Hey everybody and welcome back to another episode of Between Sermons, where we are continuing the conversation from Sunday.
Now we're in a series called "You Asked For It" at our church, and so we're actually going to split this episode kind of into two sections, two parts. We are going to start off by answering about 17 or so questions that we have left over from "Attempt to Answer."
Yeah, from our last week's episode, we answered 70 questions, and there's still a whole bunch more that we need to go through. So we're going to do our best today to answer some of those questions, and then we're going to have a conversation about the essential doctrines of Christianity because that's what we talked about on Sunday.
And my esteemed guest, Carlton McCarthy. How you doing, man?
Esteemed.
Doing good, doing good. It's good to have you back on the show.
Sweet. I asked our producer who's going to be on the show when we talk about doctrine, and she's like... She's like, well, I think obviously it's going to be Carlton.
I don't know how.
Yeah, that's the way we roll.
All right, so are you ready? So these questions I'm going to ask, you know, if you're not sure I can give answers to. This isn't just the Carlton show. But I'm going to throw the questions at you first.
All right. I'll jump in with my response as well.
So 17 questions. We're going to jump right in.
First question. Does outer space exist with other planets, or is it only the sun and the moon that was made?
Does space exist? I mean, not why. I was going to say because it's the majesty of God's creation. But why do you believe that space actually exists?
Which is straight-up foolishness.
Absolutely. Especially when Christianity actually drove... I don't know that I need to add anything to that. I think that one of the things that's misrepresented in Christianity...
So...
Yeah.
Yeah. Not Christianity versus science. Like, every time science makes a beautiful discovery, that should make Christians excited. Like, because the discoveries in science are pointing back to how God created this.
In fact, you talked about Einstein. So, like, Einstein's discovery about the expansion of the universe also meant the inverse was true. So, like, if it's expanding, it had a beginning. And that was, like, a huge problem in the atheistic world, that they actually wanted to disprove...
Right.
That the world had a beginning... That the universe had a beginning because it leaned towards Christian belief.
Right.
We don't have to fight against the Big Bang Theory.
Absolutely. Like, it's just... It's an explanation of how God did this.
Yes.
Oh, man. Should we get into, like, the whole cosmological argument for the universe?
No, we're going to save that for...
Yeah. I'm going to do an apologetics course for Life University.
Okay, yeah, yeah. We'll do that. Maybe I'll have you team teach.
I can nerd out on it. We'll just have some fun.
Cosmology.
This is a good one. Please address the statement that God is in control of everything.
I don't know if that's really a question. It was a statement.
Please address the statement that God is in control of everything.
How do you want to address that?
Wow. I think the argument comes down to God can have control of everything, but also not cause everything.
Right.
And that's the hard thing for believers is like, okay, so if somebody gets sick, they're like, oh, this was God's will. It might not have been because God puts the universe into motion. Sin happens. He takes his hands off of a lot of stuff.
Yeah.
Now, he still intervenes. He still acts.
Yeah.
Because he is in control in the sense of like, he has all power and all authority. That doesn't mean that every single thing that takes place is according to the will of God.
Right.
And that's a hard thing for some Christians to grasp. But like, there is, we live in a fallen world. Like, there are consequences to sin. There's consequences to bad actions, bad ideas, bad thoughts, bad decisions, all of that.
Does that mean that God no longer has power or authority?
Not at all.
Right.
He's just, he's chosen to take his hands off that situation.
Absolutely.
And then there's times when, you know, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Yeah. Is that what they say?
Right.
Yeah.
And so, you know, the reality is some people get sick because sickness is a part of the world.
Because they're sinning in the world.
Absolutely.
Yeah. It's just a consequence.
So, like, cancer exists because it's a fallen world. Like, the world is broken. And this is the result of that brokenness.
Does that mean that God gives people cancer?
No.
Right.
I totally agree with that.
All right. Good. Good stuff.
All right. Salvation question. When a person dies, when a person dies at a young age, where do they go if they start following the wrong path?
For instance, 16 years old, sudden death from possible opioid use or heart attack.
Yeah, it was always such an arbitrary thing. It was like, who picked that age and why is that age?
Yeah, I think it does tie into the Jewish faith of like, you become an adult at 13. So, if you're not 13, then you're absolved.
The reality is there's not really any answer to that scripturally.
Right.
I mean, the overall answer is without Jesus, you go to hell.
Absolutely, yeah.
But, as you said, like, I don't have a heaven or a hell to put anybody in.
Correct.
I can't determine that for some reason. What happens to that 16-year-old?
I don't know.
Okay, I'm 41. And so, you know, it's even the argument that some people have had of like, well, can't other religions that are genuine in their faith? Like, they're following their version of God or what they understand to be God and their knowledge, you know, how could God send them to hell?
And the answer to that question is, all I can do is look at Scripture, what Scripture says, and so I know that according to Scripture, unless you make Jesus Lord of your life, you do not have eternal life.
But Scripture also tells me that our God is a God of mercy, of grace, and of justice.
And so, is this an act of justice? That's on him to arbitrate.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's one of those things that we don't know, but I would never try and bank on, I guess, getting another chance.
So, like, people are saying, like, the whole deathbed confession, and then people take that for the next step. It's like, well, what if, like, you die, and then the very next moment you're in heaven and you get a choice?
I mean, sure, that'd be great.
I guess.
I guess.
I guess.
I guess.
There's no one in the Bible that says you get another choice after you're dead.
And not to harp on Catholics or whatever, but like, the purgatory concept, like, it's not biblical, it's not in the Bible.
The praying for the dead, like, okay, they were sinful, but they're in purgatory, they're working it through, and if I pray for them, if I give money to the church, then it's going to absolve their sins.
None of that is biblical. Like, don't count on those things happening.
No, that's between you and Jesus.
Right.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
All right. I mean, it is, it is, I just want to acknowledge the fact that it is heartbreaking any time a child passes away.
You actually had to take your son to a funeral of your classmate.
Yeah, that's it.
All right, relationship question. If someone wants to end an emotional relationship, what steps should they take?
Oh, wow. What step would you take in ending an emotional relationship?
Yeah. I, so, just want to put this out there that we don't have enough information to answer this correctly.
Because emotional relationship, is that a marriage? Is that dating?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, my goodness.
Is that a friendship? We don't know.
We don't know.
We don't know the nature of the relationship.
But if you're wanting to end an emotional relationship...
End it.
End it.
End it.
End it.
End it.
End it.
If it includes a wedding ring, don't, unless there's abuse or adultery or abandonment.
But maybe, so, we're trying to interpret your question right now. Maybe an emotional relationship is like a friendship. It's not a romantic relationship. It's just kind of an emotional.
So, when I think of an emotional relationship...
Maybe we need a girl on the podcast to help us navigate this.
So, you don't recommend having a work wife?
I agree.
You can have co-workers.
Yeah, they realize it's not the right thing.
Right.
Yeah.
What steps should you take?
I'm a rip-the-bandaid-off kind of guy, like that's slow, dragged out.
Yeah.
Just, just rip it off.
Just, so yeah, so the steps I would take, I would go to that person and I would say, hey, you know, for whatever reasons, because we have so limited information here.
Right, right.
But for whatever reason, I just feel like this relationship that we have is not appropriate, it's not healthy, and so I think that we need to end it, and then you end it.
So, what steps are there to take?
Step one, talk to them.
Step two, walk away.
Yeah.
Now, you can't apply that to your children, like, I want to end this emotional relationship that I have with my son, like, no.
Right, right.
That's why this is a hard question to answer without more details.
So, if whoever asked that question, if you're listening right now, and that didn't help enough, email me, and we'll give me some more details, and then we can help you out.
All right, moral question, you ready for this one, Carlton?
Why do Christians dress immodestly, tight clothes, short clothing, and revealing clothing?
Why do Christians dress immodestly?
I think a couple things that I would just add to that.
Maybe for this Christian, they're just unaware. You know, it could just be a lack of knowledge. You know, nobody sat down and told them, hey, this is how Christians should dress.
We're the church mothers.
Or shouldn't.
Yeah, exactly.
That kind of thing.
Because I think, you know, even answering the question, why do Christians dress immodestly? It's probably cultural. It's probably they buy the store, the clothes at the same store they've always bought their clothes at.
And it just, culture leans towards immodesty.
There's tribes in the Amazon that are topless.
Absolutely.
And it's like, okay, is that immodest?
I mean, from our standpoint, yes.
From theirs, no.
Right.
Absolutely.
Not sexual.
Not sexual at all.
So I would start with, you know, maybe it's just a lack of understanding.
The second thing that I would say, and this may be just an interesting pushback, it may be that this person is just judging people that they see at church.
But just because they're at church doesn't make them a Christian.
That's also true.
So, you know, just take into account that not everybody that goes to church is a Christian.
Yeah.
And so they, you know, they may not realize.
My wife struggles with it because she wants to be so modest.
And yet when she goes to the store, it's like, I can't buy this. I can't buy this. I can't wear this.
Help me find something that's not going to...
Yeah.
You know.
And so she is very modest. I appreciate that about her.
Nice.
All right. Kids. Should Christian parents spank their children?
Absolutely.
All the time?
When necessary and appropriate.
I think regardless of how you take it, I mean, the scripture does talk about disciplining children.
It even talks about how God disciplines us.
You know what? Have you ever gotten a spanking from God?
I guess.
Yes.
Yes, Father.
And it should never be out of anger.
Absolutely.
Because when you strike a child out of anger, that's not discipline. That's you letting out your frustration.
Right.
On something or someone that you feel it's appropriate for you to hit.
But like if your co-worker behaved the same way, would that justify you punching them in the face?
No.
Right.
So like, yes, I think that there's probably too many kids.
My wife and I have talked about this before.
We see some kids sometimes. We're like, that kid needs a spanking.
Yeah.
But it's not our kid, so we're not going to be the ones to do it.
But it's like it's clear when there's a kid that just has not been disciplined well in their life.
Now, when your kid experiences fear around you, when it's like when he doesn't know the circumstances, it's like, okay, the wrong side.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was spanked as a kid. I turned out good.
We spanked our kids when they're really young.
I don't think we've spanked a kid in probably five or six years at least.
At least.
We actually kind of stopped doing the spanking thing because we realized with like with Bennett, it didn't work.
Like my middle child, like a brick.
Like he could spank.
Like me.
But like, no, he just he didn't feel like any kind of like regret or remorse or anything.
Like it was like, you want to get a spanking for that?
And he's like, sure.
That seems like a, you know, equal trade.
Like I get to do this bad thing for fun and all I get is a swat on the butt.
Like, great.
So like we quickly had to like adjust and figure out other forms of measure.
The things he does, he's like, I can take that.
It's totally worth a slap in the butt.
I can handle that.
Yeah.
So should Christian parents spank their children?
I think yes.
But with a very strict limits, parameters, limitations to that.
It is not justification for abuse.
Right.
This is an interesting question.
Why do mixed or white churches?
So I guess that includes CLC.
Non-black churches.
Non-black.
Why do non-black churches say things like culture or race doesn't matter when racial injustice is a huge social issue and black/Latino believers are impacted by it?
So I guess it's not just the non-black churches.
Okay.
Why do mixed or white churches say things like culture, race doesn't matter?
Yeah.
I agree with that.
Yeah.
I think, you know, it's interesting to me, you know, why do mixed or white churches say things like culture, race doesn't matter?
Maybe I'm sheltered or maybe it's because of CLC.
I don't know that I've ever been in a church that said culture or race doesn't matter.
I will say that while culture and race does matter, it's not the most important thing.
If a church makes race the most important thing about that church, they are no longer a Christian church.
Absolutely.
Like, because they've met the point of the church is the gospel.
Social class at that point.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And so if we make social issues the priority of our teaching or the main focal point of our teaching, we're not teaching the gospel.
And so, yeah.
Is it a huge issue?
Absolutely.
It's a huge issue that we need to be doing something about, but that shouldn't be the focus of every Sunday.
Yeah.
And we could solve all of the social injustice in the world and people would still be going to hell without the gospel.
Absolutely.
So we make the gospel our priority and where we can and when we feel appropriate to address the social issues, we will and we do.
Yeah.
But it's just, it's not the number one thing.
Absolutely.
Hope that helps.
Can you distinguish between the roles of man and woman in marriage and generally the differences between how God created men and women, men and women different?
I think the, so the, there's a, there's an abuse or there's a danger on either extreme.
Right.
So like, um, it's almost like, it's like the divide between egalitarian and complementarian, which honestly, sometimes I feel like I just kind of straddle this.
It's like, I stand on either side because, uh, you know, are we equal?
Yes.
But there's still differences.
Uh, are there, are the differences mean that we're not equal?
No, we're still equal.
So we're, we're both, we're both different and equal.
And so, uh, yeah.
So I think, uh, specifically how do you distinguish the roles for a man and woman in marriage?
Um, I think there's a lot of cultural norms that come into play there.
Um, you know, is the man still supposed to be the breadwinner?
I mean, maybe, I don't know.
I don't really.
I would actually love it if my wife was a millionaire and I just got to kind of hang out and talk about the Bible and not have to work.
She's like, I'll wash your clothes.
But yeah.
I think that there, there is a level of leadership and authority that should fall on the man, um, as part of the creation story and all of that.
Um, but when that's abused, that's wrong.
Um, yeah.
And that doesn't mean that the wife has to just be, you know, silent, barefoot and pregnant.
Yeah.
Leading your household doesn't mean you come home from work, sit on the couch and drink a beer.
You cook at home?
I think Sol and I were probably around 50/50. It just kind of depends on the week.
There's some weeks where it's a hundred percent me, a hundred percent her, but yeah, we definitely cook.
You just go to the kitchen?
Yeah.
We cook for ourselves as much as possible.
I don't want to burn it down.
One meal.
We just do dinner.
Just do one meal, just dinner?
Yeah.
Like, but yeah, no, cause I got a, I got a teenage son and an almost teenage soccer player.
So like they're constantly hungry, but we just equip them with things that they can do on their own.
Yeah.
Nice.
Yeah.
They come home.
So they have lunch at school.
They come home, they have a second lunch.
A little while later they have a snack and then they start asking me when's dinner.
That's usually how that goes.
Second breakfast.
All right.
I don't know if that helped anybody, but hopefully it did.
I think the different roles of men and women in marriage, I think that's a somewhat of a fluid conversation.
Sure.
I think.
Have that conversation with your spouse.
Find balances.
Yeah.
Right.
Like some, you know, my wife may hate something that she still has to do because I'm not good at it.
Right.
And vice versa.
Like, I don't enjoy taking care of the yard, but I know she ain't gonna, so.
Look at that.
But I'm sure there's some like health-related things in the house where she's like Carlton, stop talking.
Yeah.
Most.
Let me explain this to you.
Absolutely.
I like it.
All right.
If something doesn't exercise the fruit of the spirit, is it even considered from God?
I don't know that I understand that question.
If something that's my problem, some things are from things, things don't exercise the fruit of the spirit.
I'm still trying to interpret this question.
If something doesn't exercise the fruit of the spirit, is it even considered from God?
So like, I guess if they're saying, so like if, if you got a new job, but there's a lot of, there's a lack of peace and there's a lack of joy in that job, was that job actually given to you from God?
Maybe that's, that's my interpretation.
If something doesn't exercise the fruit of the spirit, is it even considered from God?
And I would say, I would say it could be, this is another one of those questions where I would need a conversation with a person, get details, figure out what they're really talking about.
But can God cause you to go through something that isn't very peaceful?
Can there be something from God that doesn't produce joy in your life?
Absolutely.
Like there's, there's things that I do that I'm not joyful.
When I'm doing it, I'm grateful to God after it's over, but yeah, so yeah, 100%.
I think still using fruit of the spirit as a gauge for health of things is great, but I think that there absolutely can be things from God that are not.
I don't think so.
Yeah.
100%.
Yeah.
Right.
Was it his sins or somebody else's sins?
Right.
Neither.
Parents.
His future sins.
Cause he was born blind.
Neither.
There's some theology.
I know.
Right.
Such a weird question.
Um, yeah.
Is it his sins that caused me blind?
He was blind from birth.
What did this kid do?
Are we getting punished now for our future sins?
He's like, man, he kicked really hard in the womb.
Right.
All right.
Such a fun one.
All right.
So how do you discern whether something is of our own merit versus God's doing?
Did you do it or did God do it?
So, so I, yeah, I would say, okay, if it's something bad, was it something that, uh, so we'll, we'll tackle it that way.
So we'll start with something bad, then we'll do something good.
So if it's something bad in your life, was it you're doing or God's doing?
Is it a consequence of an action you took?
Right.
Okay.
Right.
That was definitely Carlton.
Right.
Yeah.
When I talk with people about like, why do things happen in the world?
It's like, okay, so one, there's God, he, he could have orchestrated something.
Two, there's an enemy to our faith that's attacking us.
Absolutely.
It's trying to do things against us.
Three.
There's the aspect of we live just in a broken fallen world and things happen with that.
The fourth one is there's free will.
And so, you know, sometimes bad things happen.
Yeah.
Because you chose to do something.
Sometimes bad things happen because somebody else chose to do something.
That guy chooses to shoot up the store that you're in.
You could be shot as a consequence of that person's free will.
Right.
Did God shoot you?
No.
Right.
And did the devil shoot you?
I mean, not exactly.
I mean, he might've been involved in that man's decision to, you know, but I don't think the devil's behind every bad action.
Right.
Um, I think that we're just broken.
We're falling.
One thing that Christians need to remember is that the devil is not omniscient or omnipresent.
Absolutely.
Right.
So like if the devil's causing you to do something, that means he's not doing anything anywhere else in the world.
Right.
He must be really important.
That'd be so important.
Right.
So, but sometimes we attribute qualities that God has to the devil.
Right.
And we shouldn't do that.
That's not biblical.
All right.
Oh, and then, so the good side.
So something good happens in Carlton's life.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Was that God or was that you?
Totally Carlton.
No, I'm just joking.
Yeah.
So somebody asked me a question via email about, um, tithing from their business and whether or not they needed to do that or not.
And I told him, you know, biblically speaking, it doesn't tell us to tithe from a business.
So, you know, that really is a personal decision or personal choice at that point.
And then I went on and told them like I know some Christians that have tithed from their business and their Christian, their business was blessed afterwards.
Now did that blessing come because they tithed or did that blessing come because they're really good at their job?
Like, right, there's good business practice.
Absolutely.
And honestly, even as a pastor, I can't tell you which one it was.
Right.
And so I guess like for me, like, um, I guess the thing I can equate it to is when I finish preaching and somebody comes up and says, man, that was such an amazing sermon, it really touched me.
Okay, how much of that was the Holy Spirit?
Right.
How much of that was Brent putting in study and effort in honing the craft?
Yeah.
And I don't know what the percentages are, but I think it falls on both entities.
And that like, so I think there's some of it that yeah, it's because I put a lot of effort into that.
It's a craft that I'm practicing and developing and learning.
I did research, I did study, I put all that together.
But if I did all of that without the Holy Spirit, it wouldn't have been a good sermon.
Right.
And if I got up there with no practice, no notes, no anything at all and just stood there and said, okay, Holy Spirit do something, I mean, maybe that would be a good service.
He's like, I was trying to do something.
Yeah, he's like, I was waiting for you.
So like it's, yeah, it's both and.
And I don't know that you, I don't know that you can 100% ever, I shouldn't say that.
I was about to say I don't know that you can ever 100% know whether it's God or you, but God's grace is unmerited.
Well, like the house that Sol and I are in right now, like we 100% attribute that to God.
Like the circumstances of how we got that house, when we got that house, the price of that house, all of it, like we look at that and we're like, dude, that was God.
Right.
Like we didn't have anything to do with this.
God's favor is unmerited.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I'm always curious how did that actually take, like did it just magically appear?
Everything was there or was it like over time?
My imagination, it magically appeared.
Interesting question.
Um, all right.
How do you encourage someone going through a serious health crisis?
How do you encourage someone going through a serious health crisis?
On my life and God's mercy and for healing and that kind of thing.
Did you just not read before that moment?
Um, you have not because you asked.
Yes, and I know the story of the widow and the unjust judge and I know these things, but you know, I know the application sometimes I pride myself on a different kind of God and how he operates.
But I think a lot of times it's easier to, um, I don't know, have faith for other people than for yourself.
And it's not even faith is the wrong word for this and I don't know the right word for it, but just this idea that it's like, you know, when it comes to other people, I want to be encouraging.
I want to give them hope and everything.
When something's happening to me, it's just like, okay, Barrett.
Right.
Like I think we have a very similar kind of approach even for both of us.
It's like, look, this life is nothing.
Like if I die of cancer tomorrow, I'm with Jesus.
Yes.
Be sick, I could be.
And that was Paul's approach.
And it was just like, man, is God good?
Yeah.
This one thing that I've randomly thought about, which is super dark and twisted and weird, but I've thought about it.
How long, so let's say you died tomorrow, you never get to see Spencer get married or have a kid, you never get to hold a grandchild.
Sure.
How long would you regret that in the presence of God?
Not even a nanosecond.
Right.
Like that's for me too.
Like I feel like I would regret it on this side.
Yeah.
Like it's like, oh man, I want the presence of God.
Yeah.
I don't want to die tomorrow because there's a lot of things that I would like to accomplish.
Sure.
Absolutely.
And accomplish.
But if I were to die tomorrow, you don't have regrets in the afterlife if you're with Jesus.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
Come on now.
Yeah.
Yeah, but 100%.
So, so yeah.
So how do you encourage someone going through a serious health crisis?
I think you be there for them.
You sit with them.
You take care of any needs that they have.
Yeah.
That you can.
You know, if they're going through a health crisis, they may need somebody to clean the house.
They may need somebody to take care of the dog or the kids, or they may need somebody to make a meal.
So do those things.
Do the things that you can show that you care.
Even just sit with them, hold their hand, whatever.
Pray for them because we do believe that there is healing in God, that he still works miracles today.
And whether the healing comes or the healing doesn't come, we're still trusting in him and that healing will come eventually in the second life.
Right.
And yeah, and so, yeah, to encourage them, I would give them scriptures that talk about God's faithfulness, of God, and that goodness can be applied now.
Yeah.
There's a lot that you can do to encourage somebody in that.
Sweet.
Oh, look at this.
We only got like five more questions.
Wow.
Why is it that some people seem to be more blessed than others and some have a tougher life than others?
I feel like we've kind of already answered this question in answering some of the others because like it's going to come down to, uh, the world just like it exists.
Like, okay, yeah, what happens?
Yeah.
And you can do all the right things and somebody else can be doing all the wrong things and you'll still see more blessings on their life.
Does that mean those blessings came from God?
Not necessarily.
Yeah.
It could too because look, our God is a God of grace, which means you're getting things you don't deserve.
So, right, like there's blessings that I have in my life that I'm like, I didn't deserve that.
Right.
So I think, yeah, and I think, you know, some people do like so being born in the United States.
World.
Yeah.
A lot of places for sure.
Um, and so like right there you've got more blessing.
And so I think a lot of times the blessing and the tougher life is a matter of perspective that, you know, you're looking at somebody, you know, you're looking at somebody else that's got like a million dollars and you're like, man, all I have is a thousand dollars and somebody's looking at you like, man, you got a thousand dollars, all I got is a hundred dollars.
Right.
Somebody else is looking at me like, you got a hundred dollars, I got zero dollars.
Like, you know, and so the blessings are different and, you know, somebody may be blessed in one area and feel like they have a tougher time in another area, but they may be living in a different place where they have no money and a great job, but they have no different country and they find themselves being tremendously blessed.
Yeah.
Go on a missions trip, they wouldn't live any other way.
Yeah.
I think it was Eric and Megan Condon who used to be members here.
They had this experience where they were just like, oh, this is what I want to do in my life.
I think it was the two of them, they went on a mission trip, they gave some kids a piece of candy, and they watched as, like, they had plenty of it, but they watched because they gave it to one kid, and they watched as that kid brought that piece of candy back to a couple other kids, and then like took a rock and like broke the candy into pieces so that each kid could have a piece.
And then they were teaching in kids' life with our U.S. American kids, and they gave a kid a piece of candy, and the kid was like, can't I have any more?
Like, you only gave me one?
Like, they were ungrateful for the one piece of candy, where in another country, that kid was like, oh my God, I have candy that I can share with others.
Like, the blessings and the tougher life, it's such a matter of perspective.
So I think my approach is I always want to be grateful for the blessings that I have more than I'm wishing for envying the blessings that other people have.
Right.
I don't want to compare my life to anyone else's because it's never going to end up good.
Right.
Even though there's people I can compare my life to and all of a sudden have pity on them because it's like, oh man, my life is so much better.
I think it's unhealthy in both directions.
Yeah, yeah.
So, like, don't compare.
Just live your life.
Right, yeah.
Be grateful for the blessings.
When tough things come along, figure out, okay, is there a lesson I'm supposed to learn in this?
Is there something that I did that caused this that I need to not do in the future?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Why is my life tough?
Is my life tough because I'm lazy and I'm not working like I should?
Is my life tough because I keep getting into relationships that I shouldn't be in?
Right.
Like, what is tough about my life, and how can I correct it?
Right.
And then be grateful for the blessings you do have.
Nice.
How do we incorporate God-centered values in leadership at work?
So I think, yeah, I want to let you keep talking, but I want to just say that it's possible to incorporate God-centered values at work in either case.
When you are in leadership, you can incorporate those for everyone.
When you're not in leadership, you incorporate that in how you work.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Wherever you are.
Wherever you are.
Yes.
And the more authority you have or the more freedom you have to implement those things, the more you can incorporate that for others.
And it may be that you're in leadership over these 10 people, but you've got five bosses above you, and they're like, yeah, no, leave that God stuff out of here.
Right.
It may be that you're the owner of the corporation, and you can be like, hey, we're going to start every day with a prayer.
If you're like, hey, we're going to start the day with prayer, and somebody's like, yeah, I really don't want to do that, you can't be like, well, too bad.
Right, right.
Yeah, 100%.
One thing I love, so we have a member of the church who's a doctor, but he's like the head of his department.
And he keeps a Bible on the edge of his desk.
So anybody that comes into his office is going to see that Bible.
Now, he's not shoving it down their throats.
He's not hitting them with it or anything.
But he's incorporated that into just his office layout so that people will recognize, okay, he takes God's word seriously.
Yeah.
So if I have a question or if I need it, if I need something, I can come to him.
And I think there's other subtle ways that you can do that when maybe the place that you're in, even if you're in leadership, it's not appropriate for you to be, you know, overtly.
But, I mean, God-centered values is treating people with kindness and love and mercy.
I mean, you can do that.
It does not take a lot of light to make a difference in a pitch-black room.
There's a little light on the edge of my bed because there's like this electrical thing, part of the bed frame.
And it's like the most dull light, barely even recognize it during the daytime or when the lights are on.
In the middle of the night when the rest of the room is pitch black.
That tiny little light.
It's annoying.
Oh, man.
It's just like, why is that so bright?
The sun's out.
It's like, yeah, you don't need a lot.
There's just a little bit of light that goes a long way in darkness.
Random, but yeah.
It's pretty good.
Okay, I like this question.
I read this one earlier because it's really long.
And so when I put it in, I was like, it's like five times as long as the others.
So I'm not going to read the whole thing just because it is very long.
But the question essentially is, how can we be like Jesus?
Because we just finished a series called Be Like Jesus.
If he was God in human flesh, it seems like an impossible task since Jesus was not like us.
So how can we be like Jesus if Jesus is God?
Yeah.
I think that the beauty of this is how can you be like Jesus if he was God and I'm not is the fact that Jesus showed you how he tells you how to follow him as practical as possible.
Yeah.
And so we follow his teachings because in his teachings, we're becoming more like him.
Yeah.
And then you rely on the Holy Spirit.
Like we go as far as we possibly can.
And the Holy Spirit brings us the rest of the way.
And, you know, as we talked about in that series, like this is the Christian life.
Right.
Like you don't become 100% like Jesus ever.
Like you die having not reached that goal.
Right.
But you keep trying.
Yeah.
It's pursuing that goal.
That little bit closer.
A little bit closer.
A little bit closer.
So, yeah.
So you can do it because he told you to.
He showed you how.
And he gave you the Holy Spirit to help.
They did have all the way at the end of the question under the set of circumstances they had gone through about him not being human.
It becomes hard to relate to Jesus when the only thing we can relate to him with is that he had human.
And I think that's what we need to think about.
And I think it's more than that.
I think that that's a probably a misunderstanding.
Like Jesus grieved with people.
Yeah.
Jesus was tempted by sin.
Like it just because he was God didn't mean that those things were difficult.
He was having so much anxiety.
He was sweating blood.
Yeah.
Like the fact that he was 100% God did not negate from the fact because that theology would mean that he was only 100% God, but just with like a skin on.
Yeah.
And that's not what we believe.
Right.
We believe 100% God.
Yeah.
Which means the power, the wisdom, the knowledge, all of that, just like God, but also 100% man, which is all of the struggles, all of the temptations.
And you can clearly see Jesus in scripture being tormented, having anguish over things.
Yeah.
Being heartbroken.
So that's the doctrine that we talked about.
We'll get into that in a second.
But like the doctrine that he is 100% God and 100% man, it does tell us that it's more than just a skin.
It's more than just, he put on a coat and went out to work that day.
Like he felt everything that humans feel, you know, we, there's even a scripture and I'm blanking on it, that talks about his perseverance and everything that he experienced that now we have the ability to persevere because we have a mediator that understands.
Right.
Anyways, I think it was a great question because it tied into our series.
And it is, it's one of those where it's like, man, but he's G, he's Jesus.
He's God.
I'm not.
Like that can feel like, so like impossible of a task and to a degree it is.
Yeah.
But it's also, it's...
He did.
He did everything that we could actually do.
Absolutely.
Beautiful.
Love it.
All right.
Two more questions.
Why does my friend who is a Christian, but gets high on alcohol and marijuana, receive the gift of prophecy and prayer language, yet I'm still waiting for my prayer language?
It was just getting difficult on time word.
What's the pastor just says that the gifts of God are without repentance?
Like he doesn't remove, it's a gift.
Yeah.
And it's tough.
That's really hard when you look at somebody and it's like, man, like they're clearly operating in the gifts of the spirit.
And yet I'm looking at their life and their life is garbage.
It's a mess.
And I think the reality is, I mean, we're all a mess in some way.
Like we're all sinners saved by grace.
So like, I get that now.
Um, it is a struggle.
Like it is, there are times when it's like, that's not fair.
That's not right.
And then it's like, okay, if I sinned this week, really obviously.
Yeah.
Would I want God to remove his blessings from my life or remove the gifts of the spirit from my life as a result?
I'd be like, no, like forgive me.
Like, I'm sorry.
So, yeah.
So I would say there, there's a kind of a, there's a struggle within that, but I think it's, it's real.
Um, I would also, and this is just, man, this is the, I'm such a, um, what's the, what's the word for like, not pessimist, but like, I don't know.
Um, I don't believe people always.
What's that called?
I don't know.
I just, I think I naturally lean towards, uh, give me more proof or more evidence.
Cause just cause somebody says they have a gift of prophecy, man, I don't know.
I think there's a lot of people that claim some spiritual gifts that they ain't got.
That's not, no, that's not what that is.
No, bro.
That wasn't, that wasn't a prophetic word from God.
Yeah.
That was like, yeah.
Yeah.
If anybody comes to me and prophesies that we're going to have another child, I'm like, yeah, no, the biology that requires that it would be another version and all the workers left.
Yeah.
He chose to use somebody.
Yeah.
So does that mean that, um, if we're being used by God, it means that he's okay with the sin that's in our lives?
And sadly, I've talked to even ministers that had that, that feeling or that thought where they're like, I know that there's something in my life that I'm doing that's sinful, but God is still using me.
Yeah.
So it means that it's okay for me to continue.
Especially preachers.
This is all this.
And then their lives are trash.
Yeah.
I mean, I've, I've had, I've had three men that I've, I think I've said this on the podcast before.
I had three men that I've called my pastor.
Uh, and two of the three had a moral failure that, um, they were hiding while minute, while my pastor, like it wasn't like later on or something.
It was like, I looked up to these guys, they were being used by God every single week and they had a hidden sin that was enough to cause like huge moral failure.
Yeah.
Um, yeah, it's, it's the reality of, of, I don't know, life, I guess.
So to answer this person's question, like, man, there's some things that just, uh, they baffle me as well, but I would say ultimately your concern should not be on the other person.
It's kind of like we talked about before with the blessings and the troubles, like focus on you, focus on your relationship with God.
Uh, at the end, God's going to judge them.
I mean, the scripture that I quoted, uh, on Sunday, you know, not everybody that's going to do that.
God says, Lord, Lord, right there.
Right.
But we prophesied in your name.
And he's like, I didn't know you.
Right.
So it's very possible that somebody is operating in a gift of prophecy and Jesus is like, yeah, that's not me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cause that sin issue is a bigger problem than their ability to move in the gifts of God.
Yeah.
Yeah.
100%.
So focus on you, pray for them.
All right.
Last question.
This is an interesting one.
How do we know that those who saw the burning bush weren't hallucinating?
Those, those that saw the burning bush?
I think this person might just be mixing up their Bible.
There's only one person that saw a burning bush.
Uh, Moses.
Yeah.
Of Jesus Christ, that all these people were hallucinating, which that's never been documented in history.
500 people having a, yeah.
The same.
Right.
And there's no, there's not a single person that hasn't had a hallucination.
Brilliant, man.
I think that it is just kind of the world's way of negating the miraculous.
If we see something miraculous, there has to be a better explanation than a miracle.
Right.
And so when we start with that premise, then we look for ways to disprove the miraculous.
And an easy way to disprove a lot of miraculous events is to say, oh, it was just mass hysteria or that was a hallucination moment.
So first of all, you have to take a stance that miracles don't exist in order to come to that conclusion.
There's absolutely nothing around the situation that would lead us to believe maybe this was a hallucination.
We don't have evidence of Moses having other hallucinations.
We don't have evidence of him taking narcotics that would cause hallucinations.
Like there's nothing.
Like it doesn't even say, you know, he was dehydrated in the desert, almost passed out and then he saw it was just a normal day, you know?
So there's nothing that leads us to hallucination as an explanation except for our distrust or disbelief in the miraculous.
And I understand that miracles, by definition, they're hard to rationalize because if it was easy to understand, it wouldn't be a miracle.
It'd be like, oh, the thing happened.
Right.
And so I get that.
But I think that for us as Christians, the reason why we don't believe beyond just there's no reason to naturally believe in miracles is because we don't believe in miracles.
We don't believe that it was hallucination.
The rest of scripture supports that he had this encounter.
Right.
So like from there, then we've got multiple miracles with, yeah, the 10 plagues.
You've got these people are hallucinating as well as him.
So, so all of everything that happens in Moses' life from that moment until the end of his life supports that that moment was genuine.
Absolutely.
Yeah, you could still argue, well, Moses wrote all of that, so Moses was just, you know, he made it all up.
It's all a lie.
Okay, well, how did the Israelites become a nation?
You know, like so there's so many things that stem from that one encounter that carries out.
And then further in scripture in the New Testament, we've got Jesus.
We got the apostles praising Moses for his faith, talking about Moses as a leader.
So, you know, you wouldn't do those things for a guy that had a weird hallucination.
Right.
It's kind of like the way we look at Jesus.
So Jesus said some crazy things.
If you remove the resurrection, correct?
If Jesus does not come back, we're not talking about him today.
And if we were, he's either crazy or absolutely right.
Yeah, exactly.
So like we'd be looking at it today and saying, man, Jesus was this wacko in the first century that tried to start a revolution and then the Romans killed him.
The end.
Right.
But no, we don't have that because he backed up his claims with the miraculous.
Like he backed up his claims by walking out of the tomb.
Moses backs up his claim that he talked to a burning bush with everything that follows from his life.
And then in the end, you got to believe that you just got to believe what he said.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's an element of faith in all this, but it's not blind.
It's never blind faith.
That's one of the things that I hate, like where people use faith as just like the, I don't know, the magic button where it's like, I don't understand this.
It doesn't make any sense.
Well, just believe by faith.
Right.
No, like we just laid out logical explanations for why we would believe this.
So that's the support for the faith that we have.
Right.
Yeah.
Cool.
All right.
We've been talking for an hour and nine minutes.
You got a little...
All right, Carlton, clear your calendar.
We're just going to have a conversation.
So we did part two of the "You Asked For It" series.
Yep.
On Sunday, and we answered the question, how do I get a basic understanding of the doctrines of the Christian life?
And so I half-sermon in 41 minutes, way more than an hour and a half, like the five essential doctrines.
And maybe that's what we can get into today is kind of the nuance around those things.
So, but just for the listeners, so we laid out the five essentials: the authority of scripture, the nature of God, the identity of Jesus, the problem of sin, and the price of salvation.
Like those are the five, you could call them the five pillars of Christianity.
Everything that we do, everything we are, everything is built off of those pillars.
When you reject one of those pillars, you are no longer traditional Christian.
There's still some groups that call themselves Christians, but they're more aptly described as a cult.
Like the Mormon church rejects several of those pillars.
Mormons, when I was a kid, didn't even try and claim Christianity.
They were, and then they turned out a huge push to become the last, like decade or so.
Like now all of a sudden they're like, no, we're just a denomination.
It's like, no, you don't get to claim that word.
Right.
So where the denominational split happens, though, is not in the essentials.
The denominational split happens in the non-essentials, stuff that I said we kind of hold loosely.
And so if anybody's curious, like why are there so many denominations out there?
It's because there's a lot of things in scripture that we interpret, and we can have differing interpretations of it and still be Christian and still have fellowship with each other.
But people that believe the same things want to gather together.
Right.
So like a cessationist hanging out in a charismatic church, it's going to feel really uncomfortable.
Right.
And so that's where denominations came into place.
It was a way for people to say, hey, these are the kind of the ideas that we believe in addition to the essentials.
And so CLC is a non-denominational church, which essentially means we get to pick and choose all the stuff that we like and leave the stuff we don't like, which is kind of a great way.
It just means that, you know, if we interpret scripture this direction for this issue, that means we have to accept this other issue.
Sure.
Even if we disagree with it, no, because we're not opposed to any of that.
But it's true in the sense that if you're baptized, you got to line up with all of the interpretations of the Baptist church.
That's the only distinction.
All right.
So those thoughts, not at all, any of them feel like controversial to you that like you're like trying to get me to explain it to you?
You know, in the introduction for that series, I'm going to talk about God the Father, but I'm probably going to set up the triangle and circles and you beautiful do that.
Maybe we'll just play the, the, uh, it's modalism satire, the Lutheran satire satire video is so great.
Yeah, I'll just play that for the sermon.
I just believe in God because I believe in God because my mom told me to.
And if you pay attention, like those five essentials really are all just leading you to an explanation of the fifth essential that the price of salvation.
Absolutely.
Like the price of salvation is understood because of the authority of scripture.
The price of salvation is understood in the nature of God.
The price of salvation is understood through the identity of Jesus.
Like I talked about, if he's not 100% God, then his blood has no power.
And if he's not 100% human, he can't shed blood.
Right.
You throw salvation out the window because God doesn't have people it covers.
It doesn't remove it.
Correct.
Right.
Jesus removes it.
And then, you know, the price of, uh, the, uh, the problem with sin or the problem of sin is why we need salvation.
Right.
So, so like really you could say the only essential of the faith is salvation in Jesus Christ.
But, you know, all of these other things...
Yeah.
But these other essentials build the platform for it.
So I, there are some controversies in there that I would throw at you and kind of get your take.
There are some that even reject the authority of scripture as the only authority.
Um, and so some, I would say that's more of a semantics thing.
So like the Catholic faith says, yeah, the Bible is an authority, but so is the Pope and so is the church.
Um, I got issues with that as a Protestant, but, uh, sure.
Like I don't reject Catholicism merely from that standpoint.
Like I think there's going to be Catholics in heaven, probably not as many Catholics in heaven as they think there will be in heaven.
But I'm also not the guy that decides who gets in and who doesn't, thankfully.
We should all...
But then there's others that try and reject portions of scripture.
There's some that are like more than just a book.
Yeah.
And then the other thing too is that I think I'm part of the reason why it's still the best-selling book because I have like 20 Bibles in my library.
I don't have them all.
He's got 40 Bibles, but they're all like, no, this is all me.
I got, I bought a Jesus center.
So I got like three Bibles from like surveys.
I still buy new Bibles.
I bought two Bibles last year, but both Bibles were really cool last year.
Well, I didn't buy one of them.
One of them was a gift from my wife.
I got a ESV leather bound like this.
It's my beefy, like if my kids misbehave, that's the Bible I use to bring correction.
Um, and then I bought this, uh, it's New Testament only, but it's, uh, each book of the Bible is a separate bound book.
And left side is the Bible, right side is like a journal that you can write in.
Oh, it's a really cool, like comes alive to me.
And I believe that I'm reading the words of God.
Yeah.
So, yeah, 100%.
And I think it's such an amazing book because, or series of books, would be more literal because the Bible's not a book, it's 66 books.
Yeah, it's a library.
But one of the cool things is like so many people want to attack the Bible and it's been under attack for, you know, a thousand years plus.
And it still withholds.
Like there's, you know, books have been written about all the contradictions of the Bible.
I've bought some of the books.
I've read through the contradictions and it's like, did you even read the thing that you claim is right?
Like it gives an explanation for that, like in the very next verse.
Like just keep reading.
Like I've never found what was claimed to be a contradiction that I could not find a logical, easy explanation for it.
Right.
To make it...
Not be an uh, or other supporting verses or...
Yeah, exactly.
Um, you know, so I will say like, so I just got done teaching a biblical interpretation class and we didn't really get into this much, but, uh, the idea of inerrancy, we also hold to the fact that it was inerrant in its original form.
Like the original writing was inerrant.
That doesn't necessarily mean the Bible that I'm holding on my desk is inerrant.
Yeah.
Because we've talked to translations that are just...
Exactly.
Absolutely.
Right.
So, so the idea that it's inerrant and it's inerrant in the word of the Bible is that it's inerrant in the world and that those verses that are a contradiction in scripture where it's really high and yet really interesting to kind of get some kind of contradiction in scripture where it's like, was this ten thousand or one thousand?
Well, the way Hebrews write numbers, they're actually letters.
The numbers are letters.
So it's really easy to leave off a letter.
Yeah.
And how many times in accounting would you be like, oh, this doesn't balance and you realize, oh, I missed a...
Could be different in English, you know?
So things like that.
So there's translation errors, there's scribal errors where they're copying something down wrong.
And the more manuscripts we find, the more we're able to measure and see, okay, this was an error or this was probably the error and we can fix it.
It was really fascinating.
I even found that, uh, because of all of like the manuscript differences, like the errors in the manuscripts, they could actually determine the process the scribe was using.
So like if there's a lot of like spelling mistakes, then most likely that scribe was using this kind of formula.
They were using, yes, letter by letter.
They were translated, so they were copying down letter by letter, not translating, but transcribing letter by letter.
Right.
Whereas if there was like an entire word missing or like the whole sentence structure was changed, it wasn't somebody that was copying letter by letter.
It was somebody that was copying word by word.
Right.
And so when they missed a word, it was different than the other guy that missed a letter.
Right.
Right.
So it's a fascinating stuff, but like there's a lot of historical evidence for why we trust the Bible.
Um, and when we make the claim that it's inerrant, you know, that doesn't mean that the copy of the Bible I'm holding on my desk is inerrant.
Right.
In those senses, is it still truth?
Is it still the word of God?
Absolutely.
And in all of the errors that have been found in the Bible, in the transcribal errors and stuff, not a single doctrine was touched.
Right.
Yeah, it's literally, it's like, was there 10,000 horses and chariots or was there 1,000 horses and chariots?
Look, if that's wrong in the Bible, God help us all.
What are we going to do, Carlton?
What are we going to do?
Cross Jesus didn't die on the cross because there was an extra 900 horses.
Right.
No, it doesn't affect anything.
Right.
So you're good with the Bible.
Go with the Bible.
Go with the Bible.
You go with God.
Good with the triune God, man.
That's the one that trips people.
Well, so my trinity, yeah, that's good.
And there's, man, there's so much scripture that lays it out, which I think the stumbling block for people is like, but you can't find the word trinity in the Bible.
I know that's a Muslim attack against Christianity all the time.
It's like, show me in the Bible where it says trinity.
It's like, it doesn't.
There's a lot of...
It's like when people crucified, wanted him crucified for blasphemy.
What was the blasphemy?
He claimed to be God.
Yes.
Like by definition, right there.
Uh, but anyways, uh, like, so, so there's a lot of attacks against the fact that the phrase trinity isn't in scripture.
And it isn't.
That's right.
But it doesn't need to be.
Right.
Because like we created the word Trinity to understand something that's very complicated.
Yeah, absolutely.
Right.
We instead of always saying God exists in three distinct persons that are co-equal, co-eternal, we said Trinity.
Right.
We just shortened the concept to one phrase.
And there's another scripture that I didn't even get into on Sunday that's a huge like pointer towards the Trinity.
That's Jesus' baptism.
Right.
Because you hear this voice from heaven.
Man, what happens?
So you have Jesus getting baptized.
There's one.
You've got a dove descending from heaven as the Holy Spirit, the same fire that descends in other passages of scripture.
So you got Holy Spirit coming down as a dove.
And then you've got the voice of God from heaven saying this is my son whom I want to please.
You have all three interacting with each other in one moment.
Then on the cross, you've got Jesus crying out to God the Father.
Yes.
So like who's Jesus praying to in all these places?
In the Garden of Gethsemane, who's he praying to?
Yeah.
My and your.
Yeah.
Right.
So, so then we have to go back to, you know, the beginning says there's only one God.
Right.
But then there's this plurality of that one God.
So how do we justify that?
How do we understand that?
We understand that with the Trinity, that it's one God in three distinct persons.
Yeah.
And yeah, we can get all kinds of complication with that.
But I think that's sufficient.
I will say that, like, I got pushback from not even pushback, but questions from people that come from a oneness Pentecostal background because oneness Pentecostals reject the Trinity.
They reject Trinitarians.
Now, this is hard because it is a essential doctrine.
But I still feel like oneness Pentecostals, while I have a lot of issues with a lot of their theology, I would say that there's just like Catholics, there's going to be oneness Pentecostals in heaven.
I think, again, I'm
on Apr 22, 2024
