00;00;13;06 - 00;00;40;07
Chris
That's why we've got to know God's Word and why theology really, truly does matter. Why I love to to preach God's Word and why I try to do it so passionately. Because it's not just facts or things that that don't really matter to the day to day program of our lives. They literally matter in everything we do, every environment we live, every relationship that we are in.

00;00;40;10 - 00;00;46;14
Brenton
Welcome back to further. I am Brenton Grim. just me and Chris here again today. How are you doing, Chris?

00;00;46;17 - 00;00;50;13
Chris
Pretty good. Good. Got an interesting discussion ahead of us. I think so, yeah.

00;00;50;13 - 00;01;09;05
Brenton
Just fun. There's a few fun things to talk about today. so I guess we'll just. We'll just get after it. So, this passage brings up kind of an interesting topic, one that can be, a little touchy. and so let's talk about alcohol. I see you brought your own drink with you today. What are you drinking?

00;01;09;08 - 00;01;13;04
Chris
Water. And it's water. It's not.

00;01;13;04 - 00;01;29;05
Brenton
It is water. You're right. But nobody knows. They can't see. okay. So is it valid, do you think, to appeal to the story of the wedding of Cana. To defend a Christian's freedom to drink alcohol?

00;01;29;07 - 00;01;53;09
Chris
I mean, I, I think it's part of the part of the the Bible's teaching or at least part of what we can learn about this issue, from the Bible in regard to alcohol. I don't know that it would be necessarily the place that you would start or end. but I mean, Jesus, he clearly did make, alcohol.

00;01;53;14 - 00;02;00;02
Chris
And I mean, there's been an argument that it was grape juice. It's like a grape juice. The juice really didn't drink grape juice.

00;02;00;04 - 00;02;01;12
Brenton
grape juice didn't really exist.

00;02;01;18 - 00;02;25;16
Chris
Yeah. And so, he he made it. And it would seem like he probably also drank it. Yeah. no, we can't say that for sure, but, we do know that at the Last Supper, he. He tells his disciples, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine again until I drink any kingdom again. We can try to make that say that it's grape juice.

00;02;25;16 - 00;02;49;00
Chris
But that's that's that's not what he's talking about. I think better places, though, maybe to go are the Old Testament where some of those, those, passages that I quoted in there are many, many more where, you know that Isaiah 25 on this mountain, you're going to drink Well-Aged wine. Well, Well-Aged wine is alcoholic wine. and so that's, of course it's talking about it is talking about the future.

00;02;49;00 - 00;03;11;08
Chris
But the point is, is like what it's going to be great. It's going to be a celebration. and, and, and and so that gives us, I think, a pretty good indication that it is permissible, for Christians drink. And personally, I don't think that there are any commands in the Bible where we're told not to drink.

00;03;11;11 - 00;03;33;07
Chris
the command in the Bible is not to be drunk. so that would be Ephesians five. you know, don't be. Paul says, you know, don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit. He doesn't say, don't drink. He says, don't be drunk. You know, so if drinking alcohol was the issue, I think he would have said, you know, don't drink.

00;03;33;09 - 00;04;03;04
Chris
Yeah. he he wouldn't have made a distinction there. I think he is making a distinction. So, yeah, I, I don't I don't and I understand why why people will go there and, because of the there are real dangers in alcohol. And we see, especially in our day, a lot of, addiction. a lot of people struggling with alcoholism.

00;04;03;04 - 00;04;28;15
Chris
It's very damaging. It, is a leading cause of things like, domestic abuse. and, you know, we see people getting, losing their lives of drunk drivers and accidents and things like that. So that's a real concern. And there is a real danger. But we we ought to be careful. I think that we don't go too far and and make the Bible say what it does.

00;04;28;20 - 00;04;43;13
Brenton
Yeah. What do you what do you think the the drive is behind or why? Why are people convinced that, the Bible is against us drinking at all?

00;04;43;15 - 00;05;07;01
Chris
Yeah. I mean, I think in part it it is because of the obvious dangers of the mis, the misuse, the abuse of it. there are things, there are things in the Old Testament that they can be interpreted like, Proverbs talks about, you know, don't look at wine when it's, you know, raging events in the, you know, cup.

00;05;07;01 - 00;05;28;13
Chris
I'm forgetting. Exactly. the, the verse, how the verse goes. But there are things that could potentially be interpreted there. But but this is an example of where you have to take that in the context of what the Bible says. The whole picture, what the Bible has to say and understand, that is talking there about being drunk, about being drunk and being giving yourself to it.

00;05;28;16 - 00;05;52;03
Chris
It's not it's not talking about so much. I don't believe it's talking about the the alcohol in and of itself. Paul talks about how everything God has made is good. so the problem is not the alcohol itself. It's what we do with it. Yeah. So, so I think that people just they they there's dangers, they misinterpret it.

00;05;52;05 - 00;06;09;10
Chris
and then quite honestly, they're there. there are people who just like a lot of rules and they like to give a lot of rules to other people and, and maybe even sometimes themselves. And it's, it's an easy thing to preach against. I, I mean, it's right. Yeah. But.

00;06;09;18 - 00;06;15;17
Brenton
Well, yeah, there's plenty of examples of people abusing it. And so it's. Yeah, it's certainly not a hard thing to point out.

00;06;15;24 - 00;06;36;29
Chris
And I do want to maybe I just yeah. To go. I don't say to the other side but, but to, to try to be balance here, I, I do want to say that if, if someone believes that it is wrong for them to consume alcohol, then it is wrong for them. Paul talks about this to consume alcohol and they should.

00;06;37;01 - 00;06;59;01
Chris
I don't want in any way to influence anyone to think that, you know, since Pastor Chris, you know, this is his his position on, what he believes the Bible says, and it's, you know, we should not go against our conscience. And so if it's wrong, you believe that it's wrong, then it's wrong for you. I just encourage you not to make it wrong for for everybody else.

00;06;59;04 - 00;07;41;09
Chris
and then I also want to say, and maybe this is to me the most important thing overall, is it really is dangerous. And I, I have a, somewhat of a significant concern and particularly for, our younger people. And, you know, I would say that, even, unfortunately, teenagers, but, 20s and 30s and, and maybe even in the 40s is like, there just seems to be way too much comfort at times with liquor in particular beer and, but but hard liquor and, where I'm afraid that we are, we are taking our freedom too far.

00;07;41;12 - 00;08;12;16
Chris
and it just is like we're free and like. And it's just, it's not it's not good health wise for you to drink a whole lot of alcohol. Yeah. So just there, there are dangers, you know, those old same ones. Too many thousands. Never enough. Now, obviously, you can use that in the wrong way, but, it's really, really easy, especially for some people to go too far with it.

00;08;12;16 - 00;08;38;08
Chris
And I think the culture that we live in and I just going to watch this is like the the number of beer commercials and advertisement and just a number of different alcoholic drinks. And it's just kind of it seems to me like just a we've made it way too big of a part of our, of our lives. And, and for Jews like wine was set apart for special celebrations.

00;08;38;10 - 00;09;05;16
Chris
It wasn't something like, like just a, like, kind of an every day, like we're giving ourselves to it. And I, I have a concern, especially again, for, for our younger people that, that, I, I think it, it's a similar if I wanted to get another hobbyhorse here. You talk about gambling. You know, some of the thing that's happening in our culture with with gambling, we become more and more comfortable with it.

00;09;05;19 - 00;09;11;14
Chris
And it has to to devastating effects. Yeah. So.

00;09;11;17 - 00;09;14;28
Brenton
Yeah. Is that another thing you would put in moderation?

00;09;15;01 - 00;09;32;06
Chris
Well, actually I have a different position on that, but, maybe we'll talk about that. because I actually believe the Bible speaks, more, more definitively about, about that issue. But maybe we'll save that for another one. Fair enough. So.

00;09;32;09 - 00;09;54;23
Brenton
yeah, I mean, you know, if you go to First Corinthians, it's a, passage we're all familiar with. But first Corinthians ten, you know, this is really Paul's talking about, what what is lawful to eat, but his is the way he sums it up. So whether you eat or drink, do whatever you do. Do it all to the glory of God.

00;09;54;23 - 00;10;07;04
Brenton
And so, you know, good motive matters, right? and I think you know, as if we're we need to be discerning in every area of our life. And so this is this is no different.

00;10;07;04 - 00;10;35;03
Chris
Yeah. And I think the final thing I would say that that we also need to be really careful, and think about other people as we're, partaking if we're partaking and how that might be impacting them. And, it doesn't mean that we let other people's position on alcohol determine, you know, what we are going to do or not going to do, but we are going to be sensitive to it.

00;10;35;03 - 00;10;49;12
Chris
And, we do not want to cause somebody unnecessarily to, to, to struggle. And I think there's a lot more people that actually struggle with it that we might be aware of.

00;10;49;17 - 00;10;50;12
Brenton
Yeah.

00;10;50;15 - 00;10;59;25
Chris
Yeah. So it, it would, it would be better to, to not partake than to.

00;10;59;26 - 00;11;00;09
Brenton
To.

00;11;00;11 - 00;11;03;05
Chris
Than to cost somebody to stumble. So. Yeah.

00;11;03;08 - 00;11;29;16
Brenton
Good. Okay. We'll see if we get any questions out of that one. all right. So you quoted De Carson again this week. he said, Jesus, miracles are never simply naked displays of power. Still less neat conjuring tricks to impress the masses. But signs significant displays of power that point beyond themselves to the deeper realities that could be perceived with the eyes of faith.

00;11;29;18 - 00;11;56;11
Brenton
And I think, you know, sometimes it's easy to see miracles in the gospel and, see them as Jesus just showing his power, right? Which he is. But many times he's also teaching through them. what would you say are some other examples of miracles that we see this, this kind of Jesus pointing to a deeper reality, with, with the signs that he, performs?

00;11;56;14 - 00;12;26;05
Chris
Yeah. I mean, there's a bunch of them, I can think of at least three we're going to see here in the Gospel of John, big one, chapter six feeding, the 5000, which he uses as a springboard to talk about how he's the bread of life. and, then he raises Lazarus from the dead and, that helps to show that he is the resurrection and the life.

00;12;26;08 - 00;12;49;15
Chris
and also points forward to that. Then he's going to, heal a blind man, and then he's going to confront the the Jewish religious leaders about their blindness and their guilt. and that's meant to point out, like, we're blind and we we need he's the light of the world. So that's a that's, an important one.

00;12;49;15 - 00;13;16;19
Chris
And pretty much all of the miracles are meant to, to point in, in some way to, to, to deeper realities. I know one of those deeper realities is that he is the Son of God like. And so, but but there's even I don't want say deeper realities in that, but there's, there are more, more realities like we saw on Sunday.

00;13;16;21 - 00;13;33;29
Brenton
yeah, I guess I, I, I think I've probably noticed that some of that on my own, but it was interesting for that to be like specifically pointed out this week, because there there is obviously a point to all of the things that he's doing. He's not these are just haphazard, like, oh, this needs fix. Let me take care of this.

00;13;33;29 - 00;13;35;16
Brenton
Like, yeah, he was doing it on purpose.

00;13;35;16 - 00;14;01;07
Chris
Well, you know, the demon casting demons out, that we are, you know, maybe not, possessed by demons, but were definitely demon oppressed like we are. We are children of the devil. you know, if you don't, like, like to hear that, but that's that's how we come into the world, and and we need to be freed from his power.

00;14;01;10 - 00;14;31;16
Chris
and, so. Yeah, and I, I think that that actually, this is, this is one of the things that I love so much about studying the Bible deeply is that it just there's there's just some really, deeper, richer truths that are there. And on Sunday, you know, like, I could have gone and, you know, I went a little bit longer, but I could have gone another I got a preaching out of that whole 45 minutes on other symbolism in this story.

00;14;31;17 - 00;14;52;10
Chris
It's all over the place and it seems like on the surface, okay, turns water into wine. Okay. Yeah. Nothing. Yeah. Okay. Great. But it's always it's almost like we haven't asked stop to ask the question, like, why is this even story even in here? Like, what's it like? Literally it's, a cater to the kid. It easily gets.

00;14;52;10 - 00;14;54;01
Brenton
Reduced to just a party trick.

00;14;54;09 - 00;15;09;00
Chris
Yeah. Like. Oh. Like what? Oh, okay. and, Yeah, I mean, cool. He can do it, but why why why would he do it? Yeah, yeah.

00;15;09;02 - 00;15;35;10
Brenton
Okay. So moving on from there. We have another fun topic. So, in chapter two, we're introduced to Mary. Yeah. who is Jesus's mother? you briefly discussed, Roman Catholic belief about Mary. I'd like to look into that a bit more here. so let's start out with what do Roman Catholics actually believe about her that would differ from what we believe?

00;15;35;11 - 00;15;47;23
Chris
Yeah. So there are four core, Marian dogmas, primary teachings. so just run through them quickly. Feel free to add, by the way, you probably know as much.

00;15;47;25 - 00;15;49;13
Brenton
As I know I just am in this.

00;15;49;13 - 00;16;21;06
Chris
But, Yeah. So so she's she's the mother of God. which, you know, Elizabeth calls her the mother of my lord. So there's some, you know, biblical basis for, for for that, if you understand it in the right way. I think the Catholics would tend to take it a little bit too far. there. But, I don't think in and of itself that is necessarily an issue, but it, it becomes an issue with the other three.

00;16;21;06 - 00;16;54;14
Chris
So the second one is perpetual virginity. so she was a virgin her and her entire life. which I don't it has. I have a hard time finding out where that gets it, because even from we saw in our passage today or this Sunday is she's some siblings where there was some, but there's the Immaculate conception, which says that she was conceived sinless, and, that means she was essentially re redeemed upon her conception.

00;16;54;22 - 00;17;16;25
Chris
So not only they not only believe that Jesus was, had a, a miraculous conception, but but so did so does she. Yeah. And then the last one is the assumption which says that she was taken bodily into heaven. So she, she didn't she didn't die. she had kind of an an Enoch, or Elijah experience.

00;17;16;25 - 00;17;44;24
Chris
So those would be the four being like big picture ones. But, there's there's been a lot of teaching, come out of the Catholic Church and from popes, you know, one of them even stated, I forget exactly which one. it was that that you can only pray through her to her son. You can't, you know, pray to him directly.

00;17;44;24 - 00;18;10;23
Chris
And so there's just those, those kind of things. And so, I want to be fair to Catholics here, but essentially she is a goddess. in Roman Catholic theology, it's not stated that way. But when you you even just look at those four, those four main dogmas, it gets there. So.

00;18;10;26 - 00;18;30;15
Brenton
So do these, do these doctrines usually get passed down by popes? as you were talking about earlier, or are these coming from like, apocryphal writings or are we just, you know, interpreting Scripture differently?

00;18;30;17 - 00;19;02;28
Chris
Well, yeah, that's a that's a really good question. I'm not sure that I have the full answer to that. It definitely is the from various popes make, you know, the proclamations, they have various councils. I would assume that some of it comes from some of these apocryphal books. and, yeah. I think you you take all of those things together and, and that's what you that's what you get.

00;19;03;00 - 00;19;27;04
Chris
So I it's hard for me to see how you get other than the mother of God. One it's hard for me to see where you get the other three other than by reading into in the text. So, I mean, obviously the Bible doesn't say that there's anything about Mary after the the resurrection. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So there's nothing there.

00;19;27;06 - 00;19;39;09
Chris
the Bible says nothing about her birth, like literally zero. and and so it's just coming out here somewhere, at.

00;19;39;12 - 00;19;56;07
Brenton
Yeah. Yeah. So. Okay. as, as Protestants. Why why are these doctrines specifically about Mary a big deal to us? Like, why why does there's so much separation between us and Roman Catholics on this issue?

00;19;56;09 - 00;20;30;20
Chris
Well, I think it gets back to what I talked about on Sunday is that there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. I think that we start looking to Mary. We ended up we end up taking our eyes off of Jesus. I think if we're praying to somebody, we're, you know, we're never told to pray and to anyone in Scripture, but God himself, and, I think we are venerating a human.

00;20;30;20 - 00;20;57;09
Chris
And, you know, it's interesting, like, like in first Corinthians, you know, Paul, Paul is getting after the Corinthians because they're, you know, arguing over him and Peter and Apollos, like, follow Peter, I, Paul, Paul, I follow Apollos. And he goes, you know, basically says, stop it. You know, did I, you know, did I die for you? You know, I know.

00;20;57;09 - 00;21;29;13
Chris
And and so we should respect Paul and Apollos and, and Peter and honor them, follow them. I think, like Paul would even call people to do that. But but to to go further than that and to start in some ways worshiping them is, wrong and is dangerous. and, and so I think the Protestant church is, is very, very importantly and correctly made a, made a big division here.

00;21;29;14 - 00;21;30;06
Chris


00;21;30;09 - 00;21;41;07
Brenton
Yeah, yeah. And this isn't, certainly isn't the only place that we would deviate from, from the Roman Catholic belief. and maybe not, probably not even the most important place that we would deviate.

00;21;41;10 - 00;22;18;02
Chris
It's not the most important place to me. It is one of the clearest places that that, we can actually see the, issues with Catholic doctrine, you know, the whole doctrine of faith versus works, especially since Vatican two, and, and, even in the last 25 years, there, there seems to to have been, at least officially, some, some where that the, the Catholic Church's approach in churches move closer together, at least in word they can't like at least in word.

00;22;18;02 - 00;22;41;02
Chris
I'm not I'm not saying is actually the case in how it plays out, but in official statements around justification, that that can be a little bit difficult for us to, to discern. It's not really when it comes to Mary, I think it you can clearly, very clearly see, that there's there's extra biblical. Yeah. Things there.

00;22;41;05 - 00;22;56;11
Brenton
Yeah. Okay. Okay. so the second of your two main points was that Jesus came to give us joy. let's start with the basics here. What what is joy? How would you define it?

00;22;56;13 - 00;23;02;05
Chris
Yeah. I think it's actually a little bit of, hard. I heard.

00;23;02;05 - 00;23;05;16
Brenton
Things. It's not the basics to describe.

00;23;05;16 - 00;23;44;11
Chris
Maybe the contrasted, you know, happiness, I think is the outward kind of emotion. It is, focused on circumstances. Joy is more of the internal emotion and is, circumstance, independent. and, and so, in I, I think it's just it is a, in an inner sense that, I am I'm safe and secure. God has been good and gracious to me.

00;23;44;14 - 00;24;10;20
Chris
And that, I think, is closely tied to hope. Like, it's it's it's I have joy in this hope that I have of what Christ has done for me and, and and what that's going to mean for the future. it might be helpful to think of joy in terms of grace. and I think this ties right in, but what we talked about on Sunday, the Greek word for, grace is chorus.

00;24;10;22 - 00;24;48;06
Chris
and the, the Greek word for joy is Kara. They're very closely related. they have this essentially the same root. And the way I would view it is, is that joy comes from knowing, reflecting on, and trusting in God's grace. and it's that inner just, emotion of and maybe, maybe it is in some ways an inner, an inner happiness that doesn't flee or go away because of I've got something going on, in my life.

00;24;48;09 - 00;24;51;06
Chris
So. Yeah. Sorry.

00;24;51;09 - 00;25;09;15
Brenton
Okay. okay. So you said that we experience joy by by participating in preaching, singing, community and communion. What what if these things aren't bringing us joy currently? How can we how can we kind of fight for that or find it again?

00;25;09;17 - 00;25;19;19
Chris
Yeah, I would first of all say I, I said we we experience these things by sipping on the gospel. And the way that we sip on the gospel is through.

00;25;19;21 - 00;25;19;29
Brenton
Yeah.

00;25;20;03 - 00;25;47;16
Chris
The things that you you mentioned. So, the joy actually comes from the gospel. And, by reminding our, ourselves of being reminded and thinking of of them meditating on it, letting it marinate in our soul. So, yeah, I think we all will go through times in our life where they, they aren't bringing us joy currently.

00;25;47;16 - 00;26;16;09
Chris
And and so how do we find that again? so yeah, one thing I would point out is, is oftentimes I think we are experiencing joy because we are looking for it in, in the wrong places, like we have our hope set on, something happening and it doesn't happen. it could be as silly as our football team, you know, losing.

00;26;16;12 - 00;26;26;15
Chris
or it could be a more significant thing. We don't get the raise that we thought we would get, or our spouse doesn't respond to us the way that we thought. Or, you know.

00;26;26;16 - 00;26;28;29
Brenton
We'll just cruise right past that bears joke that was waiting.

00;26;29;01 - 00;27;00;02
Chris
Yeah, yeah. You're Vikings, you're killing that. but you know, it I think a lot. So so sometimes it's it it it's a repentance a need for repentance. Like we need to repent like I'm looking for joy in this thing here. And, and so I'm not being joyful because I'm looking for joy in the, in the wrong place that that's that's that's the issue.

00;27;00;02 - 00;27;30;08
Chris
And that's the problem. for me, a big one is thank, Thanksgiving being grateful. I and maybe the biggest one is like, I, I find that I have to regularly. Force myself, push myself to be thankful and to express that thanksgiving to God. To to think about all the things I have to be thankful for specific things.

00;27;30;11 - 00;27;52;22
Chris
And then to to be thankful and and I find oftentimes that joy comes from or in the Thanksgiving. And so I think a lot of times we're not joyful because we're not being thankful. We're being ungrateful. about we're focused on what we don't have or what's not going right, instead of what we do have and what is going right.

00;27;52;22 - 00;28;22;17
Chris
And so, I think maybe those are the two most helpful things repenting for looking for joy in, in, in the wrong things or primarily in the wrong things. And then being thankful, and looking at opportunity. So yeah, I maybe it also mentioned to you, I think if I can go back to the singing thing, music has a way of speaking to our souls that just mere words doesn't.

00;28;22;24 - 00;28;55;14
Chris
Yeah. And so why it's important, is that it can stir within us feelings that just mere spoken words, cannot. And, you know, the, music was a big, big deal for the Jewish. And singing was a big deal for the Jewish people. singing was a huge, thing, a very important thing that carried the black church through the evils of slavery, you know, and they their circumstances were horrific.

00;28;55;14 - 00;29;05;19
Chris
And yet they many of them, not all, of course, but many of them were singing people. And and we have some great gospel songs that come out of that.

00;29;05;21 - 00;29;27;23
Brenton
yeah. Yeah. I think it's, joy can also a lot of times be looked at as passive, like we're waiting for a feeling of joy, right? Whereas I think Scripture doesn't really present it that way. I mean, we do see the example of like Psalm 51 where where David says, restore to me the joy of your salvation.

00;29;27;25 - 00;29;52;21
Brenton
I think that is a call for for you know, the spirit to bring us joy. However, like, you know, a lot of the New Testament teaching out of Philippians two says, rejoice in the Lord. It's a command. Yes, we are commanded to to be joyful in in the grace that we have. And so, yeah, it's, you know, almost seems like we need to conjure that up in ourselves.

00;29;52;21 - 00;30;02;15
Brenton
But I don't think that that's the case. I think I think it is a matter of obedience. But, you know, what are we surrounding ourselves with? What what position are we putting ourselves in?

00;30;02;18 - 00;30;22;17
Chris
I think we have to fight for joy. Yeah, ERA is a command. And it's not just, Philippians is in numerous places throughout the New Testament and, and really, even in the Old Testament Psalms, we see it, maybe not framed in those words, but, you know, like, yeah, you have to rejoice in the Lord. It's a choice that you have to, to make.

00;30;22;17 - 00;30;46;20
Chris
And people say, well, how do you do that? If you're not joyful? Well, the point is, is that again, in that rejoicing in the Lord, what are you rejoicing in? So think about Paul and Silas. there for Philippians. Okay, so they're in the jail Philippi, and they're probably, hanging upside down in stocks. okay. Like in a, in a rat infested, dank, dingy prison.

00;30;46;20 - 00;31;10;23
Chris
Like it is not the Iowa, state penitentiary here. Okay? And, none of us want to be in that place, but that would be, you know, like, luxury hotel compared with it. And they're still they're still singing and still rejoicing. But what are they? There's they're singing to the Lord. And over, all that that God has, has done, done for them.

00;31;10;23 - 00;31;23;01
Chris
And God uses that to bring the jailer and, to the Lord and the, you know, church gets started from that, from that experience. And so you have to fight for it. And it's worth fighting for.

00;31;23;03 - 00;31;49;07
Brenton
It's good. okay. I have one submitted question that, I'll try to paraphrase here, but questions. Yeah. so, you know, one thing that this passage shows is Jesus interacting in the real world, right? and so I guess the question that came up was, what does it look like for Christians to engage outside of the church?

00;31;49;10 - 00;32;05;08
Brenton
like in this example, it's at a wedding. how how can we kind of be the light that Jesus was outside of our church community? How can we intentionally put ourselves there in a wise way?

00;32;05;10 - 00;32;32;22
Chris
I think the the wise way is, is an important component to that is, we gotta remember we're not. Jesus. So, you know. Jesus. No problem for him to to to go anywhere, right? I'm not saying he would go anywhere, but but he he was was not at risk at falling into into sin.

00;32;32;24 - 00;33;05;28
Chris
Now, he was tempted, for sure. And he, he faced that that, challenge, like we do. but so we do have to be wise, but I think sometimes we, use that as an excuse, to keep ourselves comfortable. And, I think we we do need to. Maybe it's this the way to think? It's like we need to go into these things with a mission mentality.

00;33;06;01 - 00;33;25;26
Chris
Just like our mission may not be like, I'm going to go in and share the gospel in every single environment, every party, every wedding. Like, like I'm going to start, you know, pass out tracts and getting up on a seat and like a no, no, no, no. I think we look for opportunities certainly to share the gospel.

00;33;25;29 - 00;33;45;21
Chris
I just heard a story literally of this week of of one of, one of our ladies who went up to, another lady at a birthday party a while back. Share the gospel. That woman's getting saved and probably going to get baptized here. So. So, I mean, so this. But I know this, this woman, very well.

00;33;45;21 - 00;34;04;12
Chris
And I just know her mentality. She just, she she, she loves people and she wants people to know Jesus. And so she's always looking for those opportunities in that that's kind of the the mentality in that. And so she's, she's you know, she, she she's not going gun guns blazing and just whatever whenever. But that that's kind of the idea.

00;34;04;12 - 00;34;37;29
Chris
And so we are here to be salt and light. We're here to be a city on a hill. and so we can look for opportunities while we're, we're coaching our kids soccer team or cheer team or volleyball team, or we can look for opportunities as we're invited to to parties. And, I think that we got to be careful that we don't think, oh, we can't go there because this might be going on and this might be going on again, we need wisdom, and we also need to know ourselves and our own weaknesses, and we need to to to guard ourselves for sure.

00;34;38;01 - 00;35;19;09
Chris
But we also need to hopefully go in the power of the Holy Spirit and to trust in him and to see that. Yeah. we've been we've been called to, to engage the world that we, that we live in. So, yeah, I mean, maybe I, I just, I like, I think a great way to do this, is to actually invite the people to your place, and, and, and welcome them into your home, and hopefully into your life and that can maybe help protect and be a wiser way at times to do it.

00;35;19;11 - 00;35;20;27
Chris
but yeah.

00;35;20;29 - 00;35;48;29
Brenton
Yeah, I mean, I, I think one tendency might be to go into a situation where, you know, that there's things you don't agree with and, and, you know, go in with a, kind of a chip on your shoulder and ready to, rebuke people. Right. and so I think going in graciously knowing that, that you've been saved from those things, now that you, you, you can be a blessing to them.

00;35;49;01 - 00;36;16;22
Chris
Yeah. Well, and I just will say this in a, a b be done here. I, I think we got to realize that if someone is an unbeliever, the issue isn't that they're drinking alcohol or, you know, cursing or, you know, even ultimately cheating on their spouse or something like that, like their issues. They need to know Jesus. They they need to be saved from their sins.

00;36;16;22 - 00;36;32;11
Chris
And there's no point in putting, a new paint of a new coat of paint on an old barn. You need a new bar. You need a they need a new bar. They need to be they need to be born. We're going to see this, John three. They need to be born again. And then once they're born again, they have the spirit.

00;36;32;11 - 00;36;59;15
Chris
The spirit can go to work on them. but sometimes we just try to to to we're we're focused on all of this, fruit stuff rather than on the, on the root stuff. And now if the person is a believer that that's a different story. Yeah. and so again, there's wisdom in that. So I'm going to, I'm going to have a, you know, I'm going to have a different conversation.

00;36;59;17 - 00;37;20;02
Chris
and this is, this is literally true. I mean, like, I may have a different conversation with a believer who I think is drinking too much and an unbeliever who is drinking too much, for sure. it's just going to be it's just going to be different. and so that's where we get it anyways.

00;37;20;06 - 00;37;31;29
Brenton
Good. All right. I think that was answered. Well, so, keep submitting your questions. ask it for the podcast. Dot com. And, thanks for joining us. We'll talk to you next week.