Note: The time signatures [00:00] below indicate the start of a question if you'd like to skip to a particular one of interest in the audio file.
[06:36] - Q: What has been Harvest's response (both here and Chicago) to the growing ecumenical movement (unity movement, Manhattan declaration, etc) and evangelical Christian pastors who've signed onto it? Should we stop listening to pastors and Christian bands who've been taking part of this (People that have spread the gospel but have made weird declarations that go against Sola Scriptura). The more oddities I hear, the more I fear having my ear tickled and thinking I am being fed, when in actuality, they're wolf in sheep's clothing.
[10:43] - Q: What does the Bible say about worshipping God as a congregation on Sunday versus Saturday? Why has there been a shift in churches offering both Sunday and Saturday services? Is this Biblical?
A: See Acts 20:7 - On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together...
[20:18] - Q: What is up with the thousand years? What is the purpose and why or when is Satan released?
A: See Revelation 20:1-10 -
[21:55] - Q: Why does God allow Satan to exist? Why can't Satan be destroyed and killed? Then there would be forever peace on earth.
A: See 2 Corinthians 12:1 | Job 1-2 | Revelation 20:10
[25:21] - Q: In Numbers 13:33, the scouts that Moses sent into the Promised Land reported, "We saw Nephilim there…" How did the Nephilim survive the flood of Noah's time?
A: See: Joshua 15:14 - And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the descendants of Anak.
[30:00] - Q: In Matthew 27:52-53, when Jesus was crucified and died, it says, "The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people." Besides the fact that this represented a miraculous sign (like the tearing of the temple curtain) drawing attention to Jesus' resurrection, is there some significance to this event? It seems odd to me that we frequently hear about the temple curtain, the daytime darkness, and the earthquake that accompanied Christ's death, but this raising of the dead is rarely mentioned.
[37:46] - Q: 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 seems to indicate that women are not permitted to speak in church. What is the correct interpretation and application of this passage?
A: See 1 Timothy 2:12-1
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Pastor Jeff:
00:00-00:01
Why don't you tell everybody what's going on today?
Mark Ort:
00:02-00:08
Well, today is Q&A day, and it's become quite a tradition here at Harvest.
Mark Ort:
00:08-00:09
What do we do, twice a year or something like that?
Pastor Jeff:
00:09-00:11
Yeah, we usually do about twice a year.
Mark Ort:
00:11-00:12
Yeah, it's one of my favorite days.
Pastor Jeff:
00:12-00:14
Me too, because I can sit down.
Pastor Jeff:
00:14-00:14
Yeah,
Mark Ort:
00:15-00:18
I'll tell you what, these chairs are so much better than sitting on those hard stools.
Pastor Jeff:
00:18-00:20
Yeah, they really are.
Mark Ort:
00:20-00:20
Yeah, these are great.
Pastor Jeff:
00:21-00:35
You know, I talked to so many people this morning that said, "I did not sleep well at all last night." Like, did you ever hear, like, who said that? "I didn't sleep very well last night." All right, so don't fall asleep, no matter how comfortable the chairs are.
Mark Ort:
00:35-00:38
You're not going to fall asleep because we have some really good questions this time.
Mark Ort:
00:39-00:43
And typically, we don't always do Q&A, right?
Mark Ort:
00:43-00:47
If there's a guest here, we don't have this format every time.
Mark Ort:
00:47-00:52
What do we normally do on a Sunday morning, and what do we have going on in the month of July?
Pastor Jeff:
00:52-01:10
Well, normally, and we just actually covered this last week in Acts 20, Paul told the Ephesian elders, "I didn't shrink back to declare to you the whole counsel of God." So typically, we take a passage of Scripture and walk through it verse by verse.
Pastor Jeff:
01:10-01:12
And we've done that over the last five years.
Pastor Jeff:
01:12-01:13
We've gone through the book of Mark.
Pastor Jeff:
01:13-01:18
We've gone through Acts, several of the Old Testament prophets, Philippians, Colossians.
Pastor Jeff:
01:18-01:24
So we typically, verse by verse, through the Bible, what is God communicating to us?
Pastor Jeff:
01:24-01:26
So this is a little break from the norm.
Pastor Jeff:
01:26-01:29
So if you're visiting with us today, this isn't what we do every week.
Mark Ort:
01:30-01:31
What's going on in July?
Pastor Jeff:
01:32-01:37
Oh, in July? I have a real treat for you in July. I'm not speaking.
Pastor Jeff:
01:39-01:44
We have four absolutely incredible guest speakers that are going to be coming in July.
Pastor Jeff:
01:45-01:51
First of all, next week is going to be Brandon Stevenson, who is a...
Pastor Jeff:
01:51-01:56
I want to call him a kid, because he was like a kid in the youth group at my old church, but he's not a kid anymore.
Pastor Jeff:
01:57-02:03
He's married and has three kids, and he's been a youth pastor out in Wisconsin, and he's gonna be planting a church down in Bridgeville, I believe.
Pastor Jeff:
02:04-02:09
But he's gonna be next week, and then the week after, Alex--
Mark Ort:
02:09-02:10
Is he younger than you?
Pastor Jeff:
02:11-02:11
Oh, yeah. - Oh,
Mark Ort:
02:11-02:12
he's a kid.
Pastor Jeff:
02:12-02:16
Oh, yeah, he was a, yeah, yeah, yeah, legitimate, legitimate.
Pastor Jeff:
02:17-02:24
Then Alex Gianetti's going to be speaking the week after that, and it's going to tie in wonderfully with the Financial Peace University.
Pastor Jeff:
02:24-02:28
And then who's speaking the following week?
Pastor Jeff:
02:28-02:28
I don't
Mark Ort:
02:28-02:29
really know.
Mark Ort:
02:29-02:31
I mean, it's a little sketchy.
Mark Ort:
02:32-02:33
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is sketchy, it's you.
Mark Ort:
02:34-02:36
Yeah, it is me.
Mark Ort:
02:36-02:38
And you're speaking on King Asa?
Mark Ort:
02:38-02:40
I am speaking on King Asa.
Mark Ort:
02:40-02:40
I love the Old Testament.
Mark Ort:
02:41-02:46
And when I get up to speak, I'm usually just gonna speak on things that I've been studying.
Mark Ort:
02:47-02:49
So I've been in the Kings.
Mark Ort:
02:49-02:52
I've been in 1 and 2 Samuel for a little bit.
Mark Ort:
02:52-02:53
So I thought, you know what?
Mark Ort:
02:54-02:57
I love the story of King Asa, so we're going to have a lesson on King Asa.
Mark Ort:
02:57-03:00
There's some pretty cool things that we can learn about the life of Asa
Pastor Jeff:
03:00-03:02
and seeking God.
Pastor Jeff:
03:03-03:04
Amen. I'm excited about
Mark Ort:
03:04-03:04
that.
Pastor Jeff:
03:05-03:16
And then July 30th, I'm actually going to be speaking at Harvest Pittsburgh East because Pastor Jeremiah Canfield from that church is going to be speaking here.
Pastor Jeff:
03:17-03:21
And he's going to be doing a message regarding homosexuality.
Pastor Jeff:
03:22-03:30
and i would encourage you to uh... circle that date on your calendar bring people you know that uh...
Pastor Jeff:
03:31-04:08
have had questions about that because that's something that the church really gets really gets wrong a lot either it's you know either we respond with hatred you know which is totally uh... wrong and unbiblical or we respond with uh... a complete embracing of the sin that's also wrong and unbiblical. So he's going to be addressing that. We love everybody no matter the sin, the tendency that they have, but we can't as a church just say, we just pretend that the Bible doesn't address it the way that it does.
Mark Ort:
04:08-04:21
Yeah, the first time I heard Jeremiah speak was actually that sermon, and it was at Harvest University. And I wasn't going to go to the class, and I thought "Ah, maybe I should probably go." And I was glad I went.
Mark Ort:
04:22-04:35
Anybody who went to that, when they left, there wasn't a dry eye because you were convicted so badly on your sin of how, basically how the church treats the homosexual community.
Mark Ort:
04:35-04:39
So it's gonna be a fantastic lesson for our whole church.
Mark Ort:
04:39-04:39
I can't wait.
Pastor Jeff:
04:41-04:41
Absolutely.
Pastor Jeff:
04:42-04:47
So without further ado, you wanna get to some questions and answers?
Mark Ort:
04:47-04:48
>> Yeah, let's go for it.
Mark Ort:
04:48-04:49
>> Is everybody else
Pastor Jeff:
04:49-04:49
ready?
Mark Ort:
04:50-04:52
>> So how is this going to work?
Pastor Jeff:
04:52-04:53
>> Okay, here's how it's going to work.
Pastor Jeff:
04:53-04:56
I'm going to run around to people the rules so that you can write this down.
Pastor Jeff:
04:56-04:56
Here are the rules.
Pastor Jeff:
04:58-05:04
We are going to answer the question according to how we interpret the question being asked.
Pastor Jeff:
05:05-05:12
Meaning we're going to take the question at face value and we're going to answer it how we think, how we think, excuse me, that you're asking it.
Pastor Jeff:
05:12-05:21
So if you're like, no, that's not what I meant by that, we're doing our best because these came in through, you know, slips of paper in a fishbowl, they came in through the online forum.
Pastor Jeff:
05:23-05:25
>> And you're going to pass a microphone around too, right?
Pastor Jeff:
05:25-05:27
>> Yeah, that's something else I'm going to get to.
Pastor Jeff:
05:27-05:33
Hang on. The unanswered questions that we don't get to today are going to end up on a blog on our website.
Pastor Jeff:
05:34-05:38
And that is the new thing we're going to try today.
Pastor Jeff:
05:39-05:40
This might be the first -- >> That's kind of scary.
Pastor Jeff:
05:40-05:45
>> It is a little scary, but this might be the first and last time we try this, depending on how it goes.
Pastor Jeff:
05:46-05:48
But Corinne has a wireless microphone.
Pastor Jeff:
05:48-05:52
So we're going to answer some of the questions that were submitted online and in the fish bowl here.
Pastor Jeff:
05:52-05:57
And then we're gonna give you an opportunity, you can ask a question like now, just raise your hand.
Pastor Jeff:
05:57-05:58
And we're all friends here.
Pastor Jeff:
05:59-06:00
Okay, don't be shy, you can ask anything.
Pastor Jeff:
06:01-06:05
Corinne will come and you can ask your question right here on the spot.
Pastor Jeff:
06:05-06:08
Maybe you have a follow-up question to one of the things that we address here.
Pastor Jeff:
06:08-06:11
So we'll get a few questions in and give you that opportunity.
Pastor Jeff:
06:12-06:17
And it's a lot less scary for me knowing that you're up here with me, because you've dealt with this stuff forever.
Pastor Jeff:
06:18-06:18
So --
Mark Ort:
06:18-06:22
>> Well, as usual, we have some really good questions this time.
Mark Ort:
06:22-06:22
>> Yes, we do.
Mark Ort:
06:22-06:23
Wait, we've got
Pastor Jeff:
06:23-06:24
to set our timer, too.
Pastor Jeff:
06:24-06:26
How long are we going to do this?
Pastor Jeff:
06:27-06:28
>> As long as you want.
Pastor Jeff:
06:28-06:30
>> So let's say, what do you think, 30 minutes?
Pastor Jeff:
06:30-06:31
Is that good?
Mark Ort:
06:32-06:33
>> That sounds good.
Pastor Jeff:
06:33-06:34
>> Yeah, let's do 30 minutes.
Pastor Jeff:
06:34-06:34
All right.
Pastor Jeff:
06:35-06:36
On your mark, get set, go.
06:36-06:36
>>
Mark Ort:
06:36-06:37
All right.
Mark Ort:
06:37-06:52
Question number one, what has been Harvest's response, both here and at Chicago, to the growing ecumenical movement, unity movement, Manhattan Declaration, et cetera, and evangelical Christian pastors who've signed onto it?
Mark Ort:
06:53-07:04
Should we stop listening to pastors and Christian bands who've been taking part of this, people that have spread the gospel but have made weird declarations that go against sola scriptura?
Mark Ort:
07:04-07:14
The more oddities I hear, the more I fear having my ears tickled and thinking I'm being fed, when in actuality, they're wolves in sheep's clothing.
Mark Ort:
07:15-07:17
So maybe a couple of definitions there.
Mark Ort:
07:17-07:22
What is the ecumenical movement, and what kind of response have we had from our church in Chicago?
Pastor Jeff:
07:23-07:26
I haven't heard of anything from Big Harvest regarding this.
Pastor Jeff:
07:26-07:54
And when people talk about the ecumenical movement, you know, what they're talking about there typically is, Every church is just sort of signing on to say, look, we all agree, we believe in the same thing, all churches are the same, whether you're Catholic or Mormon or whatever, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, we're all kind of the same, and it doesn't really matter what you believe about anything, doctrine's not important.
Pastor Jeff:
07:54-07:54
As
Mark Ort:
07:54-07:56
long as you sincerely believe it, right?
Mark Ort:
07:56-07:56
As long as
Pastor Jeff:
07:56-08:00
you sincerely believe, it doesn't really matter what you believe, let's just all get along.
Pastor Jeff:
08:00-08:03
And the problem with that is it compromises doctrine.
Pastor Jeff:
08:03-08:07
You know, you'll have churches that say, everybody's going to end up in heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
08:07-08:12
It doesn't matter really what you believe if you've embraced Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior personally.
Pastor Jeff:
08:14-08:17
But I haven't heard anything from Big Harvest in responding to this.
Pastor Jeff:
08:17-08:24
But the question here, should we stop listening to pastors and Christian bands who've been taking part of this?
Pastor Jeff:
08:24-08:27
You know, that's a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
08:27-08:53
honestly as a pastor I can't tell you what preachers you should or shouldn't listen to, what bands you should or shouldn't listen to. We're not going to have a list and saying these bands are acceptable to listen to and these are not. I would tell you that you should use discernment and always evaluate the message whether it's the band, whether it's the pastor, whatever. Listen to the message. Does the message, you know that's Sola Scriptura, Does the message come from the Word of God?
Pastor Jeff:
08:55-09:06
And I would say a word of caution though, if you have a band or a pastor that sort of signed on to this ecumenical movement, I think you should listen with extra discernment to somebody like that.
Pastor Jeff:
09:06-09:08
You know, how that's coming out in their message.
Pastor Jeff:
09:09-09:11
Are they still proclaiming the gospel as it's presented in the Bible?
Pastor Jeff:
09:12-09:14
And I tell people to do that when I preach.
Pastor Jeff:
09:15-09:22
Like, any time I get up and preach, you should have your Bible open, and you should be filtering everything that I say through the Word of God.
Pastor Jeff:
09:22-09:26
Is what Jeff's saying, is he saying what the Bible says?
Pastor Jeff:
09:26-09:29
Is he echoing what the Bible says?
Pastor Jeff:
09:29-09:35
You should do that, whether it's me, whether it's you, any of our guest speakers, anybody you hear on the radio.
Pastor Jeff:
09:37-09:39
You should filter everything through the Bible.
Mark Ort:
09:39-09:41
Yeah, so the key is discernment.
Mark Ort:
09:41-09:58
And I've heard pastors like John MacArthur say that they feel that the biggest problem that they have in their church is lack of discernment. And discernment is definitely the key there. We need to be in our Bibles, we need to be studying so that we know that what you're saying is right. Right,
Pastor Jeff:
09:59-10:27
yeah, and you know it's funny though because you almost want to hear the message from the pastor or the band without digging too deep sometimes because you know we found that if you really start digging deep into the some biography or history of some of these people, you're going to find something that's a red flag. You know, like, "Well, I don't listen to that band because, you know, back in the '80s, that bass player never rewound the VHS tapes before he returned them to Blockbuster.
Pastor Jeff:
10:27-10:43
And I, you know, I can't support a band that would have such a flagrant disregard for the rules or whatever." But you'll find something that you're like, "Eh, I don't really quite agree with that, whether it's big or small. So I would say everything that comes out, use discernment when you hear the message.
Mark Ort:
10:43-10:43
That's good.
Mark Ort:
10:44-10:56
Question two, what does the Bible say about worshiping God as a congregation on Sunday versus Saturday? Why has there been a shift in churches offering both Sunday and Saturday services? Is this even biblical?
Pastor Jeff:
10:57-11:59
Right, well, there's a misconception that Sunday is Sabbath, and it's not. According to the Bible, the Sabbath is actually Saturday. You work for six days and rest on the seventh. And what happened in the early church was the early church would actually start meeting to worship on Sunday simply because that was the day of the week that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. So that was like party day. It was like weekly anniversary, right? It makes sense. This is our weekly anniversary. Hey, remember that time Jesus rose from the dead and gave us eternal life? And there's a big shift there in the church for, you know, the worship to focused on a Sunday, and actually a couple weeks ago we saw the earliest recorded church service in record, and that's from Acts chapter 20 verse 7, when there was a story, remember Eutychus falling out the window? Well, in that passage you see they worshipped on Sunday, they had communion together, there was preaching, there was very long preaching, and you see some
11:59-12:15
elements of some of the earliest recorded church service. So what about worshipping on Saturday. Is it wrong? Is it unbiblical? Is it sinful? I think a lot of churches have done it just simply to accommodate schedules. You know, people are busy.
12:15-12:30
There's a lot of people that have to travel for different things, whether it's hobby or work or whatever, and they're unable to make a Sunday morning church but they can do a Saturday night. And there's nothing inherently sinful or wrong about
Pastor Jeff:
12:30-12:55
that. In fact, Romans - jot these references down - Romans 14, 5, Colossians 2 16 both of those passages of the New Testament say there's no day of the week that's more holy than another day. You know Sunday's not like a mystical day like this is the holy day the other days of the week are just kind of like blue-collar you know kind of days it's every day is equally holy unto the Lord.
Mark Ort:
12:56-13:09
One of the things that you know that I've been praying for is for our for our seats to get all filled. So if we fill all these seats, we may go to multiple services on a Sunday, we may have to do a Saturday service.
Pastor Jeff:
13:09-13:13
Yeah, I'm praying that the day comes for this church that we have a Saturday service.
Pastor Jeff:
13:13-13:22
I'm praying that happens, and I know some of our other leaders are praying for that too. So yeah, there's nothing sinful or wrong with it at all.
Pastor Jeff:
13:22-13:26
Like in Thailand, you know when churches, the church is when you show up.
Pastor Jeff:
13:26-13:35
like Barnabas will roll into town, and anytime I'd been with him, he just sort of shows up in town, comes to the church, and here comes everybody.
Pastor Jeff:
13:36-13:45
It's like, "Okay, we're going to worship and we're going to pray now." And it doesn't matter if it's midnight on a Tuesday or 3 in the afternoon on a Friday.
Pastor Jeff:
13:47-13:49
Whenever the preacher shows up, we're going to have church.
13:50-13:50
Do
Mark Ort:
13:50-13:51
you want to go to number 3, or do you want to take a question?
Pastor Jeff:
13:53-13:55
Yeah, does anybody have a... let's stop now. Does anybody have a question?
Pastor Jeff:
13:57-13:59
I saw Justin first, and then we'll do Levi.
Pastor Jeff:
14:01-14:04
Is there any of these questions that we don't answer here, like I said, we'll put them on the blog.
Audience Question 1:
14:06-14:09
So I just had a follow-up on what you guys were just talking about.
Audience Question 1:
14:09-14:14
How does that tie into the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy?
Audience Question 1:
14:14-14:18
Because once we get into Saturday and Sunday, it's like, what day is the Sabbath?
Audience Question 1:
14:18-14:19
What am I even supposed to do here?
Pastor Jeff:
14:19-14:19
Right.
Pastor Jeff:
14:20-14:21
That's a really, really, really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
14:22-14:28
First of all, as far as the Ten Commandments go, like keeping the Sabbath, that was for the nation of Israel for a season.
Pastor Jeff:
14:30-14:34
And Jesus Christ fulfilled the law, so we are not bound by the Sabbath.
Pastor Jeff:
14:35-14:44
In fact, Hebrews 4, if you jot that reference down, Hebrews 4 says that we live in the Sabbath rest of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
14:44-15:15
So literally, for us, every day is the Sabbath, because Christ has accomplished, He's fulfilled the law, accomplished to work. But no, you can't use that as an excuse to not show up to work. Like, you know, every day is a Sabbath for me, so I, you know, that's not an excuse. But yeah, we don't, we're not bound to keep the Sabbath like Old Testament Israel was. In fact, New Testament, you don't see any commands about keeping the Sabbath, especially for Gentiles. You know, that was never for us.
Pastor Jeff:
15:16-15:22
That was for Old Testament Israel during the season of the law, and it was fulfilled in Christ. So that's a really good question. It is a
Mark Ort:
15:22-15:33
great question, Justin, and isn't it true that that's the only commandment of the Ten Commandments that's not reissued or spoken of in the New Testament?
Pastor Jeff:
15:33-15:58
Right, yeah, you can see parallels in the New Testament for things like murder, obviously, and lying and stealing, but yeah, you don't see that repeated in the New Testament. You don't see anything in Paul's letters about "keep the Sabbath." You don't see anything from John. You just don't see anything in the New Testament that says, "Thou shalt not work on the Sabbath." That was for Old Testament Israel. Like I said, the best passage in the New Testament about the Sabbath is Hebrews chapter 4.
Pastor Jeff:
15:59-16:00
So Levi had a question.
Audience Question 2:
16:01-16:58
So my question would have to do with this following scenario. So say for example there is an unreached group of people. This is maybe more towards the first question actually. So say there's an unreached group of people in the world, you know there's lots of them. Don't have the Bible, never heard of Jesus, but they have a sort of like a reverence for a whatever a higher power would be. Totally. And I'm not saying like, "Oh yeah, Islam is the same God as Christianity and that's the same as, you know, the Hindu gods," you know. Right. But I'm saying, would their reverence for that higher power, could that be the actual real true God? And is there, what does the Bible have to say about that situation? Does that make sense?
Pastor Jeff:
16:58-18:56
Oh, that makes total sense, yeah. Your answer is going to be actually in Romans chapter 1. It says that, you know, God has revealed himself to everyone through through general revelation so that people are without excuse. Now, what that means is you can tell that a God exists just because of how awesome creation is. You look at a sunset on a beach and you're just, you've all been there just like, "Wow, God is awesome." And that sense of God's awesomeness, His creative power that He's revealed in creation, that's meant to drive us to understand there's a God out there to whom I'm accountable. And in that scenario, and I know missionaries personally that have been through, they, without God, you know, they didn't have a Bible sitting on the shelf, but I know missionaries personally that were like, "God, I know you're up there, I know there's a divine being up there, and I want to know who you are." And lo and behold, the Lord sends missionaries to share the gospel with them and give Bibles. And I've heard so many stories of, you know, these missionaries show up they said we want to tell you about the God who created you and what he's done for you and these tribal people are like we've been waiting for you we knew that God was going to send somebody to tell us who he was because we've been seeking him so yeah Romans chapter 1 says that people are without excuse because God has revealed himself to everyone now the issue is how you respond to that you know for somebody so I don't want to be accountable to God, I don't want anything to do with God, I want to live my own life," and you're bringing condemnation on yourself. But for the person that says, "I want to know my Creator, I just I want to know the truth of who He is," God's going to bring that person the specific direct revelation from His Word concerning himself. Does that make sense? Mark, would you add anything to that?
18:57-18:57
I
Mark Ort:
18:57-18:58
think you did a fantastic job answering.
Pastor Jeff:
18:58-19:21
Yeah, Romans 1 is really the answer there. It says people are without excuse because God has revealed himself universally through general revelation which drives us to know him through his word. That's Psalm 19, same thing, right? You know, the heavens declare the glory of God, then he gets into talking about how awesome God's Word is. Same thing, you got to respond to the light that God's shining on you.
Mark Ort:
19:22-19:32
And we covered this in Acts a long time ago in Acts 4.12. There's no name which which is given unto man, by which we must be saved.
Mark Ort:
19:32-19:33
And that's the name Jesus Christ.
Mark Ort:
19:33-19:39
So people need to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ to be saved, there is no other way.
Mark Ort:
19:40-19:50
And so I believe that God will reveal that to them if they're genuinely seeking for the true God.
Mark Ort:
19:50-20:07
And God, as Jeff mentioned, you look outside, it's a beautiful day, and you look at the Grand Canyon the Niagara Falls. For the birth of a baby. Birth of a baby. All these things that you've got to say like there is a God somewhere. There is a God. And who are you Lord?
Mark Ort:
20:07-20:07
This
Pastor Jeff:
20:07-20:09
isn't an accident. Yeah. Absolutely.
Mark Ort:
20:10-20:11
I believe he's going to reveal himself.
Pastor Jeff:
20:12-20:17
All right let's get through a couple of these questions here and give people more time to think.
Mark Ort:
20:17-20:20
Yep. Number three on our sheet. What's up with a thousand years?
Mark Ort:
20:21-20:28
What is the purpose and why or when is Satan released? I need to be refreshed on this? The thousand years Revelation
Pastor Jeff:
20:28-21:12
chapter 20 verses 1 through 10 that refers to the millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ and this is actually all through the Old Testament and it's fulfilled we see Revelation chapter 20 it's yet future where we sit in history currently but there's going to come a day where Jesus Christ is going to return the events of Revelation are going to unfold, but he's going to establish a literal 1,000 year reign on the earth. And I believe it's literal because in Revelation chapter 20, the first seven verses, six times it says a thousand years, a thousand years, and you know I have no reason to think it's anything but a thousand years. How clear is
Mark Ort:
21:12-21:12
that?
Pastor Jeff:
21:12-21:24
How clear is that? Yeah, yeah, six times God said it in seven verses. And he's going to show this is what life was meant to be on the earth, with God as the king, with God as the ruler, with God as the government for a thousand years.
Pastor Jeff:
21:24-21:30
Could you imagine that? For a thousand years, God is going to be the government because Jesus Christ is going to reign.
Pastor Jeff:
21:31-21:42
And then at the end of that thousand years, Satan's released, actually, the Bible says in Revelation, he's bound for those thousand years so that he may not deceive the nations any longer.
Pastor Jeff:
21:42-21:47
So he's bound and he sort of let off his leash at the end of the thousand years.
Pastor Jeff:
21:47-21:51
And he mounts one final assault against Christ and his people.
Pastor Jeff:
21:51-21:54
And spoiler alert, that does not end well for Satan.
Mark Ort:
21:56-21:57
All right, let's move on to number four.
Mark Ort:
21:58-22:00
Why does God allow Satan to exist?
Mark Ort:
22:02-22:03
Why can't Satan be destroyed and killed?
Mark Ort:
22:04-22:06
Then there would be forever peace on earth.
Pastor Jeff:
22:06-22:07
That is a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
22:09-22:11
And why does God allow Satan to exist?
Pastor Jeff:
22:11-22:20
Well, Satan and a third of his angels-- they were all angels, originally Satan and the demons-- and they were created by God, and they chose to rebel.
Pastor Jeff:
22:20-23:35
Now God would have been completely justified when they chose to rebel. He would have been completely justified to be like, "Poof, you're dust." But He has chosen in His sovereignty to allow them to continue to exist. And I've been asked this question many times, you know, "Why does God allow this if Satan's so wicked and he's so destructive? Why doesn't God do something about it?" And the answer is, "Oh, He will." Just set your timer for like 15 minutes because those events in Revelation chapter 20, it's going to happen and Satan is actually going to be tormented in hell. You know when I was a kid, how many people, I'm showing our age here, watch Tom and Jerry or one of those old like Looney Tunes cartoons? I like everybody, praise the Lord. But there's a problem with that. They would always depict hell as this place where Satan was the king, you know? Like he's sitting on a throne and he's got his little scepter and Satan's the king. Satan is not the king of hell. He is suffering torment for his rebellion against God for eternity when that day comes just like everyone else who's rejected Jesus Christ. So in the meantime, you know, a couple good references to jot down.
Pastor Jeff:
23:35-23:48
2 Corinthians chapter 12 and Job chapters 1 & 2. Here's why God God allows Satan to exist because Satan is working for God, unknowingly.
Pastor Jeff:
23:48-23:51
Satan thinks that he's going to bring destruction.
Pastor Jeff:
23:51-24:01
Satan thinks that he's going to destroy and ruin God's plans, but God uses Satan's evil to bring good.
Pastor Jeff:
24:01-24:04
You saw it with Job, like I said, Job 1 and 2.
Pastor Jeff:
24:05-24:09
Paul talks about the thorn in the flesh, 2 Corinthians 12, a messenger of Satan.
Pastor Jeff:
24:11-24:23
Satan wants to bring harm and God says, "I'm going to use evil to bring about good." God always spoils Satan's plans and ends up using him to accomplish divine, gloriously good purposes.
Pastor Jeff:
24:23-24:28
So yeah, God's allowing Satan for now.
Pastor Jeff:
24:30-25:03
And something else to think about too is the fact that God has allowed Satan and evil to exist, he's allowed it because that's also afforded us as a human race the opportunity to know some things about God that we wouldn't otherwise. You know, things like compassion and mercy and grace. Those are things that we wouldn't know about God if we didn't live in a world that at the present time is dominated by sin and suffering and death. So God's using it to reveal how good he is.
Pastor Jeff:
25:03-25:03
And we
Mark Ort:
25:03-25:07
can know him as our Redeemer and not just our Creator.
Pastor Jeff:
25:07-25:18
Amen, yeah. Yeah, that's an excellent point. We would not know that God is a Savior if we didn't, you know, live in a world of suffering and sin and death.
Pastor Jeff:
25:19-25:20
So he's allowed it for his purposes.
Mark Ort:
25:22-25:24
All right, this is a tough one. Number five.
Pastor Jeff:
25:24-25:25
Yeah, let's skip this one.
Pastor Jeff:
25:30-25:32
Yeah, I spent like hours reading about this one.
Pastor Jeff:
25:32-25:33
We're not skipping it.
Pastor Jeff:
25:34-25:35
Even if the alarm goes off, we're not skipping this one.
Mark Ort:
25:36-25:46
All right, in Numbers 13, 33, the scouts that Moses sent into the promised land reported, "We saw Nephilim there.
Mark Ort:
25:47-25:53
"How did the Nephilim survive the flood of Noah's time?" - That is a really, really good question.
Mark Ort:
25:53-25:54
And a really hard one.
Mark Ort:
25:54-25:54
That is a really hard question.
Mark Ort:
25:54-25:55
You got this one.
Pastor Jeff:
25:57-26:09
I did a lot of reading about these guys There's a lot, there are so many schools of thought about who exactly these people were, these giants, these mighty men of renown.
Pastor Jeff:
26:10-26:17
And there's four major scholarly views on who they were.
Pastor Jeff:
26:18-26:26
Well, jot some references down and then I'm going to tell you, answering this question directly without opening a hole.
Pastor Jeff:
26:27-26:32
Because we could spend weeks just studying this, so much work has gone into this.
Pastor Jeff:
26:32-26:41
But the Anakim from Anak was a race of giants that were said to be descendants of the Nephilim.
Pastor Jeff:
26:42-26:44
It's referenced here in the Numbers 13 passage.
Pastor Jeff:
26:45-26:49
They lived in south Canaan, particularly in Hebron.
Pastor Jeff:
26:50-26:54
And when you get to Joshua chapter 15, I love this passage, Caleb is an old man.
Pastor Jeff:
26:55-27:10
and Joshua, Israel's taking over the promised land, and here's Caleb, this old man, he's like, "Give me the biggest and the toughest, and I'm going to tear them apart." And Caleb ended up going after these giants in South Canaan.
Pastor Jeff:
27:11-27:20
And at that point, they were known by three sons, or three tribes, which is Ahimon, Tammai, and Shishai.
Pastor Jeff:
27:22-28:17
So you see, my point in sharing all that is you see throughout the Old Testament these giants, these descendants of giants are mentioned. Most famous giant in the Bible, who was it? Go ahead, shout it out. Goliath, right? Okay, so there were some giants, some big men. But what about the question here, like I said, we could talk about so many different things about these, but I'm going to answer this question specifically, "How did they survive the flood of Noah's time?" The answer is they didn't, because the Bible says that all landflesh was destroyed by the flood except for Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their three wives. So what about this reference to them when we get to Numbers chapter 13, because that was after the flood, and there's a couple schools of thought there things to think about. One is, keep in mind this was the report of the spies.
Pastor Jeff:
28:18-29:07
So some people think that, a couple things that really make sense to me, one is they were exaggerating the Giants and they were using something that all the Israelites would have been familiar with. Like they come back from scouting out the land, "There's Giants there!" Like what kind of Giants? "Well do you remember like before the flood the Giants, like those kind of people were living there. It was exaggeration of what they saw. Another school of thought is that the name was reused after the flood. Before the flood there were giants named the Nephilim, and after the flood there was another race of giants that obviously came from Hamshem and Japheth, and they attached that name again to another race of people, which totally makes sense. We were talking about this yesterday.
Pastor Jeff:
29:08-29:13
Like, think of how many cities in America are just named after cities in Europe, right?
Pastor Jeff:
29:13-29:18
You know, like I used to live in Ohio and I used to see signs all the time for London, Ohio.
Pastor Jeff:
29:19-29:22
And I thought, well, that's, you know, here we're celebrating our independence.
Pastor Jeff:
29:22-29:27
And think back to that day, we're breaking away from England and we're going to be our own country.
Pastor Jeff:
29:27-29:29
And okay, what do you want to name this city?
Pastor Jeff:
29:29-29:31
Let's name it England, let's name it London.
Pastor Jeff:
29:31-29:35
And, you know, we like to reuse names a lot.
Pastor Jeff:
29:35-29:37
How many Newcastles are there?
Pastor Jeff:
29:37-29:53
New York, right. So I think, you know, one good possibility is they reused the name from the Giants before the flood. I don't think anybody survived the flood except Noah's family, because the Bible's pretty clear on that.
Pastor Jeff:
29:54-29:55
All right, we'll do another
Mark Ort:
29:55-30:29
question off the paper, and then we'll ask if there's any out in the audience. Number six, in Matthew 27, 52, and 53, when Jesus was crucified and died, it says, "The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs and after Jesus' resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people." Besides the fact that this represented a miraculous sign, like the tearing of the temple curtain, drawing attention to Jesus' resurrection, is there some significance to this event?
Mark Ort:
30:29-30:40
It seems odd to me that we frequently hear about the temple curtain, the daytime darkness, the earthquake that accompanied Christ's death, but this raising of the dead is rarely mentioned.
Pastor Jeff:
30:41-30:42
Yeah, and you know what?
Pastor Jeff:
30:42-30:53
I have the same question, because obviously this was a sign that accompanied the death of Christ, and there were all earthquakes and temple, curtain torn and the darkness.
Pastor Jeff:
30:53-30:55
Why doesn't this get mentioned more?
Pastor Jeff:
30:56-31:01
I think the reason people don't talk about it more is literally that phrase is all that's said about it.
Pastor Jeff:
31:02-31:16
The Bible doesn't go on to say, here's what happened to these people, you know, were they raptured? Some people believe they were raptured. I don't believe that. I believe they lived for a while longer and eventually did have to die as we all do.
Pastor Jeff:
31:18-31:53
But here's that we don't know because that's literally all it says. I think that's why people don't talk about it. It's like, wow. I mean, that had to have been absolutely mind-blowing. Like, you know, you're walking to the market and you're like, "Grandpa? I thought you died." Yeah, I did. But it was a miracle that was obviously verified, and nobody disputed it when Matthew recorded that, so I believe it's true. But other than that one phrase, nothing's really said about it in the Bible. I think that's why it doesn't get more attention.
Mark Ort:
31:54-31:56
Does anybody have another question they'd like to ask?
Pastor Jeff:
31:57-31:59
I said Charles has a hand up, Darren has a hand up.
Audience Question 3:
32:01-32:04
This question is for me, it's about the Old Testament.
Audience Question 3:
32:06-32:12
Why is it that some Jewish men, back in those days, had two wives and two concubines?
Audience Question 3:
32:14-32:21
Does that go against adultery? Isn't that kind of wrong and contradictory?
Pastor Jeff:
32:22-32:25
Absolutely, that was not God's original intention.
Pastor Jeff:
32:25-32:39
And a lot of times the Bible, a good phrase to learn when especially studying through narratives in the Bible, a phrase that I always remind myself is it's descriptive, not prescriptive.
Pastor Jeff:
32:40-32:42
A lot of times the Bible is just recording what happened.
Pastor Jeff:
32:42-32:50
You notice clear back from the beginning, Genesis 2.24, God's plan was one man for one woman for one lifetime.
Pastor Jeff:
32:52-33:02
and it was it it was something that happened in the Old Testament that certainly the Old Testament mentions but that was not God's original intention Mark you want to add to that?
Mark Ort:
33:02-33:08
And the fact that that they did that anyway would lead us to believe that they were going against God and sinning.
Pastor Jeff:
33:09-33:09
Yeah.
Mark Ort:
33:09-33:10
They shouldn't. It
Pastor Jeff:
33:10-33:12
was it was not God's original intention. Multiple
Mark Ort:
33:12-33:17
wives, multiple women, it's not God's
Pastor Jeff:
33:17-33:28
intention like Jeff mentioned. I can't even handle one. I don't know what these people were thinking. And obviously, like, you read Solomon, like, it didn't work out well for him. How many porcupines did he have?
Pastor Jeff:
33:30-33:36
Yeah, 700 or something. He had 700 porcupines. That is absolutely amazing.
Pastor Jeff:
33:38-34:09
Yeah, I would say I put that under the category of descriptive, not prescriptive. The Bible says here's what happened, but certainly not God's original intention because when Jesus was asked about marriage, Matthew 19, he took him back to Genesis 2 24. When Paul was writing to the churches about marriage, 1 Corinthians 6, Ephesians 5, he went back to Genesis 2 24. That verse is the verse in the Bible, it's one man, one woman, one lifetime. So, Darren, you have a I have a question.
34:10-34:10
(from the room)
Audience Question 4:
34:11-34:25
Now that you've answered the question a few minutes ago about Satan being destroyed and killed, I guess I've always just assumed and thought that Satan knows what's coming, he's going to do as much damage as he can until his time is up.
Audience Question 4:
34:26-34:32
But after that answer, we have the written Word, and we know what happens with Satan.
Audience Question 4:
34:32-34:34
Does he know what's coming?
Pastor Jeff:
34:35-34:42
I think that he does, I think obviously the sin that personifies Satan is pride.
Pastor Jeff:
34:43-34:45
I think he absolutely knows what's coming.
Pastor Jeff:
34:47-34:48
But
Audience Question 4:
34:48-34:53
does he know the specifics of the release and the thousand years?
Audience Question 4:
34:54-34:58
I mean, the detail we have in God's Word, is he aware of that?
Audience Question 4:
34:58-35:02
Or does he just know that he ultimately will lose to God in general, period?
Audience Question 4:
35:02-35:04
But the details we have in the
35:04-35:05
Word...
Pastor Jeff:
35:05-35:09
I don't see any reason to think that he wouldn't know what God's Word says.
Mark Ort:
35:10-35:15
Right. I think he has access to the things that we see, I believe.
Mark Ort:
35:16-35:18
He doesn't know...
Mark Ort:
35:19-35:23
I'm trying to get the right words here. He's not omniscient.
Mark Ort:
35:23-35:24
Right, no, he's not omniscient.
Mark Ort:
35:24-35:33
He doesn't know everything, but he would know the things that are written, and he knows behavioral patterns.
Mark Ort:
35:33-35:45
I think he can tell, like, "Oh, this person has struggled with alcoholism." And so that's the point of attack that he may go after.
Mark Ort:
35:46-35:53
I think he has that kind of knowledge, but I do think he would know if he has a copy of the Scriptures.
Mark Ort:
35:53-35:55
I mean, or, you know what I mean?
Pastor Jeff:
35:55-36:12
Yeah, and I can't think of any passages in Scripture that would say that God has revelation hidden from Satan, so I would think that he would know what God has so clearly spoken in His word.
Pastor Jeff:
36:12-36:22
But I've thought about that too, and I think, we were just talking about this the other day, there are people that know what the Bible says.
Pastor Jeff:
36:23-36:52
And they're like, yeah, yeah, and that's what the Bible says, but I don't believe that Yeah, I I think Satan and his pride might fall into that same category to say somehow he thinks that he is going to be and deserves to be the exalted So he has to you know He has to see from God's Word clearly that his days are numbered Evan did you have a question buddy?
Pastor Jeff:
36:53-36:55
What day was the earth created?
Mark Ort:
36:55-36:58
Do you mean like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday?
Mark Ort:
36:59-37:02
Or do you mean like day one, day two?
Pastor Jeff:
37:02-37:04
Yeah, can you clarify the question please?
Pastor Jeff:
37:06-37:08
Well, I'll tell you this.
Pastor Jeff:
37:08-37:11
The reason that we have a seven-day week is because of creation.
Pastor Jeff:
37:12-37:12
That's why.
Pastor Jeff:
37:13-37:16
Because God told Israel in Exodus 20, you know the Ten Commandments?
Pastor Jeff:
37:17-37:23
When God gave Israel the Ten Commandments, He said, "I worked for six days and rested on the seventh." and that's a pattern that you should follow.
Pastor Jeff:
37:23-37:25
That's why we have a seven-day week.
Pastor Jeff:
37:26-37:27
So what day of the week did God create?
Pastor Jeff:
37:27-37:30
I would say it'd be the day that we call Sunday.
Pastor Jeff:
37:31-37:32
They didn't call it Sunday back then.
Pastor Jeff:
37:34-37:35
I don't know what they called it back then.
Pastor Jeff:
37:36-37:38
What do you think Adam called the first day of the week?
Mark Ort:
37:39-37:40
What language did Adam speak?
Pastor Jeff:
37:40-37:42
Yeah. You know what?
Pastor Jeff:
37:42-37:46
Submit that one for the next Q&A day because I'll need some time to research that one.
Mark Ort:
37:47-37:49
Can I ask one more question off of here and then I have one of my own actually?
Pastor Jeff:
37:50-37:51
Yeah. The alarm went off.
Pastor Jeff:
37:51-37:54
So if anybody absolutely needs to go, you can.
Mark Ort:
37:54-38:00
Well, this one should be a quick one, but this is an interesting question, as are the rest of them that we didn't get to.
Mark Ort:
38:01-38:06
In 1 Corinthians 14, it seems to indicate that women are not permitted to speak in church.
Mark Ort:
38:06-38:09
What is the correct interpretation and application of this passage?
Pastor Jeff:
38:11-38:11
Right.
Pastor Jeff:
38:13-38:17
Good reference to write down in 1 Timothy 2, verses 12 through 15.
Pastor Jeff:
38:17-38:23
I'm gonna read this because this, people get confused on this matter.
Pastor Jeff:
38:24-38:27
First Timothy chapter, what did I say, two verses?
Pastor Jeff:
38:28-38:37
But the apostle Paul tells Timothy, this is Old Preacher to Young Preacher, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, rather she is to remain quiet.
Pastor Jeff:
38:38-38:43
Now I've had several discussions with people and they say, well that's a cultural issue.
Pastor Jeff:
38:43-38:50
Back in that culture in the first century in the Middle East, and it's still like that in a lot of Middle Eastern cultures today, women are not supposed to speak.
Pastor Jeff:
38:51-38:52
And they're like, it's a culture issue.
Pastor Jeff:
38:52-39:01
Well, there's a problem with just saying it's a cultural issue because verse 13, he says, "For Adam was born first, then Eve.
Pastor Jeff:
39:01-39:05
"And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived "and became a transgressor.
Pastor Jeff:
39:06-39:14
"Yet she will be saved through childbearing "if they continue in faith and love "and holiness with self-control." So Paul's reason for that is theological.
Pastor Jeff:
39:15-39:47
He says God has established an authority structure part of that authority structure does not include a woman having authority over a man in the church. So I would say like for the 1st Corinthians 14, you know, the whole principle "we should use Scripture to interpret Scripture," I don't believe that that's saying that a woman should never talk in church. Like, you know, if you're a female and you walk through the door, you get a piece of duct tape and put it over your mouth. I don't think that's what that says at all.
Pastor Jeff:
39:47-39:57
I think when you let it, when you interpret this in light of what Paul says in 1st Timothy 2, I think what he's saying is, you know, the woman should not be the pastor or preacher of the church.
Mark Ort:
39:58-40:05
Yeah, and we, I mean, we believe that women definitely have an important purpose and role in our church. Some of our
Pastor Jeff:
40:05-40:28
key leaders in this church are women. They're not in positions of a pastoral authority. You know, Corrine heads up our hospitality ministry, Mandy heads up our children's ministry. We have women that are involved in leadership roles, but because of what the Scripture says about the teaching and having authority, we are not going to have a woman pastor come and preach over men.
Mark Ort:
40:28-40:29
And we wouldn't have women elders.
Pastor Jeff:
40:30-40:32
And we wouldn't have women elders.
Pastor Jeff:
40:32-40:54
And as far as I can see, that's the only area of church leadership that a woman isn't to have biblically is in that role of pastor/elder. So that's that's a really good question but like I said 1st Timothy 2 that's a that's a theological reason that's not a cultural reason.
Mark Ort:
40:54-40:58
We have about eight more questions on here which you're gonna put them on the
Pastor Jeff:
40:58-40:59
blog on the website.
Pastor Jeff:
41:00-41:09
For the next few weeks I have some answers and some notes here we'll put them we'll put them on the blog. Well I have one
Mark Ort:
41:09-41:10
more question before you go.
Mark Ort:
41:10-41:11
Don't be in a hurry.
Mark Ort:
41:13-41:15
You know, we're new in this building, right?
Mark Ort:
41:15-41:18
We just moved in a few weeks ago, what, five weeks ago?
Mark Ort:
41:19-41:21
And we're here on Sundays.
Mark Ort:
41:22-41:26
And the building tenants, the other tenants, there's some other office space here.
Mark Ort:
41:26-41:32
We have computer companies and video production things and stuff like that.
Mark Ort:
41:33-41:34
They're here during the week.
Mark Ort:
41:34-41:44
And so is there a way that we could meet them minister to them, because we don't see them and they don't see us.
Mark Ort:
41:45-41:46
Like how can we kind of cross paths?
Pastor Jeff:
41:46-41:48
Right, that is a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
41:49-41:54
I have met a few of the other tenants, like in the men's room, but that's not the place that you strike up a conversation.
Pastor Jeff:
41:56-42:02
Like, you know, "Hey, I'm Pastor Jeff, you want to pull up a seat? Let's talk." I do not do that.
Pastor Jeff:
42:04-42:08
So I've met a few people, they're passing in the hall occasionally, or out in the parking lot, you say hi, whatever.
Pastor Jeff:
42:09-42:13
I actually have a message out to the property manager.
Pastor Jeff:
42:14-42:17
And Mark, we were actually talking about this yesterday.
Pastor Jeff:
42:17-42:38
But what we would like to see is us as a church having sort of an open house where we have like lunch some weekday, have sandwiches and drinks and cookies or whatever, have lunch here and just hand out invitations and say, hey, we just like to be good neighbors, get to meet you, you get to meet us.
Pastor Jeff:
42:39-42:42
And to pull something like that off, obviously, we'd need some help.
Pastor Jeff:
42:42-42:54
So I'm going to ask you as a congregation, if that sounds like something like, yeah, I could totally pull that off and direct the troops and make that happen, come and see me after service.
Pastor Jeff:
42:55-43:01
And I think it's a tremendous opportunity to be able to reach out to people right here in the same building.
Pastor Jeff:
43:02-43:04
So we need some help, though.
Pastor Jeff:
43:04-43:06
So talk to me and let's make that happen.
Audience Question 5:
43:07-43:14
Pastor Jeff, they know we exist because the free gifts have been dwindling every week.
Audience Question 5:
43:14-43:18
I keep restocking and I know it's not our congregation because those things have been out for over a year.
Audience Question 5:
43:18-43:19
So they know we're here.
Pastor Jeff:
43:19-43:20
They know we're here.
Pastor Jeff:
43:20-43:23
So let's get a chance to meet them face to face and sit down.
Mark Ort:
43:24-43:26
We could open house, I mean, you could bring them in.
Mark Ort:
43:27-43:36
They could see our room here and see the kids area, meet a couple of the key leadership team or whatever and I think it'd be a fantastic thing.
Pastor Jeff:
43:37-44:02
Absolutely. Hey, as our worship team makes their way up, Mark, would you would you close our Q&A time in prayer please? Thank you everybody for the good questions. It was fun. I love when you guys make me do my homework and we're looking forward to seeing how the Lord's going to minister his word to us over these next four weeks with four incredible guest speakers. So pray us out of here Mark.
Mark Ort:
44:02-44:30
Let's pray. Lord thank you so much for Sunday morning this week. It's been great to get together with friends and family and our brothers and sisters in the Lord here. It's been great to worship and sing. I pray God that our singing was honoring to you, that our giving was pleasing to you Lord. And as we answered some questions and and shared a few laughs and kind of dived into your word.
Mark Ort:
44:31-44:37
We want to thank you for your word and how it does contain the answers.
Mark Ort:
44:37-44:39
It has all the things pertaining to life and godliness.
Mark Ort:
44:40-44:47
It has everything we need to live a productive Christian life.
Mark Ort:
44:48-44:49
And Lord, I thank you for that.
Mark Ort:
44:50-45:05
I thank you for giving us your word and giving us a Bible in our own language that we can read and understand and learn more of you and learn about our condition and what we need to do and what you've already done for us.
Mark Ort:
45:06-45:07
So we're grateful for that, Lord.
Mark Ort:
45:08-45:12
As we close in a song, I pray that you'd be pleased and honored.
Mark Ort:
45:14-45:20
We thank you for the great love that you have toward us in sparing not your one and only son.
Mark Ort:
45:20-45:28
You gave your one and only beloved son on the cross, on our behalf, and we thank you for that, Lord.
Mark Ort:
45:28-45:33
Our substitute, the atonement for our sin, and for that we're eternally grateful.
Mark Ort:
45:34-45:35
Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.
Pastor Jeff:
45:36-45:42
This is Pastor Jeff Miller, and I would like to thank you again for listening to the Harvest Pittsburgh North podcast.
Pastor Jeff:
45:43-45:53
If you would like to partner with us by supporting this ministry financially, you can do it safely and securely at harvestpittsburghnorth.org/giving.
Pastor Jeff:
45:54-45:59
And again, this is Pastor Jeff Miller, and I would like to remind you that you are loved.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Review and discuss any of the questions and answers given on Sunday's Q&A day together. Have you found any additional biblical support for the answers given?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.