- 9 hours ago
What is love? What is kindness? You don't know what good is without an external standard to define good and bad. Your god is whatever you allow to set your standards. How do we know what that standard is? We can know what is "good and acceptable and perfect" by verifying all things against the measuring rod of Scripture.
What is grace and what does God's grace do for us? Grace isn't a divinely bestowed superpower; it is unobligated favor. God doesn't owe us anything, but he chooses to offer us forgiveness and purpose. This is grace. Part of being a true disciple of Christ is learning to give grace like he does, to forgive and be kind, even when it costs us something that we don't owe.
We all have different roles in the Kingdom of Heaven. Some are prophets and some are teachers, but how do you know if someone has been put by God into the office of prophet? It's easier to say that someone is not a prophet. If he makes one false prophecy, then you can ignore him from that point on.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Follow me on Whole Bible Community: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
What is grace and what does God's grace do for us? Grace isn't a divinely bestowed superpower; it is unobligated favor. God doesn't owe us anything, but he chooses to offer us forgiveness and purpose. This is grace. Part of being a true disciple of Christ is learning to give grace like he does, to forgive and be kind, even when it costs us something that we don't owe.
We all have different roles in the Kingdom of Heaven. Some are prophets and some are teachers, but how do you know if someone has been put by God into the office of prophet? It's easier to say that someone is not a prophet. If he makes one false prophecy, then you can ignore him from that point on.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Follow me on Whole Bible Community: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00:01Welcome back to Common Sense Bible Study and Journey Through the Book of Romans.
00:00:06This is the outline of the Book of Romans, and it's a little bit different than what you might see
00:00:11in other places.
00:00:13Chiasms are one of the things I'm known for, and I've got a course on how to identify and map
00:00:20out biblical chiasms.
00:00:21These are really common literary structures used in the Bible, and not just in the Bible, but pretty much in
00:00:28all ancient cultures.
00:00:29And we use them even today sometimes without even really thinking about it.
00:00:33Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
00:00:37That's a really small chiasm.
00:00:40The beginning and the end are the same, or at least parallel, and then there's something parallel in the middle,
00:00:45and then a central point.
00:00:47So in the Book of Romans, we've got this chiastic structure where it begins and ends with greetings.
00:00:53And then inside of that, there's Paul talking about how he wants to come visit the Romans, and how much
00:01:01he wants to bring something to them, and then later, how much he wants to take something away from them.
00:01:06And then inside of that, there is the living at war with God and man at the beginning of the
00:01:12book, the last half of chapter one and the first half of chapter two.
00:01:17And at the end of the book, living at peace with God and man, and that's where we are now.
00:01:21And inside of that is the main part of the book.
00:01:24The first half is mostly focused on directed at Gentiles.
00:01:29Or no, sorry, directed at Jews in the first half of the book, saying, you guys are sinners and in
00:01:34need of a savior, just like Gentiles.
00:01:36You can't count on your genetic inheritance for your salvation.
00:01:40And in the second half of the book, it's mostly geared towards Gentiles, saying the Jews are still God's chosen
00:01:47people.
00:01:48And just because most of them have been unfaithful doesn't mean that God is going to be unfaithful to his
00:01:53covenants.
00:01:55And then in the middle, talking about, you know, sin and repentance and our relationship with God and his law.
00:02:02And we got past the main part of the book.
00:02:05And now we're in this second half of living at peace with God and man, which is opposed to the
00:02:11first one, where it's living at war with God and man up in chapter one, verse 18 through 216.
00:02:18And we covered, we got through chapter 12, verse one last time, and we started to talk about verse two,
00:02:25but we didn't finish it.
00:02:26So I'm going to start reading with verse two.
00:02:29Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you
00:02:34may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
00:02:39For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly
00:02:44than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God
00:02:49has assigned.
00:02:50For as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all have the same function.
00:02:54So we, though many are one body in Christ and individually members, one of another, having gifts that differ according
00:03:01to the grace given to us.
00:03:02Let us use them in if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who
00:03:08teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, one who leads
00:03:15with zeal and the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
00:03:19Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection,
00:03:28outdo one another in showing honor.
00:03:30Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
00:03:35Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek
00:03:42to show hospitality.
00:03:44All right, that's as far as I'm going to read because that's as far as my notes go.
00:03:48So going back to the beginning to verse two.
00:03:51So do not be conformed to this world.
00:03:54Sorry about all the throat clearing tonight.
00:03:57Don't know what's going on there.
00:03:59Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
00:04:04Now, being conformed to the world, it's pretty obvious what he means there.
00:04:08He's saying don't do what the world expects of you.
00:04:11The world has its standards and its standards obviously aren't the same as God's and God's standards are the things
00:04:20we're supposed to be shooting for.
00:04:22So if you look back at chapter one, you know, that last half of chapter one, the first part of
00:04:27chapter two, that's what conformity with the world looks like.
00:04:31You know, we see it at the Olympics this week, people behaving in the most obscene manner, people being cruel
00:04:39to each other, promiscuity, gluttony, greed, all of these things are the standards of the world.
00:04:46And especially in a world that doesn't even believe that there is a God, an atheist world has no real
00:04:53moral standing.
00:04:54I mean, no moral standards.
00:04:55They can claim that they do.
00:04:57They can claim that their morals are, you know, be good to each other.
00:05:01Well, what is good?
00:05:02Be nice.
00:05:03What does nice mean?
00:05:05We don't really know what those things are unless there's an external standard to tell us.
00:05:10How do we know what the will of God is?
00:05:13If we're supposed to be transformed by the renewal of our mind, this means that our minds are supposed to
00:05:19be changed.
00:05:20The way that we think, the way that we process the world and decide how we're going to behave in
00:05:25it is supposed to be different than what it used to be.
00:05:29So what standard are we supposed to use to know what, you know, what we're supposed to be thinking now?
00:05:37Any thoughts?
00:05:38I would just say, just kind of like the next verse, you know, just test yourself.
00:05:42Right.
00:05:43Just read God's word.
00:05:46Just, I guess if you've already been reading the word of God, just know, try to observe the, or remember
00:05:55the fruits of the spirit.
00:05:59You know, I can't, I can't name them all, but, you know, that's something just to test yourself on.
00:06:05Sometimes we're not always patient or kind or, you know, whatever the fruits of the spirit are, you know, it's
00:06:16good to test us through those, through those fruits of the spirit.
00:06:20Yeah.
00:06:22Yeah.
00:06:22Well, it's hard to define what kind means though.
00:06:24So I might think that, you know, being kind to me is different than what somebody else might think being
00:06:30kind is.
00:06:32So, I mean, we can boil all this down to loving each other, right?
00:06:35That's yeah.
00:06:36But what does love mean?
00:06:39Everybody seems to have a different idea about it.
00:06:41So if we're, if our minds are supposed to be transformed, transformed to what?
00:06:47I would say, uh, transform to God's, you know, we need to be more godly minded kingdom, like-minded, uh,
00:06:56whatever the kingdom of God is in our midst.
00:06:59So we just need to live like we're living in his kingdom already.
00:07:02So how do we do that?
00:07:04Uh, well, there's the 10 commandments.
00:07:06There's all the other commandments he has.
00:07:08And of course there's rules and regulations on, on how to live and how to treat people.
00:07:13And it's, it's simple.
00:07:15It's easy.
00:07:15It's just, I mean, just like the Lord said, his, his yoke is light.
00:07:19It's, but it could be heavy depending on how your mindset is.
00:07:24You know, if it's hard for you to love people, then it's, then it's going to be hard for you.
00:07:28It's plain and simple.
00:07:30Uh, you're going to struggle with it.
00:07:32And that might be the thorn in your side.
00:07:33You know, that Paul was mentioning that he had a certain thorn in his side that he had to, you
00:07:39know, no telling what, what that was.
00:07:41But, you know, we all have, we all have our weaknesses.
00:07:44But in our weaknesses, you know, we're made strong, you know, as long as we depend on the Lord, you
00:07:50know, we just need to focus on God.
00:07:51You know, we can always blame the devil, the enemy, whatever you want to blame.
00:07:55But the best thing to do is, is to, is focus on the Lord.
00:08:00You know, when stuff comes towards you, it comes running at you, you know, you don't want to say, oh,
00:08:04the enemy's testing me.
00:08:05The enemy's, because then who are you glorifying right there?
00:08:09You know, glorifying the enemy.
00:08:11But you want to just glorify the Father.
00:08:13You know, hey, the Lord's allowing this to happen.
00:08:15And there's a reason or purpose why, why God is putting this in front of me.
00:08:18You know, I'm being tested or, you know, I could be, this is what I deserve.
00:08:23Whatever it is, you just need to humble yourself and just keep going and moving forward and live life in
00:08:29a humble, meek, loving way.
00:08:32And I guess you're trying to define love.
00:08:36It's, it's hard to define love because in this Greek world that we're living in, love has many different languages.
00:08:42But according to God, love is an action.
00:08:44Love is charity.
00:08:46You know, if you read the book of the King James Version, you know, it's all about charities.
00:08:51It's charity, charity.
00:08:52But what is charity?
00:08:53Charity is you're giving, you're helping, you're, you're serving.
00:08:56So that's what love is, is being selfless, doing for others.
00:09:03And, you know, that's saying that, you know, that, let's say you like something.
00:09:07I don't know.
00:09:08Let's say I don't know you that well.
00:09:10Well, how am I supposed to have charity you?
00:09:13I don't know what you, I can't love you in a certain way because I don't know what you, I
00:09:17don't know what you like.
00:09:18So how do I serve you?
00:09:19So just by asking you and catering to whatever your need is, that's, that's love in itself.
00:09:25And then once I get to know you, then, then I get to serve you in different ways and get
00:09:29to love you because to love God is,
00:09:32to do what he desires to do, to do what he wants you to do, you know, because that's what
00:09:37he, he wants, you know, it's just.
00:09:40Yeah, you said a couple of things there.
00:09:42I'm going to keep going.
00:09:43Sorry.
00:09:43Well, you said a couple of things I'd like to key in on.
00:09:46And you talked about how we're supposed to be more like God and we're supposed to be meek and humble
00:09:51and, you know, essentially sacrificial in ourselves.
00:09:57Giving up what we want for the sake of somebody else.
00:10:01And who do all those things describe, you know, giving glory to God, being like God, being meek and humble
00:10:09and giving up himself for others.
00:10:11Well, who does that describe?
00:10:13That's Yeshua, right?
00:10:16Yes.
00:10:17And this idea of being transformed into something new, you go back to Romans 8, 29.
00:10:23Let me drag this over onto the screen here, kind of tiny print, but for those whom he foreknew, he
00:10:30also destined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many
00:10:35brethren.
00:10:36And of course, we are the brethren.
00:10:38Yeshua is God's uniquely begotten son, you know, different than anybody else.
00:10:43He was sent to earth to glorify God and to give up himself for the sake of us, his brothers,
00:10:51so that we could become his brothers.
00:10:54And through this, you know, through his example, living out God's law and being a perfect example of the obedient
00:11:04son, he shows us how to do it.
00:11:07And then Paul says that God's plan for all of us is that we be remade over time into the
00:11:13image of his son.
00:11:15So how do we know if we're loving one another?
00:11:17If we're doing what Yeshua did, what did he do?
00:11:21He lived a perfectly sinless life and gave up his own life for others.
00:11:27Nobody expects us to live a perfectly sinless life.
00:11:30We've all already blown that.
00:11:33But that is the goal, to become like him.
00:11:36And in order to do that, we have to know what the law says.
00:11:40And so one of the primary means by which we can transform our minds the way that Paul is talking
00:11:49here is through the studying and the application of God's commandments.
00:11:53And not just the specific commandments, do this, don't do that, but all of the examples that he gave, the
00:11:59stories of the patriarchs and the prophets and, you know, all of the histories of Israel.
00:12:04These are all a history of what to do and what mostly what not to do.
00:12:10Like these people kept my commandments.
00:12:12All of these other people did not.
00:12:14So don't do all this stuff because it's going to cause you all kinds of problems.
00:12:17But be like this.
00:12:18And then he sent his son to show us the perfect example.
00:12:21Be like this guy.
00:12:23Amen.
00:12:24Well said, Jay.
00:12:27I've been interested in the idea of testing doctrines or interpretations of scripture or whatever.
00:12:34And in the ESV, it actually uses the word testing here in verse two.
00:12:39And I, as I've talked with people, lots of people don't know how to test.
00:12:48It's not something that's commonly taught.
00:12:52I mean, they might test by, does it match what my Sunday school teacher taught me?
00:12:59Or does it match what I'm comfortable with?
00:13:03Or does it match what I already believe?
00:13:06But obviously, Paul is talking about something else here.
00:13:13I'm not sure that he is.
00:13:15Part of the process of being transformed is the personal testing that Joseph was talking about.
00:13:21You know, going through trials and learning how to trust God.
00:13:25That's part of that transformation.
00:13:27But the purpose of the transformation, one of them, is to learn to think biblically.
00:13:33And that's kind of what it means to be transformed by the renewal of your mind, to stop thinking like
00:13:38the world and start thinking like God wants us to, like we were intended to.
00:13:43And so the next part, that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God.
00:13:49This testing isn't about your personal trials, but about testing doctrines and testing behaviors.
00:13:58And, you know, the ESV is a little bit, it's not wrong, but you can get the wrong impression by
00:14:03reading it that it's talking about, you know, being tested yourself.
00:14:06Now, and I, but I actually, in this case, I think the King James has a little, a little bit
00:14:11better.
00:14:12It says that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
00:14:20And prove is also awkward in this sense, but the purpose of the testing is to prove it.
00:14:27So when you hear a teaching or an idea or someone says, you know, we should do this, how do
00:14:34we know if that's the right thing to do?
00:14:36We can test it.
00:14:37Does this align with scripture?
00:14:40And the more we are transformed, the more we become like Yeshua, ideally, the less we even need the written
00:14:47word.
00:14:48I mean, we should be in such tune with God's spirit that we will just know instinctively this is right
00:14:55and this is wrong.
00:14:56But until we are perfect like that, the scripture is a guide.
00:15:00It helps us.
00:15:02It's like, you know, guide rails left to our own devices.
00:15:06We may end up out in the ditch somewhere with it, with some crazy idea and everybody's got them.
00:15:11And everybody has some idea that is totally off in left field, no relationship whatsoever to what God has actually
00:15:20told us to do.
00:15:21And the only way that we will really know that, especially if our community all has the same idea, is
00:15:27by looking at scripture.
00:15:29We can read the commandments and say, does this teaching line up with everything that has been written before?
00:15:38And, you know, that's the meaning of the word canon.
00:15:40When we talk about a biblical canon, it's a measuring stick.
00:15:44This is the stick that you use to measure everything else.
00:15:48If somebody comes and says, I've got a prophecy from God and he says this and this.
00:15:54All right, well, let's take the measuring stick that we've got, put it up against this.
00:15:58And does it fit?
00:16:00Does it line up?
00:16:02And sometimes we have misinterpreted the measuring stick or misreading it.
00:16:06That certainly happens as the Jewish leadership did in the first century.
00:16:11But more often than not, this idea proves to be wrong.
00:16:16And so we know that this is not the good and acceptable and perfect will of God because it doesn't
00:16:21line up with what he's already told us.
00:16:22Yeah, that process of taking a prophetic word and checking it out against the scripture that's already existing is the
00:16:34process that was used ever since Moses.
00:16:39As the prophets prophesied, their peers would have compared them to the word of God that already existed.
00:16:49Oh, yeah.
00:16:49And we know from the histories, from the books of Kings and Chronicles, that there were prophets everywhere.
00:16:55You know, in Elijah's day, God told him that there were, what was it, 7,000 prophets who were still
00:17:02faithful in Israel, the northern kingdom.
00:17:05That means that there were probably 100,000 false prophets of Baal.
00:17:09And if you don't know the scriptures that came before, how do you know which prophet to listen to now?
00:17:16And they didn't have all the scriptures we had.
00:17:18You know, in the time of Elijah, he had the Torah and, you know, David and Solomon and a few
00:17:24other little odds and ends.
00:17:25But, you know, he didn't have all the prophets and he didn't have the book of Chronicles.
00:17:29He certainly didn't have the gospels.
00:17:33Yeah, the chronological sequence of when scripture was given is kind of valuable in being able to check out what
00:17:48verses mean and what they probably can't mean by just comparing it to the scripture that comes before that verse
00:17:58or that passage.
00:17:59And does it align with, does my interpretation align with what came before?
00:18:04Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
00:18:08That's, you know, Paul is one of the most difficult writers in the Bible to understand.
00:18:13And it's not that he is using such difficult words.
00:18:17It's just that he is leaving out half the conversation.
00:18:21And so he doesn't explain everything.
00:18:23He just drops these little bombs that his audience, his original audience, knew exactly what he was talking about.
00:18:29But we've got to kind of fill in the gaps.
00:18:31Well, that's one of the ways that we can do that is by.
00:18:35By the order in which books were written.
00:18:38And, you know, tradition says that Galatians was one of the first books of the New Testament written.
00:18:43Probably not the first, but it was fairly early on, definitely before Romans.
00:18:48Romans was one of the last books that Paul wrote.
00:18:52And if you read Galatians and Romans both, there are some things that Paul says that sound like he's speaking
00:18:59against Moses.
00:18:59You know, we're not supposed to be keeping the commandments anymore.
00:19:03But then if you look at the history in the book of Acts, in the order of events, years after
00:19:10Paul had probably written the book of Galatians, he was still, you know, going to synagogues.
00:19:16He still wanted to go to the temple for a feast day.
00:19:19He was still doing all this Jewish stuff.
00:19:22So some of the things that people say that he meant, he couldn't possibly have meant because he behaved in
00:19:30ways that don't align with how they interpret his letters.
00:19:33Yeah, absolutely.
00:19:36The book of Acts was what was key to me, realizing that I needed to rethink what I believed.
00:19:42Yeah.
00:19:43Do you mind if I ask what was it in the book of Acts?
00:19:46All the, well, at that time, I just called it Jewish stuff.
00:19:50And these apostles, they're obviously still doing all this Jewish stuff, because not only are they going to the synagogue
00:19:56and teaching in the synagogue, but they're doing it week after week.
00:19:59That wouldn't have been allowed if Paul believed like I did.
00:20:03Yep.
00:20:04Anybody else have any questions or comments about verse two?
00:20:07All right, let's go on to verse three.
00:20:12For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly
00:20:17than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God
00:20:22has assigned.
00:20:23For by the grace given to me, grace is one of those words that can be easily misconstrued.
00:20:31You know, in some circles, people will think of it as a kind of a divine superpower, that God, God
00:20:37gives you his grace, and then you can use the grace of God to work miracles.
00:20:41It's, I understand how they get there, but that's not really what grace means.
00:20:46Grace is a quality of God himself, not something that he can put into you.
00:20:53Now, he can certainly, part of that transformation that we're supposed to undergo is to develop grace, which means giving
00:21:01favor to other people.
00:21:03So, the grace of God is favor that God gives you that he doesn't have to give you, unobligated favor.
00:21:11Some people will define it as unmerited favor, and, you know, whether it's merited or not, I don't think is
00:21:17really the point.
00:21:18The point is that God doesn't owe you anything.
00:21:21And so, if God gives you something, then that is through his grace, and that includes our salvation, forgiveness.
00:21:28All of those things are by the grace of God alone, because there's nothing we could ever do to force
00:21:33God's hand and make him owe us anything.
00:21:37So, when Paul says, by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, you know, whatever it
00:21:42is he's going to say, he's talking about, by God's grace, he was chosen to deliver this message.
00:21:50God didn't owe it to him, didn't owe him any status, and in fact, what God really owed Paul was
00:21:56probably death, because Paul was complicit in the murder of many people, and he was a blasphemer.
00:22:04But God had grace to forgive him, and then to appoint him as an apostle to the nations.
00:22:09And so, this is the authority that Paul is claiming to speak to people.
00:22:14He is saying, by God's grace, by his forbearance, he gave me this mission to go to the nations and
00:22:24to teach his commandments, to teach about the Messiah, the gospel, the coming of the kingdom.
00:22:31And so, Paul is saying that, by the authority that God has given him, through God's grace, he is instructing
00:22:39them in not to think more highly of themselves than they ought.
00:22:43And in part, this is because this was Paul's problem before.
00:22:49This is the thing that God saved Paul from.
00:22:52He thought that he knew God's law better than anybody else.
00:22:56He thought that these other people who were, you know, following this wandering preacher who had been killed like a
00:23:03common criminal, that these people were criminals themselves, and they deserved to be punished.
00:23:10They deserved to have false accusations thrown against them.
00:23:13And then God turns around and forgives him for all of it.
00:23:19And so, he's taking the personal lesson that he learned in his own life and saying, this is the grace
00:23:25that God had shown me when I was at my worst.
00:23:29And so, now I'm telling you, don't behave like I did.
00:23:34Give each other space and give each other grace like God has given to us.
00:23:41See, I do have some notes that I wanted to share on this one.
00:23:45And the, you know, I'm talking about, I'm sorry, what was that?
00:23:50I just, I just want to say that, brother, you're on point.
00:23:54That's, I just want to just give you a thumbs up.
00:23:56I wish I could, you know, you, you pretty much, you nailed it, bro.
00:24:02I was thinking the same thing.
00:24:04If you wouldn't have said everything you just said, I would have said something similar, but not better than how
00:24:09you said it.
00:24:10Thank you, brother.
00:24:11Thank you, Joseph.
00:24:12I appreciate it.
00:24:14Um, one of the ways that God has grace for us is that he has given us, he's given us
00:24:21all innate abilities.
00:24:22We all have skills and ways of thinking and tendencies that are different from each other.
00:24:30And this isn't a bad thing.
00:24:32It's not bad that everybody thinks a little bit differently, that everybody has as good at different things.
00:24:37This is part of God's plan.
00:24:40If you think about Paul uses this analogy in this chapter of a body, and we are supposed to be
00:24:47like a body.
00:24:47And each one of us in a body, every cell has a slightly different function.
00:24:53And if one cell tried to do what the cell next to him was doing, maybe they have parallel missions.
00:24:58Like if you think of two skin cells, they're all trying to, they all have the same overall mission, but
00:25:04if one skin cell decided he was going to do the job of all the skin cells around him, well,
00:25:09then he wouldn't be able to do any of their jobs.
00:25:10Well, because he'd be stretched too thin, you know, carrying the analogy a bit too far, probably.
00:25:17But we are supposed to behave like organs and cells in a body and cooperate and recognize that each one
00:25:24of us has this, these different skills that God has given.
00:25:27And everything that we have is given by God's grace.
00:25:32So when Paul says, but to think with sober judgment, he's like, don't, don't take the skills that God has
00:25:41given you and the things that he's given somebody else flippantly.
00:25:45Don't just dismiss these things as irrelevant.
00:25:48God has made one person analytical.
00:25:52He's made another person empathetic.
00:25:55And these are good things that we need to take advantage of.
00:25:58And each, each one of these people, an empathetic person and an analytical person in real life is going to
00:26:06be prone to dismissing the other person's way of looking at the world because it's not his way.
00:26:12It's not the way that he thinks of things.
00:26:14And he thinks that, you know, your, your way of looking at the world is flawed because you don't understand
00:26:18this.
00:26:20Well, God has made us this way.
00:26:22And, you know, there's an extent to which we need to expand our abilities.
00:26:26You know, the, the person who is too empathetic may be missing a lot of truth and the person who
00:26:32is too analytic may be missing a lot of truth, but they shouldn't dismiss each other as irrelevant or less
00:26:41important because they're different.
00:26:44And I think that's what Paul is talking about here at the end with each, according to the measure of
00:26:48faith that God has assigned.
00:26:50Well, there's, it's more than that, but we can get to that here in a minute.
00:26:54I'm curious to know, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this verse.
00:26:59And what you're saying makes sense so far.
00:27:02The, I, I, I'm wondering about this measure of faith that God has assigned.
00:27:09But yeah, well, I think there are two, there are two ways to interpret that last phrase, according to the
00:27:15measure of faith that God has assigned.
00:27:19And honestly, I think that both ways to interpret it are true.
00:27:22And I don't know which way Paul meant it to be understood, but, you know, sometimes somebody says something and
00:27:27it can be interpreted both ways.
00:27:29And you ask him later, well, what did you really mean by this?
00:27:32And it's like, this is what I meant.
00:27:34But what that guy said, that makes sense too.
00:27:36I know I've had experiences like that.
00:27:38So the two ways that I can see this, this working out is in one sense, a person who is
00:27:44more faithful or who has more trust in God, depending on which way you're looking at faith.
00:27:49And I think both are valid.
00:27:51God trusts more in that person.
00:27:54It's kind of like the parable of the templates.
00:27:57One person proved himself more trustworthy with the resources that God gave.
00:28:01And so God gave him more resources.
00:28:05Another person buried his talent in the ground because he didn't want to lose it.
00:28:09And so God took it away because he failed to, he failed to be faithful with what God had given
00:28:14him.
00:28:14He didn't actually use it for the benefit of the kingdom.
00:28:17So this is one way that this could go.
00:28:20So the measure of faith is your measure of faithfulness.
00:28:24But in that sense, it says that God has assigned.
00:28:27So that might lean towards more of a Calvinist sort of view where your faithfulness is determined by God ahead
00:28:35of time.
00:28:35And to an extent, I'm sure that is true.
00:28:38I'm not.
00:28:39I don't.
00:28:40I'm not a Calvinist.
00:28:41And I don't really agree with any of the five points in total.
00:28:45Although I think there's some amount of truth in all of them.
00:28:47Just like with most theological ideas, there's some amount of truth there.
00:28:51I just don't agree with it all.
00:28:52I don't, I don't fit in any of the boxes and I don't encourage anybody to try.
00:28:57The other way to interpret this is that, that everybody has, well, I guess this kind of has a Calvinist
00:29:04sort of bent to it too.
00:29:05Everybody is born with a certain amount of trust in God, that we are, we are all image bearers.
00:29:12All of us being made in God's image, we are in a sense, all commissioned to be his agents on
00:29:18earth.
00:29:18I mean, just that's what Adam was supposed to be is God's hands on earth.
00:29:22And we are all the children of Adam.
00:29:24You know, what the first commandment given to Adam was be fruitful and multiply.
00:29:28So he was supposed to create more copies of himself to go and do God's will on the earth.
00:29:33So that's what we're for.
00:29:35So it makes sense that God would have given us all some measure of faith just by virtue of being
00:29:43Adam's descendants and being made in his image.
00:29:47And some people have a little bit more of that than others.
00:29:51But we have a responsibility over time to work on that and expand it, to build our faith and our
00:29:57faithfulness that extends from the faith.
00:30:00And we do that by, you know, something that Joseph mentioned earlier, by testing ourselves, by putting our faith to
00:30:07the test.
00:30:08If we believe that God wants us to go do X, Y, Z, and it looks risky, well, we're going
00:30:15to be testing ourselves and building our faith by going and doing X, Y, Z.
00:30:19But before we even get to that point, we have to have enough faith to believe that God is who
00:30:24he says he is and we'll follow through.
00:30:28And so to an extent, we all have born with a certain amount of trust in God, having faith like
00:30:34children.
00:30:36And then our task becomes to build that in cooperation with God, you know, the Holy Spirit and his word
00:30:42and building this faith over time into greater faithfulness, which gives us greater missions in the world.
00:30:51So I guess maybe the two ways that I was looking that I was thinking of looking at this phrase
00:30:57almost sound like the same thing now that I put them into words.
00:31:01So does that make sense?
00:31:03Yeah, it makes sense.
00:31:05I was just asking because it does the verse the way it is in ESV does sound fairly Calvinistic that
00:31:14God has allotted out different amounts.
00:31:18But yeah, mostly in Romans, when Paul is talking about somebody being chosen for a particular task or using the
00:31:29words like elect.
00:31:31He's rarely talking about salvation.
00:31:33He's almost always talking about some role in the kingdom, you know, talking about, you know, Jacob and Esau, Moses
00:31:40and Pharaoh.
00:31:41We don't know whether Esau has eternal salvation or not.
00:31:44That's not even in scripture.
00:31:46It's not the point of the story.
00:31:47The point is that Jacob was chosen to carry the covenant and Esau was not.
00:31:52And so Paul here, he's talking about God chooses people who carry out some kind of mission, a ministry.
00:32:00And, you know, maybe your ministry is just being a good father.
00:32:02Maybe it's being a good IT person for an online school.
00:32:10You know, whatever it is, God has given you the innate abilities to get it started and to build on,
00:32:18to create something bigger, to expand your skills and your knowledge and be better at the mission that he's given
00:32:24you.
00:32:25And so it's, yeah, I don't, I mean, I, I see where, where Calvinists get their conclusions from reading Romans
00:32:34by itself.
00:32:35I just don't think it fits in with the rest of scripture.
00:32:40I have had some fairly extensive talks with a Calvinist in the last couple of months, and it's the first
00:32:48time I've ever talked to one.
00:32:49And, and it's like, I, yeah, I can see where they're coming from.
00:32:56But when I read the rest of scripture, it just doesn't fit.
00:32:58Yeah.
00:32:59Well, we've got, we've got some Calvinists in our group here and I don't hold it against them.
00:33:05Um, yeah, that's all, all can of worms.
00:33:08It's don't really need to get into tonight, but let's move on.
00:33:13So verses four and five, or as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all
00:33:20have the same function.
00:33:21So we, though many are one body in Christ and individually members, one of another.
00:33:27This is pretty much what I was just talking about in how we are, we're to behave like a body.
00:33:34And, you know, what, what happens if your heart decides that it wants to breathe or your lungs decide that
00:33:40they want to pump blood?
00:33:42It just doesn't work.
00:33:44I've used the analogy in talking about gender roles in the family.
00:33:50If the family is a car and what happens if the steering wheel wants to be a tire?
00:33:54Well, it's round, maybe you can get the job done.
00:33:57It's just not going to be very good at it.
00:33:59So there are some things that we're just made for and some things we're not.
00:34:03And to an extent we can fill in for each other.
00:34:06Just like if, if a body is injured, there are, we can compensate, you know, through whether limping or using
00:34:15a crutch.
00:34:16You know, one organ sometimes can substitute for another one to an extent, but never the way that it was
00:34:23designed to work.
00:34:24The body functions best when each organ is doing what it was designed to do.
00:34:30And working in cooperation with all the others.
00:34:33Paul says here that we're, we're one body in Christ.
00:34:37And, and I think that's important because sometimes we behave as if Christ has lots of different bodies where folks
00:34:47get invited out of one congregation.
00:34:48And I'm told you might be happier at this other group down the road.
00:34:52Left hand of the fellowship.
00:34:54Yeah.
00:34:55And it's like, well, that doesn't make sense.
00:34:58Biblically, if, if they're part of the body of Christ, they should be able to function here.
00:35:03They might need instruction or correction or something, but, but a geographical change doesn't seem like it's appropriate in the
00:35:12body of Christ.
00:35:14I don't know.
00:35:16Yeah.
00:35:16Yeah.
00:35:16Well, if you think about the way that God arranged Israel in the wilderness, he didn't arrange them ideologically.
00:35:22You know, he didn't put, you know, all the, all the Calvinists over here, all the, you know, I don't
00:35:29want to say Armenians because everybody has a different opinion about what that means, but all the provisionists over here.
00:35:35And, you know, all of us, all the Pelagians over here, that kind of stuff.
00:35:39That's not what he did.
00:35:40He said, everybody who's part of this clan, you're going to be over here.
00:35:43This clan's over here.
00:35:44And it didn't matter whether you got along with your cousin, you're still going to live next door.
00:35:49And part of living as the body of Christ is learning to be, to behave and learning to get along
00:35:55with the people who are next to you, no matter what they believe.
00:35:58And, you know, within reason, because there are, sometimes we live next door to people who just aren't part of
00:36:03the body of Christ.
00:36:04Maybe they think they are, but they're not.
00:36:08But the idea that we should all gather in groups of like-minded people, it creates this, you know, an
00:36:17echo chamber where you start to think, everybody starts to talk alike using the same vocabulary.
00:36:23They create their own jargon, they start to think alike, and then they don't even know that there's some other
00:36:28way of thinking about things.
00:36:30They may never get exposed to an alternative interpretation of a Bible verse.
00:36:35And so they always assume that it meant this one thing.
00:36:38And then one day they go off to college or off to the service or whatever.
00:36:43And they're confronted by somebody who says, well, that's not what that means.
00:36:47This verse means this other thing, and that means your whole belief system is wrong.
00:36:53That can be a serious problem for some young people.
00:36:56And if they're not prepared to deal with those kinds of challenges, it can completely destroy a person's faith.
00:37:02And that's not the biggest problem.
00:37:06That is a problem for some people when they go out into the world.
00:37:09The biggest problem is that we never develop the skills that we need to get along with people who are
00:37:16our brothers and sisters, who just think a little bit differently or have a different opinion about something.
00:37:22And there are essentials.
00:37:24There are bottom line things that we all need to agree on.
00:37:29We all need to agree that Yeshua or Jesus, if you prefer, because I don't really care which one you
00:37:33use, is the son of God.
00:37:37I think that we all need to agree that he is God.
00:37:40Although I'm not going to kick somebody out for not agreeing with that.
00:37:43I think it is a pretty important doctrine.
00:37:47We're all sinners.
00:37:48We all need a savior.
00:37:50These are bottom line beliefs.
00:37:53But do we have to all agree about, you know, what do the colors in the high priest's robe mean?
00:38:01Do they still matter today?
00:38:03If you are tying tzitiot on the corners of your garments, does it, do they have to go on a
00:38:09four-cornered garment or can you put them on belt loops?
00:38:11And, you know, if you're not familiar with tzitiot, don't worry about it.
00:38:16You can ask later and I'll send you a link to an article on that.
00:38:20The point is just these are inconsequential things.
00:38:23They are things in scripture, so they're important in that respect.
00:38:27But within all of the things in scripture, there's a hierarchy of what's really important and what's not.
00:38:34And at the top of that hierarchy, according to how we're supposed to behave with each other, is mercy.
00:38:42Be merciful to your next-door neighbor.
00:38:44And how are you supposed to learn to be merciful if you are never challenged by your next-door neighbor's
00:38:49opinions and behavior?
00:38:51If you never have a reason to be merciful to somebody, how are you going to learn how to do
00:38:55that?
00:38:56So I think that, you know, when we do have disagreements with each other, it's important that we just sit
00:39:02back and take it easy.
00:39:06Don't get upset about it.
00:39:08Take some time.
00:39:09Maybe have a conversation.
00:39:10Find out what the other person really believes first before you do anything.
00:39:15Maybe you misunderstood.
00:39:17Listening is a key to understanding people.
00:39:22Yeah.
00:39:23Listen, ask questions, and listen to more.
00:39:26And watch behavior.
00:39:27If the person is kind, if they are reflecting Yeshua, well, does their opinion about this verse really matter that
00:39:37much?
00:39:37If they are still living as part of the body?
00:39:41And even when ideas do matter?
00:39:44For example, I keep, in my family, we keep the seventh-day Sabbath.
00:39:51Well, I have friends and family who don't.
00:39:53And, you know, they are what I might call a Sunday Christian.
00:39:57They go to church on Sunday.
00:39:58They consider the first day of the week the Sabbath.
00:40:01Most of them don't even really keep a Sabbath on the first day of the week.
00:40:04Does that mean I can't fellowship with them?
00:40:07Well, it does create a barrier to some kinds of fellowship.
00:40:11So if we are going to have our, you know, congregation is going to meet on the Sabbath.
00:40:18And, you know, God says it's supposed to be a holy convocation, which implies we're supposed to get together and
00:40:23hear the word.
00:40:24I can certainly go to church on Sunday and hear the word.
00:40:27But if I'm also commanded to do that on the Sabbath, then I have to have somewhere else to do
00:40:31that.
00:40:33So it's not necessarily a barrier to fellowship in total, but it does create some problems.
00:40:41So you can see how, you know, some differences of opinion can become, can be bigger than others.
00:40:47And then to use an even more stark example, some believers will say, trying to think of a good example
00:40:55here, that, say in business, business is business, friendship is friendship, and you never mix the two.
00:41:03And business should be all cutthroat, get what you can, while you can, he who dies with most toys wins.
00:41:14And when you have friends, you know, that, that shouldn't be a problem.
00:41:18Your friends should understand that when you're, when you're running your business, this isn't part of your friendship.
00:41:24This is this other thing.
00:41:25Well, that can create some serious problems because now you're going to do wrong to people.
00:41:30You're going to offend people.
00:41:32And I may understand where you're coming from, but it's going to create a serious problem with any kind of
00:41:38fellowship over time, because now we're going to be butting heads on serious issues.
00:41:43You know, I'm picking, I know that that's kind of a, an odd point to try to make that example
00:41:49from, but the ones, all the ones that I can think of are much worse.
00:41:54The kinds of things where I would have to question whether this person is actually part of the body or
00:41:58not.
00:41:59And there are gray areas like that, where it's hard to tell.
00:42:03Ultimately, that's, that question is above our pay grade.
00:42:06We don't get to decide whether somebody else is in the body, unless they are totally flagrant about unbiblical behavior.
00:42:13And in that case, we are required to make some distinctions.
00:42:16Go ahead, June.
00:42:18When we read the scripture in, in Acts 15, we see where there were disagreement with Barnabas and Paul.
00:42:30When they separated over the role of John Mark, Paul thought that he should not go with them.
00:42:42When they decided to go back to the places they had ministered to the people there.
00:42:50And Barnabas wanted to take Mark on the journey, but Paul was convinced this was not a good idea because
00:43:02Mark had abandoned them during their first journey.
00:43:06And we see a separation with him and Barnabas took John Mark and Paul took Silas.
00:43:19But later, they reunited and Paul embraced John Mark and they just went on.
00:43:29Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes, in the heat of the matter, because of our way of thinking and our humanistic nature, we
00:43:40want things our way.
00:43:44And because of that, we can have a relationship, can be severed to a point.
00:43:52But the beauty about it, that's where the favor of Yahweh comes in, to knit our hearts back together because
00:44:02we are on the same foundation.
00:44:06So, as you were talking about grace, which is favor, the grace that has been given to us is for
00:44:14us to move in the direction that Yahweh wants us to move in.
00:44:20Both Paul and Barnabas, I mean, they worked together, they knew each other, but then they had a grong that
00:44:29they didn't disagree on.
00:44:30And it would always happen.
00:44:33It would always happen as human beings.
00:44:37We have the same common foundation.
00:44:41We have difference in belief, but because of the common foundation, Yahweh is able to bring us back together because
00:44:52that common foundation is Yeshua.
00:44:56Yep.
00:44:56Good word.
00:44:57June, your knowledge of scripture always blows me away.
00:45:00I appreciate it when you bring these stories up.
00:45:04I think that that's a really good example of kind of one of these real life cases where, you know,
00:45:12Paul and Mark, they were both believers.
00:45:15Neither one of them ever said, at least not that we know of, said, you know, that person's not a
00:45:21believer anymore.
00:45:22They're, they're faithless and we need, don't have anything to do with them.
00:45:28But Paul, not wanting to take Mark on his mission trip was more of a practical thing saying, you know,
00:45:34I can't depend on him for this purpose.
00:45:37He's a believer, you know, he's part of the body.
00:45:39Sure.
00:45:40And, you know, we can be friends and we can fellowship and we can even be partners in ministry to
00:45:45an extent.
00:45:46But on this mission trip, I need people that I can depend on every moment.
00:45:50And so he didn't want to take him.
00:45:52And, you know, that makes sense.
00:45:54And in the local fellowship, I think that, you know, there are going to be times where, you know, God
00:45:59has given each one of us some kind of ministry, you know, whether it's ministering to the homeless or healing
00:46:06or teaching or, you know, whatever it is.
00:46:11And there are some people who are just not suited to that particular task.
00:46:15You know, going back to the skin cell analogy I used earlier, if a skin cell needs another skin cell
00:46:21to stand next to him to, you know, be that outer shield on the body, he's not going to go
00:46:26and get a blood cell and say, hey, blood cell, come over here and be a skin cell.
00:46:32That's just not what the blood cell is made for.
00:46:35He's better, you know, moving oxygen and iron to the body or other nutrients, whatever it is that blood cells
00:46:41do.
00:46:42Paula, feel free to interrupt me anytime here.
00:46:45My wife is in health care, so I'm just teasing her.
00:46:49So there are times when it is appropriate not to be doing something with a fellow believer, but that's not
00:46:55disfellowshipping.
00:46:56That's just saying this person isn't suited for this particular task that I'm working on.
00:47:01And that's fine.
00:47:03And I'm pretty sure that that's where Paul was going with that.
00:47:06And maybe Mark changed his attitude later, or maybe, you know, Paul was just being a little severe.
00:47:13I don't really know, but you're right that they didn't, they never disfellowshipped and they came back together again and
00:47:19mended whatever that problem was later.
00:47:23But you know what?
00:47:26I think Paul, like he had a disornment because the very next chapter, which is 16, Paul and Silas,
00:47:39they were like a peer that was there waiting to save that Philippian jailer and his household because they were
00:47:52all bunged and everything in fetters.
00:47:55And they were there and they didn't know what was going to happen to them.
00:48:01And they just lavished Yahweh with praises and worship that the whole place started to rock.
00:48:12And everybody that was imprisoned, they got loosed and the jailer was afraid because he was getting ready to kill
00:48:26himself.
00:48:27And Paul said, we are all here.
00:48:29And that caused the conversion of the black Philippian jailer and his household.
00:48:38Probably Paul had a disornment that John Mark would not have fitted into that category.
00:48:47They would not have been able to join together because remember,
00:48:52he already thought that John Mark was not fitted because when they needed him,
00:48:58he was not there.
00:49:01And he said, well, okay, I cannot depend on this person because he probably had the intuition that something great
00:49:11was going to happen.
00:49:12And he needed another companion.
00:49:16And we all go through that in life.
00:49:20Yeah, that's another important aspect of it.
00:49:23Sometimes it's not just that somebody doesn't have the right skill set.
00:49:27Sometimes they don't have the right maturity.
00:49:30That they're not ready for a trial of that magnitude yet.
00:49:34Thank you, June.
00:49:36Welcome.
00:49:39Another aspect of this is, well, actually, let me go back and mention this idea of everybody doing their own
00:49:49function.
00:49:49That, you know, we're all part of the body of Christ and we don't all have the same functions within
00:49:55that body.
00:49:56This also goes back to the wilderness again, where not just where everybody was camped, but the tasks that God
00:50:04had assigned to the Levites.
00:50:06Each of the clans within the tribe of Levi had been given as different tasks.
00:50:11You know, some were supposed to carry the structure of the tabernacle.
00:50:16Some of them were going to be carrying the articles, you know, all the bowls and dishes and utensils, things
00:50:22like that.
00:50:23Some of them were carrying the ark and the priests actually had the function of the tabernacle inside, you know,
00:50:31doing the sacrifices and lighting the menorah.
00:50:34Each one of them had a different function.
00:50:36Now, there were a lot of similarities.
00:50:38Tearing down the tabernacle, putting it back up, carrying things.
00:50:42You know, these were all common among them all where they were all doing parts of this.
00:50:48But God had assigned each clan to be doing, to be carrying a separate piece of the tabernacle.
00:50:55And nobody was allowed to switch clans.
00:50:58You couldn't say, well, I'm tired of being clan Merari.
00:51:02I'm going to go be part of that other clan now and I'm going to carry that other stuff because
00:51:06that seems more glamorous to me.
00:51:08That's just not the way that God designed it.
00:51:10That he gave your clan this particular task and you should think that by the grace of God, I have
00:51:18a job to do.
00:51:20And God chose me.
00:51:22I mean, the ruler of the universe chose me for this task.
00:51:25That alone should be enough honor.
00:51:28There's no place for competition.
00:51:31There's no room for competition of place within the body of Christ.
00:51:35It's not only damaging to the body, but it's a violation of the 10th commandment, saying don't covet what's your
00:51:42neighbor, what belongs to your neighbor.
00:51:44You know, God gives someone else a job to be, gives them a gift of healing, say.
00:51:50If God hasn't given you the gift of healing, then it's not, don't be jealous of that.
00:51:56And don't, don't try to usurp that because that's, you know, that's being, that's coveting what God has given to
00:52:05somebody else that you can't have.
00:52:07And it's like an autoimmune disease in the body.
00:52:10Now you're, you're attacking each other as part of the same body.
00:52:13And this is going to cause a ripple effect through the entire community and damage everybody.
00:52:19Because if we are all part of the same body, when one organ starts to fail or misbehave, everything suffers
00:52:27for it.
00:52:28And the body is only healthy when every part is doing the part that it was designed to do.
00:52:33Okay.
00:52:34Anyway, this next section, I put verses six through eight together because it's a list of different kinds of ministries
00:52:43that people have.
00:52:44And I don't think we're going to have time to talk about all these tonight, but maybe we can get
00:52:48started.
00:52:51So let's take this one verse at a time.
00:52:54And verse six, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.
00:52:59If prophecy in proportion to our faith.
00:53:01So we already talked about the first half of this verse.
00:53:04By God's grace, he has given each of us a task.
00:53:08Sometimes they overlap.
00:53:11Really, everybody's gift overlaps with everybody else.
00:53:14If God has given you a gift of administration, of organizing events and people.
00:53:20Then you're, you're going to be overlapping with somebody who has a gift of caring for people.
00:53:26Because you have to be able to empathize with people and understand them to be able to effectively manage people.
00:53:33If God has given you a gift of teaching.
00:53:38Then it's the same kind of thing.
00:53:40In order to communicate with people, you have to understand where they're coming from.
00:53:44You have to be able to put things in a language that they understand.
00:53:47So there's going to be overlap between everybody's gifts.
00:53:50Nobody is entirely unique.
00:53:53But I want to talk about prophecy.
00:53:55I think there's a lot of misunderstanding in the world about what prophecy is even.
00:54:02I've heard people say that prophecy is any public reading of scripture or teaching on the word.
00:54:10That doesn't work here because teaching is a separate gift here that Paul lists.
00:54:15So prophecy is not teaching.
00:54:17And I think it's a little silly to say that prophecy is simply reading scripture.
00:54:21Even if all of scripture consists of prophecy, you're just reading somebody else's prophecy.
00:54:27If, you know, Isaiah gave some prophecies, if I go back to the book of Kings or I go back
00:54:32to the book of Isaiah and I read a couple of chapters out of Isaiah, that doesn't mean I'm prophesying.
00:54:37That means Isaiah prophesied and I'm just reading his prophecies.
00:54:42I think the most straightforward definition of prophecy is a message from God given through a person.
00:54:49So God gives a prophet a message for other people, not for that person, but for somebody else.
00:54:56If God gives you a message for you, that's not prophecy.
00:55:00That's, you know, the spirit speaking to you or, you know, however you want to say that.
00:55:04And that's a great thing.
00:55:05But prophecy is a message given by God through you to somebody else.
00:55:10And it doesn't mean predicting the future.
00:55:14It doesn't necessarily, it doesn't, it doesn't mean that the message has to be any particular kind of message at
00:55:21all.
00:55:21Any message that God has given you to give to other people.
00:55:25As long as, I mean, I don't mean ideas that God has told you.
00:55:29If you are studying scripture and God is speaking to you and helping you to understand the scripture,
00:55:34and then you go and teach other people, that's not prophecy.
00:55:39If God speaks to you and says, go and tell these people that I said, repent and stop doing this
00:55:48thing that you're doing,
00:55:49or I'm going to come and give you this whatever problem.
00:55:53That's prophecy.
00:55:55It is a specific, unique word given by God to other people.
00:56:00Maybe I shouldn't say unique, because prophets a lot of times repeat each other.
00:56:03They say the same thing because they're speaking from the sin of God.
00:56:07And the primary message of all the prophets was repent.
00:56:12And then they might also have some stuff to say about the future.
00:56:16But the main message was repent, because you're screwing it up.
00:56:20Does that make sense?
00:56:22It does.
00:56:24Okay.
00:56:24Because a prophet speaks on behalf of God.
00:56:29Exactly.
00:56:31As a prophet speaks on behalf of the people, a prophet speaks on behalf of God.
00:56:39Because when you do look at the prophets in the Bible, they were all messages from God.
00:56:46But the prophets they have now, sometimes I want to know how they rise and how they maintain their stature
00:56:53and everything.
00:56:54Because I don't know.
00:56:56I don't know where to get this title from.
00:57:02It's all about them.
00:57:05Very rarely they would say, I got this message from God.
00:57:11Right?
00:57:12And it's a Godly message.
00:57:16So, I don't really, when you see people send me things and say, prophet so, prophet this and prophet that.
00:57:26Sometimes, a lot of times I bypass it.
00:57:29Because the messages that they give, most times are not from God.
00:57:36Most people who claim to be a prophet are not.
00:57:39Yes.
00:57:40And as you mentioned, teacher, a teacher is supposed to have the gift of patience.
00:57:48If you don't have patience, how can you teach?
00:57:52You have to have patience.
00:57:55Because in your class, they're going to be students.
00:58:02A teacher is supposed to have patience.
00:58:05Because in a class, you have students of their talent.
00:58:12The level of understanding is different.
00:58:15And you have to be able to understand your students and have patience with them.
00:58:24Because I remember when I was a school teacher and the class I had, it was, they give me the
00:58:35people that were so slow.
00:58:38And sometimes when you come into the classroom, you never even used to recognize me.
00:58:46Because I used to go from bench to bench and sit with these students and make sure that what I'm
00:58:53teaching them, they understand.
00:58:56And you have to have patience with people when you are a teacher.
00:59:02That is true.
00:59:05That explains some things.
00:59:07I didn't know that you were a teacher.
00:59:09But that explains some things about your character, June.
00:59:13You come across as a teacher.
00:59:16Oh, wow.
00:59:18Yeah, I'm a blessing now.
00:59:21I love it.
00:59:22Yeah, I wanted to read something from 1 Corinthians.
00:59:26Also from Paul.
00:59:28And he says,
00:59:30Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
00:59:34For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God.
00:59:38For no one understands, but in his spirit, he speaks mysteries.
00:59:42But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.
00:59:48One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.
00:59:50But one who prophesies edifies the church.
00:59:54This is, you know, being a, the office, there are two different things that Paul is talking
00:59:59about here.
01:00:01Moses and Paul both said this about the people.
01:00:04He wants everybody to prophesy.
01:00:05You know, Moses told Joshua, I wish that everybody, all of God's people would prophesy.
01:00:10And Paul is saying that everybody should earnestly desire to prophesy.
01:00:15But that doesn't mean that everybody's going to be a prophet.
01:00:18That's two different things.
01:00:20It's like everybody teaches somebody at some time, but everybody isn't a teacher.
01:00:26And I think that God can prophesy through absolutely anyone.
01:00:31But then there's an office of prophet.
01:00:33You have the offices of the teacher and the elder and even priest you could put in there.
01:00:42So like a Levitical priest is that someone who has a specific office and nobody else can
01:00:48fill that office.
01:00:49But that doesn't mean that other people don't have priestly roles to play sometimes in life.
01:00:54So a father is like a priest in his home.
01:00:57He's not a Levitical priest, but he acts like a priest at times because he teaches God's
01:01:02law to his family.
01:01:04He intercedes on their behalf because he prays for them.
01:01:08He interacts with the world on behalf of his family.
01:01:12And that's like a priest who is a go-between between the people and God.
01:01:16But he's not a priest in the same sense.
01:01:18He's not going to go and make sacrifices at the altar.
01:01:21He doesn't get to go and like the menorah.
01:01:23He doesn't get to go into the Holy of Holies.
01:01:25That's reserved for the priest.
01:01:28And a prophet is the difference between somebody who prophesies and a prophet is very similar.
01:01:34A someone who prophesies gets a message from God to give to other people.
01:01:39And as Paul says that, you know, sometimes it's just to give people encouragement.
01:01:44Sometimes it's to convince them to do something.
01:01:47Sometimes it's to call them to repent.
01:01:49But somebody who is a prophet gets prophecies from God on a regular basis.
01:01:56And this becomes part of their identity.
01:02:00Saul prophesied, but he wasn't a prophet.
01:02:03Nathan, Elijah, Isaiah, these were prophets.
01:02:07This is who they were.
01:02:10And is something a little bit different?
01:02:13I mean, the role of prophet is different than other offices.
01:02:16I don't really like that word office because it implies more formality than really exists.
01:02:22But if you think of the offices of priest and prophet as being kind of parallel.
01:02:29The priest is very limited in who can do that.
01:02:33You have to be a son of Aaron.
01:02:35There are no women priests in scripture.
01:02:38At least not in the Levitical order.
01:02:41Prophet is different.
01:02:42It's not limited to a family.
01:02:44It's not gender specific.
01:02:46There are prophets and prophetesses.
01:02:48And the prophet doesn't really have any authority of his own.
01:02:52Like the prophet can't go to the king and order him around.
01:02:55He can't go to anybody and order them around.
01:02:57That's just not what the prophet does.
01:02:59But God can tell the prophet, go and tell this person to do this.
01:03:03And then you'd better listen.
01:03:06So when Nathan went to David and gave him instructions from God.
01:03:10David had to treat Nathan's word as if it was God himself speaking to him.
01:03:15Because it was.
01:03:16Nathan was God's mouthpiece in David's throne room.
01:03:21Where when Nathan went home and, you know, he talked to his own dad or his kids.
01:03:27He wasn't acting as prophet at that moment.
01:03:29He was still in the office of prophet, but now he wasn't giving God's word.
01:03:33I mean, he wasn't delivering a message from God.
01:03:37So that's kind of similar to the way that Catholics view the Pope.
01:03:41When he's speaking ex cathedra or, you know, from his position as Pope, then, you know, his words are infallible.
01:03:47The word of God, that kind of thing.
01:03:50But when he's not now, he's just a, you know, he's a regular priest and he's just doing priestly things.
01:03:55I don't recognize any authority in the Catholic Pope, but it's a similar idea.
01:04:01All right.
01:04:02Does that make sense?
01:04:03Yes.
01:04:04Okay.
01:04:04And I can't tell you exactly how somebody, how to tell if somebody is in the office of a prophet,
01:04:10unless they get prophecies on a regular basis.
01:04:14If your congregation has, you know, you've got elders and maybe you've got a senior elder and maybe you call
01:04:20him pastor or rabbi, or, you know, maybe it's just a council of elders kind of congregational leading sort of
01:04:28thing.
01:04:28But maybe you also have somebody that people call a prophet, and this happens in some congregations, and I'm a
01:04:38little suspicious of people who call themselves prophet, but watch that person's character.
01:04:44Are they dressing and acting as if they are higher than other people?
01:04:49I'm less likely to trust that person.
01:04:52Are they acting as if they're just regular person like everybody else, and they're nothing special?
01:04:58I'm more likely to trust that person.
01:05:00If a prophet is elevating himself above the congregation as if he himself is special, then that's a big red
01:05:08flag.
01:05:09If he is saying, you know, God sometimes sends messages through me, I didn't ask for this, it's just what
01:05:17God has chosen to do, and there's nothing special about me, and the rest of the time I'm a checker
01:05:24at Walmart, then that's somebody I'm much more likely to pay attention to and take seriously when they say that
01:05:32they have a message from God.
01:05:34And the other bigger qualification is, if they tell you something that is going to happen, and it doesn't happen,
01:05:42you can dismiss that person now.
01:05:45It doesn't mean you can dismiss them as a human.
01:05:47I mean, they're still a person.
01:05:48They might even still be a believer, but that person is not a prophet, and you should not listen to
01:05:53a single word they have to say about God's word or spiritual matters.
01:05:58This is just another person that you need to be kind to and treat as your neighbor, but you don't
01:06:04need to listen to any of their teaching or any of their prophecies.
01:06:09Abraham, he was a prophet, right?
01:06:12Who's that?
01:06:15Abraham, he was a prophet.
01:06:17Yeah, Abraham was a prophet, and God actually said so.
01:06:21God told Abimelech that this man is my prophet.
01:06:23The prophet, yes, and he was asked to make personal sacrifices.
01:06:31These prophets that come out here, they don't make no sacrifice.
01:06:35And those sacrifices he made was to maintain and strengthen his faith.
01:06:44Yeah, I saw a video recently by Mike Winger, and I don't remember the guy he was talking about.
01:06:52Obviously, I don't agree with Mike Winger on everything, but I really like him, and for the most part, he's
01:06:57pretty sound.
01:06:58And he did a two-hour video about this internet prophet who claims that he predicted COVID, he predicted this
01:07:07and that.
01:07:09But then he also says, well, I got this thing wrong, and sometimes I get stuff wrong, but I'm still
01:07:16a prophet because I got all this other stuff right.
01:07:18Right. Well, that's not the criteria that God gave us.
01:07:22He said if one time he gets some prediction wrong, don't listen to that guy anymore.
01:07:29No more.
01:07:30And to be a prophet, I think, you know, there are no real criteria in scripture.
01:07:35God doesn't say that you must be a morally upright person, you know, not an alcoholic, not, you know, not
01:07:42a criminal, nothing like that.
01:07:43He just doesn't give those qualifications.
01:07:45I think in general, that's probably a pattern.
01:07:48You can probably expect that somebody who is a career criminal is not going to be a prophet from God.
01:07:53But this one thing is certain.
01:07:56If the prophet tries to lead you to worship other gods, obey some other gods' rules, or if he gives
01:08:03a false prophet, that's the end.
01:08:05That guy is no longer a prophet in your eyes.
01:08:08Anything else?
01:08:09Count it up for grabs.
01:08:11Okay, hopefully that makes sense.
01:08:14You just have to say what God says.
01:08:18Despite of whatever position you might be in, he shows you, say what he says.
01:08:25That's it.
01:08:26You don't add and you don't subtract.
01:08:28Exactly.
01:08:29Yeah, I think it's also, you can probably expect that a prophet, somebody who gets words from God on a
01:08:36regular basis, is also probably going to be a good teacher.
01:08:40Because this person has a connection to God that most people don't.
01:08:45And should have a better understanding of scripture because of that connection.
01:08:50Not a guarantee, but, you know, somebody who is a legitimate prophet who has proven themselves, I would be interested
01:08:57in hearing what they have to say about any particular scripture, especially the difficult parts.
01:09:02Doesn't mean that they're always going to be right, but I would say it's likely that that person has a
01:09:08better relationship with God than I do.
01:09:10Now, do I actually know any prophets?
01:09:13Not that I know of.
01:09:16So, then we have the question, are there still prophets today?
01:09:20I don't see any reason why not.
01:09:23I just can't point to anybody whom I would say, that's a prophet.
01:09:28I wish I could, but I can't.
01:09:30If anybody else has, I mean, if you have any experience with people who claim to be prophets and they
01:09:37seem to be legit, I'd be interested in hearing about it.
01:09:41Because I'd like to check them out.
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