0:00:00 - 0:00:20 Scripture studies lately, I've been thinking, thinking about an idea that I'd like to share with you, which is essentially that. It's amazing how many scriptures exist that people don't actually believe or put another way. It's amazing how many beliefs people hold, who claim to believe in the scriptures 0:00:20 - 0:00:50 that are plainly contradicted in the scriptures. And I want to draw special attention to the fact kind of turning this around a little that they would really lose their minds and do when they see the good things described in the scriptures in their own lives in a bad way. They reject, they violently 0:00:49 - 0:01:14 reject, not just plain old reject, they violently reject the very things they say they believe that are in the scriptures, in plainness. So that's what this presentation's about. It's pretty short, but I hope it's to the point. Um, this whole presentation we're focusing on the Lord. And um to start with 0:01:14 - 0:01:38 that, the point I want to make is that if you plucked any random Christian out of thin air and you ask them, what, what do you, how do you feel about Jesus? Well, they're just going to gush with praise and oh, he's, he's the best. But we know that that doesn't necessarily equate to how that person would 0:01:38 - 0:02:01 actually feel about the Lord. And just so that this isn't some grand mystery. The reason these things can be different is because the whole purpose of us being here is to come to know him better. One of the greatest false traditions there is in Christianity is this idea that you can know everything there 0:02:01 - 0:02:20 is to know about the Lord in, in just by offering the sinner's prayer or getting baptized or whatever the entry point to your particular flavor of Christianity is that as soon as you're through that gate, you know everything there is to know and like many of these crazy beliefs, no one would ever admit 0:02:20 - 0:02:37 that. But that's exactly how they act. If you pinned them down on it, they'd say, well, of course, we don't know everything there is to know about Jesus. But then when you ask them, ok, and how do you live your life in accordance with that they'd say, oh, well, I mean, I go to church every Sunday and 0:02:37 - 0:02:54 , and they repeat the same things that they say every Sunday. And that's, you know, I read the scriptures and I see the same things I saw before and I never change. Well, guess what? Then you don't actually believe that you don't know everything there is to know about Jesus or I, if someone comes along 0:02:54 - 0:03:12 and teach us something you've never heard of. That's way different than everything you presently believe and you say get lost, you're a heretic. Then you don't actually believe that you don't know everything there is to know about Jesus because you, you could have just tossed out a messenger that God 0:03:12 - 0:03:27 sent you to teach you something about him or when you're praying and God says, oh, here's some crazy things that you never thought about. And you're like, oh, no, no, no, no. That, that can't be right. That's not, that's from the devil or that's just from my head. That's not from God because it's different 0:03:26 - 0:03:49 than what I already believe. Well, then you, you, you do believe that you know everything there is to know. So in Matthew 721 the Lord said that there will be many who say Lord Lord, but they won't enter into the kingdom of heaven. He says, he, that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven is 0:03:49 - 0:04:12 the one who's going to go to heaven. So saying you're doing his will or even believing that you're doing his will, it's not good enough. You have to actually do his will. And that's, that's, we have to learn about his will to know what to do. And there's a process for that and the process begins with 0:04:12 - 0:04:31 doing what you presently believe. And I'm, I'm gonna elaborate on that in this presentation because I want to talk a lot about the scriptures. It's where we're going with all of this. But at a high level, here's the principle. If you want to learn more about God live up to what you already know. It's 0:04:31 - 0:04:58 that simple. OK? Use what he has already sent and then he will send you more. He's not going to send you more until you live up to what he's already sent. And so in this case, what I want to invite you to do is to read the scriptures with new eyes, looking for things. You don't agree with crazy idea 0:04:57 - 0:05:19 . I know, see, you don't realize this, but what you're doing is when you, when you read the scriptures, even you can read them two hours a day of telling you what you're doing is you're bouncing over everything that doesn't make sense to you and you're ignoring everything you disagree with and you, you 0:05:19 - 0:05:40 , you, if we were sitting face to face, you'd object to that and you'd say no, I believe the scriptures. I do. I think this is the word of God. OK, fine. But I'm telling you if I knew you well enough to do this and we sat down, I could take you through the scriptures and point to verse after verse, story 0:05:40 - 0:06:04 after story and show you that, that you, your beliefs deviate from what that says. And uh you know, we could go at it at different angles. I'd say, how would you feel if you were in the story and you were this person or let's put this into modern terms and you can see how, how this is exactly what's 0:06:03 - 0:06:26 going on in your life and you do the other thing, but you skip over all of that. And the thing is, is we assume that familiarity with the stories equals obedience to God. And that of course, is not true. Or we, we inject so many layers of separation between us and the story that we can't apply it at 0:06:26 - 0:06:48 all to our everyday lives because it, it's, we see it as something, you know, you say, well, if Jesus came, of course, I would believe in him if he came as a man. Well, that's because you've got 2000 years of plausible deniability. If, if you lived in that time, you know, the distance gives you license 0:06:47 - 0:07:14 to change how you really are as you're working through the differences. If, if that makes sense, like you're not, you're not uh a historic old timey fisherman. You're, you're not a lifelong Jew in the year zero. How do you know how you would react to him? Because it's easy for you to twist everything 0:07:13 - 0:07:34 up and say, yeah, knowing exactly what I know about Jesus. If he were to show up, I'd act in this, in that way. Well, you already have the complete story, you know, the end and you're really far from it. And so it's easy to make claims about how you would behave in that situation. But it's very different 0:07:34 - 0:07:58 from how you live your life now. And that's the problem and that's what I'm trying to help you with here. So the point to make is that when we say the scriptures, I know that this is a kicking a hornet's nest because there's so many sacred cows about this. There's no such thing as some book that is carved 0:07:57 - 0:08:23 in stone. This is the complete word of God that that always was and will be and whatever, whatever, whatever the scriptures is a compilation of writings of servants of God, detailing dealings with God and men. There are a lot of quotes of things that God said in there, there are a lot more stories about 0:08:22 - 0:08:47 people who did or did not do what the Lord wanted them to do and how that went. There's a whole bunch of wisdom in there. Proverbs and things. But at the end of the day, these are writings by humans who were, who had a relationship with and were inspired by God. Why is that important? Because as we're 0:08:47 - 0:09:11 about to see in these stories from the life of Jesus, the gospel is not in a book, the gospel is in you and how well you learn and live like the Lord, learn about and live like the Lord. And, and if you try to do that, you don't do that in a vacuum in a cave where it's just you in the, in the Bible and 0:09:11 - 0:09:32 , and that's what you've got and you can pray. There are tons and tons of humans in this equation. And when one of those humans happens to have a mandate from God to preach the gospel, things are going to be a little different than just you and the Bible. And that's exactly what Jesus came across. The 0:09:32 - 0:09:58 Bible didn't exist back then, but the, the priestly class knew the scriptures to that date very well. It was their job scribes the Pharisees. And so when Jesus came along as a living person, their whole model of it's me and the, the scroll, it went out the window because they were doing the same thing 0:09:58 - 0:10:17 that you do, which is, hey, these are words from someone who lived a long time ago. And it's like Jesus said, you paint the tombs of the prophets white, but in your heart, you're at least as bad as your fathers who murdered them. And so it's easy to say at a distance between the years. Oh, yeah, I'm 0:10:17 - 0:10:40 super holy. I would never do what all these idiots did back then. I'd totally do the right thing in every situation. Well, let me give you some tools to help identify the ways you wouldn't. What you have to do is model how he is and how you are. Better understand how the Lord is and how you are and then 0:10:40 - 0:10:59 look at the differences and then make changes to how you are to better align with him. It's pretty, it's a pretty simple idea but, but obviously it takes a lot of work and sacrifice to, to make that happen. But if all you're doing is memorizing words and never applying them to your life, well, that's 0:10:59 - 0:11:23 not really gonna yield much except an incredibly incorrect perspective of how close to the Lord you are in John 35. Jesus said verily verily I sent to thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Now we we talk about this all the time and sorry, I'm just 0:11:23 - 0:11:47 realizing that uh I left out a very important scripture here. We talk about this all the time uh to different ends in different topics that I, I wanna keep as general as I can. So I won't give you specifics, but there's a really important um additional verse here which I left out. So I apologize, I'll 0:11:47 - 0:12:21 put that in here right now, which is this one. So, so we know about the importance of being born again in terms of entering the Kingdom of God. But here's one he says, except a man be born again. He cannot see the Kingdom of God. So what's the difference? How are you going to know how the Lord really 0:12:21 - 0:12:45 is if you aren't born again? Because you can't see his kingdom in Isaiah. We read how the the, the Lord says, his ways are much higher than our ways much higher in other verses. In the, in the, in the scriptures, we read that, that humans. We can't imagine the way to God. It has to be revealed to us 0:12:45 - 0:13:18 from above the process. The first step, the required step is to align ourselves to what we already believe. It's necessary. It's not optional until you do your perspective on right and wrong is basically worthless. Because as Jesus says here, you can't even see the Kingdom of God, you can't even see 0:13:18 - 0:13:53 the Kingdom of God. And so if someone like Jesus were to come today instead of 2000 years ago, you absolutely positively would write him off as evil, neutral at best, but definitely not good or holy. Certainly not the Son of God. Why? Because by nature, mankind is evil. We desire bad things, but not 0:13:53 - 0:14:24 only that we don't correctly recognize what is bad. And so I, you know, I hope that I'm laying out something that's a lot richer than the oversimplified. Oh, we like doing evil. Yeah. You can't even see what is good. What you think is good is actually evil. That's how jacked up we are by nature and the 0:14:24 - 0:14:50 path is to first reconcile to what we do believe. And as we go into that God will teach us line upon line, he will refine our valuation. He'll teach us more and more about himself and about the value of things and what we want and why we want it and how much we want it. It all changes now the Christian 0:14:49 - 0:15:20 world, it, it does this disgusting oversimplification of all this by saying God changes our hearts. What they mean when they say that is that in spite of the astronomical, no pun intended efforts required to generate creation for the purpose of giving us the opportunity to choose to follow God in an 0:15:20 - 0:15:42 environment where it's not super clear that that's a good idea. So it actually costs us something. It requires faith. All that effort was actually just so that you could say, ok, God, I'm in now, change my heart and make me holy. I hate to tell you, I hate to break you the bad news. It's actually good 0:15:42 - 0:16:11 news. The bad news is, that's not the way it works. It's a process where you align with the best, you know, and then he teaches you more, you align with that and he teaches you more and you align with that and you keep going along the way, you develop enough trust in God that you learn to not need a 0:16:11 - 0:16:33 period where you're doubting him and continuing to do differently than what he's showing you. You just jump right in every time He gives you something new and you could call that sinless and he'll lead you line upon line to something better, better, better, better. That's the bad news because it's a 0:16:33 - 0:16:50 lot more work than just saying, OK, God, I pray and I want you to take all my sin away and change my heart against my will. And you say, but it's not against your will. You're asking for it. No, you're asking him to do something that you don't actually want to do. Because if you wanted to do it, you 0:16:49 - 0:17:28 wouldn't have to ask him to do it for you. Sin is choosing what you know is not the best ignorance is, is a question of not knowing what is really the best. So understanding that what you think is the best is not actually the best. Those are different. So when you truly believe that God is everything 0:17:27 - 0:17:59 He says He is and everything those that know Him say He is, you will stop sinning immediately instantly. Why? Because you'll recognize that all the temptations are just false representation of cost and benefit even when all you have to go on is I sincerely believe God has told me X and yet my feelings 0:17:58 - 0:18:24 say why or I'm, I'm really hungry right now. And here's some food and God has told me don't eat this, but I'm gonna do it anyway because I trust my hunger more than I trust God. And you can apply that to every single temptation. That's all it is, is a distortion of cost and benefit. And when, when you 0:18:24 - 0:18:53 truly trust God, you will go with what you sincerely believe he would all the time and until you're there, you have not been born again. That's what it means. It means to look to God for what you do rather than yourself. And if you're not there yet, you can't actually see what is good. You're stuck where 0:18:53 - 0:19:19 you are with your current view, your current distortion of good and evil. And that's what you have to reconcile, to get to, to get through the gate. So how does the line upon line come? Well, he tells us that right there in John three and he's talking to Nicodemus about this. He says, verily, verily 0:19:19 - 0:19:41 , I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that which that we have seen and ye receive not our witness if I have told you earthly things and ye believe not. How shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even 0:19:41 - 0:20:08 the son of man, which is in heaven. Now, Jesus could tell this to you without really having to change any words. How is that? He could tell you? Look, I've given you a conscience, you already have an idea of good and evil and you're not living up to it. Why should I tell you anything more? Why should 0:20:08 - 0:20:30 I give you anything that's more accurate than that, more expansive than that, that covers more situations, more accurately, closer to what I actually would do. Why should I tell you that you're not even living up to what I've given you already? And then the kicker there is that last part, we cannot construct 0:20:29 - 0:21:09 a path to heaven. We can only respond to invitations that come from heaven. And so we ascend by our response through our response to invitations toward improvement. Jesus was very plain about this point because he said he came down from heaven. He said, this is now quoting from John five. I know you 0:21:08 - 0:21:33 that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my father's name and ye receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him, ye will receive. And what does it mean to come in your own name? In John 311? Jesus said again, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and ye receive 0:21:33 - 0:21:59 not our witness. Jesus did not preach the gospel from the perspective of here's my gospel opinion where I read the scriptures for really long time. And here's what I think it means. Jesus received his knowledge about the gospel through living up to what he already knew and being shown more from heaven 0:21:59 - 0:22:25 . It was not an academic exercise, it was not hearing some rabbi's opinion about something. And then saying, well, that guy was the most convincing I'm gonna go with that. It says he increased in favor with God and man, he increased lying upon line by living up to what he knew. And he was given more 0:22:25 - 0:22:52 from heaven. And he said that because he knew what the father was like and lived according to how the father would in his place. The response of everyone else to him accurately predicted how they would respond to the father. So what he's saying here in John 542 is I know you're evil because I'm like 0:22:52 - 0:23:15 the father and you hate me. Now, those people did not believe that they were evil. They believed they were the most righteous people on earth. The leaders of, of the Jews at the time, they, they believed that they were not just God's chosen people, but the the rulers over God's chosen people. But he 0:23:15 - 0:23:45 said in John 538 ye have not his word, the Father's word abiding in you for whom he hath sent him. Ye believe not. So just in plainness. Jesus said, I know how you feel about the Father because I can see how you feel about me and I'm more like Him than you are. So what does this have to do with the scriptures 0:23:44 - 0:24:13 ? Well, again, the scriptures are just just, well, they're a compilation of the writings of God's servants, stories about God's dealing with men, dealings with men. So one of those stories we have is John the Baptist. We have that story, we can read the, the elements of that that are recorded and obviously 0:24:13 - 0:24:43 , it's only partial, but for Jesus, it wasn't a story, it was his life. He was there. John baptized him, this was contemporary with his own life. And the people that Jesus was trying to teach, a lot of them believed in John. At least they said they did. The problem is that John testified that Jesus was 0:24:43 - 0:25:12 greater than him and you can read that that that's in our scriptures. And yet very few of John's disciples followed Jesus. And so Jesus brought this up in John five. He said, ye sent unto John and bear witness unto the and he bear witness unto the truth. He was a burning and a shining light. And you 0:25:12 - 0:25:33 were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me. And so the people said that they believed in in John, but John testified of 0:25:33 - 0:25:59 Jesus. And very few of those people believed in Jesus, even though they said they believed in John. A similar thing happened with the Jews in general who held Moses to be their lawgiver if you asked any of them. Do you believe in Moses? They'd say absolutely, he's the lawgiver what we have in the law 0:25:59 - 0:26:22 . It's through Him, it's from God, through Him. He's the law giver and yet. And, and they use this defense against Jesus when he called them sinners, they, they claimed authority and righteousness through Moses. But Jesus said, do not think that I will accuse you to the father. There is one that accuse 0:26:21 - 0:26:51 you even Moses in whom ye trust for had ye believed Moses, you would have believed me for, he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? And so if for us, John, the Baptist is in the scriptures, it's a historic story for Jesus at the time, John, the Baptist was his 0:26:51 - 0:27:17 contemporary, but at the time Moses was historic. And so we get examples of the transition from a living servant of God into a historical figure in the scriptures. Through this. Even in the time of Jesus, there were people who knew John, who had heard what he had said about Jesus who said they believed 0:27:16 - 0:27:43 in John, but did not believe what he said about Jesus. And then Jesus brings up Moses and he says Moses isn't here. But you all say you believe in Him, you can read what he wrote about me, but you don't believe that. So how can you say you believe Moses? And here, this is not the point of the presentation 0:27:42 - 0:28:07 , but I want to help you as much as I can. Here is one explicit example of something that can be in the scriptures and yet, and we can say we believe the scriptures and yet not believe it. What do, what do I mean? If you have Jesus said the writings of Moses, they testify of me, there are scriptures 0:28:07 - 0:28:34 in the Old Testament that testify of a Messiah to come. They predicted the coming of Jesus. And one of the, the ways we go wrong is that we read about things like this. That's what these people had read that Jesus would come. A Messiah would come. And then when, when someone came, who fit the bill, they 0:28:34 - 0:28:59 actually punished him because they said that it was a crime to fulfill what had been prophesized. They didn't put it that way. They said he was blasphemy, he was blaspheming because so I'll just, I'm trying to be as plain as I can here on the one hand, they said, we believe these scriptures that say 0:28:59 - 0:29:29 a Messiah will come and on the other. They said we refuse to believe anyone claiming to be the Messiah because how could any man be that holy? Do you see things are so distorted in our day that if a John the Baptist came or any other named figure in the scriptures? I'm not saying come again. I'm saying 0:29:29 - 0:29:54 someone like that came, people would absolutely lose their minds and assume that that person was obviously a fraud because how could any person be that holy? Do you see how it's the same mistake? Look, if you say you believe the scriptures you also have to believe in things like visions, dreams, angels 0:29:53 - 0:30:23 prophesying, speaking in tongues, healing the sick, raising the dead and living without sin. If you twist any of those things or anything like that, that we, the properties that we know always co occurred with the gospel in its fullness with living connections to heaven. If you twist those things into 0:30:22 - 0:30:52 , into signs of falsehood, meaning instead of saying, well, obviously, anything we're looking for is going to have these properties. If you twist it around too, if we see these properties, obviously, we're looking at a fraud that is evil. That is exactly what the Jews did to reject Jesus. Now, the question 0:30:52 - 0:31:13 of whether those claims are true, that's a completely different question. If Jesus went around claiming the things he did without teaching wisdom that was greater than anything that had been taught before without being able to answer every single question anyone ever asked him without being able to do 0:31:13 - 0:31:47 these miracles that not only overlapped but exceeded beyond what others had done. Sure, he would have been a fraud, but the claims in and of themselves are exactly what you would have to have to be aligned with what we've seen in the scriptures. So zooming out a bit now, just to the general case, Jesus 0:31:47 - 0:32:13 said, search the scriptures for in them. You think you have eternal life and they are they which testify of me and ye will not come to me that you might have life. Now people simplify this verse to mean that the scriptures do have eternal life. That's not what Jesus was saying here. He said, you think 0:32:12 - 0:32:40 that they do. And the reason he was saying this, he says, come to me to actually get eternal life. Eternal life is not in a book. It can't be John said this the Apostle at the end of his gospel. He said, you can't squeeze Jesus down into a book. The best book in the world couldn't fit it. There are reasons 0:32:40 - 0:33:03 for this. There, there are elements of the character of the Lord that you have to learn through experience. But anyway, he says, look, if you actually live what you say, you believe, if you actually look into the scriptures and reconcile your life to what's there according to your present understanding 0:33:02 - 0:33:28 , you'll see that it testifies of me everything there is going to point to me and then I will give you what comes after that, which it's not a surprise, it shouldn't be a mystery. Jesus quoted scripture all the time. And so the, the the line up online, the new things they're new in the sense that they're 0:33:28 - 0:33:44 going to be ideas you hadn't thought before, but they all point back to the scriptures and you know, basically what he was doing, they didn't have printed books back then. But basically he was saying, oh, you believe in the Bible? OK, let me see that opening the book and saying, point to a verse and 0:33:44 - 0:34:01 saying, you see that, read that. What does that mean? And you'd say, oh, I don't actually know or some canned Sunday school answer and he'd say no, let me explain it to you. And then you'd say, oh my goodness. I've never realized that before. Now you've unpacked this and I have some new direction in 0:34:01 - 0:34:26 my life. I understand this mystery. I didn't understand before. I see how I need to change. He unfolds the scriptures. Angels do this too. So when I say new things or line upon line or new ideas, I, you know, it's not, it's going to seem like sometimes it's in, it's from left field, but they, you can 0:34:25 - 0:34:51 show these things in the scriptures. It's just that you didn't understand them. They're written there. You just didn't get it anyway. But eternal life, it's a relationship. It's a relationship with God. It's a, it's a relationship. So Jesus was telling these people, you say you believe the scriptures 0:34:50 - 0:35:16 , but you don't actually because it testified of me and you're fighting me instead of believing. And so here's my challenge to you. And I really hope you do this from now on when you read scripture and hopefully that's a daily thing for you. But whatever, whenever you're reading the scriptures, I want 0:35:16 - 0:35:44 you to make a list, actually write down anything that you've been skipping over so far in terms of stories where God asked someone to do what, you know, you would not do. So, how do we skip over those things? I'll, I'll give you some ways right now. When people read those, they say, well, God would never 0:35:43 - 0:36:03 ask me to do that. You read how Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac. You'd say, well, he doesn't do that anymore where you read what happened to job and you say, well, the job was a special person that was his special trial. I'm so glad God would never do that to me. I want you to flip that around 0:36:02 - 0:36:27 and say what if he did into anything? That's an impediment to you doing what righteous people did in the scriptures, you should work on, go to God and talk to him about it and say, you know, Lord, if I were in Abraham's shoes, I would not do this. And I need you to help me because I know I'm wrong and 0:36:27 - 0:36:48 I need to find out why Abraham did this so that I would do it too. If you told me to, you need to look at job and say, where did, where did job do? Well, how could it have been better? And where am I? And how do I make a path to that? And you take this to the Lord, you say, Lord, I'm missing something 0:36:47 - 0:37:25 . You know I'm broken here and he'll show you how to grow. That's the seat a lot of times we talk about the word as a seed and that's good. That's right. But you can take a seed to God, which is your own broken heart. You say Lord I need you because I know that I'm jacked up in this way and I know that 0:37:25 - 0:37:55 you have the solution. This is a problem and you already have it figured out. But I don't know what to do. I don't know how to change this and I need you to come like we read, come down from above and help me with what I lack. You can flip the same idea around. We talked about things that he could ask 0:37:54 - 0:38:16 you to do that. You would not do. You can flip it around and, and think about things that or, or notice things that he asks people to stop doing and think about. Would you do that? Just a random one, Gideon. He builds this army to fulfill God's commandment gives, gets some military instructions. He builds 0:38:15 - 0:38:38 this army and the Lord says, hold on, the army is too big. And you can imagine being in Gideon shoes like, wait, what? It's too big. I could understand. Not big enough, but it's too big. And God says, yeah, we got to pare this down. We got to pair this down so you can see that it's me doing this, not 0:38:37 - 0:39:01 you because that's what's gonna help you the most in the future. And if, if you were marching in a direction that you really believed was God's will. And he told you, you know, I need to make this a little harder. I need to make this a little harder so that you value it more and you value me more because 0:39:00 - 0:39:19 that's what's gonna help you the most in the future. How would you react? Because odds are, you'd say, well, obviously, God doesn't want me to do it because it just got harder and he opens doors and if he closes doors, it means he doesn't want it done. Well, the scriptures don't say that to actually 0:39:19 - 0:39:39 give lots of examples of the opposite where he entices you into a path that you'd never go down if you knew half of how hard it really was. And then he slowly lets you in on the secret. Hey, this is way harder than you ever would have done if I just told you the whole story from the beginning. But he 0:39:39 - 0:39:57 builds you little by little and he makes you stronger. It's like a role playing game. You know, I don't know how many people they, but they had these old timey role playing games uh on early platforms where I guess they're still out there where the game is the same on every level, it just gets way like 0:39:57 - 0:40:23 you get stronger and the bosses get stronger. Everybody just gets stronger with every level anyway. So what would you do if he asked you to stop doing what you we're doing or made it harder. Uh Yeah, obviously you, you can explore with your own mind the, the typical examples of stopping certain things 0:40:23 - 0:40:46 that's obviously all over the place. So what would you do? What about when you're reading a story? And there's an example of a person who's doing righteous things. And you say, well, I wouldn't do that. Now, this is a funny thing because we usually criticize those people when we find something that they're 0:40:46 - 0:41:11 doing that we wouldn't do. We say, well, I've got this guy beat, I'd never do that in his situation. I must be righteous. We don't stop to think. For example, with David, the Lord said, David was a man after his own heart. Has he ever said that about you? If not, then if there's a difference between 0:41:11 - 0:41:36 how you would act and how David acted in a certain situation, maybe you're the one who's jacked up. Have you ever stopped to think that people are so quick to criticize Peter? Would you do any better? How are you so confident, Peter walked on water. What have you done? Peter risked his life to follow 0:41:36 - 0:42:05 the Lord? He gave his life to follow the Lord. He was killed for his testimony. What have you done? Jesus came to Peter. He spent three years with him face to face. Have you even met the Lord once? Don't be so quick to criticize those who are obviously holier than you. It's extremely offensive to God 0:42:04 - 0:42:36 because it's extremely harmful to you don't do that. It's very much possible that people like Peter, people like David, we don't have to speculate about this. The Lord pointed out flaws in them. Ok. It's very possible that people that are ahead of you with the Lord are still flawed people, but that doesn't 0:42:35 - 0:43:03 mean that it's easy for you to see how and you'd be safer assuming the differences are ways in which they're more holy than you rather than the alternative. It's actually really important that you get to that attitude anyway. But even if we're just talking about the overtly righteous things that we can 0:43:02 - 0:43:32 all agree on. Would you do the same thing in their situation? Because if you do less than that, then that's a place where you can change. What about people who are obviously the villain in the story? Would you do the same thing that they do? So, you know, David, David and Bathsheba, that's, that's an 0:43:32 - 0:43:54 example of a story where the Lord made it clear that this was not a thing that people should do. And you say, well, I'm not a king. I don't go around walking on rooftops at, in the season of battle. So I'm good. Ok. But what's the equivalent in your life? Is there a time during your day or life where 0:43:54 - 0:44:26 you're supposed to be doing something productive? And instead you're, I don't know on the computer and what do you look at and why? And we know how upset the Lord was with David over this and we know why do you excuse yourself in similar situations or do you minimize it in comparison? We've talked about 0:44:25 - 0:44:51 several specific examples of the Pharisees and how they reacted to Jesus in this video. That is a very fruitful vein to mine. If you were to study the New Testament and analyze all the times when Jesus was resisted or rejected and look at why, what was the reason for the people who did it? And what was 0:44:50 - 0:45:13 the evidence Jesus was giving so that they shouldn't do it. And you can apply that to your own life because anyone who rejects what comes from God. I it's not like they're innovating, they're doing the same things that people have always done. And so you can inoculate yourself against making the same 0:45:13 - 0:45:43 mistakes by translating those stories into modern situations. And then that's a wonderful segue into the second to last one of these bullets, which is the stories where you would not react well to what the good person did in the story. So people seem to be surprised when, for example, the man healed 0:45:42 - 0:46:07 at the pool of Bethesda, he had been handicapped for many years, and Jesus healed him. And it was pretty obvious that this was a miracle and that the person that, that healed him had some sort of power from God to do it. And then the man immediately rats out Jesus to the Pharisees because he hears the 0:46:07 - 0:46:31 Pharisees are looking for him. And he, he says, yeah, he's right over there. He knows who Jesus is because Jesus healed him and he uses that knowledge to turn him into the authorities on false charges. And people read that story and they say, wow, what an evil guy who would do such a thing and you don't 0:46:31 - 0:46:56 understand you may be that person. It's very likely. And if not those around you who you think are good people, they would do that, many of them would do that. So the question is, what are these stories that we read when people react very poorly to good things that are done? Can we put ourselves in that 0:46:56 - 0:47:24 place and say, well, we do the same thing or if the people are just doing good things, how would you feel? How would you feel if some religious self styled religious teacher busted into your most holy place and trashed it and said that they did it because you are a bunch of stealing thieves and liars 0:47:23 - 0:47:45 and hypocrites. I don't think you'd react well to that. I think your assumption would be that they were crazy and certainly evil. And you'd be very angry and you'd want to see that person punished with the greatest punishment that you could help them receive. But that's exactly how the crowds would have 0:47:45 - 0:48:09 seen Jesus cleansing the temple. But see you read the story with rose colored lenses because you, you know who this is and you know the end of the story and all of that and that's a great segue to the last point, you should take note in the scriptures of all the cases where you would support what the 0:48:09 - 0:48:42 evil person did, whoever the villain is in the story. So for example, I ID, I don't know if this is the greatest example, maybe it's better to leave it without an example. But every, every time you see someone doing bad things, would you be the one who supports that person? So I don't know, you get a 0:48:42 - 0:49:02 case of someone arguing with Jesus and quoting scripture in opposition to what Jesus was doing. Would you be standing there saying? Yeah, well, the scriptures and we, we should keep believing all the things that we do because obviously we already have it all figured out. And who's this guy who does he 0:49:02 - 0:49:26 think he is? Or would you believe that God happens to send messengers to the earth with more light and truth? And they don't come to just tell people, hey, keep doing what you're doing. You've got it all figured out. Just keep on that. They disrupt what people already believe because it's not everything 0:49:25 - 0:49:55 they should, they tell them to do more because what they're doing is not enough. So does that mean that everyone who does something like that is right. No, it does not. It does not, but it does speak against the human tendency to support anyone who's quote unquote on your team. So you'll, you'll support 0:49:55 - 0:50:24 any old, any old, uh Ruffian who's arguing in support of your position without objectively analyzing the facts, the motives. And it's not that easy. So that's my invitation to you to begin to study the scriptures in a more full way where you're actually applying them to your life a lot more than you 0:50:24 - 0:50:49 are right now and notice all the scriptures that you have a problem with whether that's something you don't understand, but more importantly, something that you deviate from, in your actions or beliefs. This is a powerful way to use the scriptures for much greater ends than you currently do and it will 0:50:49 - 0:51:03 arm you with weapons that help you to be protected from ideas that would otherwise either derail you from what is good or prevent you from what is better.