, they try to find him, they can't find him. So then they follow him in boats. And I want to lay all this out to show you the increasing the incrementally increasing faith that these people

0:35:43 - 0:36:11 had. The first step in. This was already enormous compared to what most modern people are willing to do. They left the comfort of their home and they walked a very far distance into the desert knowing full well they were not gonna have any food or water. So most people wouldn't drive 30 minutes to hear

0:36:11 - 0:36:44 Jesus speak if he were coming through. Then uh when they discover that he's gone, even after being rebuffed, because obviously he didn't take their forceful attempt to make him a king very lightly. Then they followed him in boats, met him on the other side and that's where we pick up the story. So this

0:36:44 - 0:37:05 is now in John six, Jesus answered them and said, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. This is not a good thing. He's saying, you know, if you were willing to go through all this trouble because you had miracles

0:37:04 - 0:37:30 , OK? Cool. That's, that's reasonable, right? But you're doing it because you want more free food and that's not so great because it shows where your heart is and your heart's still here on the ground. But I'm trying to point you to heaven and, and the latter is pointing you to heaven. If you interpreted

0:37:29 - 0:37:51 the miracles, the way they were meant to, you'd be closer to heaven. Your eyes would be up higher towards heaven. But you're trying, you're pulling all of it down and continuously interpreting this in terms of earthly value and that's not good by earthly. I don't mean things that affect us here because

0:37:50 - 0:38:15 heavenly things do provide value here. And now I mean pleasures in the present versus true long term benefit. Enduring benefit, right? OK. Continuing the passage, labor not for the meat which perish, but for the meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the son of man shall give unto you. For Him

0:38:15 - 0:38:38 . Hath God. The father sealed. That is a very important path. Uh uh verse verse 27 I wish we could talk more about it, but we gotta move on then said, they unto Him, what shall we do that? We might work the works of God. And I hope you see the parallel between that and the email I got. What shall we

0:38:38 - 0:39:00 do that we might work the works of God. Listen to what Jesus says. This is the work of God that ye believe on Him whom he hath sent. And who's that? The verse the next verse tells us and Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. And He that believeth on me

0:38:59 - 0:39:25 shall never thirst. Now you might say, but I believe in Jesus. No, you don't, no, you don't actually. And that's what Jesus said too. He said, but I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not. Now these people had done all these things that are listed out. Not only did they walk off into

0:39:25 - 0:39:49 the desert to find Him, they were also healed and then they took boats to find Him again, they're still on this journey. Who knows what's going on at home? These people probably think they're all in, these people probably think they're doing exactly what he's telling them to do or maybe not. But, hey

0:39:48 - 0:40:16 , they're getting a lot of benefits, aren't they? And he says, no, you don't believe in me. And then he explains how he knows this or, or in what way they don't. He said all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me. I will in no wise cast out. And this is the will of him that

0:40:15 - 0:40:37 sent me that everyone which seeth the sun and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know

0:40:36 - 0:40:58 how is it then that he saith. I come down from heaven. I came down from heaven verily verily, I say to you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life whoso eateth my flesh and bringeth my blood hath eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. So I wanted to follow

0:40:58 - 0:41:23 the sequence of verses there, even though I plucked some out, I did not rearrange them. I think a better arrangement exists. However, what was jesus' reasoning behind saying? You don't believe in me, what does it mean to eat his flesh and drink his blood? In briefest terms? It means to be like him, it

0:41:23 - 0:41:46 means to follow his example fully. They did not do that. They did not want to do that. As we'll see in a second, they wanted the goodies, but they didn't want to be good. Do you see the difference? Do you see how this applies to the email? Now again, this person who sent me the email, he doesn't have

0:41:46 - 0:42:13 this particular problem. But generally speaking, those who want the goodies and are really focused on the goodies. What they're missing is that they are baddies and they're not gonna have the goodies until they stop being baddies. Now we have a few more ideas to cover from this passage one we already

0:42:13 - 0:42:32 read. So let's go to that. So we don't forget it. The Jews murmured at him because he said he was the bread that came down from heaven. They said, wait a second. This is Jesus, the son of Joseph. We know this guy's dad and mom, how on earth can he say he came down from heaven? In my opinion, this is

0:42:32 - 0:43:05 one of the most retarded things that the Pharisees said. The fact is every single holy person they had ever known quote unquote came down from heaven by being born a baby. Do we have this problem? Yes, we do. We diminish the example of those whose origin story we know, didn't Jesus teach that this was

0:43:05 - 0:43:30 a general principle. He said a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country among his own kin. Knowing someone's back story does not reduce what God can do with them. And if he's doing amazing things with Him, it ought to cause you to pay more attention. If you know the back story, not less

0:43:29 - 0:43:54 when you see. And this is a pattern. We don't have time to go through and trace it. It reoccurs throughout the New Testament. When you see Jesus doing amazing things among people who knew him before he turned 30 they all react in the same way, which is to say we need to suppose that what looks miraculous

0:43:53 - 0:44:25 must not be because we know where this guy came from and he wasn't like this before, as far as we could see that is totally backwards. Do you see why if someone is plainly demonstrating the power of God today? That's what matters. And if they didn't seem to have it yesterday, it matters even more. It's

0:44:24 - 0:44:41 not an excuse to ignore them because they didn't have something meaningful to say before. It's an excuse to start paying attention because they do. Now. Now, in jesus' case, he always had something meaningful to say, I don't want to dwell too much on this, but I'll just teach you with an analogy. If

0:44:41 - 0:45:06 you've ever seen a video of a rocket taking off for the first while the engines are going. But that rocket is not moving. But then when it starts going, the rate of change goes exponential. And that's what it's like for a mighty servant of God. And Jesus is obviously the chief example of what a mighty

0:45:06 - 0:45:38 man of God can be in this world. So, so they really messed up there. So let's keep going. Uh many therefore of his disciples. So back to the context, he just said, hey, if to believe in me, you actually have to follow my example. Many therefore of his disciples. When they heard this said, this isn't

0:45:38 - 0:46:00 hard saying who can hear it. Now people read that and they're like, oh, that's because what he said sounded like cannibalism and obviously that wasn't good and they really struggled with that. They knew exactly what he meant. He was using language where they would know exactly what he meant when Jesus

0:46:00 - 0:46:26 knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it. He said unto them doth this offend you what and if ye shall see the son of man ascend up where he was before. In other words, he's saying I have much greater things to, to say and do. And if, if this is too much for you, you're in big trouble, then he

0:46:26 - 0:46:52 said, he gave them the key to get over themselves. He said, it is the spirit that quicken the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you. They are spirit and they are life. In other words, he was saying, quit judging what I do and say based off of what you think is right? Who cares what

0:46:51 - 0:47:10 you think is right? You have no fruits to show you have any clue what you're talking about. But I came down from heaven. Look at everything I'm doing. Listen to the things I'm saying. I'm showing you power that no one else has ever shown you. And I'm giving you wisdom in my teachings that no one else

0:47:10 - 0:47:30 has given you. I'm answering questions. No one else could answer. I'm solving problems. No one has ever been able to solve. That's what you should use to judge me. Not your very incorrect understanding of the way things work, which should be obvious because you can't do any of these things or teach any

0:47:30 - 0:47:51 of these things or answer any of these questions and so on. That's what he's saying here. It's the spirit that quicken, it's God that has all power, all wisdom, et cetera, the flesh profiteth nothing. And that's how we ought to approach this again, taking the lower seats so that God can raise us up and

0:47:51 - 0:48:17 show us better things and make us better than what we are. And then from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him, then said, Jesus unto the 12. Will ye also go away. All right. Now, we just have a little bit more. Let's look at this picture. And if you're listening, this

0:48:16 - 0:48:41 is definitely a point where you wanna pause and look at the video or pause it until you can look at the video. So look at this diagram. Here's you, here's how you look beyond the mark. This is the progression. Roughly speaking of where all this is going to go, God is going to change your heart and he's

0:48:41 - 0:49:03 gonna change the practical way that you live your life. It's gonna give you more strength, more intensity by organizing you better. That's my best attempt at icons. He's gonna change your mind by giving you all sorts of different ideas than you have right now. And only then after these internal changes

0:49:03 - 0:49:31 and these changes in your immediate life that you already have only then is he gonna change your family, bring you into his kingdom and convert the world, make the world his kingdom. Now you ignore all of that and then just jump right to the end and say that's what I want. That's where I wanna be. I

0:49:31 - 0:49:54 refer you to the earlier part of this presentation with a suggestion. No, you don't trust me. Trust me cause I know what that's like, I know what that's like and you are not prepared for that. That is not. If someone held that out in plainness, you would not want that. Not yet. The main reason is you

0:49:54 - 0:50:15 , you just don't know, love and trust God enough yet, but you can get there, you can get there and you should. It's wonderful. That's, there's nothing wrong with looking up. Ok. Nothing. That's what we should be doing. And I'll tell you to do that in different places. However, that's not what you're

0:50:15 - 0:50:36 actually doing. You think that this is what you're doing right? You think you're, you're oh, Zion, I just can't wait till Christ is king on earth and his kingdom is organized and I can't wait. But this is what you're actually doing. You have a vain imagination of what that would be like. It's vain because

0:50:36 - 0:50:59 it's false and it's not malicious, it's just incorrect. The reason is you have no faculty, no capability of generating an accurate image of what that would be like because all good things come from above and you don't yet qualify for God to tell you about it. That's why or to take you there. That's why

0:50:59 - 0:51:23 Paul said I have not seen the good things that God has prepared for those that love him in other places in the scriptures. It says God wants to show us those things and he will, he can and he will here and now he can, you can know what it's like and you can be prepared for it. It's totally possible to

0:51:23 - 0:51:43 get to the point where if someone snapped their fingers and the world turned into God's kingdom, you'd be good to go instant instant plug and play, but you are not there yet. You're not even close and how far you are, it's actually better that you don't know because you'd be so discouraged that you just

0:51:43 - 0:52:07 lay on the floor and wanna die. And some of you feel like that from some time from time to time. And so, isn't this an interesting balancing act? Where on the one hand, we've got to help you reduce your self image to make it more accurate. And on the other, we have to encourage you to be um more trusting

0:52:06 - 0:52:33 that God can make you into everything he has said. He can because he can and there's a process and it's totally worth it. OK? But let me prove to you that this is what you're doing. OK? Because you're gonna be, oh, that's so judgmental how this is what Jesus said, except a man be born again. He cannot

0:52:32 - 0:52:56 see the kingdom of God except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Have you been born again? And I don't mean that in the cheap Christian way of say a prayer and magically shazam, you're reborn. I mean, have you fully submitted to the Lord in all things to the extent that you are joyful

0:52:56 - 0:53:24 in anything he sends you no matter how terrible it seems or how different it is than what you thought or wanted. No, then you cannot see his kingdom, you literally can't do this. And so now this is funny when people who do this, judge people who do this and they say, well, what you're saying has to be

0:53:23 - 0:53:46 wrong because it doesn't match what I believe. But why should we care what you believe if we have this, why do we care what this person thinks about about that? Will we expect them to do anything but dislike that because that's what I'm telling you. If you saw this, you would not like it, right? If you

0:53:46 - 0:54:13 were there, you would not want to be there. But those who have prepared to be here when it's open to them, their hearts long to be there. They want to be there more than one could want anything almost. There's one exception to that. I won't get into it now. OK? You can't know what lies above except to

0:54:13 - 0:54:40 the extent that it's revealed to you from one who is above. It's, that's said very literally in John, very literally not 33, but it's in there. You can't know the way except by knowing someone who's already gone there and who's come from there. That's what Jesus said. I am come down from heaven. I am

0:54:40 - 0:55:02 the bread of life. Now, that's the bad news. The good news is, well, it's still good news because there are people that come down from higher to show us and they're born here as babies for the most part. And And why do I say that? Well, it's not just a question of quantity. It's a question of benefit

0:55:02 - 0:55:26 . Um, the sacrifice required to come here as a being of light, of greater light and be born as a baby. It's much greater than dropping down here from heaven as what most people think of as a ministering angel. Those angels are much more limited in what they can do because the cost they're paying is much

0:55:25 - 0:55:49 less. So that's important to know and that's a little tidbit. But anyway, all good comes from above and the good news is it's already before you. Now, I know people are gonna hear that and say, oh this guy, he's telling us that, that he's giving us all the good that comes from above. Well, I am sharing

0:55:48 - 0:56:08 everything that I have received as, as fast as I can organize it to the point it needs to be to do that. But that's not what I'm referring to here. It's much more personal than that. And I would say a lot better than that. I'm talking about what God has already placed in your very, very, very personal

0:56:08 - 0:56:34 life, very much individual to you. The latter to heaven. Look around you wherever you are, whatever your situation in life is, you're on the run. The next rung is right there already. I promise you. Now, I would have to know you personally to describe it to you, but it is already there and I can almost

0:56:34 - 0:57:02 guarantee you don't see it and or aren't stepping up on it. Now, when Jesus said the following, he was obviously talking about himself, but I encourage you to, to generalize this and think about the step that God has already put in your life in terms of your very personal life and everything all around

0:57:01 - 0:57:25 you. And I mean, your home life, your family life, your work life, but most especially your internal life, what you think about what you want, why you want it, what you do and why you do it. So this is what he said or they asked him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God. We already read

0:57:25 - 0:57:49 this, but I'm reviewing it. Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God that ye believe on Him who he hath sent in another place. He described how it was important to recognize who God sends into your life in order to get the most you can out of them. And this is where he he said, if someone

0:57:49 - 0:58:14 gives a prophet just a cold, a cup of cold water, they will in no wise lose their reward. And he was describing how if you, if God sends to you a profit. These are jesus' uh ideas. I'm not making these up if God sends you a prophet and you only see Him as a fellow human being and attempt to alleviate

0:58:13 - 0:58:30 some of the unjust suffering he might be going through. You will get all the rewards of alleviating a fellow human being from all the unjust suffering they might be going through. If you see them as a teacher, you'll get all the rewards of seeing them as a teacher. If you see them as a prophet, you'll

0:58:30 - 0:58:49 get all the rewards of seeing them as a prophet. Now with Jesus, some people thought all of those things of him and much worse things. But then some people thought that he was the Messiah in the ancient Jewish understanding of what that would be and they received rewards that were commensurate with that

0:58:49 - 0:59:12 . And then some few believed that he was the son of God and they received the much greater benefits that can only come through someone who understands that, who believed that and was around Jesus because we don't see what we're not looking for and we can't value what we don't um know the cost of. Ok

0:59:12 - 0:00:00 , so all of that was having to do with people. But now what if you generalize that? And you try to see the value of the opportunities that you have all around you that, that, that aren't people, but there are things you can do their ideas, their feelings, it's so on. There are ways that you can act,

0:00:00 - 0:59:57 reasons, you can do things for or not, do things for. And that is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent. That is the step like it's all sequential. But if this beginning parts all jacked up, you can't even see what comes next, let alone do it. And so all the effort you spend trying

0:59:57 - 1:00:18 to imagine what this would be like and getting all excited about it. You're, you're, you're not only you're wasting time, but you're, you're absolutely guaranteeing that you're not doing the very things that would bring you closer to it. So this one's really important. Luke 642. This is where he says

1:00:17 - 1:00:38 , um, you can't say to your brother, brother. Let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye when, which is a small splinter when thou thyself beholds not the beam that is in thine own eye, thou hypocrite cast out first the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote

1:00:38 - 1:01:03 that is in thy brother's eye. So Jesus was saying the first step is fixing all the ways. You know, you're a hypocrite and what's a hypocrite? Someone who, who acts or feels or speaks differently than what they actually believe. Uh sorry, then what they say, they believe from what they say, they believe

1:01:02 - 1:01:25 . So aligning all of that, aligning your, your beliefs and your actions and your feelings. That's the first step. No one tells you this right? You're never gonna hear this in a church and that's why you'll never get in the way of the Lord in his path until you figure out and fix this. It's never gonna

1:01:25 - 1:01:48 happen. You will never be born again until you quit being a hypocrite. It's required for reasons that I can explain at length. But I'm not gonna do that right now and then you have this principle of sequential, greater light and truth. You're not gonna get to the world being God's kingdom on earth until

1:01:48 - 1:02:10 you're in a much smaller geographically speaking kingdom. And you're not gonna be able to get there until your house is running the way it can. Now, other people's agency is involved in all of this. But the question is, are you doing absolutely everything you can at home? And the answer is no. So you

1:02:10 - 1:02:35 have to fix that and even before that, you have to fix yourself because that's the very first step. And the principle is that when you do what you know, you should do and stop doing what you know, you shouldn't do, you will receive more. You can see that in Matthew 1312, you can see that. Now on the

1:02:35 - 1:03:02 1210 and 11, as you turn away from the best, you know, you will get less and less as you turn toward it, you will get more and more. That's the knob and that is what lies fully in your control right now today. Now, last slide, bringing all this home, this isn't the first time I've mentioned this idea

1:03:02 - 1:03:30 , but it is not fun to look at the analytics on the videos I make, which I have to see when I'm posting things and changing the dates because it's the same screen. Um And I see this pattern over and over and over again where if all I have to do to get lots of views is make a video that says, you know

1:03:30 - 1:04:00 , God appeared to me and said, and I can copy these fake profits out there, get a nice thumbnail with me weeping or something. And that's all it takes mysteries, miracles, visions, polygamy, anything controversial or shiny that that satisfies the what people think has something to do with this or what

1:04:00 - 1:04:23 people want to be true about me. Even if it isn't, all I have to do to get really low views is tell you something that will actually help you in some way, in some practical way right now. So to, to help you learn how to assess value, to help increase your reason or your ability to persuade others. Teach

1:04:23 - 1:04:44 the, actually teach the gospel, but not in the way the world understands that how to better lead your family or start one if you're not married and how to organize your life, how to make a life plan and live according to it, how to set goals and how to prioritize and optimize. No one wants to hear anything

1:04:43 - 1:05:04 about that again. Broad brushing. It seems like there's about 100 and 23 of you who do but, or one person who really likes replaying things somewhere between those two things, the truth lies. But, um, this is the way it goes and it's, it's really messed up. Uh It's not a surprise to me. It's unfortunate

1:05:03 - 1:05:27 and, um, I don't think it's escap able, but this presentation is to make sure that my garments are clean here and I will continue to restate this as often as I feel the need to. But it's very clear that we're still not understanding um that things cour and actually looking back to this title, uh I'm

1:05:27 - 1:05:47 now unfortunately realizing that I didn't emphasize a point here that I didn't even mention one that is super important and may be worthy of its own presentation. But maybe we can just dance over the things we've talked about and you'll get it. Um At least enough to start doing it. So, what should the

1:05:47 - 1:06:09 people that were looking for? The loaves and fishes? What and the king, what should they have been looking for? So God uses what we want to lead us to what we're not good enough to want yet. That's actually better. That's the principle. That's the principle. So they went to Jesus out in the wilderness

1:06:09 - 1:06:30 to be healed because they understood that that was a valuable thing, but they were looking for healing. They weren't looking for something better. So, so the fact that they were healed is evidence of this because people had already been healed in the towns. And it wasn't the healed people that came to

1:06:30 - 1:06:53 see him unless they got hurt on the way. Did you get that? It was new people who didn't catch him in the towns. And so he literally went up a mountain and then they had to come up the mountain to effectively out in the wilderness to find him to receive the same thing that people had just gotten for way

1:06:53 - 1:07:25 less cost. And the, the whole, the whole time, what happens is God tries to point us to what we ought to want. And he explains the value of it through what we want right now. And this is the principle, what cours with what you seek is more important than what you seek. Someone that has the power to help

1:07:24 - 1:07:46 you get what you need and cannot get yourself. Because you've tried like these people who went to him to get healed and then also who needed him for food. In fact, that's we didn't have time for this. If you read the account of the first multiplying of loaves and fishes in Matthew, this is how Jesus

1:07:46 - 1:08:05 does it. The, the disciples say we need to send these people away because we don't have enough food for them. And Jesus says, you feed them and they say, well, how the heck can we do that? And then he says, ok, well, give me those loaves and fishes and then he does the miracle. But then he gives the

1:08:05 - 1:08:31 baskets to the 12 and the 12, give them to the people. And it's, it's a chain of demonstrating value through helping people see that Jesus had what they did not have and what it was worth and how they were going to get it through the things and people already on this planet. It's a very deep important

1:08:30 - 1:08:59 lesson. but that's the pattern. OK? Because it wasn't about the loaves, it wasn't about food, it was about Jesus and every single thing we seek in life, the purpose of it is to more fully illustrate the value of God and increase our willingness to pay the greater price required to find and have and live

1:08:58 - 1:09:20 more of him. So hopefully that little summary will give you something to think about. If this guy thinks that I have the ability to give him what he seeks, then the other things I have have even greater value.