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.
[01:32] - Q: Can you do whatever you want to in heaven?
[02:35] - Q: How did we get the Bible we have today (with books, chapters, and verse numbers)?
A: See Luke 24:44
[06:49] - Q: If infant baptism is not Biblical, what is the justification of so many churches/denominations practicing it? What is the history/origin of the practice?
A: See Acts 2:37
[13:39] - Q: What’s your favorite cliché that Dan Smith uses?
A: "Prayerlessness is carelessness!"
A: "Hell is too long to be wrong, so you better get it right!"
[17:22] - Q: Can Christians lose their Salvation?
A: No! See: John 10:28-30 and 1 John 2, security (the fact: objective) vs. assurance (the feeling: subjective)
[21:12] - Q: So if you are supposed to be able to see Jesus in heaven, how can that happen? The bible says that He is so bright you can't look at Him or see Him.
A: See Rev 1
[21:58] - Q: Please discuss what the Bible says about why women of all ages should dress modestly.
A: See 1 Tim 2: 9-10, Rom 14:13. Modesty = having regard for others
[26:05] - Q: Other than His birth, what reliable history is out there about the childhood, teen, and younger man years of Jesus? Since much of that isn't in the Bible...I think...
And if it is not in the Bible, should we assume not to trust it anything else that is out there?
A: See John 2:11, Luke 2:41
[29:34] - Q: Can you explain the term "ministry" and broad examples of ministries?
Can I make something that I love, that isn't "churchy," a ministry that is God-honoring and valuable in a Kingdom perspective?
A: Ministry = service in the name of the Lord with the mindset of advancing His kingdom or glorifying His name.
[33:11] - Q: Can we pray to the Holy Spirit, that is asking for wisdom or discernment, or are we only supposed to direct our prayers to God the Father. And what is the biblical basis for this?
A: See Matt 6, Luke 11 (Jesus teaches how to pray), John 17 (Jesus praying), John 14:14 (Jesus teaching prayer to God the Father), Rom 8:26 (the Holy Spirit prays with us), John 15:16 (we pray in the name of the Son). No biblical basis to pray to anyone else.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Pastor Jeff:
00:00-00:25
All right, well if you're visiting with us today, we do this twice a year, but this is Q&A day, and we take a break from our normal sermon series or whatever else we have going on and we give the opportunity for the congregation to submit questions, any questions at all about the Bible, theology, and we take some time to answer them.
Pastor Jeff:
00:25-00:30
So let's welcome to the stage a man that I first met in prison.
Pastor Jeff:
00:31-00:34
He is one of our elders and a good friend, Mark Wort.
Mark Ort:
00:35-00:40
Q&A day has turned out to be quite a fun tradition here.
Mark Ort:
00:41-00:43
And not only fun, but just informative.
Mark Ort:
00:43-00:48
I mean, you guys have asked a lot of questions over the last few years, very good questions.
Mark Ort:
00:49-00:54
And one of my sons suggested that maybe we should do this kind of like how they do Jeopardy.
Mark Ort:
00:55-00:58
Why don't you just give the answer, and then they got to ask the question.
Mark Ort:
00:59-00:59
That's a great idea.
Pastor Jeff:
01:00-01:05
If you've been in church long enough, you know that the answer is Jesus.
Pastor Jeff:
01:06-01:08
Like in Sunday school, all you have to do is say Jesus.
Pastor Jeff:
01:08-01:18
I had a kid in Sunday school one time that it didn't matter what you asked him, he would just say, you know, Jesus died on the cross for our sin was his answer.
Pastor Jeff:
01:18-01:21
So we could, you know, that could be our answer.
Mark Ort:
01:22-01:23
Why don't we get started?
Mark Ort:
01:23-01:27
We have a great set of questions and I love the first question.
Mark Ort:
01:28-01:29
It's actually one of the best ones on here.
Mark Ort:
01:30-01:35
It says, "Can you do whatever you want to in heaven?"
Pastor Jeff:
01:35-01:39
This is an interesting question because I know who asked this question.
Pastor Jeff:
01:40-01:41
It was my 10-year-old son, Cade.
Pastor Jeff:
01:42-01:46
"Can you do whatever you want in heaven?" And my smart-alecky response was, "Why not?
Pastor Jeff:
01:46-01:48
You do whatever you want on the earth.
Pastor Jeff:
01:49-01:53
Why not do whatever you want in heaven?" But that's a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
01:53-01:56
And the truth is, yeah, you can do whatever you want in heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
01:57-02:03
And the amazing thing is in heaven, what you're going to want to do is worship.
Pastor Jeff:
02:04-02:19
And the only thing I can compare it to is if you've ever left worship service and you just felt like, "Man, I just didn't want that to stop." Or "Man, I just got so much out of worship." Heaven's going to be like that times infinity every single day.
Pastor Jeff:
02:20-02:28
you're just going to get the most fulfillment and joy and delight in being in God's presence and worshiping Him.
Pastor Jeff:
02:29-02:29
Great.
Mark Ort:
02:30-02:31
Okay, second question, Jeff.
Mark Ort:
02:32-02:37
How did we get the Bible we have today with books, chapters, and verse numbers?
Pastor Jeff:
02:38-02:41
This is a huge question, how did we get the Bible that we have today.
Pastor Jeff:
02:41-02:47
Actually, John Piper's newest book is called A Peculiar Glory, and I'm actually working through that now, but it's all about this.
Pastor Jeff:
02:47-02:48
But here's the short version.
Pastor Jeff:
02:50-02:54
Books were actually selected through a process called canonization.
Pastor Jeff:
02:54-03:06
And the word "canon" is a Greek word that means basically "measuring stick." And in Jesus' day, the Old Testament canon was already established.
Pastor Jeff:
03:06-03:15
In fact, you get a passages like Luke 24, 44, the Old Testament canon, the Jewish Bible, was already established.
Pastor Jeff:
03:16-03:20
So how did we get the books that go into the New Testament?
Pastor Jeff:
03:20-03:23
There were really five questions that were asked.
Pastor Jeff:
03:24-03:26
There were guidelines for accepting a book in the New Testament.
Pastor Jeff:
03:26-03:32
Jotting notes down, these were the five questions that they looked at whether they accepted a writing.
Pastor Jeff:
03:32-03:38
Number one, was the book written by a prophet or an apostle of God?
Pastor Jeff:
03:38-03:41
Number two, was the writer confirmed by acts of God?
Pastor Jeff:
03:42-03:45
Number three, does the message tell the truth about God?
Pastor Jeff:
03:47-03:50
I mean, does it line up with other things that God has revealed about Himself?
Pastor Jeff:
03:51-03:53
Number four, did it come with the power of God?
Pastor Jeff:
03:53-03:56
And number five, was it accepted by God's people?
Pastor Jeff:
03:57-04:01
And those questions were sort of used to determine what books measured up.
Pastor Jeff:
04:03-04:08
A book that sort of passed that test was said to exhibit the marks of canonicity.
Pastor Jeff:
04:08-04:15
But this question in particular is asking about where did the chapters and verses come from?
Pastor Jeff:
04:16-04:27
And that's smart, because it's not like when the Bible was being written that Peter was like, "Okay, I'm going to write an epistle here." Big number one, verse one, verse two.
Pastor Jeff:
04:28-04:30
He didn't write those little numbers in there.
Pastor Jeff:
04:30-04:32
Where did those come from?
Pastor Jeff:
04:33-04:34
Here's where that came from.
Pastor Jeff:
04:35-04:45
A man named Stephen Langton divided the Bible into chapters in the year 1227 A .D.
Pastor Jeff:
04:46-04:51
was a professor at the University of Paris, and he later became the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Pastor Jeff:
04:51-04:54
So he divided the book into chapters.
Pastor Jeff:
04:55-04:58
The verses weren't actually added until the 16th century.
Pastor Jeff:
04:59-05:01
Robert Stephanus was a French printer.
Pastor Jeff:
05:01-05:07
He divided the verses for his Greek New Testament, and that was published in 1551.
Pastor Jeff:
05:08-05:13
The first English New Testament to have both chapter and verse divisions was the Geneva Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
05:13-05:19
But I'll say this, you've got to be careful reading the Bible, you know, the verse and chapter numbers aren't inspired.
Pastor Jeff:
05:19-05:41
You know, sometimes a chapter will end or a verse will end and we think, well, like, that's the end, now there's a new thought. But there's many places in the Bible where that's not the end of the context. You have to keep reading to see what's going on in the passage. So, you know, the chapter numbers and the verse numbers aren't inspired. The writing, the words themselves are.
Mark Ort:
05:42-05:48
In my Bible, I know some of the chapters will have like a heading or a paragraph summary or something.
Mark Ort:
05:49-05:53
And that's added too. That's not an inspired thing.
Mark Ort:
05:53-05:53
Right.
Mark Ort:
05:54-05:59
One other thing just to add to this, where you mentioned about the English translation.
Mark Ort:
05:59-06:12
I did a study a few years ago about a man named William Tyndall, and he was responsible for translating the Bible into a language that the average plowboy could understand in England.
Mark Ort:
06:12-06:14
And he went to his death because of that.
Mark Ort:
06:14-06:20
But we owe people like him a debt of gratitude so that we have the Bible in a language that we can understand.
Pastor Jeff:
06:22-06:28
Yeah, we take that for granted because we have-- you can walk out to the table in the lobby, and there's a stack of free Bibles that you can take.
Pastor Jeff:
06:28-06:30
We'll give you a case of Bibles you can take.
Pastor Jeff:
06:30-06:32
It was not always like that.
Pastor Jeff:
06:32-06:38
Getting your hands on a copy of the Word of God was just so hard and precious.
Pastor Jeff:
06:38-06:40
So we're kind of spoiled that way.
Mark Ort:
06:42-06:49
If infant baptism is not biblical, what is the justification of so many churches or denominations practicing it?
Mark Ort:
06:50-06:53
What is the history and the origin of the practice?
Pastor Jeff:
06:54-07:03
This was an interesting question to research because like in Roman Catholicism, infant baptism is a big thing.
Pastor Jeff:
07:03-07:12
But when you get to a lot of churches like ours, Protestant evangelical churches like ours, infant baptism is not a thing at all.
Pastor Jeff:
07:13-07:20
And then you have denominations like Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians that do baptize infants.
Pastor Jeff:
07:20-07:30
So what's interesting about researching this question, you know, I was looking at Catholic websites, for example, and they said infant baptism has always been!
Pastor Jeff:
07:31-07:38
and then you go to some Protestant websites, and infant baptism was not a regular thing until the 4th century.
Pastor Jeff:
07:41-07:44
There's definitely some revisionist history going on.
Pastor Jeff:
07:44-07:52
But during the first three centuries, the rule was adults get baptized in response to faith in Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
07:53-07:58
And from what I can piece together, it actually started in the 2nd and 3rd century.
Pastor Jeff:
07:58-08:09
It was normalized in the 4th century, And by 416, this is something I learned this week, by 416 infant baptism was actually made law in the Roman Empire.
Pastor Jeff:
08:11-08:20
And it actually resulted in a lot of, as a marking point between the conflict between Protestants and Catholics.
Pastor Jeff:
08:21-08:34
For example, the Protestants would say, "Well, we're baptizing our babies because this baby's going to be Protestant." And the Catholics would say, "Well, we're going to baptize these babies Catholic and they're going to grow up Catholic." And there's almost a mark like, "This kid's going to be on my team," so to speak.
Pastor Jeff:
08:34-08:36
And you would see that happening with whole countries.
Pastor Jeff:
08:36-08:44
Like, "We're going to make sure that we baptize these babies into our religion, and that way they can switch teams," so to speak.
Pastor Jeff:
08:44-08:58
But many Christians wouldn't baptize infants, and I read this week that it resulted in about 50 million Christians being killed in the Dark Ages for refusing to baptize babies.
Pastor Jeff:
08:59-09:01
And where does the doctrine come from?
Pastor Jeff:
09:01-09:05
Well, it really comes from the doctrine of baptismal regeneration.
Pastor Jeff:
09:06-09:15
And there's some people that teach and believe - I don't, and I know that you don't, Mark - but there's some people that teach and believe that you are saved by being baptized.
Pastor Jeff:
09:16-09:26
That when you give your life to Christ, that salvation really doesn't take effect until you're dunked, until you're immersed, until you're baptized.
Pastor Jeff:
09:27-09:43
And they've sort of taken that practice to infants to say, "Well, if heaven forbid my baby would die, I wouldn't want my baby to go to hell, so I'll baptize the baby." What it became was, in the Old Testament, there was the sign of the circumcision.
Pastor Jeff:
09:44-09:53
It was a sign that you were a member of the nation of Israel, and infant baptism sort of became like the New Testament sign of the covenant.
Pastor Jeff:
09:54-10:04
Like, "We baptize this baby to bring him into the household of God, and it was the belief that infant baptism washed away original sin.
Pastor Jeff:
10:05-10:09
The problem with that is none of that is taught in Scripture.
Pastor Jeff:
10:10-10:22
We've been going through the book of Acts, and when you look at the book of Acts, consistently, the Gospel is preached, people respond, people profess Christ by being baptized.
Pastor Jeff:
10:23-10:25
And babies aren't able to do that.
Pastor Jeff:
10:25-10:28
Babies can't confess Christ as Savior and Lord.
Pastor Jeff:
10:28-10:30
Babies can't repent from their sin.
Pastor Jeff:
10:30-10:35
Babies can't, what did Jesus say, count the cost of following Him.
Pastor Jeff:
10:35-10:39
Babies are unable to make that decision one way or the other.
Pastor Jeff:
10:39-10:43
You don't see anything in the New Testament about baptizing babies.
Pastor Jeff:
10:43-10:44
It's just not there.
Pastor Jeff:
10:44-10:50
And the people that say it is there, you have to stretch passages like in the book of Acts where it says their whole household was baptized.
Pastor Jeff:
10:51-10:53
It doesn't say that their babies were baptized.
Pastor Jeff:
10:53-11:04
It says their whole household, included servants and everything else, I think it's a bit of a stretch to say a whole household absolutely necessarily means that babies were baptized.
Pastor Jeff:
11:06-11:07
It's just so clear in the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
11:08-11:11
I heard a sermon from John MacArthur one time.
Pastor Jeff:
11:11-11:13
He had a great line that went something like this.
Pastor Jeff:
11:14-11:19
He said, "I can understand why churches and theologians debate verses that are in the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
11:19-11:20
I can understand that.
Pastor Jeff:
11:20-11:28
I think it means this and I think it means this." And what I can't, for the life of me, figure out is how people can argue about something that's not even in the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
11:29-11:32
And infant baptism, it's not in the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
11:32-11:35
You see no example of it, you see no practice of it.
Pastor Jeff:
11:36-11:39
It's always in response to somebody giving their lives to Jesus.
Mark Ort:
11:40-11:50
I think logistically, too, when you look in Acts 2, I think it's in verse 37, and we studied this some weeks ago, it's the order.
Mark Ort:
11:50-11:54
when Peter was preaching, we have to look at the order that he said things.
Mark Ort:
11:54-12:04
Like when he said, "Repent and be baptized," he didn't say, "Be baptized and then repent." I think that the order that that shows up in scripture is pretty important.
Mark Ort:
12:05-12:11
It tells us that you repent, which an infant can't do, and then you're baptized.
Mark Ort:
12:12-12:14
So logistically, it doesn't even make sense.
Pastor Jeff:
12:14-12:47
Right, and people have argued with me, don't you think it's important to pray over families and sort of Welcome the baby into the household of God in the church, whatever and I said, well, yeah, that's why we do it been dedication we do it for recognition where we bring we do this couple times either we bring families up and We pray over them and usually give them a little gift and that's what we're doing but the idea of sprinkling water or dunking or anything like that is a
Mark Ort:
12:47-12:49
or do they just sprinkle them usually?
Mark Ort:
12:49-12:50
Some dunk.
Mark Ort:
12:50-12:52
Okay, because I've never seen that.
Mark Ort:
12:52-12:59
I know in the Bible it's clear where they went down in water and they came up the water.
Pastor Jeff:
13:00-13:05
Yeah, there are some that dunk, but for the most part it's sprinkling.
Pastor Jeff:
13:05-13:07
Now see, I was baptized three times.
Pastor Jeff:
13:07-13:22
I was baptized as a baby, and then when I was 12 in a Methodist church I got a confirmation class baptism where they dip their fingers in the water from the Holy Land your forehead with it, and then I was baptized when I gave my life to Christ at age 20.
Pastor Jeff:
13:22-13:26
So I can tell you from experience that those first two baptisms meant nothing.
Pastor Jeff:
13:27-13:29
I barely remember being baptized as an infant.
Mark Ort:
13:30-13:36
Did you ever hear that saying that, "I've been baptized so many times that tadpoles know my Social Security number"?
Mark Ort:
13:38-13:39
I have not heard that one.
Mark Ort:
13:39-13:42
I heard that from somebody named Dan Smith.
Mark Ort:
13:44-13:46
We have a question on here, actually, which is a good segue.
Mark Ort:
13:47-13:50
What is your favorite cliche that Dan Smith uses?
Mark Ort:
13:50-13:56
And maybe you can tell-- there's a few of you who know who Dan Smith is, but the majority of you probably do not.
Mark Ort:
13:56-13:59
So maybe you can mention who Dan Smith is.
Mark Ort:
13:59-14:03
Tell us who Dan Smith is, and what is the favorite saying of his that you like?
Pastor Jeff:
14:04-14:05
Some of you know Dan, a lot of you don't.
Pastor Jeff:
14:05-14:08
But Dan's a mutual friend of Mark and I.
Pastor Jeff:
14:08-14:12
And when I said in the beginning that I'd met Mark in jail, that's actually true.
Pastor Jeff:
14:13-14:14
It was through prison ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
14:15-14:17
We were cellmates or anything like that.
Pastor Jeff:
14:17-14:19
And what are you in for, Mark?
Pastor Jeff:
14:19-14:21
But it wasn't anything like that.
Pastor Jeff:
14:21-14:25
It was there was a group of people from different churches involved in his prison ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
14:25-14:26
And that's how I met Dan.
Pastor Jeff:
14:27-14:42
And Dan runs a ministry called Pressing On that is really to minister to down and out people, whether they're just out of jail, whether they're recovering from alcohol or drugs, whether they're recovering from a divorce or a sexual addiction or whatever.
Pastor Jeff:
14:43-14:46
Dan's ministry is to help hurting people.
Pastor Jeff:
14:47-14:55
And one of the things I love about Dan is if you know Dan, he's got all these sayings, and most of them rhyme.
Pastor Jeff:
14:55-15:02
But I've joked with him that we need to make the Dan Smith version of the Bible when it would sound like the Dr. Seuss version of the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
15:04-15:08
But he had all these sayings that I wrote down for whoever asked this question.
Pastor Jeff:
15:09-15:10
Some of my favorites.
Pastor Jeff:
15:11-15:21
Here's a Dan quote, "If you're not in a fellowship, you're in a sinking ship." One time I was going into the gym and Dan was coming out.
Pastor Jeff:
15:21-15:24
And he said this as off the cuff, this wasn't rehearsed or anything.
Pastor Jeff:
15:26-15:29
This was quite a few years ago, you'll get the dated reference.
Pastor Jeff:
15:30-15:37
But "Hey Dan, how are you doing?" Dan says, "You know that song 'Jesus Freak'?" How many people remember that song 'Jesus Freak'?
Pastor Jeff:
15:39-15:46
Dan says, "You know that song, Jesus Freak?" And I said, "Yeah." He goes, "I was thinking about the word freak." You know, freak, F-R-E-A-K.
Pastor Jeff:
15:46-15:47
Do you know what freak stands for?
Pastor Jeff:
15:48-15:52
Freak stands for frontline, radical, evangelical, advancing the kingdom.
Pastor Jeff:
15:53-15:57
I'm like, "Did you just make that up?" But that's Dan.
Pastor Jeff:
15:58-15:59
Prayerlessness is carelessness.
Pastor Jeff:
15:59-16:00
That is a great one.
Pastor Jeff:
16:01-16:20
But my favorite, what's my favorite cliche, my favorite Dan quote is, "Hell is too long to be wrong. You know, for the people that we've shared the gospel with that still persist on doing things their way, I've heard Dan so many times say, "Well, you know, hell's too long to be wrong. You better get it right."
Mark Ort:
16:21-16:37
I agree with that. I'm not a cliche person myself. I think sometimes we as Christians use Christianese or jargon that unbelievers may look and just kind to roll their eyes at, Dan Smith can pull them off.
Mark Ort:
16:38-16:48
I'm not a cliche person, but I do like hell is too long to be wrong, and I've used it many times with people because it does get a point across.
Mark Ort:
16:48-16:49
Hell is too long to be wrong.
Mark Ort:
16:49-16:54
You can't afford to be wrong on matters of eternal implication.
Pastor Jeff:
16:55-16:56
Yeah, we're talking about eternity here.
Pastor Jeff:
16:56-16:58
That's something you don't want to roll the dice.
Pastor Jeff:
16:59-17:03
You don't want to step into eternity not knowing where you're going to land.
Pastor Jeff:
17:04-17:06
And that's where that saying comes from.
Mark Ort:
17:07-17:09
Next question, and this is a really good one.
Mark Ort:
17:09-17:11
Can Christians lose their salvation?
Pastor Jeff:
17:13-17:15
Can Christians lose their salvation?
Pastor Jeff:
17:16-17:17
The answer is no.
Pastor Jeff:
17:18-17:21
There are so many passages I could take you to to talk about this.
Pastor Jeff:
17:22-17:23
I just want to share my favorite one with you.
Pastor Jeff:
17:23-17:25
This is from John 10.
Pastor Jeff:
17:26-17:27
John 10.
Pastor Jeff:
17:28-17:35
Jesus said, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.
Pastor Jeff:
17:37-17:39
And no one will snatch them out of My hand.
Pastor Jeff:
17:40-17:44
My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all.
Pastor Jeff:
17:45-17:48
And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
Pastor Jeff:
17:50-18:01
I and the Father are one." Now, Jesus said here, "I give them eternal life and they will never perish." But I really like this picture that He gives.
Pastor Jeff:
18:02-18:21
and says, "No one will be able to snatch a saved person," somebody has eternal life, "No one will be able to snatch them out of Jesus' hand." And then Jesus, almost like He's ratcheting it up even higher, saying, "No one will be able to snatch them out of my Father's hand," but then He turns around and says, "I and the Father are one." But you see Jesus' point.
Pastor Jeff:
18:22-18:26
When you're in His hand, nothing is going to take you from His hand.
Pastor Jeff:
18:26-18:36
You know, like, if I was up here and I had a quarter, and I was being foolish, and I said, "Hey, if you think you can wrestle this quarter out of my hand, you can have it.
Pastor Jeff:
18:36-18:40
There's a lot of people here that would be able to wrestle that quarter out of my hand.
Pastor Jeff:
18:41-18:54
But if I had like James Harrison from the Pittsburgh Steelers up here, and James Harrison got up, and he said, "I've got a quarter in my hand, and if you can wrestle it out of my hand, you can have it." There's probably not many people in this church that are going to get that quarter out of James Harrison's hand.
Pastor Jeff:
18:55-18:56
And that was Jesus' point.
Pastor Jeff:
18:56-19:05
He says, "The Father is greater than all." Because when you're in God's hand, who is going to yank you from His hand?
Pastor Jeff:
19:05-19:10
It would have to be somebody more powerful than God, and that is - who's more powerful than God?
Pastor Jeff:
19:10-19:12
Nobody. That's the point.
Pastor Jeff:
19:12-19:18
You can't lose your salvation because you're in the hand of God Himself.
Mark Ort:
19:19-19:22
I think you can lose the assurance of your salvation.
Mark Ort:
19:23-19:29
And if you're in habitual sin, you may start to wonder, Am I really saved?
Mark Ort:
19:29-19:31
Is Jesus, where is he?
Mark Ort:
19:31-19:33
I feel so far from God.
Mark Ort:
19:33-19:41
And you can lose your assurance of salvation, I believe, but God hasn't lost the assurance of your salvation.
Mark Ort:
19:41-19:42
He has you.
Mark Ort:
19:43-19:45
If you're really a Christian.
Mark Ort:
19:45-19:52
And 1 John addresses that too, where it says in chapter two, they went out from us because they weren't of us.
Mark Ort:
19:53-19:56
If they would have been of us, they wouldn't have gone out from us.
Mark Ort:
19:56-20:02
So when you're worried about losing your salvation, the first thing to ask is, am I really saved?
Mark Ort:
20:03-20:04
That's what we really need to ask.
Pastor Jeff:
20:05-20:08
Yeah, there's a difference between security and assurance.
Pastor Jeff:
20:09-20:12
Security is the fact that you are saved.
Pastor Jeff:
20:12-20:15
Assurance is the feeling that you're saved.
Pastor Jeff:
20:15-20:24
And we preached a whole sermon from that from Peter, where Peter talks about make every effort to add these things to your faith.
Pastor Jeff:
20:24-20:27
the context of that passage is assurance.
Pastor Jeff:
20:27-20:37
That you, if you're in, like you said, Mark, when you're in habitual sin, you don't feel saved because you're living contrary to God's nature within you, his Holy Spirit.
Pastor Jeff:
20:38-20:44
And you feel saved when you are walking in the Spirit, when you're cooperating with the purposes of God.
Pastor Jeff:
20:44-20:45
That's subjective.
Pastor Jeff:
20:46-20:49
But that's completely different than security, which is objective.
Mark Ort:
20:51-20:51
Very good.
Mark Ort:
20:52-20:55
If you're supposed to be able to see Jesus in heaven, how can that happen?
Mark Ort:
20:55-21:01
The Bible says that He is so bright, you can't look at Him or see Him.
Pastor Jeff:
21:02-21:04
Well, you can see Jesus in heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
21:05-21:07
Yes, His appearance is awesome.
Pastor Jeff:
21:07-21:21
Like in Revelation 1, Jesus' best friend John saw Him, but he saw Him in His glorified state when Jesus showed up from heaven, and his appearance was literally awesome.
Pastor Jeff:
21:22-21:24
John could still see him.
Pastor Jeff:
21:24-21:28
He wasn't too bright to look at, but he was pretty awesome looking.
Pastor Jeff:
21:29-21:32
So yeah, you will be able to see Jesus in heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
21:32-21:33
No worries about that.
Mark Ort:
21:34-21:35
Looking forward to that.
Pastor Jeff:
21:35-21:35
Yeah.
Mark Ort:
21:36-21:36
Yeah.
Mark Ort:
21:38-21:43
Please discuss what the Bible says about why women of all ages should dress modestly.
Pastor Jeff:
21:44-21:47
Alright, 1 Timothy 2, verses 9-10.
Pastor Jeff:
21:48-22:19
He says, "Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good work." So when it comes to modesty, Bob wasn't saying that it's a sin to dress up.
Pastor Jeff:
22:20-22:21
It's not a sin to wear makeup.
Pastor Jeff:
22:22-22:25
I actually heard one preacher say that it's a sin for some women not to wear makeup.
Pastor Jeff:
22:25-22:26
I didn't say that.
Pastor Jeff:
22:29-22:31
Just repeating something that I heard from someone else.
Pastor Jeff:
22:33-22:34
It really got tense all of a sudden.
Pastor Jeff:
22:35-22:41
The point in modesty is dressing in a way to not draw attention to yourself.
Pastor Jeff:
22:41-22:42
And that's what Paul was addressing in the passage.
Pastor Jeff:
22:43-22:52
These women would show up to church with, Literally, they'd have like curls woven into their hair, and it was just about showing off their wealth.
Pastor Jeff:
22:53-23:01
You also don't want to dress in a way, ladies, that would encourage impure thoughts in the opposite sex.
Pastor Jeff:
23:01-23:06
Romans 14.13 tells us to avoid putting a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother.
Pastor Jeff:
23:07-23:10
And that's something you need to keep in mind when you dress.
Pastor Jeff:
23:11-23:13
Is this going to cause somebody to stumble?
Pastor Jeff:
23:13-23:24
Women are very visual and it can be a stumbling block when ladies are wearing clothes in such a way to draw attention to themselves and there again it's a hard issue.
Pastor Jeff:
23:25-23:30
When you're getting dressed, are you dressing in a way that you're trying to draw attention to your body?
Pastor Jeff:
23:30-23:36
You know, low cut shirts and short skirts and you know, Daisy Duke shorts.
Pastor Jeff:
23:37-23:42
You know, since Dukes of Hazzard isn't allowed to be on TV anymore, I don't even know, you know, we're allowed to call them Daisy Duke shorts.
Pastor Jeff:
23:43-23:53
know what I'm talking about. The shorts that are way too short. Are you wearing these things to try to get guys noticing parts of your body?
Pastor Jeff:
23:54-24:14
If you are, then you know that's being immodest. And you're causing a brother to stumble and you're trying to draw attention to yourself and that's not godly. And I would say in the same vein, and I had a conversation with one of our one of my friends in small group, yoga pants are not acceptable to wear in public. Okay?
Pastor Jeff:
24:15-24:42
And if you're wearing yoga pants today, I'm not judging you. But yoga pants leave very little to the imagination. And sometimes it just looks like people paint pants onto their legs. Use them in yoga and even then maybe put a pair of sweatpants on over top of them. I'm just saying men are very visual and And when guys see that, you're inciting lust.
Mark Ort:
24:44-24:51
I looked up the word "modestly" that Jeff referenced there, and it's the only time that word is found in the New Testament.
Mark Ort:
24:51-24:57
And so I had to scribble down what the definition of that was from the original Greek language.
Mark Ort:
24:58-25:19
And in extra-biblical literature, this word would show up, and it meant "having regard for others." "Wow, that's a pretty good definition "because if somebody's dressing immodestly, "they're not having regard for me "or for other men who may struggle with that." As Jeff said, we're very visual.
Mark Ort:
25:20-25:27
The word also, I like this definition, bashfulness toward men, awe and reverence toward God.
Mark Ort:
25:29-25:30
Anything else on that?
Pastor Jeff:
25:32-25:33
I think that covers it.
Pastor Jeff:
25:33-25:34
It's a hard issue.
Pastor Jeff:
25:34-25:36
When you're getting dressed, what's your motivation?
Pastor Jeff:
25:37-25:45
And if you're dressing with the mindset of, I want guys to notice something in particular about me, then not good.
Pastor Jeff:
25:45-25:47
That is not a good motivation, and I'm honest.
Mark Ort:
25:49-25:50
Okay, good, next question.
Mark Ort:
25:51-25:58
Other than his birth, what reliable history is there about the childhood, teen, and younger man years of Jesus?
Mark Ort:
25:59-26:08
Since much of that isn't in the Bible, I think, And if it is not in the Bible, should we assume not to trust anything else that is out there?
Pastor Jeff:
26:10-26:18
There is no reliable history about Jesus' youth other than some apocryphal, what's your, unauthoritative writing.
Pastor Jeff:
26:19-26:20
Like the Gospel of Thomas.
Pastor Jeff:
26:22-26:35
An unauthoritative book, for sure, but the Gospel of Thomas teaches, like Jesus, when he was a little kid, he was playing in the dirt, and all of a sudden he's like, "Poof." He created 12 sparrows out of the dirt.
Pastor Jeff:
26:35-26:39
And didn't they just make a movie about that, like Jesus as a kid?
Pastor Jeff:
26:40-26:44
And we know for a fact that these stories aren't true.
Pastor Jeff:
26:44-26:46
Like, how can you say that?
Pastor Jeff:
26:46-26:51
Well, in John 2:11, do you remember Jesus turning the water into wine?
Pastor Jeff:
26:52-26:59
Well, the Bible says that when Jesus turned the water into wine, that miracle was called the first of His signs.
Pastor Jeff:
27:00-27:10
So, if Jesus performed all these miracles as a kid, then that verse is a lie, because he had a whole 30 years prior of doing miracles, but the Bible is very clear.
Pastor Jeff:
27:10-27:15
The first miracle that Jesus performed was turning water into wine.
Pastor Jeff:
27:15-27:21
So, no, Jesus didn't do signs as a kid, despite what the movie portrays.
Pastor Jeff:
27:21-27:27
And the only thing we have between Jesus as a baby and Jesus as an adult is Luke 2.41.
Pastor Jeff:
27:29-27:34
Jesus was 12, and he was in the temple discussing theology with the teachers.
Pastor Jeff:
27:35-27:44
Remember, his parents said, "Leaving town," and all of a sudden they're like, "Wait a minute, are we forgetting something?" "Oh yes, our son, the Christ." They just like forgot Jesus.
Mark Ort:
27:45-27:46
I forgot my daughter one time.
Mark Ort:
27:46-27:51
We were driving out the driveway, and I look in the rearview mirror, and my daughter comes running behind the car.
Mark Ort:
27:51-27:56
I'm like, "Oh my goodness, I almost left my daughter at home." Stuff like that happens, and I think of that.
Mark Ort:
27:57-27:59
His parents left with no thought, "Where's
Pastor Jeff:
27:59-28:03
Jesus?" - You know what, that happened in our family too, didn't it, Darren?
Pastor Jeff:
28:03-28:07
We came home from church, and we have a younger brother, seven years younger than me.
Pastor Jeff:
28:07-28:09
We came home from church, and Mom just left him there.
Pastor Jeff:
28:10-28:12
He walked home. How old was he?
Pastor Jeff:
28:13-28:16
He was little, little. He walked home from church.
Pastor Jeff:
28:17-28:24
And we were like, "Dude, couldn't you get the hint?" And we didn't say that. We didn't say that.
Pastor Jeff:
28:26-28:27
I didn't say it.
Pastor Jeff:
28:28-28:32
Yeah, we don't have information other than when Jesus was 12.
Pastor Jeff:
28:34-28:36
One more thing about the Jesus as a kid doing miracle thing.
Pastor Jeff:
28:36-28:47
I know there were people that were like, "Oh, Christians are so judgmental." This movie about Jesus as a kid, what's so wrong with it?
Pastor Jeff:
28:47-28:51
What's so wrong with it if it gets people to the movies to see a wholesome movie?
Pastor Jeff:
28:51-28:59
What's wrong with it is it's promoting the Lord, who literally is truth according to Him.
Pastor Jeff:
28:59-29:02
I am the way, the truth, and the life, and there's no lie found in Him.
Pastor Jeff:
29:03-29:08
It's promoting a completely contradictory teaching to what God's Word says.
Pastor Jeff:
29:08-29:10
I don't think it's helpful.
Mark Ort:
29:11-29:11
Right.
Mark Ort:
29:14-29:17
Can you explain the term ministry and broad examples of ministries?
Mark Ort:
29:18-29:28
And B, can I make something that I love Isn't churchy a ministry that is God-honoring and valuable in a kingdom perspective?
Pastor Jeff:
29:28-29:35
First of all, I'd say ministry is just service in the name of the Lord, with the mindset of advancing His kingdom or glorifying His name.
Pastor Jeff:
29:36-29:38
And ministry's not just for pastors.
Pastor Jeff:
29:38-29:46
Biblically, everybody who is born again has been gifted to be involved in ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
29:47-29:48
So what is ministry?
Pastor Jeff:
29:48-29:50
Well, there's obvious examples in the church.
Pastor Jeff:
29:50-29:51
There's children's ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
29:52-29:53
There's small group ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
29:53-29:54
There's student ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
29:55-29:57
There's all these ministries in the church.
Pastor Jeff:
29:57-30:01
And our goal in all of these ministries is to make disciples.
Pastor Jeff:
30:02-30:05
But in other examples, there are what's called para-church ministries.
Pastor Jeff:
30:06-30:07
Those are things like pressing on.
Pastor Jeff:
30:07-30:09
Things like off the floor.
Pastor Jeff:
30:09-30:10
Things like living ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
30:11-30:16
But they're not churches per se, but they are advancing the Gospel.
Pastor Jeff:
30:16-30:25
They're advancing the Kingdom outside of the church - supported by other churches reaching a particular demographic.
Pastor Jeff:
30:26-30:29
Ministries to homeless, again, furnishing people's homes.
Pastor Jeff:
30:30-30:33
What makes these things a ministry and not a charity?
Pastor Jeff:
30:34-30:37
Well, the difference is these things are done in the name of the Lord.
Pastor Jeff:
30:38-30:45
If you wanted to say, "Hey, I'm going to start a charitable organization that puts furniture in people's homes," you can do that.
Pastor Jeff:
30:46-30:58
But like one of our small groups did an outreach with Off the Floor, actually would give them a Bible and pray with them, and it was very Christ-centered and Gospel-saturated.
Pastor Jeff:
30:58-31:01
It makes the difference, rather, between a charity and a ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
31:02-31:11
So, the second question is, can I make something that I love that isn't churchy, a ministry that is God-honoring and valuable in the Kingdom perspective?
Pastor Jeff:
31:11-31:15
And my answer is absolutely, and I hope that you do.
Pastor Jeff:
31:16-31:18
Here are some questions you have to ask yourself.
Pastor Jeff:
31:18-31:25
or this hobby of mine, or this thing that I like that isn't churchy, how can I make it a ministry?" You just have to ask yourself some questions.
Pastor Jeff:
31:26-31:27
Like, who am I serving?
Pastor Jeff:
31:28-31:30
How am I glorifying God?
Pastor Jeff:
31:32-31:38
What makes this Christ-centered and missional versus just being a hobby or just a way to make money?
Pastor Jeff:
31:39-31:40
And by the way, there's nothing wrong with that.
Pastor Jeff:
31:40-31:50
If you have a side business where you paint things or make a craft and earn some extra money to support your family, there's nothing wrong with that.
Pastor Jeff:
31:51-31:52
But that's not a ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
31:53-31:57
But there are ways that you can take something like that and make it into a ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
31:57-32:03
For example, if you do a craft, maybe you take them to shut-ins as a way to encourage them.
Pastor Jeff:
32:03-32:10
You go to shut-ins and say, "Hey, I made this for you, and I'd like to pray with you." And you get to know people, you're reaching out.
Pastor Jeff:
32:10-32:11
Maybe that's a ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
32:12-32:19
Maybe in your hobby where you do make some money, you say I'm going to give X amount of the proceeds that I make, I'm going to give that to mission.
Pastor Jeff:
32:20-32:24
And you're up front with that, like, hey, here's what this business is about.
Pastor Jeff:
32:24-32:25
It's about supporting mission.
Pastor Jeff:
32:26-32:34
And there you're taking a hobby or a way that you can make money and using it for ministry.
Pastor Jeff:
32:34-32:47
So, you know, if you can put a mission statement on it where it's very clear how you're glorifying Christ and how you're advancing the kingdom, how you're loving people and how you're serving God.
Pastor Jeff:
32:48-32:50
I think you can do that with literally just about anything.
Mark Ort:
32:51-32:52
Very good thoughts.
Mark Ort:
32:53-33:03
Last question then, can we pray to the Holy Spirit that is asking for wisdom and discernment or are we only supposed to direct our prayers to God the Father?
Mark Ort:
33:04-33:06
And what is the biblical basis for this?
Mark Ort:
33:06-33:12
In the Lord's prayer, Jesus prays our Father, However, Jesus would not pray to Himself.
Pastor Jeff:
33:13-33:16
Yeah, I have positively and negatively.
Pastor Jeff:
33:16-33:19
Positively, the Lord's Prayer is the example.
Pastor Jeff:
33:19-33:26
When Jesus taught about prayer, He only ever taught and showed by example that prayers are to be directed to the Father.
Pastor Jeff:
33:27-33:32
You know, Matthew 6, Luke 11, Jesus was very specifically teaching how to pray.
Pastor Jeff:
33:33-33:38
And then in John 17, we're witnessing Jesus actually praying.
Pastor Jeff:
33:39-33:42
In all of these cases, the prayers were only directed to the Father.
Pastor Jeff:
33:43-33:51
And I would say the other side of the coin negatively, there are no biblical teachings that we pray to anyone except the Father.
Pastor Jeff:
33:53-34:06
But in John 14.14, Jesus said, "Whatever you ask Me in My name." But when you look at the broader context, He's teaching prayer directed to the Father.
Pastor Jeff:
34:08-34:19
When you take the Bible as a whole, look at the whole counsel of God, what happens in prayer, actually all three members of the Trinity are involved in prayer.
Pastor Jeff:
34:19-34:26
We pray to the Father, and then Romans 8.26 says that the Holy Spirit prays with us.
Pastor Jeff:
34:28-34:31
And we pray in the name of the Son.
Pastor Jeff:
34:31-34:37
John 15-16, and there's a list of verses throughout the New Testament.
Pastor Jeff:
34:38-34:39
pray in the name of Jesus.
Pastor Jeff:
34:39-34:42
So, all three are mentioned.
Pastor Jeff:
34:42-34:46
Now, I've heard people pray to Jesus.
Pastor Jeff:
34:47-34:49
And would I say that God doesn't hear that prayer?
Pastor Jeff:
34:51-34:52
No, I think God hears that prayer.
Pastor Jeff:
34:53-34:55
Because Jesus is God.
Pastor Jeff:
34:56-35:10
But my answer to that would be, when you have something that's so clear in the New Testament, so clearly taught, why would we pray to the Holy Spirit when Jesus made it clear to pray to the Father.
Pastor Jeff:
35:10-35:14
Why would we pray to the Son when Jesus made it clear to pray to the Father?
Pastor Jeff:
35:14-35:23
I just think that's one of those things that we have such clear teaching on it that there's no reason to go otherwise.
Mark Ort:
35:23-35:27
And there's no biblical basis for praying to anyone else.
Mark Ort:
35:27-35:29
Even people that appear in Scripture, like Mary.
Pastor Jeff:
35:30-35:32
Right. Yeah, that's definitely out.
Pastor Jeff:
35:33-35:40
Praying to Mary, or I've heard people say, I pray to my deceased grandfather who's watching over me now.
Pastor Jeff:
35:41-35:42
That's not biblical.
Pastor Jeff:
35:43-35:53
Our prayers consistently and biblically are only to be directed to God the Father in the name of the Son and accompanied by the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Jeff:
35:53-35:54
He prays with us.
Mark Ort:
35:55-36:03
On behalf of the congregation who came up with really good questions, we want to thank you for researching the stuff in the Scriptures and giving us biblical answers.
Mark Ort:
36:04-36:05
Thanks for that, Jeff. We appreciate it.
Pastor Jeff:
36:07-36:07
Absolutely.
Pastor Jeff:
36:07-36:11
Well, let's have a word of prayer, and then we're going to worship.
Pastor Jeff:
36:12-36:13
Let's pray.
Pastor Jeff:
36:14-36:16
Father in heaven, we do thank you for your word.
Pastor Jeff:
36:17-36:20
And we thank you that we have confidence in your word.
Pastor Jeff:
36:21-36:41
And it's amazing to us how in one book, this divinely written book, we have answers for everything, life and death and eternity and marriage and parenting and friendship and money and everything is dealt with in this incredible book.
Pastor Jeff:
36:41-36:43
That's why we take it so very seriously.
Pastor Jeff:
36:44-36:54
And we thank you that we could take some time today to sort of get off of our normal routine and examine some questions that have been on the hearts and minds of people here.
Pastor Jeff:
36:55-36:57
So I pray that you would help us all to be better Bible students.
Pastor Jeff:
36:59-37:11
And our first instinct in any of these things, any of these questions, our first instinct is to ask ourselves, "What does the Bible say about that?" and that we would prayerfully go after the answer.
Pastor Jeff:
37:14-37:17
Thanks so much, Father, for all you've provided and all you do.
Pastor Jeff:
37:18-37:20
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Pastor Jeff:
37:23-37:27
This is Pastor Jeff Miller, and I would like to personally thank you for listening.
Pastor Jeff:
37:28-37:32
If this ministry has been a blessing to you, please consider making a donation.
Pastor Jeff:
37:32-37:54
us through the support from God's people like you that we are able to make the ministry of Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North available to everyone through our website. If you would like to make a donation you can do so at harvestpittsburghnorth.org/giving and be sure to be back here next week as we continue to dig deep into God's Word.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Review and discuss 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.
