Note: The time signatures [00:00] below indicate the start of a question if you'd like to skip to a particular one of interest in the audio file.
[06:32] - Q: Were God the father, son, and spirit all present at the beginning of creation? How can we know this?
A: See Colossians 1:16 - For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
John 1:3 - All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
REVELATION / ESCHATOLOGY / END-TIMES[10:13] - Q: Do you personally see and feel the rise of the spirit of the antichrist throughout the world? All Romans 1 items checked within just a years time:
Pastors thrown in prison, churches fenced off, their homes burned with their children in them, US churches gladly shuttered in the name of "saving just one is worth it" while bowing to the alter of health, wealth, and science (the new religion)
Atrocities by world governments such as human trials of genetic modification supported by corporate coercion, suicide inducing lockdowns, planned starvation, destruction of small business, purposeful separating of sheep and goats due to testing and vaccination requirements, technological explosion ripe for the mark
Free speech removal, big tech takeover, cancel culture, woke culture, UFO/UAF disclosures, twisting of language and logic in that we have birthing persons because biological men can have babies, menstruate, and compete with girls in sports, amen must include “awomen”
Big tech takeover of everyone's lives: biometric data prepared for payment, cashless society by a false coin shortage, the US dollar move towards the digital dollar, shadow-banned to free speech isn't allowed on this platform to digital jail to digital exile
Israel: a new wars with many around them, a new government mixed with Jew and Muslim power, global antisemitism, US funded enemies, and the continued push for a 2 state solution
Nation fighting against nation with BLM peaceful protests, white guilt turned in to all whites are racist, Christians are racist, stolen elections, NWO schemes, and Israel is the oppressor of the world
...to name just a few
That wedding feast seems to be getting really close now. So, personally how close are you feeling that the removal of His bride church is now?
[17:16] - Q: It seems like Christ's return is imminent, I believe that he's coming back soon. I can't wait to be taken up to heaven. I just don't know how to live day to day with that type of mindset, knowing that I'm going to be taken away. How do I live "normally" worrying about work/job, finances, buying cars/stuff, upkeep for my house, etc. In first 1 Thes Paul tells the believers there that they haven't missed it and they need to keep on working. So I know I need to continue on, I'm just challenged by how to do that. Christ's love is in me and yes I can share that with others and try to get as many to heaven as possible, but really preacher, I'm exhausted from what God has given me. I'm ready to go. Can you give a few pieces of advice for how to persevere? How should I be praying? Thanks
A: See Matthew 24:45-51, 1 Thes 5:6-11[24:16] - Q: In Revelation John sees the events of the end times and since John is a saved man, would he also be seeing himself in the future? Meaning that there would be a past John and a future John. Also, if John is there for the end times, that he had already seen, wouldn’t he have known that the Lamb was worthy to open the scroll and break the seals?
A: 1 Corinthians 4:6 - I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written...
OLD TESTIMENT LAW / DOCTRINAL ISSUES[30:22] - Q: Were multiple marriages in the Old Testament considered a sin? For example, David had multiple wives, if that was considered a sin and he continued to live in that sin seemingly unrepentant why did God still use him?
Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines and God still used him... what? Was Solomon saved?
[35:16] - Q: Why are there so many different versions of the Bible? Specifically the message, I know it gets the same point across but it says it completely differently than my NIV or ESV.
[39:15] - Q: How do we know the Bible we have today is God's complete word? How does the apocrypha and other extra-biblical literature factor in? How can we be confident in it when it was seemingly assembled and decided by humans during various meetings/councils?
A: Luke 24:27
Any question that was missed due to time constraints during the service Pastor Jeff will address the answer on the blog.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Pastor Jeff:
00:00-00:01
Good morning, Mark.
Pastor Jeff:
00:01-00:02
My favorite pastor.
Pastor Jeff:
00:05-00:06
Say that again.
Mark Ort:
00:07-00:10
I said, "Good morning, Pastor Jeff, my favorite pastor."
Pastor Jeff:
00:11-00:12
Did you all get that?
Mark Ort:
00:15-00:20
You know, before we get into this, Mark, the mission of this church is to make disciples.
Mark Ort:
00:24-00:32
There's a group of men that you saw in that video there, Ryan Stroop and Ben Mall and Mark Rodriguez and Duddy Murdoff.
Mark Ort:
00:33-01:04
The Lord has put on them to not just to not just have like men's fellowship activities where we kind of get together occasionally and you know go ski shooting and you know have bacon. It's more of an intentional discipleship, accountability, transparency and they brought to the eldership an amazing idea for men's ministry.
Mark Ort:
01:04-01:25
Ryan's actually gonna be talking about that more next week, but we wanna encourage all of the men of this church to take a hard look at that and prepare yourselves for some real gospel transformation that comes when iron sharpens iron and men are invested in each other's lives.
Mark Ort:
01:26-01:28
So, Brian will talk more about that next week.
Mark Ort:
01:29-01:29
So I don't wanna get,
Pastor Jeff:
01:30-01:31
don't wanna step on his toes.
Pastor Jeff:
01:32-01:33
Yeah, I mean, today's Q&A day, right?
Pastor Jeff:
01:34-01:37
And we've been looking forward to this for a long time.
Pastor Jeff:
01:37-01:40
But before we get into this, I just have to say one thing.
Pastor Jeff:
01:41-01:57
That last song we sang, I had to recover from that a little bit because it said this in the song, "All the world can come to him and have their sins removed." And we've sung that song here before, haven't we there?
Pastor Jeff:
01:58-02:06
And that never really hit me that hard as it did this morning, that what's our biggest need as human beings?
Pastor Jeff:
02:06-02:12
Our most fundamental need is to have our sins removed.
Pastor Jeff:
02:13-02:15
And Jesus does that.
Pastor Jeff:
02:15-02:17
He doesn't cover them up, He removes them.
Mark Ort:
02:18-02:21
The Lamb of God takes away the sin, right?
Mark Ort:
02:21-02:23
He, yeah, He doesn't just cover them.
Mark Ort:
02:23-02:25
and He removes them.
Pastor Jeff:
02:26-02:28
Amen, I love that song, thanks Darren.
Mark Ort:
02:29-02:30
Yeah, today's Q&A
Pastor Jeff:
02:30-02:42
day, and so for those of you that maybe haven't experienced this yet, or are new around here, maybe today's your first time, what do we normally do at Harvest, and what's this Q&A day thing all about, Jeff?
Mark Ort:
02:43-02:46
Well, you know, it started as an experiment.
Mark Ort:
02:46-02:51
This is like the, I think the 14th or 15th one that we've done, I think, something like that.
Mark Ort:
02:52-03:01
that many years ago, just as an experiment, we're like, what if we took a service and just answered the questions that people in the congregation had?
Mark Ort:
03:02-03:05
And it went over pretty well.
Mark Ort:
03:05-03:16
We found that people had some really good questions that we didn't wanna be a church that was like, there are certain subjects that are off limits, or don't talk about that, don't ask about that.
Mark Ort:
03:17-03:21
We believe that God's word has the answers for everything that we need.
Mark Ort:
03:21-03:23
So we're like, what questions do you have?
Mark Ort:
03:23-03:27
Let's go to God's word and get the answers for whatever the questions are.
Mark Ort:
03:27-03:29
So we don't run from any questions here, right Mark?
Pastor Jeff:
03:31-03:33
I mean, there are always good questions.
Pastor Jeff:
03:34-03:34
I mean, we've got to hit them all.
Pastor Jeff:
03:35-03:37
Sometimes we don't make it to the end.
Pastor Jeff:
03:38-03:40
And then what happens with those?
Mark Ort:
03:41-03:46
The ones that we don't get to today, we'll put them on the blog on our website.
Mark Ort:
03:47-03:53
Because, and the reason we do that, 'Cause I know somebody here is gonna think we was ducking your question, right?
Mark Ort:
03:53-04:00
You're gonna be like, "Oh, Mark couldn't handle that one." Right, "That one was too tough." And you're gonna be walking around all proud of yourself.
Mark Ort:
04:00-04:02
It's gonna be on the blog, all right?
Mark Ort:
04:03-04:05
'Cause he ain't afraid of nothing, all right?
Mark Ort:
04:06-04:06
That's why he's up here.
Mark Ort:
04:07-04:10
So, yeah, we'll blog what's not covered.
Mark Ort:
04:11-04:18
And then the other couple ground rules that I put on here, Mark, we ask or we answer what we think you're asking, right?
Mark Ort:
04:19-04:34
So we have a pretty good sense of what's being asked in the question, so we can only answer what we think you're asking, and we're going to give the short answer, because honestly these questions, we could do like an entire like...
Mark Ort:
04:34-04:35
Sermon series.
Mark Ort:
04:35-04:38
Sermon series on any one of these questions, right?
Mark Ort:
04:38-04:50
So we're going to give the short answer, and if you want any more like elaboration on some and some of these, you can buy us Chick-fil-A, and we'll sit over there, and Mark will tell you everything you want to know.
Mark Ort:
04:51-04:51
Right?
Pastor Jeff:
04:52-04:52
Sounds fair.
Pastor Jeff:
04:53-04:55
The other part of that question was what we normally do.
Pastor Jeff:
04:57-04:58
Did you mention that?
Pastor Jeff:
04:58-04:58
Maybe I missed it.
Pastor Jeff:
04:58-05:04
We normally go through a book of the Bible, and Jeff will preach expositionally, verse by verse.
Pastor Jeff:
05:04-05:08
And that will happen starting again in August, right?
Mark Ort:
05:08-05:08
Right.
Mark Ort:
05:09-05:11
And in July, we have our guest speakers.
Mark Ort:
05:11-05:17
We have four men from our church who have been working very hard and putting a message together.
Mark Ort:
05:18-05:29
We had our last rehearsal last Friday and just four men who love the Lord, love God's Word, and have spent a long time putting these messages together, and they're going to be giving them in July.
Pastor Jeff:
05:30-05:31
Really looking forward to that.
Mark Ort:
05:32-05:32
Yeah, they're fantastic.
Mark Ort:
05:33-05:40
And in August, Lord willing, unless he returns before then, which wouldn't be a bad thing, amen.
Mark Ort:
05:42-05:45
If he doesn't return before then, we'll get back to the Gospel of John.
Mark Ort:
05:47-05:48
Alright, so are you ready?
Pastor Jeff:
05:48-05:50
Yeah, what do we want to set the timer?
Pastor Jeff:
05:50-05:52
Like, how much time do we want to have for this?
Pastor Jeff:
05:54-05:54
An hour.
Pastor Jeff:
05:56-05:59
There are people, his wife is working in the nursery.
Pastor Jeff:
06:00-06:05
Do you really want him to go home and face Kristen's wrath?
Pastor Jeff:
06:08-06:11
Like, she got it, she got it.
Pastor Jeff:
06:12-06:14
So an hour might be a little ambitious.
Mark Ort:
06:14-06:15
-No lunch for me.
Pastor Jeff:
06:15-06:16
-No lunch for you.
Pastor Jeff:
06:17-06:18
How about you want to say 35 minutes?
Mark Ort:
06:19-06:21
-That's fair.
Pastor Jeff:
06:19-06:21
-Is that fair? 35 minutes?
Pastor Jeff:
06:22-06:23
All right, we'll start the timer then.
Pastor Jeff:
06:24-06:26
And we'll do as many as we can in 35 minutes, all right?
Mark Ort:
06:27-06:28
-Sounds good.
Pastor Jeff:
06:27-06:28
-All right, let's do it.
Pastor Jeff:
06:28-06:29
Timer's going.
Mark Ort:
06:30-06:31
I've got to get my cheaters on.
Mark Ort:
06:33-06:34
All right, question one, Jeff.
Mark Ort:
06:35-06:39
"Were God the Father, Son, and Spirit all present at the beginning of creation?
Mark Ort:
06:40-06:41
How can we know this?
Pastor Jeff:
06:42-07:05
Yeah, the Bible is very clear that God, one God exists as three persons and all three members of the Godhead, which by the way we don't understand because we are people who live in time and space, God lives outside of time and space, so it's kind of logical that there are some things about God that we just can't understand.
Pastor Jeff:
07:06-07:15
So we have to turn to God's Word and say, "What does the Bible say about that?" And the Bible says very clearly that, first of all, God the Father was involved in creation.
Mark Ort:
07:15-07:27
You know, Genesis 1.1 says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." And in the Hebrew, that's Elohim, is the name for God.
Mark Ort:
07:27-07:31
That was how, it's almost better translated, the Almighty One.
Mark Ort:
07:32-07:34
And then Barah, Elohim Barah.
Mark Ort:
07:35-07:37
Barah is created out of nothing.
Mark Ort:
07:38-08:00
But then the very next verse, Genesis 1-2, says, "Then the Spirit of God, the Roush of Elohim, proceeded to move upon the face of the waters." So God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, according to Genesis 1-2, was involved in creation as well.
Mark Ort:
08:00-08:03
And Mark, what does the Bible say about Jesus Christ's involvement in creation?
08:04-08:05
Well,
Pastor Jeff:
08:05-08:10
in the New Testament, there's a couple of places in Colossians 1:16 and John 1:3.
Pastor Jeff:
08:11-08:28
And I'll read these in a second, but we have to get this right because all sorts of heresies arise from not understanding that God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, were all there together at the beginning.
Pastor Jeff:
08:29-09:03
And so in Colossians 1:16, it says this, "For by Him," Christ, referring to Christ, "all things were created in heaven and on earth, "visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions "or rulers or authorities, "all things were created through Him and for Him." And in John 1:3, "All things were made through Him, "and without Him was not anything made that was made." And so these are clear passages from the New Testament about Jesus being present then.
Pastor Jeff:
09:03-09:06
And Jehovah's Witnesses get this wrong.
Pastor Jeff:
09:07-09:09
They say that Jesus was a created being.
Pastor Jeff:
09:10-09:15
And that's where the heresy and false religions arise by not getting this right.
Mark Ort:
09:15-09:28
And you know, part of that also, God says, "Let us make man in our image." And I personally believe that what he is talking about there the us is the Godhead.
Mark Ort:
09:28-09:35
and for us to be created in God's image, there is more to you than what you see when you look in a mirror.
Mark Ort:
09:36-09:44
You are body, mind, and spirit, so essentially you are three in one, just as God is three in one, right?
Mark Ort:
09:44-10:01
So I believe that that's an aspect of creation when God says, "Let us make man in our image," that there's a sense in which being in the image of God, We carry that plurality of person within ourselves.
Mark Ort:
10:01-10:07
Again, it's a mystery how all that works, but it makes sense to God.
Mark Ort:
10:08-10:11
And even if we can't explain it or understand it, we believe it.
Pastor Jeff:
10:11-10:11
Amen.
Pastor Jeff:
10:12-10:14
All right, we're gonna go to the second question.
Pastor Jeff:
10:14-10:22
And whoever wrote this question, you get the award for the longest question that we've ever had at Q&A day.
Pastor Jeff:
10:22-10:22
Yeah,
Mark Ort:
10:22-10:24
yeah, this is a dude, get comfortable.
Pastor Jeff:
10:25-10:28
So I'm probably going to skim some of it, if that's okay.
Pastor Jeff:
10:30-10:35
Do you personally see and feel the rise of the spirit of the Antichrist throughout the world?
Pastor Jeff:
10:36-10:39
All Romans 1 items checked within just a few years time.
Pastor Jeff:
10:40-10:42
And these are the items.
Pastor Jeff:
10:42-10:53
You have pastors thrown in prison, churches fenced off, their homes burned with children in them, referring to some of the stuff that happened in Canada, I guess, up to our north.
Pastor Jeff:
10:54-11:03
U .S. churches shuttered in the name of saving just one is worth it, bowing to the altar of health, wealth, and science, the new religion.
Pastor Jeff:
11:04-11:13
We have atrocities by world governments, human trials of genetic modification supported by corporate coercion.
Pastor Jeff:
11:13-11:31
We have suicide-inducing lockdowns, planned starvation, destruction of small businesses, purposeful separation of sheep and goats, testing and vaccine requirements, the technological explosion ripe for the mark of the beast.
Pastor Jeff:
11:32-11:41
We have the removal of free speech, big tech takeover, cancel culture, woke culture, twisting of language and logic.
Pastor Jeff:
11:42-11:57
We have related to that birthing persons, I'm sorry, The logic in that we have birthing persons because biological men can have babies, menstruate, compete with girls in sports.
Pastor Jeff:
11:58-12:00
A men must include a woman.
Pastor Jeff:
12:01-12:08
I mentioned the big tech takeover, biometric data, false coin shortage, a whole bunch of things here.
Pastor Jeff:
12:08-12:20
Israel, new wars, new government mixed with Jew and Muslim power, global anti-Semitism, fighting against nations with BLM peaceful protests.
Pastor Jeff:
12:22-12:24
We have a whole bunch of stuff here in this question to name a few.
Pastor Jeff:
12:25-12:29
The question is, "The wedding feast seems to be getting really close now.
Pastor Jeff:
12:30-12:39
So, personally, how close are you to feeling that the removal of his bride, the church, is now?" That's a lot.
Pastor Jeff:
12:42-12:43
Yes, it is.
Pastor Jeff:
12:43-12:43
It's
Mark Ort:
12:43-12:49
like somebody's like, "I'd really like to give a sermon, but I'm really not keen on public speaking.
Mark Ort:
12:50-12:58
Is there a way I can slide in?" Okay, so the first question is, "Do I personally see and feel the rise of the Spirit of Antichrist throughout the world?" Yes.
Mark Ort:
12:59-13:03
Second question, that was a yes or no question.
Mark Ort:
13:05-13:08
The second question is, "The wedding fee seems to be getting really close now.
Mark Ort:
13:08-13:16
So personally, how close are you feeling that the removal of his bride church is now?
Mark Ort:
13:19-13:20
Matthew 24, verse 32.
Mark Ort:
13:20-13:22
You don't have to turn it, you can jot it down.
Mark Ort:
13:23-13:24
But I'm going to read this quickly.
Mark Ort:
13:24-13:27
Matthew 24, verse 32.
Mark Ort:
13:28-13:31
And this is in the context of Jesus talking about end times stuff.
Mark Ort:
13:32-13:35
Jesus said, "From the fig tree learn its lesson.
Mark Ort:
13:35-13:39
As soon as the branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.
Mark Ort:
13:40-13:52
So also when you see all these things that he just mentioned previously, Jesus mentioned, so also when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates.
Mark Ort:
13:52-13:57
Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Mark Ort:
13:57-14:01
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Mark Ort:
14:02-14:06
So Jesus made it very clear that there are some signs that we are to look for.
Mark Ort:
14:06-14:11
And we went through the book of Revelation here at church and we've talked about end time stuff quite a bit.
Mark Ort:
14:12-14:14
And we know that there are some signs.
Mark Ort:
14:14-14:20
Some of them mentioned here in this extraordinarily long and well-crafted question.
Mark Ort:
14:21-14:33
You know, things like one world government, one world currency, you know, just so many things that the Bible talks about that we're seeing being fulfilled in front of us.
Mark Ort:
14:36-14:37
It's pretty obvious.
Mark Ort:
14:38-14:41
Jesus made a statement three times here.
Mark Ort:
14:41-15:07
Verse 36, He said, "But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only." Then verse 44, Jesus said, "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour you do not expect." And then 25.13, He says, "Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour." So here's where we are, right Mark?
Mark Ort:
15:08-15:19
Jesus said, "No one knows the time, but be watching for the signs." Right? Because the signs are going to show us when things are near.
Mark Ort:
15:19-15:23
And I believe that things are very near.
Mark Ort:
15:23-15:33
If you were to pin me down on a time, I would just say, honestly, I could see it within the next year or two, based on a lot of the things that are happening globally right now.
Mark Ort:
15:34-15:37
I could see the return of Christ within the next year or two.
Mark Ort:
15:40-15:41
You don't need me to tell you
Pastor Jeff:
15:41-15:45
the exponential rate.
Pastor Jeff:
15:46-15:48
I went through the list, and that's just a piece of it.
Pastor Jeff:
15:49-15:58
the exponential rate of a slide or deterioration, not just in our country, but around the world.
Pastor Jeff:
15:59-16:04
And I like the passage that you mentioned there about being watchful in 2513.
Pastor Jeff:
16:05-16:23
And I took a look at this passage, and my version says, "Be on the alert." And I look that up, and it's a watchfulness, a strict attention to take heed lest some sudden calamity overtake you.
Pastor Jeff:
16:24-16:29
And there's no room for falling asleep at the wheel here.
Pastor Jeff:
16:31-16:33
There's no room for laziness.
Pastor Jeff:
16:33-16:49
We have to be vigilant and watchful, looking for these signs, but also just in our own personal walk, we need to stay in the word, we need to stay in tune with the truth, because that's hard to find.
Pastor Jeff:
16:50-17:01
Fake news and all this stuff on the internet, we don't know what's true anymore, but we have to be vigilant and on the alert and watchful as the passage says here.
Pastor Jeff:
17:02-17:04
And we don't know the day or the time.
Mark Ort:
17:04-17:15
Yeah, we don't know, but Jesus said, "Pay attention to the signs and you'll have an awareness to when it's near." And I believe that it's coming soon.
Pastor Jeff:
17:16-17:17
And that leads us to our next question.
Pastor Jeff:
17:19-17:21
It seems like Christ's return is imminent.
Pastor Jeff:
17:22-17:26
And by the way, this person gets the prize for the second longest question.
Pastor Jeff:
17:27-17:27
Yeah.
Pastor Jeff:
17:27-17:29
But I believe he's coming back soon.
Pastor Jeff:
17:29-17:31
I can't wait to be taken up to heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
17:31-17:32
Amen?
Pastor Jeff:
17:33-17:39
I just don't know how to live day to day with that type of mindset, knowing that I'm going to be taken away.
Pastor Jeff:
17:40-17:48
How do I live normally, worrying about work, job, finances, buying cars and stuff, upkeep for my house, et cetera?
Pastor Jeff:
17:48-17:56
In 1 Thessalonians, Paul tells the believers that they haven't missed it, and they need to keep on working.
Pastor Jeff:
17:57-17:58
So I know I need to continue on.
Pastor Jeff:
17:59-18:00
I'm just challenged
18:00-18:01
by how to do that.
18:01-18:12
Christ's love is in me, and yes, I can share that with others and try to get as many to heaven as possible, but really, preacher, I'm exhausted from what God has given me.
18:12-18:13
I'm ready to go.
18:14-18:17
Can you give a few pieces of advice for how to persevere?
18:18-18:19
How should I be praying?
18:20-18:20
Thank you.
18:20-18:22
That is a really good question.
18:22-18:29
And as we approach God's Word, In Matthew 24 and 25,
Mark Ort:
18:31-18:33
Jesus was talking about end time stuff.
Mark Ort:
18:34-18:41
So when I saw this question, the first thing I had to ask was, what application did Jesus make?
Mark Ort:
18:41-18:49
In light of end time events, things that are coming soon, what application did Jesus...
Mark Ort:
18:49-18:52
And Jesus directly answers this question.
Mark Ort:
18:52-18:57
verses 45 through 51 in Matthew 24.
Mark Ort:
18:58-19:14
Here's what Jesus, in light of all that He said was coming, tribulation events and the close of the end of this age, He says, "Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has sent over his household to give them their food at the proper time?
Mark Ort:
19:16-19:20
Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.
Mark Ort:
19:20-19:23
"Truly I say to you, He will set him over all his possessions.
Mark Ort:
19:25-19:46
But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour he does not know, and he will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites.
Mark Ort:
19:47-20:09
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." So Jesus used this analogy here of the wise servant who's like, "I know my Master is coming back soon, so I'm going to get busy doing my Master's business." And that's the work of the church, that's evangelism, that's discipleship, that's reaching the world with the love and the Word of God.
Mark Ort:
20:10-20:20
And Jesus contrasted it with the wicked servant, who's like, "Hey, he ain't coming back, and he mistreats people, and he's abusive, and he's mean-spirited and cruel.
Mark Ort:
20:23-20:25
His future is not looking so good.
Mark Ort:
20:25-20:33
But Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5 makes almost the exact same application.
Mark Ort:
20:33-20:43
Again, he's talking about the day of the Lord, tribulation type stuff, the day of the Lord, like Zephaniah.
Pastor Jeff:
20:45-20:47
I heard some sermons about that recently.
Mark Ort:
20:47-20:49
Yeah, it seems kind of fresh, doesn't it?
Mark Ort:
20:49-20:50
But he's talking about those things.
Mark Ort:
20:51-20:57
And again, so my question is, well, how does the Bible apply end times teaching?
Mark Ort:
20:57-21:04
And here it is, he says, "So then, let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
Mark Ort:
21:04-21:07
Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.
Mark Ort:
21:08-21:17
But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
Mark Ort:
21:17-21:27
He says, "For God has not destined us for wrath, "but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, "who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, "we might live with him.
Mark Ort:
21:28-21:39
"Therefore, encourage one another "and build one another up just as you are doing." Now, I wanna focus on that last verse here because the nature of this question, it's very personal.
Mark Ort:
21:39-21:48
Like, yes, I know the love of Christ, I'm ready for Him to come, and I'm struggling with just the normal things of life, work and job and finances.
Mark Ort:
21:48-21:51
And this is where the rubber meets the road.
Mark Ort:
21:51-22:00
Like, yeah, I get the Bible answer, preacher, but like my day-to-day living, how do I persevere in light of the return of Christ?
Mark Ort:
22:02-22:12
And the very last thing that I read here, verse 11, he says, "Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.
Mark Ort:
22:14-22:18
And that's one of the big reasons at Harvest Bible Chapel we have small groups.
Mark Ort:
22:18-22:24
We're not a church with small groups, we're a church of small groups, and we encourage people to be in a small group.
Mark Ort:
22:24-22:26
Why? For lots of reasons, but here's one.
Mark Ort:
22:27-22:31
Small groups should be the place where you're encouraging one another and building one another up.
Mark Ort:
22:32-22:45
You know, we've said it a thousand times, if your church involvement is, I slip in on Sunday late, and I slip out early, and I'll see you next Sunday." You're not going to feel very connected here at the church.
Mark Ort:
22:46-22:59
It's through the relationships that form through Christian fellowship and small group ministry where things like this are fulfilled, where people are encouraging you to persevere
Pastor Jeff:
22:59-23:03
and go strong in all of these categories that he's talking about.
Pastor Jeff:
23:04-23:05
Yeah, I totally agree with that.
Pastor Jeff:
23:09-23:13
If you're in a small group, you don't need me to tell you this 'cause you already know.
Pastor Jeff:
23:14-23:17
It's not just that Wednesday night or that Thursday night thing.
Pastor Jeff:
23:18-23:23
You're all through the week talking with one another, whether it's on a phone or email or text.
Pastor Jeff:
23:23-23:24
People don't use email anymore, do they?
Pastor Jeff:
23:25-23:25
I don't know.
Pastor Jeff:
23:27-23:39
If I get a text from like Dawn Saber during the week or a phone call from somebody, I'm like, you know, it just like makes my whole day, you know, like I'm ready to go.
Pastor Jeff:
23:39-23:41
And that happens all throughout the week.
Pastor Jeff:
23:42-23:43
And it's encouraging.
Pastor Jeff:
23:43-23:49
It's great to know that somebody's thinking about me, praying for me, lifting me up.
Pastor Jeff:
23:50-23:52
That's how we persevere, I believe.
Pastor Jeff:
23:52-23:52
Amen,
Mark Ort:
23:53-23:53
amen.
Mark Ort:
23:55-23:57
That's true of the relationships in the church, right?
Mark Ort:
23:57-24:06
You have to have relationships, not just like, "How do you do's on Sunday morning?" but like, invested in each other's lives.
Mark Ort:
24:06-24:09
Which is another great thing with this men's group that's starting up.
Mark Ort:
24:10-24:11
Relationships.
Pastor Jeff:
24:12-24:13
Yeah, we're not meant to be alone. - No.
Pastor Jeff:
24:15-24:16
Alright, next one.
Pastor Jeff:
24:18-24:22
"In Revelation, John sees the events of the end times.
Pastor Jeff:
24:22-24:27
And since John is a saved man, would he also be seeing himself in the future?
Pastor Jeff:
24:28-24:30
meaning that there would be a past John and a future John.
Pastor Jeff:
24:31-24:43
Also, if John is there for the end times that he already had seen, wouldn't he have known that the Lamb was worthy to open the scroll and break the seals?
Mark Ort:
24:45-24:50
I love this question because this question reminds me of Back to the Future.
Mark Ort:
24:51-24:57
And I don't know who wrote this question, but I have a guess that this person I also was a Back to the Future fan.
Mark Ort:
24:58-25:09
That John was like, "I've got to get my parents to dance at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance." And he's carrying around that photograph, and James is vanishing from the photograph.
Mark Ort:
25:11-25:12
Apparently nobody here has seen Back to the Future.
Mark Ort:
25:14-25:15
It sounds like you've seen it too much.
Mark Ort:
25:16-25:16
Alright, Mark.
Pastor Jeff:
25:18-25:32
One of the things that I just want to mention about this, and it's more of a general thing about prophecy, and Jeff has mentioned this several times preached about prophecy, that there's a near fulfillment and a far fulfillment, did I have that right?
Pastor Jeff:
25:33-25:33
Yeah.
Pastor Jeff:
25:34-25:42
But Kristen and I, we were watching this video from a guy, his name's Bob Morris, and he's from Hadavar Ministries, and he was doing a series on Isaiah.
Pastor Jeff:
25:44-25:50
He's not talking about John, he was talking about Isaiah, but there's a principle or an analogy that he gave.
Pastor Jeff:
25:51-25:58
And, you know, I know analogies sometimes have, weak points to them, but you might get the picture with this.
Pastor Jeff:
25:59-26:03
He gave an analogy of a traffic reporter in a helicopter.
Pastor Jeff:
26:04-26:12
And the helicopter goes up with the traffic reporter and you're in, we'll say that you're in, you know, Wexford.
Pastor Jeff:
26:13-26:14
You're in Wexford right now.
Pastor Jeff:
26:14-26:18
You're in Wexford and you're going to go to Pittsburgh and you're going to go down 19.
Pastor Jeff:
26:19-26:28
The traffic reporter, he sees you, or he sees Wexford, and he sees that there's an accident on Route 19 five miles away.
Pastor Jeff:
26:28-26:30
You don't know the accidents there.
Pastor Jeff:
26:30-26:33
That accident, to you, is future.
Pastor Jeff:
26:33-26:36
You're going to get stuck in traffic, you know, ten minutes from now or whatever.
Pastor Jeff:
26:37-26:38
You don't know that.
Pastor Jeff:
26:38-26:44
But the traffic reporter, he radios back to the station and says, "Hey, we have an accident on 19.
Pastor Jeff:
26:45-26:54
Traffic's blocked up." hear it on the radio and now you sort of know what's going to come down in your future ten minutes from now.
Pastor Jeff:
26:54-27:07
And he said it's kind of that way with how Isaiah or John, they were seeing things in the future because they were up here and they could see the timeline.
Pastor Jeff:
27:08-27:08
Does that make sense?
Pastor Jeff:
27:09-27:10
I think that's a really good
Mark Ort:
27:10-27:11
analogy.
Mark Ort:
27:13-27:15
Does that resonate with anybody else?
Mark Ort:
27:16-27:16
Just me?
Mark Ort:
27:17-27:18
Is that helpful?
Mark Ort:
27:18-27:18
Okay.
Pastor Jeff:
27:19-27:22
But what about this future John and stuff?
Pastor Jeff:
27:22-27:22
What do you think about that?
27:23-27:28
Well, I
Mark Ort:
27:28-27:29
thought a lot about that.
Pastor Jeff:
27:30-27:31
I know you have.
27:36-27:36
And
Mark Ort:
27:36-27:40
the thing is, like, obviously John doesn't mention that.
Mark Ort:
27:41-27:48
You know, John at no point in Revelation was like, "And then behold, I saw the Lamb step forth, and hey, hang on a second, there's me.
Mark Ort:
27:49-27:54
I'm looking good." I mean, he doesn't mention that at all.
Mark Ort:
27:55-27:57
And why doesn't he mention that?
Mark Ort:
27:58-28:00
Because that's really not the point.
Mark Ort:
28:00-28:05
The point of Revelation, he says, to show the things that must soon take place.
Mark Ort:
28:06-28:13
So Revelation is about mainly outlining what happens during the seven-year tribulation, you know, Daniel's 70th week.
Mark Ort:
28:14-28:20
He's mainly showing us that and showing us what the eternal state is going to look like.
Mark Ort:
28:21-28:23
So that's his main focus.
Mark Ort:
28:24-28:32
And when we read a prophecy like that, I just want to remind you of 1 Corinthians 4.6.
Mark Ort:
28:33-28:37
And this is a whole sermon here, but I'm gonna try to keep it short.
Mark Ort:
28:38-28:54
Paul says, "I have applied all these things to myself and to Paul as for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written." And what he's saying is sometimes we want to go beyond what the Bible actually says.
Mark Ort:
28:56-28:58
And I think it's fun to think about these things.
Mark Ort:
28:58-29:04
Did John see himself and what was that like, etc.?
Mark Ort:
29:04-29:09
But Paul gives us a warning here that we don't want to go beyond what the Bible actually says.
Mark Ort:
29:09-29:09
Right?
Mark Ort:
29:10-29:13
I don't know if John saw himself.
Mark Ort:
29:14-29:15
And the point is it doesn't matter.
Mark Ort:
29:16-29:24
Because John, through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, through this vision, told us what God wanted us to know, right?
Mark Ort:
29:25-29:27
God told us what He wanted us to know.
Mark Ort:
29:27-29:29
And it gets back to Deuteronomy 29.29.
Mark Ort:
29:29-30:20
The secret things belong to the Lord, but the things He's revealed belong to us, and children there's some things God wants us to know he's like I wrote them down and other things I mean we can talk about we can sort of imagine and wonder but we just don't know and that's what I have my notes here it's okay to say IDK right it's okay to say IDK John was communicating what God wanted us to know So Because when you especially when you deal with like Timeline things in future and the fact that John was transported in time and place There's there's a lot of I mean I had a hard time keeping up with back to the future let alone You know trying to wrap my brain around what John experienced
Pastor Jeff:
30:22-30:29
All right you ready for the next one I'm ready all right Were multiple marriages in the Old Testament considered a sin?
Pastor Jeff:
30:30-30:32
For example, David had multiple wives.
Pastor Jeff:
30:32-30:39
If that was considered a sin, and he continued to live in the sin, seemingly unrepentant, why did God still use him?
Pastor Jeff:
30:39-30:44
Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and God still used him.
Pastor Jeff:
30:45-30:46
Was Solomon saved?
Mark Ort:
30:48-30:56
I get a laugh because these guys had hundreds of wives, and Solomon had 300 porcupines or whatever.
Mark Ort:
30:56-31:03
And I'm like, yeah, Solomon was wise, but I get to wonder, was Solomon a little crazy?
Mark Ort:
31:03-31:05
I can't barely handle one wife.
Mark Ort:
31:07-31:11
And he had like an army of them.
Mark Ort:
31:11-31:15
I'm like, what were you thinking?
Mark Ort:
31:16-31:18
And was Solomon saved?
Mark Ort:
31:18-31:19
Yeah, he was saved.
Mark Ort:
31:19-31:24
I believe Solomon was saved because despite his sin, God spoke to him directly, right?
Mark Ort:
31:25-31:29
1 Kings 3, remember God shows up, "Ask me anything, I'll give it to you." And he asked for wisdom and he got it.
Mark Ort:
31:30-31:34
And Solomon wrote many of the Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes.
Mark Ort:
31:34-31:43
I'd have a real hard time wrapping my brain around the thought that God wrote a giant chunk of his word through somebody that's not saved.
Mark Ort:
31:44-31:48
I just, that just doesn't ring with God's character at all.
Mark Ort:
31:50-32:02
Furthermore, God uses flawed people because we all are, right?
Mark Ort:
32:02-32:04
Except Jesus Christ, obviously, who is God.
Mark Ort:
32:05-32:12
But outside of perfect God /Man/Jesus, God works through imperfect people.
Mark Ort:
32:12-32:22
So, we get to the Old Testament, and we're like, "What's up with all this polygamy and all these wives?" Well, to be clear, polygamy is a sin.
Mark Ort:
32:24-32:33
And I would remind you that Old Testament accounts often are descriptive, not prescriptive.
Mark Ort:
32:34-32:40
Meaning, nowhere in the Old Testament does it say Solomon had 700 wives, go and do likewise.
Mark Ort:
32:41-32:43
It doesn't say that, right?
Mark Ort:
32:43-32:54
Actually, what it says, 1 Kings 11, we're not going to turn there, but Solomon's wives caused a lot of problems because they led him into idolatry.
Mark Ort:
32:55-33:19
So if we had Solomon here right now, and we're like, "Hey, we've got a question for you." You know, you're a thousand women, good idea or bad idea, he would be like, "It wasn't good." And it's funny because even before this question was submitted, I read an article that suggested that polygamy was introduced to Israel through the whole ordeal with Jacob.
Mark Ort:
33:20-33:24
He wanted Rachel, he was tricked into marrying Leah, and then he ended up marrying Rachel.
Mark Ort:
33:26-33:37
But because Laban was a pagan, Jacob was like, "Well, my new father-in-law is going to think it's cool if I marry both of his wives." So he marries multiple women.
Mark Ort:
33:37-33:44
Now Israel's looking at the father of the nation, they're like, "Well, Jacob had multiple wives, so it must be okay." It's not okay.
Mark Ort:
33:45-33:54
And we know it's not okay because Jesus, when He was asked about marriage and divorce and all these things, Matthew 19, Jesus said, "Have you not read from the beginning?
Mark Ort:
33:55-34:11
He created them, male and female, therefore for this purpose, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Jesus said God's purpose from creation was one man for one woman in the covenant of marriage, one lifetime.
Mark Ort:
34:12-34:14
Jesus said that was always God's plan.
Mark Ort:
34:14-34:23
So yeah, there was some people in Old Testament Israel that severely deviated from that plan and it didn't work out well for them at all.
Mark Ort:
34:23-34:23
And
34:23-34:24
God
Pastor Jeff:
34:24-34:25
used him.
Pastor Jeff:
34:25-34:33
I mean, his thing was wives and like our thing might be materialism or eating, overeating or whatever.
Pastor Jeff:
34:35-34:36
And he still uses us, right?
Mark Ort:
34:37-34:39
Yeah, we are flawed people.
Mark Ort:
34:39-34:43
And it's like our friend Dan would say, it's not about perfection, but direction.
Mark Ort:
34:44-34:47
Are we growing and seeking and striving to know?
Mark Ort:
34:47-34:52
You know, we don't just excuse sin to be like, well, nobody's perfect, so we might as well just all sin.
Mark Ort:
34:53-34:55
Jesus paid it all, so let's get our money's worth.
Mark Ort:
34:55-34:57
Or just these foolish things that people say.
Mark Ort:
34:57-35:08
We're like, we're striving to grow in Christ likeness, knowing that while we're living in this flesh, we are not going to see perfection until glory.
Pastor Jeff:
35:09-35:13
And it's pretty awesome to know that God would even use us at all.
Pastor Jeff:
35:13-35:13
Oh,
Mark Ort:
35:14-35:15
isn't that the truth? - It's amazing.
Pastor Jeff:
35:15-35:17
All right, let's move on.
Pastor Jeff:
35:17-35:21
Why are there so many different versions of the Bible, specifically the message?
Pastor Jeff:
35:22-35:28
I know it gets the same point across, but it says something completely different than my NIV or ESV.
Mark Ort:
35:29-35:30
Okay, so many different translations.
Mark Ort:
35:31-35:35
Well, the Bible wasn't written in English, it was written in Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek.
Mark Ort:
35:35-35:41
So the Bibles that we have in English had to have been taken from those languages and translated.
Mark Ort:
35:41-35:46
Why are there so many different translations? Well, there's different principles of translation.
Mark Ort:
35:47-35:49
Some are translated word for word.
Mark Ort:
35:50-36:01
Like we're looking at the Hebrew word and the Aramaic word and the Greek word and we're going to find the English equivalent and transfer word for word. Some are translated thought for thought.
Mark Ort:
36:02-36:13
Like this is what is being communicated, this is the sense in which these words are used, so we're going to find the English equivalent, word for word versus thought for thought.
Mark Ort:
36:13-36:27
So, yeah, your Bibles can read pretty differently with the same verbiage, but I'm just gonna be honest with you, from my perspective, I am not a translation Nazi.
Mark Ort:
36:28-36:52
I know some people are, and if there's a translation Nazi here the stream, you are loved too. I'm not one of those people, because you know some people that are like, "The NIV? Ha, what does that mean? The Nearly Inspired Version? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha." I'm like, "Oh, you're hilarious. You're hilarious." Can you get the basic gospel message out of the NIV?
Pastor Jeff:
36:53-36:53
Yes, you can.
Pastor Jeff:
36:53-36:53
Yes,
Mark Ort:
36:53-36:54
you can.
Mark Ort:
36:54-37:13
And the ESV and the NASB and the King James and except for these, like, you know, you're gonna get some oddball translation that like wants to change all the pronouns or like some really weird, creepy, woke version of the Bible just-- - And they exist.
Mark Ort:
37:13-37:13
They exist.
Mark Ort:
37:14-37:15
I'm not talking about those.
Mark Ort:
37:15-37:20
I'm talking about, you know, your NIVs and your King James and New King James and ESVs.
Mark Ort:
37:20-37:21
And I'm talking about those.
Mark Ort:
37:22-37:24
You can get the gospel message.
Mark Ort:
37:24-37:29
Some translations are better than others in certain parts, but at the
Pastor Jeff:
37:29-37:32
root, honestly, you get the gospel message.
Pastor Jeff:
37:34-37:42
And we, just real quickly, we needed different versions, I think, because language changes, doesn't it?
Pastor Jeff:
37:43-37:43
Yeah.
Pastor Jeff:
37:43-37:44
Language changes.
Pastor Jeff:
37:44-37:47
I mean, and I can prove that with a couple of words.
Pastor Jeff:
37:47-37:52
I mean, the word gay 100 years ago meant something different than it does today.
Pastor Jeff:
37:52-37:55
And I'm not saying anything against the people.
Pastor Jeff:
37:55-37:59
I'm just saying, don't miss the point about the language changing.
Pastor Jeff:
38:00-38:00
The words, yeah.
Pastor Jeff:
38:00-38:01
And the word brave.
Pastor Jeff:
38:02-38:04
I mean, how much has the word brave changed in the last year?
Pastor Jeff:
38:06-38:06
Am I right?
Pastor Jeff:
38:07-38:15
If you look in your Bibles, if you have a King James and you look at Philippians 3.20, it says your conversation is in heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
38:16-38:19
The newer versions say your citizenship is in heaven.
Pastor Jeff:
38:19-38:27
And that's a better translation because citizenship more closely matches the Greek word there in our vernacular.
Pastor Jeff:
38:28-38:30
When the King James was written, they used the word conversation.
Pastor Jeff:
38:31-38:31
Right.
Pastor Jeff:
38:31-38:32
They don't use that anymore for that.
Mark Ort:
38:32-38:38
Yeah, King James uses words like lasciviousness and concupiscence and we're like, what does that mean?
Mark Ort:
38:38-38:39
What was that word?
Mark Ort:
38:39-38:47
Yeah, so they, you know, we, and more modern translations use words that people are more familiar with.
Mark Ort:
38:48-38:52
So it's not like Bible in one hand, dictionary in the other, looking up all these words.
Mark Ort:
38:53-38:55
But the basic gospel message is the same, right?
Mark Ort:
38:56-39:09
You're a sinner, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh came, died on the cross for your sin, rose from the dead to give you eternal life, and we are called to turn from our sin and believe in what God has done through Jesus Christ.
Mark Ort:
39:10-39:14
You can get that message in most translations.
Mark Ort:
39:15-39:15
All right,
Pastor Jeff:
39:15-39:16
related to that, next question.
Pastor Jeff:
39:17-39:21
How do we know the Bible we have today is God's complete Word?
Pastor Jeff:
39:21-39:25
How does the Apocrypha and other extra-biblical literature factor in?
Pastor Jeff:
39:26-39:34
How can we be confident in it when it was seemingly assembled and decided by humans during various meetings and councils?
Mark Ort:
39:34-39:36
That is a fantastic question.
Mark Ort:
39:38-39:41
Why don't you share? You used an analogy about...
39:41-39:42
Yeah,
Pastor Jeff:
39:42-39:51
I studied a little bit about this in the past, and we actually had lessons about this particular thing some years ago here at church in men's group.
Pastor Jeff:
39:53-39:59
But there were councils along the way, and the councils didn't decide anything.
Pastor Jeff:
40:00-40:02
They recognized things.
Pastor Jeff:
40:02-40:03
There's a huge difference there.
Pastor Jeff:
40:04-40:10
And let me just share what I mean by that, and I'm going to pick on Darren Miller for a second.
Pastor Jeff:
40:12-40:18
We didn't get together as elders and decide that Darren was a talented musician.
Pastor Jeff:
40:20-40:22
We recognize that he is.
Pastor Jeff:
40:22-40:23
You see the difference?
Pastor Jeff:
40:23-40:24
We didn't make that decision at all.
Pastor Jeff:
40:25-40:40
And the early councils that got together on the scriptures, they combed through them meticulously and they recognized what was inspired from God and what wasn't.
Pastor Jeff:
40:41-40:43
and they did that based on some criteria.
Pastor Jeff:
40:44-40:46
There was the authority of the writer.
Pastor Jeff:
40:47-40:51
In the Old Testament, it had to be a lawgiver, a prophet, or a leader in Israel.
Pastor Jeff:
40:51-40:52
Like Moses, for example.
Pastor Jeff:
40:52-40:55
When they look at Moses, Moses was the man.
Pastor Jeff:
40:56-41:00
Like, the stuff that he wrote, there was no question.
Pastor Jeff:
41:01-41:02
It was straight from God.
Pastor Jeff:
41:04-41:07
The second thing was internal evidence.
Pastor Jeff:
41:07-41:09
Was it orthodox teaching?
Pastor Jeff:
41:10-41:11
Was it verified by other Scriptures?
Pastor Jeff:
41:12-41:14
Did it have a high moral value?
Pastor Jeff:
41:15-41:20
Was it extraordinary in what was written?
Pastor Jeff:
41:20-41:31
And then a couple other things, it had a surprising reception by the early church, and the relevance, widespread and long -term usage in the church.
Pastor Jeff:
41:32-41:38
So those were the kind of things that went into recognizing what was Scripture and what wasn't.
Mark Ort:
41:39-41:53
The whole process is called canonization, and the word "canon" means "measuring rod." I have a whole thing here, four categories of canonization, but it went through this process.
Mark Ort:
41:55-41:56
Our time's up.
Mark Ort:
41:56-41:58
But I just want to say one thing about the Apocrypha.
Mark Ort:
42:00-42:02
Because people ask about the Apocrypha a lot.
Mark Ort:
42:02-42:03
Just real quick.
Mark Ort:
42:04-42:16
Apocrypha means "hidden," And those books are not included in the canon because their authoritative status is disputed, whether it's by doctrine or authorship, as you talked about, Mark, or both.
Mark Ort:
42:17-42:24
They're Jewish in origin, even though the Jews themselves often don't consider them as authoritative.
Mark Ort:
42:25-42:32
They're in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, but they are not in the Hebrew translation of the Old Testament.
Mark Ort:
42:33-42:59
And the interesting thing about the Apocrypha was during the Reformation, like the Apocrypha wasn't part of the canon at all, during the Reformation there were some Christians that were like, "There are some Catholic doctrines that we don't believe in, we don't see them biblically." So the Catholic Church at the time added the Apocrypha back into the canon to say, "Oh yeah, these doctrines that we, they're in the Bible, see?
Mark Ort:
43:00-43:03
They're just in the Apocrypha." But there's a lot of problems with that.
Mark Ort:
43:05-43:08
Even the Apocrypha itself doesn't claim to be inspired.
Mark Ort:
43:10-43:18
I have references and things here that we can talk about another day, but it doesn't claim to be inspired.
Mark Ort:
43:19-43:40
But something very noteworthy regarding the authority or lack of concern of the Apocrypha, Jesus, and I'll jot this reference down, especially whoever wrote this question, Luke 24-27, Jesus explained prophecies regarding him as coming from Moses and the prophets.
Mark Ort:
43:41-43:51
And not only did Jesus never quote from the Apocrypha, none of the New Testament writers gave a direct quote from the Apocrypha.
Mark Ort:
43:52-43:54
So, that's a little bit about that.
Mark Ort:
43:56-44:01
There are some more good questions on here, but those will be showing up on our blog.
Pastor Jeff:
44:01-44:03
I know, I'm so bummed, because they were good.
Mark Ort:
44:04-44:08
Well, I'm just wanting to make sure that you have a happy afternoon in your home.
Mark Ort:
44:09-44:10
Thank you.
Mark Ort:
44:10-44:12
So would you pray for us, Mark?
Mark Ort:
44:12-44:15
And thank you for everyone that submitted the questions.
Mark Ort:
44:15-44:29
We'll be working on getting the rest on the website over the coming weeks, but we appreciate the fact that we're a church of Bereans who are searching the Scriptures to see the truth of God's Word.
Mark Ort:
44:29-44:29
So,
Pastor Jeff:
44:30-44:31
Mark, pray for us, please.
Pastor Jeff:
44:31-44:31
All right, let's pray.
Pastor Jeff:
44:33-44:44
Lord God, we thank you so much for our time this morning, where we get to sing songs and learn of you in your Word, in our Sunday morning service.
Pastor Jeff:
44:45-44:53
We get to get together and fellowship with one another, and smile, and cry, and pray over things.
Pastor Jeff:
44:54-45:06
Lord, this is a good place to be. We love being here. We're grateful that we can come and that we're still free to do so. Lord, thank you so much for the encouragement that we find in your Word.
Pastor Jeff:
45:07-45:20
I thank you for the encouragement we find in one another, for our small groups and for our studies that we do together and our just getting together as fellow believers.
Pastor Jeff:
45:21-45:25
Lord, I thank you for all that's going on in our church and what you're doing.
Pastor Jeff:
45:26-45:34
Our missions, outreaches, and the kids ministry, and this worship team that's about to close us out today.
Pastor Jeff:
45:35-45:41
Lord, all the teams that do so much for us and with us, and we thank you for them.
Pastor Jeff:
45:41-45:55
And Lord, we can never forget the great sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross to suffer and bleed and die so that we might have eternal life.
Pastor Jeff:
45:55-46:00
So that as we sang earlier, that all the world can come to Him and have their sins removed.
Pastor Jeff:
46:01-46:02
Lord, that's amazing.
Pastor Jeff:
46:03-46:05
And we are so appreciative of that.
Pastor Jeff:
46:06-46:08
Thank you for that opportunity, Lord.
Pastor Jeff:
46:08-46:13
And may we live for this Jesus that died for us and gave us life.
Pastor Jeff:
46:16-46:17
Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray,
46:18-46:18
amen.
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!
