Why Socialism is a Disastrous Idea (and UNBIBLICAL)?! | Live Free with Josh Howerton

The only way the government can redistribute is to take it, and people don't want to give it up. We're not set free because of our own capacity or effort, or because of chance. The only way we are set free if somebody pays the penalty in our place, and that's Jesus, and he sets us free. We're not freed to sin, we are freed from sin. The cross is a picture of how much God hates sin. It's also a picture of how much God loves you. Well, hey, welcome back to another episode of the Live Free Podcast, 2020. Boom, 2026. Coming to you from Lake Point Church in Dallas, Texas. My name is Carlos Arrajo, and I'm here with Pastor Josh Hawerton and Pastor Paul Cunningham. And today, we're going to be talking about some things. Oh, wait, go and tell them. OK. We're going to be talking about socialism, why Christians are sometimes gullible for their compassion narrative. We're going to be reacting to a Zoran Mamdani video, where he will be talking about the fragility of rugged individualism and the warmth of collectivism. And I want to hear your thoughts. The warmth of collectivism. I want to hear. Everywhere collectivism has gone, it's been really warm. It's gone really warm. Those are his words. And I also want to hear your thoughts on how he was sworn in with the Quran. We're going to go there, and we're going to do a deep dive on the legendary story of Charles Spurgeon beefing with Karl Marx. That's a true story. A lesser known story, by the way. It's really interesting. Lesser known story. But up top, when we talk about Jesus and the Bible. That's right. Yeah, man. It was week one of boot camp training for Team Jesus. Come on, man. A disciple believes it is finished. That's right. You're in 2026, right? You're in 2026. You're doing good with your resolutions? You know, dude, that's not my thing. I've never been that guy. Speaking of that, that's the question for this week's giveaway. Do you think resolutions work, or do they not work? So people are going to respond to the comments. That's right. So if you want to participate in this week's giveaway, go to YouTube and let us know in the comments, yes or no. Do you think New Year's resolutions work? Josh? No, no, no, no, no. Before you go there, pop quiz, Carlos. I don't want to be. Do you know what BC and AD stand for? I do. What are they? Do it. Before Christ and the year of our Lord. I know Dominic. That's it. OK. Because most people think it's after death. Most people think before Christ and then AD is after death, which obviously is not the case, because there would be like a 33-year gap. And Odom and I, Latin year of our Lord. All right, well good, man. Spanish came from Latin. So I'm a fan of Latin. Yes, right. There you go. So yeah, that's right. So shout out to as well to the last week's, actually, last year's winner, Deidre Gray, she or he won a hat. There we go. Let's go. Come on, man. We want to give away some hats. Great sermon, by the way. Thank you, man. Thank you. Just finished preaching it twice. I had fun doing it. Your sermon's finished and you preached on it. It is finished. Yes, that is true. And then I'm going to go home and eat my feelings and carbs. And by the way, we just met Brian from Indiana. Bro, this guy kind of just bragged on him. So this never happens. Like I've been here seven years. I have never before a sermon walked out in the lobby before preaching because I'm like praying through it. But today I did. And it quote unquote, just so happened, a live free listener named Brian. He started listening to the pod, started getting into his Bible. God starts changing his life. And then he asked his dad for Christmas, for plane tickets to fly here with his father and worship in person at Lake Point. I'm just saying, man, like when young men are open in the word, their lives are getting changed and they want to fly with their dad to worship at a church together, something's going good. So shout out Brian, live free nation. Let's go, man. And one thing we're excited about this year as well, and you mentioned it in your sermon, but basically because we're not, especially here for live free, we're not in the viewership business, we're in the discipleship business. We have re-engineered our LP app, our Lake Point app. And so basically we want to make sure that the discipleship rhythms here in our church are aligned. And so we want you to be in the word daily. We want you to listen to the sermon, then jump to the live free podcast and then find a discipleship group with the discipleship guide. And so you can do that by basically just downloading the Lake Point app. You can text the word app to 20411, or you can go to Apple Store or Google Play Store and find it as you look up Lake Point Church's app. It's great. Let's go. Hey man, before we start, I actually have a question for you. I was wondering if you're gonna allow it. I will. I will. I will. Actually, no, no, but hey, do you mind if I ask you a more sensitive question? Of course. You have, Pastor Josh, you have three beautiful adopted children. I do. Who are minorities. And I wanted to ask you. They are. I have noticed. I wanted to ask you if, does it ever... First of all, let me just say this. What's funny is anytime I talk about this, the only people that are uncomfortable is everybody except me. Seriously, yeah. Whatever you're gonna ask, that'll be a part of this. It's like having, doing the transracial adoption thing, it eliminates every ounce of awkwardness around race that you ever had. So it's like, I'm uncomfortably comfortable with that. I wanted to ask you, does it ever create tension for you to say things like what Elon Musk retweeted from you? Go ahead, explain what happened. Yeah, so, okay, this is actually a good question. This is a really good question. So I went to Passion this week, it was amazing. And then in the middle of, in the middle of, I think it was while John Tyson was preaching, my phone explodes. And yeah, I did get the, let me, I'm pulling it up. I got the Elon Musk retweet and he responded. He like actually responded to a tweet. Last time, like a year ago, a year ago, he retweeted you. But now he responded. We're friends now. The third time, he needs to follow you. Elon, live for your nation, come join and type. Next time he retweets you, he'll follow you. That's, and then the fourth time he'll be here. Yeah. So here's the tweet, I just wanted it. Okay, so let me just, let me cap this. So this is on X and X is where I'm a little, I'm less filtered on X than anywhere else. I specifically, by the way, I specifically have my X profile byline. This is where I talk about culture and politics so that people don't think, well, this freaking guy, that's all he taught, that's my space to, you know. So, okay, so this is actually a really interesting question. So San Francisco just, they're moving towards, they signed a bill to give African American residents of San Francisco $5 million each in reparations. And then, but you know, they didn't fund it yet. So I tweeted, a lot of people don't know this, California's in its original state constitution when it joined the union. From the first time California ever became part of the United States, slavery was outlawed. So it literally never legally allowed slavery. So I was trying to highlight how stupid the, you know, San Francisco reparations thing was. And I said, a state that never allowed slavery wants to make residents who never owned slaves pay reparations to people who never were slaves. You know, I'm just showing how absurd this is. And yeah, Elon, oh, you have it right there. Yeah, he just said, insane. And I was glad he wasn't talking about me. He was agreeing with me. And then he retweeted it and my phone exploded. 2.3 million views later. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so you were gonna say, like, do you ever- Wait, what was your question? My question was, does it ever create tension for you to say things like what you said? Like that, okay. Like because we have, you know, our kids are black. Yes. So here's what I'll say is a few things on this. Number one, I'm less uncomfortable than anyone else in the room talking about this. And it's just nature having kids. In fact, I'll give an example of this. And you guys may have to edit it out later. We'll decide later. Like, but seriously, I just wanna give you an example. Like, when we did the trans-racial adoption thing, what some people advise us to do is like, dude, just be really careful. You wanna be super sensitive and da-da-da-da. And we just decided we were gonna do the exact opposite. So we were like, no, we're just gonna literally talk about everything. We're gonna have no weird feelings about it at all. And we talk about everything all the time. We will watch the news with them. And, because race stuff is constantly news. We'll watch the news with them. And honestly, we'll do like at home react videos where we'll watch the news. And I'll be like, so they just said this thing and I'll pause it. And I'll be like, y'all put on your lie, we call it put on your lie detectors. So I'll be like, hey kids, put on your lie detectors. And we try to train them how to think about those things because everybody's shoving it, you know, this is shoving it in the conversation all the time. So like, I'm gonna give an example of how comfortable we are in our house. And then y'all can decide if we should take this off the pod. It's like, this is a true story. I'm gonna give an example. And then I wanna answer your question. It's a true story. It's like, we talk about, they learn about slavery at school and then they'll come home and that you will, you know, hey, so here's what's not true. That you'll sometimes like, one time they came home and they literally thought white Americans invented slavery. So I had to like take them back like, okay, no. It's like, let's talk about, you know, all the things. I wonder how they got that idea. We talked about that at length. Do you know why? I mean, I had no idea. Literally the only form of slavery anyone ever hears about in an American public school system is white colonial slavery. That's the only kind. So it leaves the impression that, oh, white people invented. So when we walked them through, actually no guys. So like every human culture that ever existed before Christian cultures took root in the West had slavery and you probably had some ancestors that may have been slaves. So did me and your mom. Like everyone has, you know, it was mind blowing to them. So here's my example that may be a little uncomfortable is one of our kids. So one of their responsibilities is they have to do the dishes. Oh, wow. I feel like I tell a grand versus a story. Paul already looks uncomfortable. Carlos does too. I'm happy. You're not okay. So they have to do the dishes. So one time, this is literally true. One time, one of our kids, we just, we just talked about all this stuff. And one of our kids literally joking, they're like joking. And one of our kids is like, oh, well your people are always trying to make us slaves, aren't you? And I just, and she was joking. I won't say which one of my kids. By the way, I just want to say this. What I've learned is if somebody can joke and laugh about something, that's a symptom that their soul is usually in a good place. It's, there's not like some gaping open wound if they can. So I just fired right back. I said, you've never been a slave? And I've never owned a slave. Do the dishes. You know what I'm saying? Soon as we, it's just like, you just get used to like all the things that are awkward for other people. You know, as a dad, it's like, I'm going to run at that conversation. I'm not going to avoid it and tiptoe like it's super sensitive and we can, it makes it bigger in their hearts. Soon as I had to answer your question, not at all. And like the stuff that I tweeted there is stuff that we talk about with our kids, all three of whom, you know, have are at the very least biracial. So like honestly, dude, here's how I think about it. And this, you know, some people may disagree with this. I'm just telling you how I look at it. And they're my kids and you can deal with your kids. I'm gonna deal with my kids. In 2025, 2026, I gotta use that. In 2026, United States of America, our kids, we live in what some people would probably call like the epicenter of racism. They would be like, oh, us, you know, a red county in Southern Texas. I bet it is super racist. Our kids, I'm not saying it's true for everybody. I'm talking about my kids. My kids, I got one of this 14. They have literally never experienced an instance of racism yet, like actual biblically defined racism. And the reason that I tweet stuff like that and the reason that I talk to my kids about stuff like that, and it's not awkward at all, is because in 2026 in America, like very honestly, my kids are more likely to experience somebody indoctrinating them with a victim mentality than they are to experience actual racism. So honestly, I just run right at it. And I'll just be honest, like I have like an aggressive, almost like a violence in me as a dad, that like I will not let anyone plant a thought in my kid's heart that I can't because of my skin color. I'm gonna, I will viciously fight any narrative that makes them believe that they are helpless because of et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So no, it's not awkward for me at all. And no, it creates no tension whatsoever. And Elon can keep retweeting it. That's cool, man. Well, 2.3 million people saw that tweet. Is that so? Are you for real? That's stupid. So far it's probably more now at this point. That was a screenshot. Oh my. That's interesting. That's a great conversation. At some point we're gonna have to do a little deep dive on this conversation. I think this point here. We should, man. At some point we should. It's just, sometimes I'll get in a smidge of, you know, just a smidge of hot water because I'm so comfortable with the conversations. And I know I view it differently than some people. I get that. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, I mean, Bergen and I have a lot, some conversations on, you know, race, but I guess I don't think about this, but I guess I'm married. I have an interracial marriage, I suppose. I guess I never think about this, but my son is biracial, I suppose. He doesn't look like it, but you know, it's one of those things that's like, the more you talk about it, you know, the more you just kind of be transparent and have conversations. Yeah, that's right, man. Pesadillo, I just have another question. Oh my. Okay, you're gonna allow it? I can't wait. What did it make it to the sermon? Bro, so this was a, this is a big sermon series for us. I'm gonna pull this up real quick. We started this week, boot camp, training for Team Jesus. This is gonna be your discipleship at Lake Point. And we began with a disciple believes that it is finished. So whole sermon was really on Jesus' cry from the cross to Telestai. If I was ever gonna get tattooed, it would be the word to Telestai. You're not gonna get a tattoo? No, Jesus said my body's already perfect. Oh, okay, great. That was a joke. That's a joke. No, you did say that in the sermon. I did get that in the sermon, I did. You did, you did. But I was just curious if you ever, you know, cause some people might be wondering, never gonna get a tattoo. No, I'm not a tattoo guy. Okay, because this is not what we planned to talk about. But I'm curious. Yeah, no, I'm just not a tattoo guy. I'm just not my thing. I don't know, I feel like I'm gonna regret it. If I do it. That's fair. I don't know, it's not my thing. Paul, tattoo? I don't feel, yeah. You didn't load it up? You didn't know that? I was this close. Actually, dude. I was this close to getting one on New Year's Eve. Seriously, what were you gonna get? I've had to show it to you to describe it to you. It's gonna be from the nice, free, free. You were gonna get a live free Tramps now. I know. I know. I know. Weren't you, weren't you? I mean, maybe, maybe I have it now, but I just, I'm just trying to show it on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, no, it's from the nice and free. I'll show you a picture of what I'm thinking of. I wish you had G-pop. He was gonna get a nice, free. Of course he would. Of course he would. It's the divinity and humanity of G. It's actually a pretty cool idea. Like my kids saw that, the idea for it, and they're like, dad, that's awesome. So I, I was this close. If I get it going back and forth between my forearm and my calf, we'll see. Wow, okay. We'll see. As of right now, I've got nine tattoos. Are you gonna tell us what it is? Or are you gonna save it? No tattoos. I'll save it. And I'll, and I'll show you later. Wait, hey, for real? Yeah. 30 seconds before I talk about what you did to make it a sermon. Did you show your left arm, right arm, 10th? Cause this is awesome. Did you not know this? I have no idea. Oh! Oh, who are you? Oh, you don't know this? No, I didn't know. Paul's gangsta. He is gangsta about that. So yeah, so my first tattoos I got were from Ephesians II. So I've got one of my right arm and then one of my left. And so, here we go. Look at those ones. Look at this. I can instinctively flex. Look at that. More impressive. You got to, you got to. He's like, you see this part over here? Look at this. You see this green? See, hold on. Let's zoom in right around here. So you've got Tecna and Orgais, which is from Ephesians II. It means children of wrath. The idea that we were by nature children of wrath. And so I have this one to remind me of what I was before Christ, because then in Ephesians II, let me turn a real bit. In Ephesians II, you then have Hodeithaeos, which literally means, but God. So I love, cause basically for a few verses, it talks about who we were before Christ, of how we were enslaved as a Satan, and how we were by nature children of wrath. But then in Greek, it literally just says, but God. And so I have this one to remind me of what I once was, but then I have this one to remind me of what God did in my behalf. And so that's what I've got. And then I may always make the joke that I really hope I don't like lose my left arm, I guess it would be, because then I would just be a shot of wrath. I guess I could just get the tattoo of God beneath. But yeah, so those were the first tattoos. I've got another one on my chest though. It is Greek, right? Obviously. So in your sermon, you shared about the Greek word for it is finished. Yes, right. So let me say a few things on this. I'm gonna read the passage cause it's short. And then let me just say a few things that didn't make it in. And then I would like to, because I almost played this clip. I literally almost played a preaching clip from another preacher in my sermon. And I didn't feel like I had time. In my opinion, it is the greatest three minutes of preaching I've ever heard in my life. And so I almost just played it. All right, so here's the passage. And this is where the Christian life begins. John 19, 28, after this, Jesus knowing, Jesus, he's always on the cross obviously, knowing that all was now finished. So here's one thing I didn't have time to make it to. So in verse 28, when it says, knowing that all was now finished. And then later he obviously cries out, it is finished. It's the same root Greek word. It is finished is to telestai. The Greek word that gets used in knowing that it is now finished is like tel, telah, telahus, something like that. It's hard to pronounce, but it's the same root word. One thing that's very interesting that I did not have time to talk about is when it says knowing that all was finished. What this means most Bible scholars think, Jesus literally was, had either memorized in his humanity or was aware of in his divinity of every single prophecy in the Old Testament that he had to fulfill. And he spent his entire life doing a checklist. So when it says here, knowing that all was now finished, an astute Bible reader asked the question, well, what's finished? Jesus is up there going, okay, I'm choking to death on my own blood. And he's like, now we did what we were supposed to do. So he says to fulfill the scripture. Now this is really interesting. Then he says, I thirst. Now bro, this is, I wanna know what you think about this. We get a dovetail on this. So it's really interesting. How can the same guy who says, I'm the living water, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink and out of him will flow living waters. How can that guy say, I thirst? Now bro, this is a little bit of a deep cut. I heard Tim Keller say this one time. So obviously what the book of Hebrews says is that everything in the Old Testament was written for our instruction and it points forward to Jesus. So one way to read the Bible, this is also a deep cut Old School killer. One way to read the Bible is a lot like watching the movie, The Sixth Sense, where you watch a whole movie and you're like, bro, this doesn't quite make sense. Why's that happening? Why's that happening? And then it gets to the end and there's the big reveal. Have you seen The Sixth Sense? Uh, maybe. Oh! I didn't see it. I didn't see it. I feel real bad. I wanted to say it. I was like, I think I have a some point. No bro, you would know. No, no, I know the whole line. I see the people. Okay, good, good. I was trying to save it. You didn't give too much detail. I'm culturally aware. That's great. All right, so you get to the end and you find out, he was dead the whole time. Then you go back and you, listen, you watch the movie through the lens of the reveal at the end. That's how to read the Bible. You read the whole Old Testament and there's all this stuff like, bro, why are they painting door posts with lamb's blood? Why is there a sacrificial lamb on the day of atonement and they put the sins on the one and he leaves and then this one stays and okay, well, here's one. Okay, you get to the, why does he say I thirst? So Moses is in the wilderness. God commands Moses to speak, the children of Israel, they need some water. God commands Moses to speak to the rock. Moses chooses to take his rod and strike the rock instead of speaking to it. When he strikes the rock, waters, living waters flow out of the rock to satisfy all the people's thirst. Now, his whole thing of God actually judged Moses for not obeying him to speak to the rock and all the things. Well, bro, here's the deal. This is fascinating. This is a little Bible as six cents moment. Moses rod is constantly used as a rod of judgment. It's an instrument of judgment. That is why all 10 of the plagues of God's wrath being poured out on Egypt are instituted and executed through the rod of judgment Moses has. So then Moses comes up to the rock, strikes the rock with the rod of God's judgment. And when the rock is struck with the rod of God's judgment, water flows to satisfy the thirst of people. All right, well, now fast forward to Jesus. Jesus comes and he is the stone, the builders rejected that has now become the cornerstone. On this rock, I will build my church. What is the rock? The confession that you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And then at the cross, Jesus is struck with the rod of God's judgment. And when he is struck with the rod of judgment, living water flows to satisfy the people of God. The reason he cries out, I thirst is in the same way all the water flowed out of the rock for the people is he was being struck with the rod of judgment. Living water was flowing and it was divesting itself from the rock himself. Wow. Bro, that's amazing. And in Jesus. This is a Bible, it's a Bible. And in John, it specifically says this little detail of they held it up with a Hissop branch. Yeah. A Hissop branch is what would be used in the Old Testament to put the blood on the doorpost at Passover. Okay, bro. And Jesus is the new Passover lamb. Okay, you're beating me there. Oh, I don't need to do that. So I want to, no, this is big dude. This is a big deal right here. It's a big detail. All right, so this is the next, so verse 29. Dude, this is the kind of stuff that never makes it into sermons. It drives me nuts. A jar full of sour wine stood there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a Hissop branch and held it to his mouth. All right, so then you can ask the question, man, why did they actually take the time to Paul's point? To specifically point out, it was a Hissop branch. All right, well, Hissop, honestly, you do your little word study. Hissop is only mentioned, it's four times. If I understand correctly, there's four times in the Old Testament, Hissop is significant and it's mentioned. All right. So one, at the Passover, whenever the sacrificial lamb at the first Passover, a children of Israel in there, when they tell him to put blood on the doorposts and the lentils, God specifically commands, he didn't say just put him up there, he commands, you gotta use Hissop. And every Israelite dude would have been like, why? Well, that's a six sense thing. You'll find out in about 1,500 years. Okay, all right, here's the other one. After David commits adultery with Bathsheba, Psalm 51, David prays purge me with Hissop and I shall be clean. So we already know there's some level of awareness in the people of God's interior. Dude, there's something sin cleansing about Hissop. I can't figure out what it is. Here's the other one, I love this so much. Here's the other one. In the purification ritual that's outlined in Exodus and Deuteronomy for a leper. So this is really important. This is a little theological deep cut. In the Old Testament law, if somebody was unclean for any reason and leprosy would make you unclean. If an unclean thing touched a clean thing, the unclean thing would make the clean thing unclean. Bookmark that in your head, okay? So then, if you have leprosy, you were declared unclean. But then if somehow the disease went away, Exodus and Deuteronomy outline a way for you to go to the temple and go through a purification rite with the priest for you to be cleansed and declared clean. And guess what plant it specifically prescribes had to be used in the cleansing process for an unclean leper? Hissop. It's Hissop, okay. So bro, then you fast forward. To the New Testament, Jesus constantly has these lepers that are walking up to him. And remember, in the Old Testament, if an unclean thing touched a clean thing, the clean thing becomes unclean. But Jesus in the New Testament touches lepers. And when Jesus touches them, he works it backwards. And when Jesus touches lepers in the New Testament, their leprosy is healed and they're cleansed. So with Jesus, when Jesus, a clean thing, touches the unclean things, the unclean things become clean. What this passage is saying that I didn't have time to get to in the sermon is it's drawing on all those Old Testament analogies. He's the lamb's blood that they spread on the doorposts with Hissop there. He is the only one who could cleanse David from the spot of his adultery and murder, purge me with Hissop and I shall be clean. He's the one who can wipe away the uncleanliness of your soul and your sin and reverse the thing that was done to lepers. That's why John 19 mentions the Hissop thing. Wow. And so you're saying, so Hissop all throughout the Old Testament is salvation, cleansing, purification, forgiveness. John 1929 says that the Hissop was basically, it touched the lips of Jesus right before he said, it is finished. And so in that it is finished, Jesus is bringing that salvation to healing and forgiveness and to reconciliation. Bro, that's it. That's why I think in the book of Revelation, it was also written by John, it says, behold I am making all things new to what you said. And we have time for a small little detail. Come on, man, give me it. So I often tell people reading the Bible is almost like a diamond where it's one thing, it can't be anything you want it to be, but you can turn it and see different facets of it. And so the biggest facets from this text of Tealoste in the link so test under what we just hit, but there is a cool little detail that is easy to miss. So in Genesis two, it says, thus the heavens and the earth were finished. So if you go to the Greeks translation of the Septuagint, it's not Tealoste, but it's the same root word, same word, words finished. And then what happens next? Sabbath. So God completes the work, it is finished, and then comes the Sabbath. Jesus dies on the cross saying it is finished, and then what happens that night? Oh, wow. Sabbath begins. Wow. And so Jesus is ushering in the new creation through the work of the cross where he is making all things. Never heard that's brand new to me. We have started doing this probably before our precept. It's consistent with the, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and then John says in the beginning was the word. It's great. And then at the completion of the creation, the creation work was finished. Jesus says to Tealoste, it is finished. The salvation work was finished. The work creation. That's right. The work needed to bring about the recreation, the new creation. That's fascinating. I've never heard that before. Let me say two other things, and then I want to show the greatest three minutes of preaching that may have ever happened. And I mean this here in a second. Hey, will you toss up that, this is a little Bible nerd thing. I did get this into the sermon, but not at length, and people need to know this because this is interesting. Will you pull up that teresorium? So this is really interesting. This is a picture of it. So when it says they put a sponge full of the sour wine on the Hissa branch, this I didn't know this until a couple of years ago. Obviously the person that's doing that is a Roman soldier. This is almost certainly what that dude would have been using. That thing right there is called a teresorium. That's what that is. This was so like when Roman soldiers got commissioned, they would be given little field kits, just like soldiers today. That was one of the things that were given, and it was a hygienic thing. It's a sponge on a stick, and this is real gross, but it literally, that was like Roman toilet paper. So when a guy, you can go online and watch whatever. So when a guy, you know what I mean? You probably don't wanna watch it. That's not what I mean. Sorry, there's like, let me, there's diagrams. You can clarify what he wants to watch out. You're not gonna watch a guy use it. There's diagrams of Roman latrines, and they'll show you where they would be stored. That came out wrong. I just finished preaching two sermons. I got you, man, I got you. Sorry, middle schooler never leaves you. Yeah, that's why you take the boy out of middle school. You can't take the little squad of the boy. So what this is, is bro, think about this. So Jesus says, I thirst. A Roman soldier apparently heard that, and it says that, you know, put a sponge on a stick. He literally pulled out in a mocking way, and put disgusting vinegar wine on his toilet paper teresorium, and then he put a used teresorium probably in the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so with the, Jesus cries out, you know, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And then with the taste of a Roman soldier's bowel movement on his lips, he fulfills his own prayer, dying on the cross for their sins, and then he cries out to tell us die, it is finished. Yeah, yeah. Now, Carlos, because you've, we've talked this before, do you remember off the top of your head, the three ways to telesty was sometimes used in Roman culture? You want me to do it or you want me to do it? You should probably do it. All right, let me do it real quick. Because this is important just in case people miss it. So telesty was not a theological term. Like this was like just a cultural term, primarily used in three ways. One, it was used in a financial or a business context when somebody owed a debt, whenever the debt was completely paid, what the banker would essentially do, the person that the debt was owed to, is they would take out a receipt and some Bible scholars will say that they would scribble the word to telesty on the receipt to signify that the debt had been paid. Was also used in judicial context, whenever a guilty convict's sentence had been fully served, then they would inscribe on the deed of sentence. They would put, okay, this is to telesty, it's finished. To signify for the Roman court system, amen, the penalty for this person's crime has been paid. Then the other one that I won't go into the full thing, I did it in the sermon to go listen to the sermon, is it would be used in military context. It would be like a battle cry. Whenever they had won a battle, the battle cry part of what they would cry is to telesty, it is finished. So when Jesus cries out, it is finished, he's saying three things. He's saying the debt for your sin has been fully paid. He's saying the penalty for your sin has been fully satisfied. And the spiritual battle between sin, death, hell and Satan has been fully and completely won. I've done it for you. So he's saying right now in Christ, all those things are accomplished. Ladies and gentlemen, it is finished. Yes, Carl, that right there, because we hear this and it's amazing, but that should literally change how you live your life today. Everything. Absolutely everything. I will say this, some people will sometimes, that's really important. Some people will sometimes be like, well, man, if you really believe that, know that there's no work necessary for your salvation, then people are gonna do whatever they want. It is important to make sure people just know we are not freed to sin, we are freed from sin. Grace frees us from sin, not to sin. And there's a whole theology of this. John Bunyan, a guy who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, he was one time, we need to move on. John Bunyan one time, they accused him of this, because John Bunyan was a rough, like before he was saved, like, drinker, fighter, brawler, rough around the edges, dude. And so he was real heavy on preaching the grace of God. And somebody one time was like, John, if you preach the free grace of God apart from anything that anybody ever does, people are gonna do whatever they want. And his response was, no, no. If I preach the free grace of God based on the finished work of Christ and not on anything they have to do or work for, he said they're gonna do whatever he wants. Yes. And he was pointing out that it just, the love of the Father explodes in your heart when you understand it, and it makes you wanna obey him. It sets you free. It sets you free. The free brother. The free brother. You got a video on it. Yeah, okay, y'all wanna see the greatest three minutes of preaching maybe. I'm looking forward to it. All right, so here's what this is. I almost finished sermon with this. And then we can talk about Mamdani and socialism and the warmth of collectivism. So here's what this is. So in the same way that like basketball players, they'll watch like Michael Jordan clips before they play games to get juiced. Preachers, I'm kidding. Stop. I'm kidding, huge fan. Good. Preachers, I'll watch preaching clips to get myself jacked before preaching. This for real, I think might be the greatest three minutes of preaching that has ever occurred, that I've seen. Wow. I watch on average about a sermon a day, five days a week. This is the best three minutes of preaching I've ever seen. It's from a dude named Alistair Begg. You're gonna hear it in a second. He's Scottish, makes him sound real awesome. Sounds like Brave Hearts Breaching the Gospel too. That's real great. I've seen that movie. Yeah, thank you, good. That's good, that's good, man. And then, and I will say, it's totally unfair. People with British accents, it's like adds 20 points to their IQ. So here we go. This is the man on the middle cross said, I could come. Here we go. Without the preaching of the cross, without preaching the cross to ourselves all day and every day, we will very, very quickly revert to faith plus works as the ground of our salvation. Okay, pause real quick. Let me just say, if you need to get that in your soul, if you do not continually preach the reality of the finished work of Christ to you, your heart will default mode to believe in the God's level of love for you depends on your level of obedience to him, which is why, Protestant reformer Martin Luther, he's got a famous little quote where he said, most necessary is it that we know this article well, talking about the gospel, teach it unto others and beat it into their heads continually, because you will, your heart will default mode back to law instead of grace. So all right, so here we go. So that to go to the old Fort Lauderdale question, if you were to die tonight and you were to get again, tree into heaven, what would you say? If you answer that, and if I answer it in the first person, we've immediately gone wrong. Because I believed, because I have faith, because I am this, because I am continuing. Love one's the only proper answers in the third person, because he, because he, if think about the thief on the cross, I want an immense, I can't wait to find that fellow one day to ask him, how did that shake out for you? Because you were cussing the guy out with your friend, you've never been in a Bible study, you never got baptized, you didn't know a thing about church membership, and yet, you made it, you made it. How did you make it? That's what the angel must have said, you know, like, what are you doing here? Well, I don't know. What do you mean you don't know? Well, like, because I don't know. Well, you know, what, excuse me, let me get my supervisor, they go get their supervisor range. So we're just a few questions for you, first of all, are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith? The guy said, I've never heard of it in my life. And what about, let's just go to the doctrine of scripture immediately. And eventually in frustration, he says on what basis are you here? And he said, the man on the middle cross said, I can come. Now, that is the only answer. That is the only answer. And if I don't preach the gospel to myself all day and every day, then I will find myself beginning to trust myself, trust my experience, which is part of my fallenness as a man. You can stop right there. The man on the middle cross said, I could come. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not of your undoing. It is the gift of God. Wow. Seems to me like we know what Jesus did on the cross and yet scripture is packed with different illustrations. So like, what does it actually mean for you and I today? And this is what historically speaking has been known as the multiple theories of atonement. And so I'm curious, Pastor Paul. Yeah, Paul did it for us. Chad, G, Paul C. Tell us about that. In fact, the cross, what we're talking about right now is also known as something, it's been described as a multifaceted jewel with different sides, right? And so like, every single side has like a beautiful explanation of what that actually means for you and I today. Paul, take it away. Well, hey, Litford Nation. Let me share something exciting with you. We want to invite you to the most important night of the year for our church. That is our night of prayer and worship. This is a night where we come believing that God still heals, He still restores, and He still moves. And so on January 21st from 7 to 8.30 p.m., that central standard time, we'll gather to worship and pray with faith, for miracles, for breakthrough, for the next generation, and for the one more God is still reaching. And so this is a night to bring your need, your burden, your unanswered prayer, and trust God to do what only He can do. We are believing as a church for change to break, for hearts to be renewed, and lives to be changed in the presence of God. And so to hear more about this event, text the word events to 20411, or you can visit lakepoint.church slash events and select night of prayer and worship. If you are in the DFW area, or maybe you live in a different state or city and you're willing to drive or fly and come visit, join us in person at any of our seven campuses, or you can also worship with us by joining church online via YouTube, Facebook, or lakepoint.live. Hey, come expecting, come hungry, come believing, mark your calendar January 21st, and be a part of what God wants to do. Yeah, sometimes people call these theories of the atonement. I don't like actually the word theories because it makes it sound like, oh, we can't know for sure. It's like, no, I'm more like, there's themes or pictures that, that'd be of a mosaic, or mosaic is made up of multiple pictures. And we see these pictures repeatedly said in scripture. And if atonement's a new word for people listening or watching, it's an English word that originally came from the phrase at one minute, which really just means to bring back into unity of how do we set aside an offense so that reconciliation can occur? And so obviously we know that Jesus Christ, the Son of God died on the cross. But the question is, okay, but what was actually happening? Like what did that accomplish? What was actually happening there? And so you see multiple pictures, multiple facets that you've said, as you said, of the diamond in scripture. So I just wanna listen, I'm gonna do these pretty quickly, and maybe we can maybe have some questions then, but I'll just try to roll through these because there's a bunch of them, but I have six that I'll give. There's more than that, but I'll give six the main ones throughout church history. The first one is called the moral influence picture, or motif is the idea that Christ changes us. So what it says is the cross displays God's love so powerfully that it moves sinners to repentance and transformation to love other people. So like we get a picture of this, for example, in 1 John 4, in this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is the idea of God putting away his anger through a sacrifice. And then it goes on, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. The second picture we see in scriptures was called Christ's victor, the idea that Christ wins for us. What it says is Jesus' death and resurrection defeats Satan's sin, death and the powers holding humanity captive. So the cross wasn't just a payment, it was a conquest. That's right. So like in the book of Colossians, for example, it says he Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities. And when it says that, it's not talking about specifically human authorities. It's talking about Satan and demonic forces. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame. As referencing what the Romans would do whenever they conquered an enemy, they would lead them through the streets, just to shame them and dishonor them. And so it says he did that. Is that the same passage where it talks about he always leads us in triumphal processions? So there's two places. That's one, that's another one you're thinking of is Corinthians. Yeah, that's right. It's Corinthians. And so when it says by God. You said Christ's victor. Christ's victor. Explain what that means for people that don't speak like that. It has the idea of Christ and that he is the victor. It's Latin, that he is conquering. So Jesus is a warrior that fights for you. Yes. So the idea is like, so Christ changes us, but then also Christ wins for us. He conquered for us. A third one, ransom or redemption. The idea of Christ pays what was owed by us. So this one says, humanity is in bondage to sin and its consequences. So Christ gives his life as a ransom to redeem us to purchase us and rescue us from sin and those consequences. So you see this in places like Mark 10, 45. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Galatians 3, 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. A fourth one is satisfaction. The idea that Christ upholds the honor of God that was offended by us. So this one says that human sin infinitely dishonors an infinite God, but that Christ's obedient life and sacrificial death upholds God's honor and it infinitely satisfies God's demand for justice. So for example, Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory which is also another sin and for the honor of God. Proverbs 17, 15 says, he who justifies the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. So there's this issue of like, how could God justify the wicked who have infinitely dishonored him? Well, how he does it is he sends the God man, Jesus Christ. And because he's the God man, his sacrifice infinitely upholds the justice of God while also allowing us to be eternally saved. That's Romans. He is both just and the justifier of the ungodly. I had written that down as a possible one to go into. I didn't know if we would have time to be at Romans 3, 25 through 26. Beautiful, beautiful verses there. The fifth one, then I'll get to, I should have said this beginning, there's different themes and pictures, but I do think one is at the heart of all of them and I'm saving it for last. I'm saving the big one for last. Before, as he keeps going, let me just say this, Carlos, what you're doing right now is more pastorally significant than people realize because what I've learned is that people need one of the, for lack of a better term, theories of the atonement. People need one or the other preach to them depending on what they have experienced. So like, dude, I'll be really honest. If you, like in America, we honestly don't talk about Christus Victor a whole lot. And here's why, because America, secular society, we don't talk about demonic powers, spiritual enslavement, strong, we don't talk about that stuff. So then when people don't feel that, they don't end up feeling the need for like, oh dude, I need a spiritual warrior that can bind the strong man and destroy sin, death, and Satan and set me free because we don't talk about that. But if you got a sub-Saharan Africa and it's a very spiritist culture and that people are acutely aware of the reality of demonic possession, oppression, enslavement, while all of a sudden Christus Victor lands like a nuclear bomb. Exactly. So you need each of these atonement theories differently based on where somebody's at. By the way, last thing I'll say here, and then I'm gonna give it back to you. Honestly, dude, one of the best books, every time I mention his name, people shoot at me. I don't care. One of the best books I've ever read, and I'm not joking, is Mark Driscoll's book, Death by Love, that literally the entire book is each chapter is here's one atonement theory, and then it's him writing a personal pastoral letter to somebody in his congregation that needs the reality of that atonement theory applied to their soul. Literally one of the best books I've ever read. Well, you can just say like... Put that on the show notes. We will, we'll definitely put it in there. And this is scriptural thing because when Paul, for example, writes his letters, he's dealing very specific practical everyday problems or things that they're dealing with. But almost always where does he start with the gospel and with one of these motifs or pictures, and then he draws it out. And so he starts with it and then he gets to the practical implications. So even like going to a different one of the idea of redemption or ransom of literally purchasing you back. Sometimes when I'm talking to people and they're definitely saved, but they are just living willfully in an ongoing sin. I'm like, basically right now, it's like I give them sometimes the pictures. Like imagine being a slave that you're set free, but you decide to put the chains back on. Even though you've been free and you can take them off at any moment, you're choosing to be enslaved. So these have very much pastoral effect if you use them well. So a fifth one that I'll do briefly and then I was gonna camp out for a few minutes on the one that I think is at the heart of all of them. So a fifth one is recapitulation, fancy word, but basically it means that Christ succeeds for us. So to recapitulate means basically kind of you go back to the beginning and you do it over. So this one is the idea. Is that second Adam? Yes. So the idea of Christ succeeds where Adam failed. So humanity fell in Adam by disobedience, but Christ becomes the new Adam. He lives the fully obedient human life that Adam could not. So he undoes Adam's failure. And he restores humanity. Basically he restarts the human story. So like 1 Corinthians 15, for as an Adam I'll die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. So again, I'm just, the reason I keep going pictures, I don't want you to think, oh, these are just like, well, we think this might have been like, no, we see these things in scripture. This last one. So before you do this last one, just list real quick, just for clarity. Just list the five you've already said here. Moral influence, Christ changes us. Christ is victor, Christ wins for us. Ransom slash redemption, Christ pays what was owed by us. Satisfaction, Christ upholds the honor of God, offended by us. And recapitulation, Christ succeeds for us. Okay, and the last one, this is the biggie. The last one's the biggie is, penal substitution, Christ dies for us. And I'll get to this in a minute, but I'll go ahead and say now, I believe this is actually the backbone and foundation for all the other ones that I just mentioned. I'll talk about why here in a second. But here's what penal substitution says. All the sin deserves a penalty or punishment. Like I think we understand this as humans. Like when you break a law, you deserve some kind of a penalty or punishment for that. Well, Jesus willingly substitute himself for us because we've all sinned, Romans 3, 23, far off, sinning and falling short of the glory of God and we deserve a punishment for that. Jesus willingly substitute himself for us and takes the penalty our sins deserve, which is God's wrath, so that we can be forgiven. So the idea of penal was penalty. Substitution is that Christ does this in our place. So instead of God's wrath, heaven be poured out in us, he receives it in himself. So where you see this in scripture, First Peter 2, 24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, which is referring to the cross. First Peter 3, 18, for Christ also suffered for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring you to God. And then prophesying about Jesus and Isaiah 53, he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds, we are healed. We have all gone astray, everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him, referring to Jesus, the iniquity of us all. I would argue that this is actually at the heart of all the other theories. So let's just think about a few of them. The moral influence, one that we already talked about. First on four, 10 through 11. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. But what was the backbone of it? And the previous verse, it says, "'Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us "'and sent his son to be a propitiation, "'the idea of turning away wrath." Why? Because Christ received it. So the idea of how we could love others is because Christ received our punishment in our place. The Christ is the victor one, because this one is kind of caught on recently. And by the way, I'm like you, I love it too. This is one that's neglected. But some people have tried to say, oh no, this is actually the main one instead of substitutionary atonement. But what people mismay say that is refer me to Colossians, where it talks about how Christ triumphed over them. If you go back to the previous couple verses, it says how he did that. And here's what it says in Colossians. It says, you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God may live together with him, having forgiven us all of our trespasses. Well, how did he do that? By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. And how did he do that? This he set aside by nailing it to the cross. Penal substitution right there. Through the hands and feet of Jesus. Exactly. So we say that because recently penal substitutionary atonement has been attacked. It always is. And derided. It always is. But it is actually, I would say, is the backbone and the heartbeat of all of the other theories. Exactly, exactly. I think so substitution, something takes a place of something else. I think my favorite illustration in scripture of that is the story of Barabbas. And this is really interesting as I learned it recently. So if somebody's not familiar with the story, Barabbas is this man who is guilty of rebellion, theft and murder. And Pontius Pilate basically sets free Barabbas instead of Jesus because the crowd asked for Barabbas to be set free and Jesus to be crucified. And so I did not know this, but the name Barabbas has a meaning. And so there's two parts. Bar, which means son of and Abba, which means father. And so the meaning of the name of Barabbas is the son of a father. So here you have a guilty son of a father next to a innocent son of a father that's Jesus. And there has to be a substitution happening for Barabbas to be set free. And so when the people ask for Barabbas to be set free, Barabbas is not being set free because Pontius was gracious. He was being set free because somebody else was a substitute for him. Somebody else took his place. And man, that's an amazing picture. What happens with you and I, we're not set free because of our own capacity or an effort or because of chance. We are the only way we are set free if somebody, there's a penal part of it. If somebody pays the penalty in our place and that's Jesus and he sets us free. And this last one, even though it's so derived, it is so important. It actually amplifies the love of God, I cannot believe none of the others do because the cross is a picture of how much God hates sin. That he hates it so much that it took the death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, to pay for it. And it's also a picture of how much God loves you. And so we have to remember that the cross did not make God love us. He already loved us. It says, for God so loved the world that he sent his son. The cross is a picture of that fact that he was willing to actually endure his own wrath to save you. And so even go back to my two, like this idea of man, at once I was a child of wrath. But then now because Christ took the wrath that I deserve in him, my place, I am now a child of God and a child of his love. The way that you gotta, and here's the thing, the way that a Christian has to mobilize this in their life is until the love of the Father explodes in your heart, you will never have the power for obedience and sanctification. Sanctification is a big Bible word that just means the process of becoming holy. So it's like the thing that I'll tell, like if I'm discipling guys, my root of group or whatever, the thing I'll tell them is like, hey man, if you feel like the Christian life is just like, it's too hard and complicated and I can't remember all the rules, it's too difficult, what I'll tell them is, hey man, like honestly, just take a little season and stop thinking about all that stuff. Just fall in love with Jesus and everything else is gonna fall into place. It's like if you had, that's why Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey what I command. That's not a threat. If you love me, you'll obey what I command. No, no, no, it was a promise. He was like, hey man, if you love me, you can obey what I command. Yes. Just love me. And I know we gotta get to Mondani and socialism and all the things, but it's what I often tell people is, like if you feel like you're lacking passion for God, you don't start with them and like, oh, I'm gonna like will this passion, actually start with his passion for you. That's right. And when I say passion, I mean, the intention of these is actually passion has historically been used as a word for Jesus Christ's sufferings. So if you're lacking love for God, it's not now you gotta try to will in yourself. You actually take a moment and you can even like, maybe think through these different things and go to these scriptures and just reflect on God's love for you, shown in the death and accomplishment of Jesus Christ on the cross. So this is important because anytime we talk about penal substitution, and by the way, we're gonna hit this question and then we're gonna move on. People will ask, this is the most popular question that normal people will ask. And this happened to me in college, I had, I took a religion class or theology class and the professor was talking about this, same topic. And I remember I quoted, I say a 53, I brought it up. And this is basically, there's a prophecy there that talks about Jesus. And this is what it says. It was the will of the Lord to crush him. And we were talking about the same topic and my professor at the time said, oh no, no, no, no, no, you're implying that God the Father is a divine abuser and Jesus is an innocent child. And so that's a, that's divine child abuse. Penal substitution is not okay. It sounds like God is too violent, too eager and he's unleashing his wrath on an innocent son. Well, what say you? Yeah, I say two things. One, the Trinity solves that problem. So it's like, hey man, that's really it. It's like, hey man, in one sense, first of all, you never gonna stand Trinity. You can't understand Trinity. It's like, if God's the size of the Pacific Ocean and our minds are the size of a Coke can, there's gonna be some things that don't fit. The Trinity is one of those things. Like literally in human history, no one has ever come up with an analogy that is not a Trinitarian heresy. That's like actually a thing, okay? So number one, you can't understand Trinity. But in one sense, what you gotta get is that the cross when it says it was the will of the Lord to crush him. Well, it was the will of the Lord to crush who? The Lord. Yeah. So that's what you have to understand is, no, no, God willingly went to the cross himself. Yes. And willing, and then Jesus also says, and then nobody takes my life for me. I lay it down of my own accord. So this was a willful action on the behalf of the Son to drink the cup of the wrath, cup of God's wrath that should have come to us. Those are the two big categories I was about to go to as well. Now, when I say one of the things that's gonna sound harsh but I'm really referring more to like professors or more academics when they say stuff like this. But when they say stuff like this, I'm like the problem isn't their theology that they have a crappy theology of the Torah, it's that they have a crappy theology of the Trinity. Yeah. That's great. Yes, great. Because a lot of it's, because when they begin talking to this, they're like, oh yeah, the Father has his own mind and will and the Son has his own mind and will and the Spirit does too. I'm like, well, now you have three God to her. That's called tritheism. And so we can't think of like, oh, the Father had his will and the Son had his own. And the Father says, well, guess what? Because I'm the Father and you're the Son, you have to go do this. No, like there is one mind and will in God. So there's really what you were just saying. And then also what you said is important is like, it was a willing voluntary act or as abusive as coercive and one sided. This is willingly laying down his life. So yeah. Any other thoughts on that? Man, let me do, I'll just ask you guys one question though, let's move on. Why is it, if you guys don't wanna talk about it, that's fine. Why is it that every time somebody starts apostatizing, the first thing they fudge on is they're like, ah, a penal substitution, I'm not sure. Anybody got a theory? It always happened. Rob Bell did it in the early 2000s. I've seen a bajillion guys that ended up leaving the faith. They, it starts with, I don't know about penal substitution. Anybody got a theory? Paul, what you got? He's got a theory. Paul's got a theory you didn't wanna say. Are you ready to be salty? Paul's fine, I'm, hold. Let me just say this, for listeners, I'm not joking. For listeners, when you see a prominent Bible teacher start questioning penal substitution, it does not mean that they automatically immediately need to be canceled. I do think that is the moment you need to immediately be like, whoa, I need to watch out on this guy. Personal opinion, I've seen this movie too many times. It starts with questioning penal substitution, then it goes to questioning hell, then all of a sudden evangelism is like, ah, you know, people from other faiths, so then it goes to the exclusivity of Christ, they deny that. Then it's the same pattern every time. Then all of a sudden it's like, ah, you know, in heresy of scripture, I'm not sure, and then it's just on the line, and eventually they're like, they're a Rob Bell, you know, universalist. Yep, I've been thought about it. I'll, you go if you've got one. Yeah, quick one, cause we need to move on. Yeah, here's what I'll say briefly. Maybe we can revisit another time, I think. It's worth maybe revisiting another time, which is, on the one hand, I was like, yeah, it seems like it starts there, but I would actually say what I've typically seen, it was Bell, it was with others, I won't name names for right now, since we can't do a deeper dive on it, which is, they question, but they're also abandoning historic doctrines about God. So even like I mentioned about their views about the Trinity, or like other people have talked about this, usually it's also they say, oh, God doesn't have complete foreknowledge, the future is open. So they begin pulling out a lot of the classical threads of Christian thought, and it's kind of like a sweater where if you pull it too many, the whole thing begins to unravel. A thousand percent. And so with that too, and the reason I brought those up is because these are historic things that Christians have believed for thousands of years. So I think part of what happens in addition to not taking the Bible seriously is they don't take Christian history seriously, and they think, oh, let's just start throwing this away and throwing that away, instead of asking, hey, why have people for like the last 1700, 1800 years believed all these classical things in terms of the main pillars of our faith about who God is, away? Well, they don't stop and ask why should I not do that? They just do it, and they lose their ground in history, and then they lose all this stuff, and say, pull enough threads, and the whole sweater comes kind of apart. I'm curious what your theory is. I think it's usually people canonize their feelings. So their feelings stand in authority of the scripture instead of the scripture standing in authority of their feelings, because here's really what it always boils down, think about all of them. Penal substitution, hell, the exclusivity of Christ, all the things. What it really boils down to is that feels mean to me, and God's not mean. Yep. I mean, seriously, literally all of them, that's what it boils down to. It feels mean to me, and my God's never mean. And my response to that is I was like, oh, actually, you're right, man. The God that you invented in your head is never mean by your own standards, but that's not who God is. You're just inventing one in your head. You can add two things real fast. Yes, it real fast. Real fast. One would be really just a different way of saying what you just said, which is when I teach this actually, sometimes our residents and staff, I'll talk about how to do theology well, you've got to do it from the top down, not the bottom up. And for about the last 200 or 300 years, since they enlightened me, done theology from the bottom up. I'm a person, I know I love like this. Justice is like this to me. Fairness is like this to me. Oh, since I'm creating the image of God, then God must be like this. Right, right. Neglecting the idea that the scripture says God's ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And so we got to remember that while we are creating the image of God, and we are like God, that he is in a totally different existential plane than we are. And so I do think a lot of that is tied together. It is like, oh, this seems wrong from my point of view, so God must be wrong, or so on and so forth. Another thing is, and I think this is maybe a little bit more niche, but I do think apologetics is amazing, but sometimes I do think you can accidentally follow apologetics into heresy. Dude, that is a fact. And it's like, oh, well, as I'm engaging with people, people don't like the idea of penal substitutionary atonement. Oh, people don't like the idea that God could be all powerful and all knowing and evil exist. Oh, so I'll just water that down to make it. Oh, people don't like hell. So you know what, I'll just say that annihilationism is more easy to swallow. So let's go there instead of this. This dawned on me recently, and then we're gonna move on to talk to Mom Donnie. This dawned on me recently. You know what that is? Is this reverse justification? What it is, is it's them trying to justify Jesus to mankind when biblical justification is no, no. Mankind needs to be justified to Jesus. And what people do is they'll reverse the justification. Ah, man, I need to justify, I need to rescue God from, the character as he's depicted in the Bible, so that he's justified before man. Hey, very frankly, God doesn't need to be justified by anybody. No, you need to be justified before him. Yes. That's good, that's a word. Hey, man, we talk about- If you want to talk to Mom Donnie. Let me make it a little less hard. All right. We talk about Jesus saying it is finished. And obviously as Christians, man, we are reminded that's our ultimate hope. That's right. And what he has accomplished at the cross, not our own effort, not our own religion, not on any political system either. And today you look at our culture and you see different voices rising up. And some of these voices are offering a different kind of hope, Pastor Josh. And that's what seems to be happening in New York with Zora Mom Donnie. With something that people are getting really excited about, at least some people in New York. Listen, let me just, I don't want to, so I'll just, for listeners, what I try to do is attack ideas, not people or parties. However, sometimes there's like actual partisan realities that it's just like, hey dude, we just want to be unfiltered and honest about it. Dude, I looked at this yesterday. Newest research by Pew. So this is a reputable, bro, 60% of people who identify as Democrats now have a favorable view of socialism. Let me say it again, 60%. I'm just paused for effect, 60%. So what we're getting ready to show is, you know, you've got an Islamic socialist. And honestly, the more he talks, the more I'm like, also here's, all socialism is, is communism before it gets guns. The language he uses, that's not a joke. Like I've read some history books. All socialism is, it's the exact same ideas. It's communism before it gets guns. The more he talks, bro, this guy is like, actually died in the wall communist ideals. So you got an Islamic socialist elected, by the way, in the same city where 9-11 happened, about 24 years ago, little insane. And in his inauguration speech this week, he said some things that sent chills down the spines of people who are paying attention. Do we want to look at it? We got a video. All right, let's look at this real quick. This is Zora Mabdani. This is at his, this is at his swearing in. Oh, by the way, sworn in on what, Carlos, before we look at this. Not the Bible, but a Quran. First time in American history, correct? In New York City. In New York City, that's right. So has it happened before? I think it's been done like four or five other times. Yeah, by some recent other people, but yeah. Interesting. It's been the most consequential city. New York City is a little bit different. Yeah, that's right. That's right, that's right. So let me just say something on that. Can I just say something? Please, I'm curious. So whenever we talk about, whenever we talk about, you talk about Christian nationalism, whatever you want to call it, whenever you talk about Christians should 100% want their government to legislate from a Christian moral perspective. Why? Because Christianity's true and everything else isn't. All right, so that's why. Romans 13 says that the role of the government is to be a terror, to bad conduct and to reward good conduct. The obvious natural question that any reader of Romans 13 should then ask is, well, who gets to define good and evil? The obvious answer of Romans 13 is the living God, Jesus Christ. Okay, now, before we watch this, go ahead and start pulling this up. We're gonna watch this. So this dude gets sworn in on a Quran. Anytime we talk about, well, we just said on this podcast, we get a million people that are like, you guys are arguing for a theocracy. Now, I just wanna point some out. In one sense, that's not true, but I just wanna say something. In one sense, yep, you're right. And here's what I would say, okay? Every human government is some form of a theocracy. The question is, who's Theo? All right, so if we're gonna say that, along with the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created, are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, okay, we agree. The question is, what's his name? All right, if we're saying that there is a creator that endows us with certain inalienable rights, the question is, all right, what's his name? Is his name Jesus? Is his name Allah? Even- They're not the same. They're not the same. Even in a secular democracy, that's still a theocracy. Yes. The people are Theo in that scenario. The people are functionally God. It's just pure will of the masses. So this is what Christians need to understand. Before we watch this, what Christians need to understand is you be getting this play run on you forever, where anytime you say, you advocate for your beliefs in the public square, people are like, oh, you're advocating for a theocracy. That person is advocating for the exact same thing. They just want somebody besides the one true God to be at the top of the system. So here's the big idea. When you remove God, the actual true and living God, Jesus Christ, when you remove God from being over the government, the government becomes God. So that said, do get sworn in on Quran in New York City. Now, bro, this language he uses right here, bone chilling. All right, check this out. This is two days ago or so. We will draw this city closer together. We will replace the fragility of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. Okay, boom, pause. Well, I just want, we will, now listen, that'll slip past you. We will replace the fragility of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. Bookmark that in your head. We're coming back to it. Now watch the rest of what he says. If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it. Because no matter what you eat, how you pray, or where you come from, the words that most define us are the two we all share, New Yorkers. Okay, now. By the way, that's a diverse group of people over there. That's interesting. It's just, you know, New Yorkers. Yeah, there's a lot there. That ties into a lot of the, it ties into a lot of things. I'm gonna let you do your thing. All right, bro, so here's the thing. That's the kind of thing that'll slip past people. It's just a real quick statement. Okay, we're gonna replace the fragility of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. Number one, I just want to say, well, hey brother, rugged individualism built the greatest civilization that humanity has ever seen. And let me just say, the warmth of collectivism has killed 100 million people in the last century. Let's just start practical. In any place collectivism has flourished, it's not hot, because they literally cannot feel any heaters. It's cold. They can't have the money or the ability actually to heat buildings kind of a thing. So I'm not sure where this warmth is coming from, just practically, but different things. That's my history major coming out of me and just saying, dude, you obviously haven't read any history books. So for people who don't know what the quote unquote, the warmth of collectivism is, let me read you some quotes to help you understand what he is saying. By the way, lest you think, oh, why are they making a big deal out of this, this is one mayor in New York City. I want to remind you where I started. Right now, for lack of a better term, warmth towards socialism is skyrocketing in our country, especially with like Gen Z and down. And again, I want to remind you of this. The most recent polls are that 60% of people who identify as Democrat are favorable towards socialism. So here's a question, Paul and Carlos. What is the warmth of collectivism? Well, let me read you a few quotes. The individual is nothing, the collective is everything, Joseph Stalin. The interests of the individual must be subordinate to the interests of the collective. That's Mao, okay? Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state. And by the way, the state is the collective, that was Benito Mussolini. And then you have, we'll replace rugged individualism with collectivism, Zoran Mamdadi. He's quoting like actual communists who have tried to institute actual communism. All right, so here's the difference between quote unquote rugged individualism and the warmth of collectivism. Here's the question. So by the way, Christians have to learn to think and apply their worldview to governance. Okay, here's why. Because if godly people don't, godless people will. So he's doing it, we better learn how. All right. And by the way, Pastor Josh, when people hear this, they might be asking, wait, but why is it Pastor talking about socialism? Isn't that like, this doesn't sound like Bible, what does the Bible have to do with socialism? A lot. Yeah. So first of all, let me just say a few things. First of all, so here's the question. The question is, I wrote this down, I wanna make sure I get it right because it's really important. The question is, so in collectivism, we sacrifice the rights of the individual for the good of the many, the collective. In individualism, you protect the individual, the individual human rights, from the tyranny of the state or the many. So this is the question. Whose rights do we protect and which rights do we infringe upon? Are we trying to protect the quote unquote rights of the many or are we protecting the individuals from the tyranny of the collective? So this is what you get. Now you asked the question, hey Josh, what is this, what is socialism? What's this gotta do with the Bible? Well, a whole lot. First of all, the entire Old Testament is based on the concept of personal property rights. Socialism, obviously the end game of socialism is you'll own nothing and be happy. It's the state owns everything and the state redistributes all possessions equally so that ostensibly we can have equality of outcomes for people. So it totally undermines and eliminates personal property rights. Okay, well can I remind you of something called the 10th commandment? Like literally the 10th commandment in the 10th commandment is kind of a big deal is you shall not covet your neighbors and then it lists a bunch of stuff. So literally into the decalogue, one of the 10 commandments is the assumption of personal property rights over against the state being able to infringe those things. So that's number one. Now before I go on. Don't steal too. Oh, they thought, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Don't steal is another one. It implies ownership. Yes, now the question that people ask is, is it stealing if it's the government? Yeah. Yeah, governments can commit theft. Yeah, yeah, what collectivism does is it simply, it doesn't eliminate greed, it centralizes and localizes it. Bro, that's great. It is, yeah, instead of it being kind of sparing, by the way, greed is not good. But if you're like, oh, there's too much greed, we should go this way. I'm like, you just basically centralized it. That's right. That's great. You didn't get rid of it, you centralized it. Because by the way, for fun, I almost did this as a picture about that I was afraid it would take us too long. It's just go Google the houses of Stalin and Mao and Maduro who got removed today, by the way. But like, just go look at their houses and all these socialistic places and just let me know if greed was eliminated there. They're doing just the ass right. Or if they just did a really good job of centralizing it in the hands of a very few people. That's right. So, go ahead, keep going. So dude, here's a big, I mean, you wanna go back to it and again, almost always, now it's a little different. With Mamdani, although I got thoughts on this, is the vast majority, if not all, of communist regimes, they're atheistic. So again, the big idea is once you remove God from the picture, there is no authority higher than the government. And once that happens, you remove God, the government becomes God. The government becomes the highest authority in the system. So then people, the government starts acting like God. Will protect you, will provide for you, will own the cattle on a thousand hills, and we will distribute it as we see fit. So remove God and the government becomes God. There's a couple of things I'll say here, and then we can just, we can riff. I wanna know if you guys got any thoughts here. I will just say this. So as you watch this, what you're gonna notice in socialism and socialism light, you'll even see this in California, you're seeing this right now. Whenever wealth redistributive policies get like max boosted in absurd ways, I want you to remember two axioms. So every Christian listening, you need to remember two axioms. Number one, progressives think in terms of solutions, conservatives think in terms of trade-offs. This is really important. Okay, so what you'll notice is when progressives see problems, what they tend to do is just try to think of immediate straight line solutions. Oh, some people don't have enough. Well, this is really obvious. We'll just take a whole lot from the people who have more and then give it to the people who have less. Duh, problem solved. Well, here's the problem, is they never stop to think about second and third order unforeseen consequences. So for instance, why is it that literally this week, half a trillion dollars in net worth left the state of California after they announced that they would be essentially doing a 5% wealth confiscation on the super wealthy. So progressives, they just think in terms of straight line solutions without ever thinking in terms of second, third order consequences. Wait a second, if we start like excessively taxing the people who create jobs, build businesses and generate the most wealth, they might leave our state and then the last state becomes worse than the first. Whereas conservatives, what conservatives tend to do is they, conservatives tend to think in terms of those trade-offs. The biblical category for this is just wisdom. Yeah. When the Bible uses the word wisdom, it just means the ability to maneuver the world in light of its complexities. Okay, so that's number one. The second axiom that you need to understand is you watch this with Mom Donnie. You watch in the next few years if he actually executes the policies that he says he's going to. The thing you gotta remember is with governments, you tend to get more of what you incentivize and less of what you penalize. Okay, this is really important, okay? So for instance, whenever you get high welfare states or high welfare cities, what ends up happening is you're not solving poverty, you're incentivizing it. So this is one thing that conservatives generally, because conservatism, not perfectly, there's like a loose correlation between Christian theology and conservative ideology. Conservative, they tend to think in terms of when legislation happens, they tend to think like, ha, what behavior will this incentivize? Okay, so here's what you gotta get is like, in the cities, real progressive cities are like, dude, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna max boost. This is like what Mom Donnie's saying he's gonna do. We're gonna max boost, you know, homeless care. Well, what doesn't end up happening is you solving homelessness. What does end up happening is you incentivizing it. And so you end up with cities overrun with more homelessness, you do not end up solving homelessness, why? Because with governments, you end up getting more of what you incentivize and less of what you penalize. That's why like there's that old axiom, the best argument against progressive policies is progressive cities. That's why you're seeing what's happening in San Francisco, all the cities. That's it, man. San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, all the same story. Same thing, they never stop to think. They just think, oh, what problem are we trying to solve? Straight line solution. They never stop to think, ha, what behaviors are we incentivizing? Because this is the last thing, and then I wanna tell a story about Charles Spurgeon and then we'll lock her down. Dang it, I forgot what I was gonna say. What was I gonna say? I can't even remember. I got a few things if you want to take a minute to think about it. Gilgourt. Yeah, I wrote down three things when we were getting ready for this in terms of just about social, just three things. It isn't biblical, it doesn't work, and it's incredibly stupid and harmful. That's a pretty strong argument. It's a pretty strong, let me just go through each of those and maybe even go through maybe some rebuttals of what people will often say. It isn't biblical, cause you guys laid out some things about private property, but they'll say, well, what about in the New Testament? It seems way more collectivist like everybody was sharing, but what you don't neglect was even in there, even usually when people think about that, they're thinking about Acts four. We're talking about there was no needy among them, but they shared everything. If you go to Acts five in the story of Ananias and Sapphira, a lot of times we'll say, oh, they were struck dead and judged because they didn't give everything and they were selfish. That's actually not it, it's because they lied. Cause actually if you go to Acts five, he says, when, yeah, why did you keep back part of it? But then he says, well, it remained unsold. Did it not remain the States? No, that's not what it says. Did it not remain the churches? No, it did not remain your own. Bro, that's great. That's a great catch. And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? So Peter is actually going like overboard to try to make the point of you didn't have to do this. Whereas in socialism, it's coerced. Actually what you see here is it's private property and generosity is to the individual. It's not force. So then for example, if you go to 2 Corinthians nine, there is this idea where Paul is collecting money for people who are in greater need than the people he's writing to. But he specifically says he does not want them to give under compulsion because God loves a cheerful giver. So socialism is unbiblical. It also just doesn't work. If you go to any place where this has actually happened. That's because it destroys the incentive structures. It destroys it totally. It destroys the incentive structures. So obviously you've got like the USSR, but also people get like Venezuela. Where it was just how to say at one point was that they were very well-connected. We're literally seeing a case study right now unfold. Yeah. So it's funny because it's interesting. New York City just elected a socialist leader while Venezuela was just liberated from one. And there's a photo that real quick on that note. Paul Babylonby posted this, which I thought was interesting. Just Alistair Begg. So Democrats confuse why Venezuela's cheering down for nice warm collectivism. I love Babylonby guys are hilarious. So just, you know, and you know, this is just real quick on what you're saying. I think Venezuela's wild that this same week, those two things are happening. Again, Mamdani doing this, if you know the history of Venezuela, it was at some point, it was one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America because of its oil. It's even today Venezuela is known to have the largest proven oil reserve in the world. And in 2006, Hugo Chavez, who no longer lives now, this is Nicolas Maduro, he wanted to usher, he was not always socialist. He had a, he won as president, but then in his second term, he wanted to usher what he called at some point, socialism of the 21st century for Venezuela. And he ran his reelection campaign on that promise. And this is what he argued. He argued at the time, this is 2006, Venezuela's a wealthy country. He argued capitalism led to poverty. And he saw socialism as the solution, frame it as a choice between capitalism being hell and socialism being heaven on earth. And he won so that people bought it. It's like, this is new. This always happens. Is that what he campaigned on inequality and reform? Sounds kind of like a playbook from this past year. He won 20 years later, what happened was, this is literally history. The government massively expanded welfare programs, controlled prices in industry, nationalized many private businesses. And some people noticed this, it reduced poverty temporarily, but it discouraged investment. It reduced productivity and reduced overall economic growth. At some point the government is like, ah, we need to fix this. So we take more power, we take more control, we remove checks and balances, we run out of money, we print in more money, cause hyperinflation, government corruption increase. And today poverty in Venezuela is like 90% big collapse economy, shortage of food, medicine and electricity. This is real people. Like, we don't have what we need to like literally survive. People fled Venezuela. And this is why we're seeing today, literally like millions of Venezuelans all over the world celebrating. Cheering, brother going nuts in the streets. We have a video real quick. Do you really? We do. So let's do the, So this is what happens when people are liberated from what Zoran Mamdadi is trying to institute. This is the video. Let's do the top one, Trini. Yeah, there you go. That's Venezuela today. That's people outside of Venezuela celebrating. And then there's another video. If you want to do the other one, Trini, that's literally in Venezuela, people in the streets celebrating. Bro. That their leader, Nicolas Maduro was taken. Cause for them it's like, it signifies like, hey, this is a hopefully a potential end to his authoritarian rule and a hope for freedom and recovery. That's it. And if you want more proof of how this never works, go back even 20 or 30 years and look at videos when the USSR fell. There you go. Like even like the Berlin Wall, like they did not build the Berlin Wall to keep people from moving there. That's right. It was to keep people from leaving. That's right. And so it just, it doesn't work. And so some people might push back or like, well, what about Scandinavian countries? It seems to work well. Those are not socialist countries. They're not socialist countries. In fact, do you see that deal? Did you see that deal? The president of one of the, I think it was Denmark. Denmark. Denmark. He got ticked at American progressives, calling them a socialist country. And he finally was like, stop saying that. We're not that. They have free markets. They don't do price control. They do none of the hard marks of social. Now they do have extremely high taxes to do more of a welfare state type of thing, but it is nowhere near socialism. And I have recently read, there was a thread I came across recently of Silicon Valley tech investors talking about how essentially all of the investors have left their country. They're having the exact same thing. And so that's the, my last one of it. It's incredibly stupid and harmful. Some of it is that stuff. It's the low level stuff of like, hey, actually when this happens, the economy is over time plummet. And so even if it seems like it's working, that's just because capitalism is still doing the heavy lifting at that point. But once it completely leaves, the country completely falls apart. But also when you said this, like if people really just want to see how harmful it is, just go look up the amount of people that Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot and Cambodia killed. It's a hundred million. A hundred because, and here's the same thing always happens with socialism. Whenever massive wealth redistribution happens, the only way the government can redistribute it is to take it and people don't want to give it up. And so eventually the government has to forcibly do that, which is why I said socialism is communism before it gets guns. And eventually it just becomes violent redistribution and you get that over there. So what Christians need to learn to do, Christians are people of wisdom because we are the ones who understand human nature. Socialism and communism are atheistic, they're generally atheistic worldviews that are built on the false assumption that mankind is basically good. So actually mankind's basically good. If we just ask them to, people will do the generous altruistic thing. Christians have a much more realistic view of human nature. No, we are not. We are instinctively naturally bad. And so as a result, we have to put in incentive structures to incentivize positive things like hard work, ingenuity, et cetera. Capitalism, think about this. I'm not saying capitalism always ends up with perfect outcomes, but capitalism incentivizes good things, hard work, ingenuity, grit, creativity, building businesses. Socialism very much penalizes those things. If you're really successful, we're actually just gonna take it away from you and give it to somebody else. So then normal people start going, well then why would I work really hard and why would I be really ingenuitive and why would I have a bunch of grit? They're just gonna take it from me. Now, do you wanna finish with a fun, Charles Spurgeon? Yes, please. All right, so while we're talking about this. So the question is, what should Christians and pastors do? A lot of people don't know this. Karl Marx moved to London while Charles Spurgeon was at the height of his ministry in London. For listeners, you know who Charles Spurgeon was, he's generally known as the Prince of Preachers, arguably the greatest preacher to ever live in church history. Had a megachurch before there were megachurches, dude had a church with about 10,000 people in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in the late 1800s in London before there were microphones. So like just radical move of God. So Karl Marx moves to London while Charles Spurgeon is there. A lot of people do not know that Charles Spurgeon aggressively and relentlessly attacked what was called then democratic socialism in his preaching. Like from his pulpit, he quote unquote got political. Hello. Prince of Preachers. Prince of Preachers got political. In fact, I'm gonna read a segment of a Charles Spurgeon sermon from Isaiah 66 where what he's doing is he's publicly confronting the growth of quote democratic socialism that was coming down from Marx and Engels who had moved to London. So this is Charles Spurgeon doing his deal in the pulpit. Now it's an elongated quote, stay with me. For many a year by the grand old truths of the gospel, sinners were converted and saints were edified and the world was made to know that there is a God in Israel. But these are too antiquated for the present cultured race of superior beings. He's talking about all these people who they were. Even they back then were talking about we're making progress. We're gonna be more progressive. And he mockingly calls them the present cultured race of superior beings. They are going to regenerate the world by democratic socialism. This is Charles Spurgeon from his pulpit. So again, people are like, Josh, y'all shouldn't get political. And no, no, no, no. Our job is to bring the lordship of Jesus Christ to bear on everything in the world. If godly people won't, godless people will. The question is not whether the question is which. He goes on. They're gonna regenerate the world by democratic socialism and set up a kingdom without new birth or the pardon of sin. Truly the Lord has not taken away the 7,000 who have not bowed the need of Baal. This latter day gospel is not the gospel by which we were saved. To me, it seems a tangle of ever changing dreams. It is by the confession of its inventors, the outcome of the period, the monstrous birth of boasted progress. Bro, think about this. 140 years ago in London, the exact same stuff was happening. We wanna be progressive. We wanna progress past these antiquated ideals of how Christians said society should be set up. So he says, the monstrous birth of a boasted progress. He goes on. The scum from the cauldron of deceit. It has not been given by the infallible revelation of God. It does not pretend to have been. It is not divine. It has no inspired scripture at his back. It is when it touches the cross, an enemy. When it speaks of him who died there on, it is a deceitful friend. Many are at sneers at the truth of substitution. It is irate at the mention of the precious blood. Many a pulpit. Now, bro, this is fascinating. He starts noticing 140 years ago in London that progressivism was seeping into the pulpits in London. This is what he's saying here. Does that sound familiar? Many a pulpit where Christ was once lifted high in all the glory of his atoning death is now profaned by those who laugh at justification by faith. In fact, men are not now to be saved by faith, but by doubt. So bro, does this sound familiar? There were all these people like, you know what, man? Let's talk about it. Question everything. You know, a doubt's not bad. Maybe if you deconstructed some of the things this is happening 140 years ago in London. Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. All right, so he keeps going on. Those who love the church of God feel heavy at heart because the teachers of the people cause them to err. Even from a national point of view, men of foresight see cause for grave concern. Now, bro, this is really interesting. And this is why God designed the church to do what it does. So Karl Marx, this is really fun fact. He lived in five urban centers in Europe during his life, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Brussels, and London. All of them ended up developing significant communist movements, except one. London. Why? Because a man of God was willing to open his Bible, stand up in the pulpit and oppose evil wherever he saw it rising. Even if it was happening in the political realm, and he was willing to quote unquote get political, if he saw that Satan was advancing an evil agenda through that realm. So here's my message that all of us should heed, unleash the pulpits. Yes. Do your job. That's our job. That's your job, we'll do pray for us. I will. Father, thank you that we belong to a kingdom that will never end. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end, you promised. Jesus Christ, thank you for being a king who was willing to die on the cross for our sins. Father, I pray that the fresh reality of the limitless grace of God in the crucified Son of God would crash over our hearts, and that Lord, we honestly, we would just like to be absolutely stunned afresh by how much you love us no matter what we're doing. And so Father, as that happens, I pray that we would love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, because we see how much you loved us, and that we would run with endurance, a good race marked out for us as men and women of God. I pray those things in his name, amen. Amen. Like free brother. Thank you father. Thank you father. Thank you father. 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