Note: The time signatures [00:00] below indicate the approximate start of a question if you'd like to skip to a particular one of interest in the audio file.
Family / Kids:
[02:15] - Q: How can Christians help transgender family members fit into a family structure without alienating them?
Creation / End Times:[07:28] - Q: Why did Adam live so long on the earth when we can’t now?
[10:30] - Q: Buckle up, this is a doosey! :) How are scientists using Carbon Dating to find rocks that are millions of years old? Carbon Dating works by using the Half-Life of Carbon (the amount of time for half of the carbon in something to decay (5,730 Years in Carbon-14, which is used for Carbon Dating)). If the Earth is only 6,000ish years old (which I believe it is), then I should be able to get my own doohickey that tells me how much carbon is decayed, and find that only about half-of the carbon is decayed. This would mean that the scientists were lying, but all the carbon dating says the Earth is millions of years old. Are the scientists lying? Or when God created the Earth did he create it with a lot of the carbon decayed? And if so, why would he do so? Wouldn’t he want it to show that the Earth is only 6000ish years old? Is this whole Carbon Dating thing false and is a lie? Or does it have something to have to do with the fall, or something else entirely? Okay, that’s your homework assignment for the next few weeks! Enjoy, and thank you!
[13:53] - Q: During the Millennium, where Christians reign with Jesus, people will sin, but I’m confused about who. 1. Will the Christians who have already died on the earth and received their glorified bodies sin? 2. Will the Christians who were raptured and did not receive their glorified bodies sin? 3. Will the children that the Christians in the millennium have sin? Thank you!
[15:43] - Q: Why aren’t Christians talking about the Bible prophecies from thousands of years ago that are happening in our day and age? How is this not fascinating to every Christian? SOOO many Scriptures point to what is happening right now. How is it that Christians don’t know or care? I actually do want an answer to this question.
Miscellaneous / Potluck:[21:16] - Q: How long does somebody have to be dead before it’s considered “archeology” instead of “grave robbing”? ***How is this Bible related? I’m not sure, but grave-robbing is definitely a sin!***
[23:20] - Q: In 2 Sam 16:5-14 Shimei cursed David and David said, “it may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day”. What is going on here? Why did David accept this cursing?
[26:02] - Q: What does the Bible say about cremation?
Reprise (from Part 1):[31:01] - Q: What does the “gift of tongues” accurately look like in today’s church? Since I’ve only seen the “crazy” – there must be a legit use for it since Paul spent so much time on it in 1 Corinthians 14. And if it is no longer valid, how do you determine what gifts are valid or not?
[36:40] - Q: Do the leaders of this church like each other? If so, how do you show it to each other?
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00:00-00:35
Sermon we're going to be doing a Q&A many of you have submitted questions over the past few weeks that relate to the Bible Theology and Christian living and we're gonna answer as many of those as possible this morning We answered about half of them in the first service So we'll see if we can answer the other half in this service and to help pastor Jeff and myself We have Matt Cole who's gonna moderate the questions for us So Folsey we were talking in the first service it's been a while since we've had a Q&A Yeah, I think I said that in the first service that it was definitely before we went to two services because I would have definitely Remembered doing this back-to-back.
00:36-00:51
So we are long overdue and we got some really good questions The first service questions will be up on the Where's that record on the YouTube's or whatever you can find the first service on the YouTube's?
00:52-00:59
Yes on our YouTube channel, you can go on our church website should be up by today or tomorrow tomorrow, so you can check out those first questions we answered in the first service.
01:00-01:06
So we'll pick up with the questions we didn't get to in the first service then and just kind of take it from there.
01:06-01:13
Yeah, we had a lot of, we had 17 total questions, so we got through 9 of them in the first service, so we have to pretty much.
01:14-01:26
And I have to say, one of these questions literally made me laugh out loud for an extended period of time, and I sure hope that we get to that question.
01:26-01:28
I can testify because I saw your reaction.
01:29-01:30
Yeah, yeah.
01:30-01:38
Pastor Taylor, he goes, "Hey, here's the questions we got for Q&A day." He watched me, I laughed like an idiot in the lobby by the offices.
01:38-01:42
And I don't know who submitted most of these questions.
01:42-01:45
I don't know who submitted the funny one, but I would love to find out.
01:45-01:49
If you would fess up, you have to know how much you made my day.
01:49-01:51
I think I know who it was, but I won't say it.
01:51-01:51
>> I can't speculate.
01:52-01:52
>> Yeah.
01:53-01:53
All right.
01:53-01:54
So anyways, we going to set a timer?
01:55-01:55
>> Oh, yeah.
01:56-01:58
I guess that was me last time, huh?
01:58-02:00
>> Yeah, I don't have my phone.
02:00-02:03
>> I know, yours was a lot cooler in the past, because you had a Pac-Man theme song or something.
02:03-02:04
>> Yeah, the Pac-Man theme.
02:04-02:06
I forgot my phone again.
02:06-02:08
>> Mine's just a little ringer.
02:08-02:09
All right, 35 again?
02:10-02:11
>> You want to do 35?
02:12-02:14
Yeah, that was good for the first-- don't you think?
02:14-02:17
>> We preach longer than that, so it will seem to work.
02:17-02:18
>> So this is going to spoil people, right?
02:19-02:19
>> All right.
02:20-02:21
Ready, set.
02:21-02:21
Go.
02:23-02:33
All right, a lot of the questions in the first service were related to prayer and the church and family and kids, so we do have one leftover family question that we'll start with.
02:33-02:34
All right, fire away.
02:34-02:35
All right.
02:36-02:42
How can Christians help transgender family members fit into a family structure without alienating them?
02:43-02:52
This is, I know for some families, this can become a very emotionally charged question.
02:52-02:57
I wanna take a step back for a second and remind us what the Bible says.
02:58-03:02
The Bible says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
03:04-03:13
You know, we saw generations of people denying that truth, fueled by Satan, that Satan's oldest gimmick, right?
03:14-03:15
Did God really say?
03:15-03:19
So we had generations of Satan fueling that debate.
03:19-03:22
Did God really save, did God really create?
03:22-03:26
No, we're the product of evolution, millions and billions of years and all that.
03:27-03:38
But we've seen, especially in the past, what, 15 years or so, especially, this is really getting ratcheted up, where the Bible says God created the male and female.
03:40-03:44
And now we have a whole generation of, no, that's not, no.
03:45-03:46
I can be whatever gender I wanna be.
03:49-03:53
The Bible says marriage is to be between a man and a woman.
03:54-03:57
No, marriage can be whoever I want.
03:57-04:03
And we just see this erosion of everything that God established in Genesis.
04:03-04:07
We're seeing Satan attacking the very foundation of our faith.
04:09-04:29
So I wanna say regarding the transgender issue, It is a horribly, to me, it's a horribly tragic situation when you have people buying into Satan's lie that you're not who God created you to be.
04:30-04:37
And we are denying the fact that God created us who he wanted us to be.
04:38-04:46
So there's that tragedy that you have people that are, and you know, transgender, not the enemy, they're the victim of the enemy.
04:47-04:50
And then it's tragedy on top of tragedy when it comes to church world.
04:51-04:55
Because in church world, you go to either extreme and either extreme is horrible.
04:56-04:57
One extreme is hatred.
05:00-05:03
Because their sin might be different than my sin, I hate them.
05:04-05:07
Or we laugh and make fun, which also is inappropriate.
05:08-05:10
So that's one horrible response.
05:12-05:14
Another horrible response by the church is acceptance.
05:15-05:19
And we have churches tripping over each other now to be at the front of that line to say, hey, look at us.
05:19-05:25
We're affirming people who are denying what God created them to be.
05:26-05:28
Both of those are wrong, right?
05:28-05:35
I think the proper response is, I love you, but this is wrong, right?
05:35-05:40
I think John Piper kind of coined that maybe 10 years or so ago, it always stuck with me.
05:41-05:42
I love you, but this is wrong.
05:43-05:44
I think that needs to be our approach.
05:45-05:56
And regarding this question in particular, I would say if you're in this situation, you need to call the church and talk to one of the pastors because I can't give an answer that's gonna cover every context.
05:56-05:58
You know, how old is this person?
05:58-06:00
What kind of, what do you mean by family structure?
06:00-06:03
I don't know what exactly you mean by that.
06:04-06:08
So there's some things we'd have to unpack about your particular context.
06:09-06:12
But I would encourage you to call the church office and meet with one of our pastors.
06:15-06:16
Anything else, Taylor, on your end?
06:17-06:21
After the first service, someone asked me, what does the verse mean, that I am fearfully and wonderfully made?
06:22-06:25
And what I said was, you weren't made by accident.
06:26-06:31
You weren't a slapdash put together by God, like this one has to get out, okay, well, few mistakes there, whoops.
06:31-06:33
No, everything about you is intentional.
06:34-06:39
How you look, what gender you are, what personality that you have, God didn't make a mistake with you.
06:40-06:44
And many of us, even beyond this issue, we feel like God made a mistake with us in some way.
06:44-06:47
I wish I looked this way, I wish I had this personality trait.
06:47-06:54
That's actually offensive to God because you are fearfully and wonderfully made and God made you and designed you on purpose.
06:54-06:59
Yes, sin messes up with all those things, but God's intention for you was how he made you.
06:59-07:14
And in Acts 17, further tells us not only did God fearfully and wonderfully make us, Acts 17 tells us, He put us where geographically He wanted us to be, and He put us when in history He wanted us to be.
07:14-07:20
So God created you to be this person in this time, in this place, not by accident.
07:21-07:23
You're right, Taylor, the Bible is crystal clear.
07:23-07:27
That is an act of God's sovereignty, who you are and where He puts you.
07:28-07:31
Yeah, we're stamped with the image of God.
07:31-07:34
You know, brands tell you something about the product.
07:34-08:07
There's some brands like I don't trust that product, but there's some you trust the quality Right and we are branded by God himself with his own image. No one else nothing else. All creation has that brand Yeah, that was good stuff All right. Let's go to more creation and end times related questions here for just a few the first is This is something I've wondered myself. Why did Adam live so long on the earth when we can't now and not just Adam There were plenty of other people that did that as well.
08:08-08:26
Okay, first of all, first of all When you look at these people in the Old Testament that lived like 300 400 500 years Would you want to live that long? No, the answer is no No, it's a wonder for me, but not a I'm jealous of that.
08:26-08:54
No, I I'm like done. I've been done for a while What would back in my day of me when you live that long right, right, but um, okay, so I Believe personally that the reason you see those people living for those long periods of time You see that before the flood This is just my personal thing.
08:54-08:56
You can check the science on this.
08:57-08:59
But if you've ever studied-- we have a hyperbaric machine in our home.
09:00-09:03
I've done a lot of studies on hyperbaric therapy.
09:04-09:05
It's Henry's law.
09:06-09:13
Gas under pressure dissolves into liquid in a pressurized environment. Oxygen saturates all your cells, and it makes you healthy.
09:14-09:19
That's why all the professional athletes use hyperbaric chambers to accelerate injury healing.
09:21-09:34
I believe that there was some mechanism in place-- you love that word-- there's some mechanism in place before the flood that created a greater atmospheric pressure that would have resulted in greater health and longer life.
09:35-09:37
So they were all in the hyperbaric chamber.
09:37-09:43
I believe that somehow the Earth would have been under greater pressure, yeah, that it would have been one big hyperbaric chamber.
09:44-09:50
And the flood obviously changed that, because you see shorter lifespans after the flood.
09:51-09:52
That's my take on that.
09:53-09:54
Interesting.
09:54-09:55
Agree with that theory?
09:56-09:57
I don't know about that theory.
09:57-09:58
That's a good theory.
09:58-10:03
I just think something happened, whether it's that or something else, because Adam lived 930.
10:03-10:05
I think Methuselah was 969.
10:06-10:09
And then after the flood, Shem lived 600 years.
10:10-10:12
And then you see Abraham lived 175 years.
10:12-10:13
Obviously, something is happening.
10:13-10:14
There's a decline.
10:14-10:15
There's a progression there.
10:16-10:17
We don't know exactly what it was.
10:17-10:19
It could have been what Jeff was talking about.
10:19-10:23
But obviously, the rate of decay increased because of something involving the flood.
10:23-10:30
And now we live 70 to 80 years, maybe we're blessed by God, live into the early hundreds, I suppose, but our rate of living is way down.
10:31-10:38
Could it be that God just was not done using them yet on the earth and just wanted them to hang around for that long?
10:38-10:39
And it gets back to our first question, right?
10:39-10:40
God had a purpose in that.
10:41-10:42
He had a purpose in that.
10:42-10:47
And just as he had a purpose in allowing lifespans to be shorter after the flood.
10:48-10:49
So, yeah.
10:49-10:49
Interesting.
10:50-10:55
All right, this one literally says, "Buckle up, this is a doozy." So here we go.
10:55-10:56
Look at this thing.
10:57-10:59
I was wondering how we were going to fit this on the screen.
10:59-11:01
It's like size six fonts.
11:01-11:03
This takes up like my whole page.
11:03-11:05
That's how we finished reading the question.
11:05-11:05
We'll be done.
11:05-11:06
I know.
11:07-11:07
All right, here we go.
11:08-11:10
I'm sure a lot of you have already started, so I'm going to try to catch up.
11:11-11:15
How are scientists using carbon dating to find rocks that are millions of years old?
11:15-11:18
Carbon dating works by-- I'm not even going to read all that, actually.
11:19-11:21
If the Earth, I'm sorry if you submitted that question.
11:22-11:23
It's on the screen.
11:23-11:24
Yeah.
11:24-11:32
If the Earth is only 6,000-ish years old, which I believe it is, then I should be able to get my own doohickey, which is great.
11:33-11:35
I never thought I would say doohickey at church.
11:36-11:45
That tells me how much carbon is decayed and find that only about half of the carbon is decayed, which would mean that the scientists were lying.
11:46-11:49
But all the carbon dating says the earth is millions of years old.
11:49-11:51
Are the scientists lying?
11:51-11:51
Yes.
11:53-11:57
Or when God created the earth, did he create it with a lot of carbon decayed?
11:57-11:57
No.
11:58-12:00
If so, why would he do so?
12:00-12:01
He didn't.
12:03-12:07
Wouldn't he want to show that the earth is only 6,000-ish years old?
12:07-12:07
He did.
12:08-12:11
Is this whole carbon dating thing false and a lie?
12:11-12:12
Yes.
12:13-12:17
Or does it have something to do with the fall or something else entirely?
12:17-12:18
Something else entirely.
12:19-12:22
OK, that's your homework assignment for the next few weeks.
12:22-12:23
Enjoy and thank you.
12:23-12:24
Here's the thing.
12:25-12:26
They've proven carbon dating.
12:27-12:28
They've proven it's false.
12:28-12:32
I read years ago, they did a test on a live mollusk.
12:33-12:38
And the results from the carbon-14 dating was it had been dead for 2 million years.
12:38-12:39
It doesn't work.
12:39-12:41
It's been proven faulty.
12:41-12:43
So why are they still using it?
12:43-12:48
Because they're looking for something to give them some reading of millions of years.
12:48-12:48
Why?
12:50-13:12
Because if the Earth is really only 6,000 to 10,000 years old, which I believe it is, and I believe all the science really backs up when you consider Noah's flood fossil record, rock layers, all of that, you have to try to account for this molecules to man evolution somehow.
13:13-13:14
So they just said, well, time.
13:15-13:17
That happened through time, which is impossible, right?
13:18-13:19
Time and mutations.
13:19-13:22
Mutations take away genetic information.
13:22-13:23
They don't add to.
13:24-13:25
So that doesn't even work.
13:26-13:31
But they have to have some way of justifying this millions and billions of years.
13:32-13:39
So if they can get some kind of result from carbon dating like that, they're going to latch onto that.
13:39-13:41
But it's been proven false.
13:42-13:43
It's unreliable.
13:43-13:44
it doesn't work.
13:45-13:46
Yeah, the science isn't even done in good faith.
13:47-13:51
The carbon 14 is supposed to be decaying after several thousand years and not even be existent anymore.
13:52-13:57
But they're saying, "Oh, we can track back millions of years." So the science isn't even done accurately according to their own specifications.
13:57-13:59
Right, yeah.
14:00-14:01
It was a bad test.
14:03-14:03
So, no.
14:04-14:04
No. - All of it.
14:05-14:06
Just a flat no.
14:06-14:07
Jeff had many answers.
14:07-14:07
Yeah.
14:08-14:11
Well, I didn't want anybody to think we were dodging any of these.
14:11-14:13
No, that was clear, I think.
14:14-14:15
All right, let's go to the next one then.
14:16-14:21
During the millennium where Christians reign with Jesus, people will sin, but I'm confused about who.
14:23-14:27
Number one, will the Christians who have already died on the earth and received their glorified bodies sin?
14:28-14:28
No.
14:29-14:34
Number two, will the Christians who were raptured and did not receive their glorified bodies sin?
14:34-14:44
That question is, When you are raptured, you receive your glorified body at that moment.
14:44-14:50
So that question just need to clarify.
14:51-14:56
And number three, will the children that the Christians in the millennium have sin?
14:56-14:56
Yes.
14:58-14:59
Number three is the option there.
14:59-15:03
The Bible says that during the millennial reign of Christ, you have people will be having kids.
15:03-15:17
Not all of those kids will believe in King Jesus because at the end of the millennium, The Bible tells us, was it Revelation 20, Satan rounds them up for a last hurrah, Jesus vaporizes them.
15:18-15:20
So like, where did the sinners come from?
15:20-15:35
They had to be, they had to be children that were born in the millennium 'cause nobody raptured and no believers entering into the millennium from the tribulation period will be able to sin.
15:35-15:37
You can't sin in your glorified body.
15:39-15:40
It has to be them.
15:42-15:44
I thought he did a good job.
15:45-15:45
Yeah.
15:45-15:46
All right, let's go to the next one then.
15:47-15:50
That is a really good question, by the way.
15:50-15:52
Whoever asked that one, that is a really good question.
15:52-15:53
Three-parter too.
15:54-15:54
Yeah.
15:54-15:56
And the thank you at the end, how generous.
15:56-15:59
Well, yeah, that was really nice.
15:59-16:00
Whoever voted that.
16:00-16:00
Very kind and polite.
16:00-16:01
Good manners.
16:01-16:02
Yes.
16:02-16:03
Good manners.
16:04-16:04
All right.
16:05-16:11
Aren't Christians talking about the Bible prophecies from thousands of years ago that are happening in our day and age?
16:12-16:14
How is this not fascinating to every Christian?
16:14-16:18
So many scriptures point out or point to what is happening right now.
16:18-16:20
How is it that Christians don't know or care?
16:21-16:24
I actually do want an answer to this question, they say.
16:24-16:27
Just in case you were trying to skirt it, I want an answer.
16:29-16:31
You weren't going to answer it until you saw that.
16:31-16:31
Right.
16:32-16:38
Yeah, when I first saw this, I'm like, "I ain't answering that." Then I saw that last statement, I'm like, "Oh, you know what?
16:38-16:42
They actually do want an answer to the question." So Pastor Taylor, what do you think?
16:44-16:46
Well, I think it really depends on what Christian you're talking about.
16:47-16:52
I think every Christian has particular emphases, particular things they really focus on.
16:52-16:52
Right.
16:52-16:55
There's some people in this church who love creation science.
16:55-16:56
That's a great thing to focus on.
16:56-16:59
Some people love eschatology stuff, which is also great.
17:00-17:03
Everyone has something in the Bible that they're particularly fascinated by.
17:03-17:04
Yeah.
17:04-17:06
And we don't always take that to the extreme.
17:06-17:08
Well, if you don't talk about creation in the sermon, you aren't faithful.
17:09-17:11
If you don't talk about end times in the sermon, you aren't faithful.
17:11-17:13
We just go where the word of God takes us.
17:13-17:15
We've done a lot of different end time series.
17:15-17:18
We did Micah a year and a half ago.
17:18-17:19
We've done Revelation.
17:19-17:21
We're doing Revelation with the students right now.
17:21-17:31
And our big concern with the students and youth group was, we want you to study Revelation, not to be like, oh, what a lot of interesting facts I can put in my brain, which I think a lot of Christians struggle with.
17:32-17:36
I just wanna learn a lot of interesting things about the interesting things in the future that won't affect me right now.
17:38-17:43
Where actually, these things should change how you live right now if you're studying them correctly.
17:44-17:48
Because you should be so heavenly minded that you're of earthly good now.
17:49-18:04
So it is important to think about the end times, it is important to focus on what scripture says about it, but also be aware that not everybody's gonna have the same exact fascination that you might with it, 'cause everyone has different things in scripture that they really treasure and really focus on and others.
18:04-18:07
This is stuff that I personally love to talk about.
18:07-18:12
I love eschatology, I love studying Israel and all of that.
18:12-18:16
So yeah, I think it depends on which Christians you're talking to.
18:16-18:28
But if it's a matter of like preaching from the pulpit kind of thing, my response to that would be, yeah, we've done 1 Corinthians 15, we did a whole series on that.
18:28-18:30
We've done 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, Revelation.
18:31-18:34
We're doing, like Pastor Taylor said, we're doing Revelation with the kids now.
18:34-18:35
We've done Micah.
18:36-18:50
And that's a good question when it comes to like philosophy of preaching, because some churches will say, well, let's just come up with a topic to talk about and maybe do a, build a series around a topic.
18:51-18:55
And we do little topical series here.
18:55-19:01
And like we did the one on money, we've done it on depression, we've done it on parenting or whatever.
19:01-19:17
So occasionally we'll do a short mini series that's topical, but our philosophy of preaching here at Harvest is to go straight through a book verse by verse and let the word of God speak for itself.
19:18-19:25
Right, it's not like what do I want to say, but what did God say in his word?
19:25-19:27
And let's just communicate that.
19:27-19:37
So, that keeps us from avoiding any subjects because we just take the subjects as they naturally come up in the text.
19:37-19:54
And that allows us to go after what God wants to communicate, preaching the Bible straightforwardly, but that also allows us to do what, like the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20, he said to the Ephesian elders that he preached the whole counsel of God.
19:54-19:59
And when you preach straight through the text, that allows us to preach the whole counsel of God.
20:00-20:03
Believe you me, we've done sermons on hell and judgment.
20:04-20:05
I didn't prefer doing those.
20:06-20:09
I wasn't like, oh boy, can't wait to unleash this.
20:09-20:18
If it was up to me, I'd preach on grace and love like every week, but that's not preaching the whole counsel of God.
20:19-20:28
So in letting the word of God speak for itself, we exposit a text by going straight through from the first verse to the last verse.
20:28-20:31
That's the lion's share of our preaching calendar.
20:32-20:42
So for the Christians that may not know or care, in this case, related to this question, what are the Bible prophecies from thousands of years ago that are happening in our day and age?
20:44-20:49
We wouldn't have enough time this month to go through all of them.
20:49-20:50
There are so many.
20:52-20:53
We also went through the Olivet Discourse.
20:53-20:56
We talked about some of that, Matthew 24, 25.
20:56-20:58
I will say this, here's the short version.
20:59-21:04
Always keep your eye on Israel because the Bible says Israel is God's nation.
21:06-21:13
Romans chapter 11, yes, Israel was temporarily set aside as the Gentiles grafted in.
21:14-21:20
The church has not replaced Israel, but Israel is front and center in the end time events.
21:20-21:21
You read the book of Revelation.
21:21-21:23
That is crystal clear.
21:23-21:31
So, so many prophecies about the nation of Israel we're seeing fulfilled in this generation right now.
21:31-21:34
And it's like I said, it is a mammoth list.
21:37-21:40
All right, let's do some miscellaneous questions.
21:42-21:43
So I think-- - Miscellaneous, that's my favorite. - Yeah, right?
21:44-21:46
I think this might be the one that-- - Oh, this is it.
21:47-21:48
I wanna know who asked this question.
21:48-21:50
I think, I think it is.
21:50-21:50
Is it?
21:51-21:52
How long does somebody have?
21:52-21:53
Yes, yes.
21:54-21:55
Go ahead, Fulsi.
21:56-22:02
How long does somebody have to be dead before it's considered archeology instead of grave robbing?
22:05-22:06
How is this Bible related?
22:06-22:09
I'm not sure, but grave robbing is definitely a sin.
22:12-22:13
All right, who asked it?
22:15-22:15
Not here, huh?
22:17-22:21
>> Okay, that is a really good question.
22:22-22:24
The answer is 100 years.
22:26-22:28
>> Definitive, put it in the book.
22:28-22:29
>> I have no idea.
22:30-22:31
I have no idea.
22:32-22:35
>> So Pastor Rich's grave will be free game in 100 years?
22:36-22:38
>> I have no idea.
22:38-22:44
I mean, maybe we have to ask Pastor Rich, is there a legal, what's that?
22:44-22:46
I'm not gonna find my grave.
22:48-22:50
No, I meant, is there a legal answer to this?
22:50-22:51
Like, is there a...
22:54-22:54
Okay.
22:56-23:00
Then listen, if Pastor Rich doesn't know, then that means no answer exists.
23:00-23:00
Yeah, right.
23:02-23:06
But I will agree, grave robbing is a sin.
23:08-23:10
And this isn't for everybody here, but this is for somebody.
23:11-23:14
If you're robbing graves, you better knock that off.
23:16-23:16
(congregation laughing)
23:17-23:18
I'm glad they established that.
23:18-23:20
They at least established that in the question.
23:21-23:22
It definitely is a sin.
23:22-23:38
Look, I don't know who asked this and I sure hope to find out, but I just have this theory in mind that somebody was watching "Indiana Jones." And they were watching that movie like "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and I think that's when they thought of this question.
23:38-23:40
Yeah, good possibility.
23:41-23:44
All right, let's go to this one here.
23:44-23:48
It's in 2 Samuel 16, five through 14.
23:49-23:49
Is it Shammai?
23:50-24:00
'Cause David and David said, cursed David, excuse me, and David said, it may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day.
24:01-24:02
What is going on here?
24:03-24:05
Why did David accept this cursing?
24:06-24:11
That is a really good question, and that is a deep dive here.
24:11-24:13
So what is going on here, Pastor Taylor?
24:15-24:15
(laughing)
24:17-24:17
What a move.
24:17-24:18
See how I did that?
24:19-24:25
So Shammai, Shammi, whatever you wanna say, is a distant relative of Saul, and he curses David.
24:26-24:34
And it seems like he's accusing David of stealing the throne from Saul, committing bloodshed against him, which we all know he didn't if you actually read the story.
24:35-24:39
And Abishai, one of David's mighty men, says, "Let's kill this guy.
24:40-24:46
"Let's just separate his head from his shoulders "and be done with him." And David says, "No, no, no." And he entrusts himself to the providence of God.
24:46-24:48
And why he does that is up for debate.
24:48-24:59
People wonder, is David knowing that, "Hey, I am guilty of murder with Uriah, "so I am guilty anyway." Is he accepting that or is he not?
24:59-25:04
We're not 100% sure, but we do know that he's entrusting himself to God to deal with this person.
25:04-25:21
And he's like, "Maybe God will even bless me "in the process." Yeah, and I heard one preacher had said, really good point, I didn't even think about this, but one preacher had said that this account shows how time and circumstance sort of tempered David.
25:23-25:31
This would have happened a few years back, David might have responded in a violent way, but he didn't here.
25:32-25:44
So whether it was just maturing or he was just worn out, but it shows David was handling his problems much differently than he was as a younger man.
25:45-25:48
Yeah, I think a good modern day application for us is don't fight fire with fire.
25:49-25:50
When people hit you, don't hit back.
25:51-25:57
We get the ultimate example in Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 2.23, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
25:57-26:03
When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
26:04-26:09
Ultimately, God knew the reason why David was cursed by Shammi, and David's like, I trust God.
26:11-26:16
By the way, I love how casually intense the Bible can be sometimes, where it's just like, let's separate his head from his shoulders.
26:17-26:18
Oh, okay.
26:19-26:20
Well, that escalated quickly.
26:20-26:21
Wow. - Right on.
26:22-26:25
All right, last miscellaneous question.
26:25-26:28
What does the Bible say about cremation?
26:30-26:33
What does the Bible say about cremation?
26:36-26:39
Oh, I thought it said creation.
26:41-26:42
Cremation, that's different, right?
26:43-26:44
That's different.
26:45-26:46
Definitely different.
26:47-26:57
You know, when I was a kid, there were two major brands of coffee creamer at the time when I was a kid.
26:58-27:00
I don't think you're understanding the cremation.
27:02-27:03
He'll make, he'll get there, don't worry.
27:03-27:03
I'm getting there.
27:04-27:04
Thank you, pastor.
27:05-27:14
There were two major kinds, and my dad drank coffee, and I made it for him, but there was Cremora and Coffee Mate.
27:16-27:20
And my dad, like a lot of dads, sometimes got the wires crossed there.
27:20-27:22
Do you know what he called his coffee?
27:22-27:23
He called it Cremate.
27:24-27:33
So dad would always like, "Could you put a little cremate in my coffee?" I was like, "Ew, ew." So-- - Okay, maybe he didn't get there the way I expected.
27:34-27:34
(laughing)
27:35-27:37
That wasn't where you thought we were going?
27:37-27:38
Still not sure if he understands the question.
27:38-27:40
I thought there'd be an illustration that you could choose whichever one you want.
27:41-27:41
Oh.
27:41-27:42
Whichever type of creme you want, I don't know.
27:43-27:44
Yeah, that works too.
27:44-27:45
All right, all right.
27:46-27:48
You got me, enough stalling.
27:48-27:50
Taylor, what does the Bible say about cremation?
27:51-27:51
(laughing)
27:52-27:58
Well, you don't see any examples of believers Old Testament being cremated or New Testament believers being cremated.
27:58-28:02
It actually has pagan roots. Greeks and Romans would do that.
28:03-28:11
Believers throughout biblical history have always buried their dead in anticipation of the resurrection of the dead. So you see that with Stephen.
28:11-28:16
He was stoned. He was buried. And Isis is a fire. When they died, they were buried. Lazarus was buried. Jesus was buried.
28:17-28:21
And Jesus rose again from the grave. And that's us being buried now.
28:21-28:27
And it's pointing forward that we trust that one day we will be raised as new creations and new glorified bodies.
28:28-28:32
And I don't want to say that you have to get buried, that cremation is a sin.
28:32-28:36
I'm not saying that at all. I'm just laying out the biblical pattern that we see in Scripture.
28:36-28:40
Yeah, and that is the question, what does the Bible say about cremation?
28:40-28:45
The Bible doesn't say, "Thou shalt not cremate," that I could see.
28:45-28:58
But yeah, every time somebody was, you know, when they passed away, their body was buried and the biblical picture there, 1 Corinthians 15, we're resurrected.
28:58-29:08
It's like a seed going into the ground, which will someday when we get our glorified body, we're going to come up out of the ground at the resurrection, right?
29:14-29:21
I guess, technically, you really don't have any say over what happens to your body when you die, right?
29:21-29:28
I mean, you can make your arrangements beforehand, but then once you're gone, it's carried out by the people left behind.
29:32-29:42
But one of the issues that people have with this, people are like, well, if you're cremated, is that somehow gonna affect you at the resurrection?
29:43-29:46
Almost like God's not gonna be able to find your body or whatever, right?
29:47-29:48
But I've had people ask me that.
29:48-30:01
And my response is like, what about people that die in a horrible explosion or eaten by a shark or something horrible like that where there's not an actual cemetery burial?
30:01-30:05
Do you think God's gonna have a hard time finding the pieces?
30:06-30:07
I don't think so.
30:11-30:12
Well, pastor.
30:14-30:16
Not sure how to respond to that one.
30:16-30:19
Well, you smell like a campfire was the question, by the way.
30:20-30:21
I'll tell you what, Rich.
30:22-30:28
If you're cremated, I will dig you up when it's no longer considered grave robbing.
30:30-30:31
Because that's definitely a sin.
30:32-30:37
Because that's definitely a sin, and I'll let you know if you smell like a campfire.
30:38-30:39
It's certainly not a major moral issue.
30:39-30:42
you shouldn't be tossing and turning at night over the decision.
30:42-30:44
Or feel bad if you cremated someone in the past.
30:44-30:44
No, not at all.
30:45-30:50
Because again, God can remake that body and recreate a new one.
30:50-30:53
But we're just laying out, this is the biblical pattern we see in scripture.
30:54-31:00
But you know my father was cremated and it just now hit me how ironic that is.
31:01-31:02
(laughing)
31:05-31:07
He finally became-- - He was asking for it all those years.
31:07-31:09
He's asking for it his whole life.
31:10-31:11
Oh man.
31:11-31:16
I know, if you're like, ooh, he's having a really good day right now, okay?
31:16-31:18
So trust me, he's not offended.
31:19-31:21
He'd be laughing with us.
31:21-31:21
Yeah.
31:22-31:26
All right, that was all for the questions from the leftovers from the first service.
31:26-31:32
So I'm gonna circle back to one that I think we had a good discussion about in the first service.
31:32-31:33
Great idea.
31:34-31:40
And that is, what does the gift of tongues accurately look like in today's church?
31:41-31:41
Terrible idea.
31:42-31:45
Since they've only seen the crazy, there must be a legit use.
31:46-31:52
Since Paul spent so much time on it in 1 Corinthians 14, if it's no longer valid, how do we determine what gifts are valid and which are not?
31:54-31:58
I thought it was a good idea to circle back until you went back to this question.
32:00-32:03
Now, here's the thing.
32:05-32:07
It's another emotionally charged issue.
32:07-32:12
It's like a lot of these Q&A questions, they're emotionally charged.
32:12-32:16
And there's a lot of different opinions and understanding on the gift of tongues.
32:17-32:18
All I can tell you is what the Bible says.
32:20-32:23
What does the gift of tongues accurately look like in today's church?
32:23-32:27
I don't believe the tongues is normative for today.
32:28-32:29
Let me take a step back here.
32:30-32:32
Where do you see tongues in the Bible?
32:33-32:34
You see in the book of Acts, right?
32:35-32:41
And the only epistle where it's mentioned is one of the earliest epistles written and that's 1 Corinthians.
32:42-32:52
Why, if tongues is such a major thing that's supposed to be happening in churches, why isn't it addressed in every single epistle?
32:53-33:00
The reason being is the purpose God had for tongues.
33:00-33:02
What was the purpose?
33:02-33:09
Well, in the book of Acts, what you have is this major turning point in history.
33:10-33:13
We're going from the old covenant to the new covenant.
33:14-33:21
And part of that shift is actually a message of judgment.
33:21-33:30
God prophesied this back in the book of Isaiah, that tongues was a sign of judgment against Israel.
33:30-33:36
Because Israel had rejected the Messiah, God says, all right, then I'm going to be moving on to other people.
33:37-33:40
And so tongues is actually, these are known languages.
33:41-33:43
The gift of tongues, it wasn't gibberish.
33:43-33:49
It would be like people speaking Chinese or Japanese or Spanish.
33:49-33:59
They were actual languages that were, And also, they were supernaturally spoken and supernaturally interpreted.
34:01-34:17
But that was the purpose of tongues, was to show Israel that God was, Romans 11, they were temporarily setting them aside and grafting in the wild branches, the Gentiles, the other nations, that's us.
34:17-34:20
So that's the purpose of tongues.
34:21-34:29
I just find it so interesting that it's spoken really so little in the Bible, but people make so much of it.
34:30-34:33
I do not believe the tongues is normative for today.
34:33-34:36
Do I believe that it still happens?
34:36-34:37
I do.
34:39-34:45
I've heard stories, I wasn't there, but I've heard stories from reliable sources of people on the mission field.
34:46-34:48
They were asked to get up and say a few words.
34:48-35:20
They're like, "Well, I don't speak your language." and say something. They get up and speak what they think is their own language, people were hearing it in their native tongue. That's sort of like Pentecost tongues, right? Acts chapter 2. Do I believe that happened? I do. I've heard that story from reliable sources. I believe that's the manifestation of the gift of tongues in our day, but speaking an ecstatic gibberish language as part of the worship service in church, I don't see that biblically at all.
35:21-35:25
Yeah, I have friends who have a different conviction than me on this matter, and they're great Christians, they love the Lord.
35:27-35:34
The biggest concern I do have is churches that say, to be a Christian, to be saved, you must speak in tongues.
35:34-35:37
You don't see that claim anywhere in the New Testament at all.
35:38-35:42
It lays a guilty burden on people that they cannot bear and they should not bear.
35:42-35:46
And I've met a lot of people who've said, yeah, I was in that kind of church, and I just faked it.
35:46-35:50
I just pretended, I wanted to fit in, I didn't want anyone to question my salvation.
35:51-35:51
Right.
35:52-35:54
That's a really difficult atmosphere to be in.
35:55-35:57
It's not correct and it's not biblical.
35:59-36:18
I had a friend who was part of a charismatic church and that's exactly the story he told me, I'm just gonna call him Joe, but he was at a church service and the pastor said, "Nobody's leaving tonight until Joe speaks in tongues." I said, "So what'd you do?" "What could I do? I faked it.
36:19-36:29
I don't want to be there all night." He goes, "So I just started making stuff up because I wanted to get out of there." But he was like mortified to be put on the spot like that.
36:29-36:30
But that's what they did.
36:31-36:34
I don't believe that tongues is the sign of salvation.
36:35-36:35
You're right.
36:39-36:52
We're gonna be, Lord willing, I have a whole series planned on this very subject for next year, we're gonna be doing a deep dive on what the Bible actually says on the subject.
36:53-36:59
So as long as the elders approve the preaching calendar, that's the direction I wanna head.
36:59-36:59
Okay.
37:00-37:08
We're almost out of time, but I do understand that we have a guest question asker who wants to step up.
37:08-37:14
He dressed so well for this occasion that I have to give him this opportunity, and that's one Cade Miller.
37:14-37:15
Come on up, Cade.
37:15-37:16
Hey, could you come up?
37:23-37:25
I'm gonna make you sit in the chair, too, officially.
37:27-37:28
What question is he asking?
37:30-37:32
Maybe we should have figured that out first.
37:32-37:33
Thank you, Matt.
37:38-37:40
You might not wanna do that.
37:43-37:48
All right, so the final question asks, do the leaders of this church like each other?
37:48-37:51
If so, how do you show it to each other?
37:54-37:54
Good question, Cade.
37:55-37:57
That's a really good question, Cade.
37:58-37:58
Taylor?
38:00-38:00
(congregation laughing)
38:01-38:03
I'll do what I did in the last service.
38:04-38:05
Here, Jeff, here's how much I care about you.
38:05-38:06
Taylor, do you like me?
38:06-38:08
Yes, I like you so much I gave you my wallet.
38:08-38:10
In the first service, he gave me his wallet.
38:11-38:13
And I'm like, that was really kind of him.
38:15-38:16
There's nothing in it.
38:18-38:24
If that doesn't answer the question as to how much he likes me, there's your answer right there.
38:26-38:28
I would say the serious answer is yes.
38:28-38:37
And I think the biggest evidence of that is after staff meetings, after elder meetings, or team leader meetings, people still want to stick around and talk and have fun and joke around.
38:38-38:42
I think that really speaks to people wanting to be with each other to be around each other?
38:43-38:45
And I think, Jeff, you probably have a couple other things you wanna share about that.
38:46-38:46
Yeah.
38:50-38:54
I would like to think that the leaders of the church like me.
38:56-38:57
I like them.
39:01-39:09
But the question came up, I think Fulsi asked this one, so what do you do if you have a disagreement about something?
39:11-39:13
how are you not like, (mimics gun firing) well, talk to any of our elders.
39:14-39:18
What do we usually spend the front end of the elders meeting doing?
39:19-39:19
Prayer.
39:20-39:33
We have an extended prayer time at the beginning of our elders meeting because I hate the whole, okay, let's get together for three hours and talk about money, and then we throw up some quick traveling mercies prayer on the way out.
39:33-39:36
Like, no, prayer should be the priority.
39:36-39:40
So at our elders meeting, We have extended prayer time at the beginning.
39:41-39:43
I think that sets the tone for the elders meeting.
39:43-39:53
How can you not when we're all like, God, your glory, your purposes, God, use us and unite us and show us God.
39:53-40:00
Like, when you front load a meeting, crying out to the Lord for that kind of unity, that really sets the stage.
40:01-40:06
So, you know, so no, do the elders always agree perfectly on everything?
40:06-40:16
No, but I'll tell you, I've never seen where there's been like knock down, drag out, name calling, cussing out kind of stuff that I've heard happen in other churches.
40:16-40:17
I've never seen that here.
40:18-40:26
Yeah, I can't help but wonder if this question was asked from someone who went through a really difficult church situation, 'cause church hurts is one of the worst hurts.
40:26-40:26
Yeah.
40:27-40:35
Unbiblical, ungodly leadership is a painful thing to experience, and in coming to a new church, it can be hard to trust the leadership.
40:36-40:39
And I would just encourage you, just examine what we teach, examine our lives.
40:40-40:44
The fruit of what we believe comes out in how we live.
40:46-40:49
That's the biggest test of if leadership is biblical or not.
40:49-40:50
Are we living out what we preach?
40:50-40:52
Are we living out what we say we believe?
40:52-40:53
Yeah, absolutely.
40:54-40:56
And you see even some of the relational aspects of this.
40:57-41:00
Like Pastor Taylor said, after a meeting, nobody's in a rush to get out of there.
41:00-41:05
Look at some of our text threads, our staff text thread, our elders text thread.
41:05-41:08
You can't believe the puns that Rich Sprung comes up with.
41:09-41:16
I mean, it's like puns meeting dad jokes on steroids, right?
41:17-41:19
But the real question is, Kade, do you like the leaders of this church?
41:20-41:20
I do.
41:20-41:22
Which one would you say is your favorite?
41:23-41:24
(audience laughing)
41:25-41:27
I don't think I should mention names.
41:27-41:28
Well, I think you...
41:28-41:29
(audience laughing)
41:33-41:34
Maybe this guy in the middle.
41:34-41:35
(audience laughing)
41:35-41:36
What'd he say?
41:37-41:38
Maybe this guy in the middle.
41:41-41:42
Him.
41:43-41:45
Well, I have known him for 13 years.
41:52-41:53
All right, I think we're done here.
41:54-41:55
(audience laughing)
41:58-41:58
Thank you, Kate.
41:58-41:59
Hey, it's not what you think, Dad.
42:00-42:01
(audience laughing)
42:03-42:04
I love you, buddy.
42:04-42:06
All right, give her a pinch hitter.
42:06-42:09
(congregation applauding) Bolzi, come on up.
42:10-42:11
Go ahead, Kate, good job, buddy.
42:13-42:15
Good job, Kate, you can go back to the seat, buddy.
42:16-42:16
Well done.
42:19-42:20
Yeah, that was worth it.
42:21-42:22
(congregation laughing)
42:26-42:28
We're like, do the leaders of the church like each other?
42:28-42:31
We're like, the people in my house don't even like each other.
42:31-42:32
(audience laughing)
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Review the questions submitted above. Discuss any of these that stuck out to you, or that maybe your group finds particularly interesting.
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!