Question and Answer Services | Gary Hamrick & Andy Wagner

let's have a word of Prayer and then we will dive into these questions you've had a chance to read through them so you might want to take the first one I've been doing all this talking but let's pray and then we'll try to answer these questions lord thank you for this time together in your house we don't presume to have all the answers it's hard but we know that you do and so we just want a little insight little wisdom today pray that everything we say would bring glory and honor to you would properly reflect your standard your views your wishes your purposes your plans as reflected in your word we thank you that we have the Bible as our handbook for life and I pray that you would help me and Andy as we just do the best we can to answer these questions and we pray that it would be glorifying to you and edifying to us Lord in Jesus name and everybody said amen amen well one of the first ones I saw was regarding Matthew 538 and it's a fairly common verse that we've read before it says you have heard it was said I for an eye and tooth for tooth but I tell you do not resist an evil person if someone strikes you on the right cheek turn to him the other also and so I think the question I think the reason why this is usually a question is because it's it's wondering does Jesus not allow retaliation and I think the important thing to remember in the culture if someone were to strike someone on the cheek it would be considered a an insult not not a not a strike in terms of like a blow or a punch so the idea was why are we to turn the other cheek if someone were to start a fight with us well Jesus is okay if we defend ourselves but the idea was don't always be quick to seek revenge if you've been insulted and this section in Matthew 5 that's called the Beatitudes Jesus is raising the standard because basically in in the Old Testament law revenge was fair so whatever's fair if someone insults you you could they could be charged too be fine with a strike to the cheek Jesus is basically saying hey when someone insults you don't be quick to retaliate don't be quick to receipt revenge let Jesus defend you don't be so quickly so quick to defend your right and let let God take care of it and when someone insults you it's going to be okay turn the other cheek and so that's the the context of that verse there so someone asks what is your take on the trend towards social gospel within major evangelical churches and what is our responsibility on social issues while maintaining sorry this this keeps refreshing and the night I lose where it is while maintaining the gospel as priority so the question is about social issues evangelical church is what's our take on social issues and so I think what the person means is there's there's a there's kind of a trend these days where a lot of what you hear from the pulpit in some churches has to do with social issues which by themselves are not necessarily wrong they are often worthy causes you know how do we address the problem of sex trafficking of feeding the poor of eradicating world hunger clean water sources all this kind of stuff that has become very popular in a lot of evangelical churches and the the problem can be when those things become the emphasis instead of the gospel my my opinion has always been that if we start fundamentally with Scripture that as people not only have a personal encounter with Jesus and they personally respond to the truth of the gospel they will then likewise become an extension of Jesus's life and love in our culture and in our world in other words when people enter become born again and they have a relationship with Christ then they may personally want to get involved in various social causes that are worthy of investing in but I think in some churches its inverted where we talk about all the social ills and all the problems in our world and then the gospel is somehow secondary to all that whereas I believe it should be the opposite the gospel should be primary to all things and as we understand the Lord's heart for not only you know our personal Redemption but God's heart for the world then we may want to respond as a result of having that personal encounter with Jesus but I think sadly in some churches the gospel has been relegated to something that is secondary or tertiary and it's not it's not really the foundation for why we do what we do and so you know and it becomes appealing to talk more about social issues because you can get a lot of people to jump on a bandwagon about social issues and people who don't even know Christ you know you have a lot of celebrities who you know are very vocal and their support for you know these kind of things I've just mentioned eradicating world hunger and you know eliminating sex trafficking and all this and again those things are worthy causes and you know we should be involved to whatever degree the Lord puts it on our heart to help with those kind of things but there is this somewhat modern trend where I think the gospel has been relegated to a secondary position and I think if we keep the gospel at the forefront and if we keep the Bible as the foundation for faith and practice that we will want to respond to these issues but they shouldn't be the driving force behind the pulpit it should always be the gospel that leads us in in all about all that we do in terms of faith and practice here's one someone's asking how do I take every thought captive especially during difficult times of suffering the Bible in Paul talks about in 2nd Corinthians that were to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ so the idea is it's difficult for understand to understand how do we take every thought captive when so many thoughts come through our mind throughout the day and we're sinful human beings and I think the Book of Psalms is probably the best one that I think of the first thing that comes to my mind david has a lot of thoughts that he shares with us in the Psalms he shares with us difficult thoughts painful thoughts thoughts that may not even be holy or that he's even proud of he talks about getting he praise God get revenge on my enemies we just talked about avoiding retaliation and David's basically praying for it God take care of my enemies and so the thought is I think David gives us the best illustration of taking every thought captive where he's honest with his thoughts he's not trying to pretend it's that idea of if everyone in the room would just not think about chocolate ice cream it's almost impossible for us not to think about chocolate ice cream so as you're praying or as you're going throughout the day and you want to be obedient led by the spirit and you've got thoughts that come in your mind difficult thoughts discouraging thoughts lustful thoughts basically the idea that I think the illustration David gives us for example David gives us is to be honest with it to pray about it to let God filter that through our minds and just say Lord I'm struggling with this or I'm feeling really discouraged to be honest about the thoughts that were feeling while we're suffering or while we're struggling and just admit and humble ourselves before him and admit our weakness admit our humanity just to you know we want to be holy we want to be christ-like but to pretend God knows better and so for us just to say God I'm struggling with these thoughts help me to take them captive help me to deal with this discouragement I know this is not of you this is what I know but this is what I feel and when we feel those discouraging thoughts at times it doesn't mean that we're not Christian it just means that we're human and for us to admit and be honest with that humanity I think puts us in line with God the Father and he realizes he knows yeah I know you're going to struggle with that that's why I talked about it so much in Scripture that's okay I'm with you and don't don't be discouraged so to be honest I think is a really good way to take thoughts the way that David did in the Psalms do you believe the days described in the creation story were literal 24-hour days I do there are three basic approaches to understand the creation story one is called the gap theory that was popularized by a guy by the name of William Chalmers and 1800's he believes that between Genesis 1 and 2 was when Satan rebelled was kicked out of heaven and then he kind of wrecked the earth and there had to be recreation of the earth in Genesis 1 verse 3 I I don't believe in the gap theory there are a lot of gaps in the gap theory there's another theory called progressive creation which is just really theistic evolution progressive creation says that the the days described in the Genesis creation were long periods of time and the reason why progressive creation became popularized in Christianity in some circles not many was because it they tried to answer the the debate among the scientific community that the earth is you know millions and millions of years old and so how do you account for that in a creation story that really only allows for the earth being six to ten thousand years old so progressive creation came this thought that well then maybe the days mentioned in Genesis are not literal 24-hour days they're long periods of time maybe there are tens of thousands of years but I think theistic evolution of progressive creation is also not supporting Scripture and and so we teach the Genesis account as 24-hour days yom in the hebrew can mean a season of you know like the day of the lord the day of the lord is a is a period of time referring to his second coming but at the days of creation spoken of in genesis chapter one are literal 24-hour days you know it ends every day of creation talking about and there was evening and there was morning.the first day and there was evening and there was morning.the second day if you read it with simplicity then you you begin to literal 24-hour periods plus the whole creation story is extremely interdependent when God created the splendor of the universe and then he gets down to the details of the earth itself everything is dependent upon the previous thing and the next thing it's very interdependent the way God has woven creation together for example and Janus in the Genesis account on date 3 is vegetation is created grass is created fruit bearing trees but the Sun and the moon in the sand is not created unto and the son of the moon is not created until day 4 so vegetation day 3 Sunday 4 again it's it's very interdependent you can't have fruit bearing trees and then for another 1020 thousand or a million years later then the Sun because what would happen to the vegetation it wouldn't live without it so it's extremely interdependent yes we do believe in a literal 24-hour period of the days of creation let me tackle this one real quickly - and again we're not we don't try to avoid the hard questions how can the Christian faith be so against gay marriage and marrying gay couples but they will celebrate and marry other sinners - people who have had sex before marriage people who have been divorced people who were in abusive relationships etc ok by the way you know we we don't marry same-sex couples there are some churches who do but we we see it as fundamentally opposed to the way that God designed male and female and when you look at the original creation story in Genesis 1 I think it's verse 27 where it talks about how God created them male and female yes Genesis 1:27 God created man in his own image and in the image of God he created him male and female he created them so same-sex marriage is contrary to God's original design and so we want to be true to God's original design and we want to celebrate God's original design and so therefore we we do not marry same-sex couples even though it has been deemed legalized in all 50 states we don't practice that we don't recognize it it's incompatible you know everybody has to get to a place where you recognize in your faith if you've come to faith in Christ that the Bible becomes the highest source of authority in your life because it reflects the will and the intentions of God and that God is the highest source of all authority and whenever man's Authority and we respect government government Romans 13 has been given by God to help to manage and administrate countries and regions so we recognize and we respect government but wherever government in the exercise of its authority conflicts directly with the supreme authority of God and His Word then we always opt for God in His Word there are examples in the Bible I'll get to the question but I just want to lay the framework there are examples in the Bible of civil disobedience when when the Pharaoh of Egypt gave the order for all the male Hebrew babies to basically was partial birth abortion to be to be killed upon delivery the midwives the Hebrew midwives respected God as the highest authority of a pharaoh and refused to murder those baby boys so we must always defer to God as the highest authority so because God's design for marriage is male and female despite what government might have legalized now across the country we respect the highest authority which is God and so we will not marry same-sex couples but then the rest of this well how come you go ahead and you celebrate other couples they're sleeping together and divorce couples and abusive okay first I don't know about the abusive part I don't know anybody who's we certainly aren't marrying people in some kind of an abusive relationship we also will not marry people who are sleeping together it's one of the questions that we asked on the questionnaire you know are you currently sleeping together if they say yes we don't just put up a wall and say well then we want nothing to do with you we explain to them God's best in God's design and that God's best for a marriage is that you go into a marriage respecting each other physically honoring God in sexual holiness and that if you're living in sexual sin you need to stop and then we ask the question to the couple are you willing to stop engaging in premarital sex and some couples say yes we are and we know it's not right and and some also say I didn't even know it was a sin and so once they learn and they understand listen we want to marry you with on the best possible footing and when you honor God we believe then you have the best opportunity for the best in your marriage so how about we honor God together stop sleeping together and many couples say okay we we agree we understand we know what's in some couples are even living together we say you have to you have to somebody has to move out you have to go live with a mom or a dad or a neighbor or a friend or but you have to start your marriage right okay and so a lot of couples respond positively some couples don't some couples say well we don't we don't want to move out and I hear this time and time again I'm just going to tell you straight up it's an excuse when I hear people say for financial reasons we have to live together that's nonsense that's baloney that just means you don't really want to do what is right and honoring before God okay and so some people say well we don't want to move out as financial obligations or you know we understand what you're saying but we don't believe it okay god bless you we can't do your marriage divorce couples we will marry a divorced couple depending on what the circumstance was behind the divorce we have some people who were divorced before they even came to know Christ of course and in Christ your new creation so will marry people who have been previously divorced or we have a situation where somebody is divorced because they're the previous spouse cheated on them there are there are some biblical grounds for divorce and remarriage or they were abandoned there there are you know various reasons why after we sit down with a couple and find out that we can proceed with a marriage or we won't proceed with the marriage but somebody writing the question has assumed that we're just you know anti-same-sex marriage but will marry anybody else and that just simply isn't is it the second part simply isn't true we we certainly will not marry same-sex couples because it's incompatible with Scripture although we love people who have same-sex attraction we believe the same grace is available for them as is available for every heterosexual who's in sexual sin okay but but for somebody to assume we just marry anybody almost kind of willy-nilly is just not accurate we do our homework we investigate we sit down with a couple we we have premarital counseling with everybody we marry and if we don't have a clear conscience we will not marry that couple and so long answer but I wanted to be able to give you the background on on all of that Andy okay we've had a couple questions along the same lines of how do you know what God is calling you to do so that the question of how do you know what God's will is or what how do you know what God wants you to do when you're trying to make a decision I think probably almost two years ago we had Emerson egg Raja's out here and he wrote a book the four wills of God and he shared and from the pulpit here a teaching that he gave on God's will it's a great book great teaching you can go to our teaching library but the the principle is we may not know what God wants us to do in the future but we do know what God wants us to do right now so the idea is as far as you can do what God's will is for you right now what do you know and the idea is we know that Jesus wants him us to follow him we know that word us to his authority we know that were to abstain and avoid sexual immorality so we know that we're to love others so it comes down to a lot of times when we're trying to figure out what God what is it that you want me to do it comes down to well we know what God wants us to do we don't have to question or wonder God what's your will for my life we know God you want us to do certain things we know that you want us to give thanks in all situations so if you are doing the things that you know God wants you to do God's will for your life will become much more clear or much more easy or God allows us to walk in decisions because he's given us wisdom to do that so as long as we're giving thanks in all situations as long as we're following Jesus as well as long as we're loving others in forgiving others then it's not nearly as important and Emerson talked about this in his teaching whether we moved to Portland or whether we moved to Seattle because we know that that we're following him were submitting to Authority we're loving others and we're giving thanks in all situations and so what job we take what college we go to some of those big decisions in our life don't aren't nearly as important as are we doing what we know God wants us to do right now in our current situation as long as you're doing that which is enough to put us on our knees to pray God helped me to be more like you help me to love others help me to forgive others help me to submit to to the authority that you've given me and the decisions that we have to make in the future won't be nearly as as large or as difficult as long as we're doing what we know to be doing right now another question that we had about is just a simple question about listening to secular music is listening to secular music wrong around the holidays I think it would almost be impossible not to listen to jingle bells without wondering is is this wrong to listen to secular music I think clearly it's the idea behind the secular music we have to think about the themes but in general I would say no I don't I don't think it's wrong to sing patriotic songs or listen to Christmas music or there are there are a lot of innocent songs out there there are a lot of music out there that's not innocent and that we should be careful about but I wouldn't group it in you cannot listen to secular music I wouldn't make that make that unless you're a parent and you want to make that rule for your kids because your kids just can't make good decisions and you want to make that rule for them until they become of age the number of times I refer to secular music and my sermons I I appreciate your answer thank you somebody asked what is our what is cornerstones oh it's the Church's stance on alcohol and you know I I chuckle only because it like the G a little too much over the holidays is that why you're asking the question or you're thinking about New Year's coming up first of all I actually did a teaching on this almost exactly a year ago and so let me give you the the reference it was January the 7th of 2018 you can go in our teaching library go to our website at cornerstone Chapel dotnet first tab says teachings go to the teaching library and search for the teaching on January the 7th 2018 from the book of Proverbs I I spoke about this subject but just real briefly I'm not a fan of alcohol but I don't think when you look at Scripture you can you know I can as a pastor say to a congregation that you you should not drink I think the Bible cautions about it but I can't tell you that that the Bible says you can't or shouldn't or that it's a sin to do that obviously the bible does speak about drunkenness so then taken to a level of drunkenness it becomes a sin and for me the question always becomes so then where where does it move from being acceptable to a sin like is it a little buzz a lot of buzz you know it's like so there's a gray area in there where this is one of those topics where you just have to personally seek the Lord about should you or should you not now you know as I've said before one of the requirements for pastors in 1st Timothy chapter 3 is we are not to be given to wine and the Greek word is Pato or noses from two words and or patre and oils meaning wine so I don't think pastors have that freedom that some of you may have but but still the Bible cautions about it proverbs talks about alcohol 11 times and 9 out of 11 times it is extreme caution about the dangers and the destruction of alcohol what happens when people are under the influence there are a hundred thousand deaths each year related to alcohol whether it's alcohol poisoning or drunk driving as I've said many times before I'll say again I've never had anybody make an appointment with me and tell me all the wonderful things that have happened in their lives since they started drinking I've had only the opposite I've had people tell me how they lost a marriage they lost a career they lost a child because of some drunk driver who killed them or I lost a college frat brother because he died from alcohol poisoning I only and always hear the tragedy there's no alcoholism in my family's I don't come at the subject from some you know personal hurt I just see throughout scripture that there's cautions about it and so with that I would just say you you should be caution to Ephesians 5:18 says don't be drunk with wine but be filled with the holy spirit we if you really want to you know be about the spirit you know don't go small ass go capital ass Holy Spirit be filled with the Holy Spirit and if you really want and if some of you like we like but you know Jesus drank a little wine you know and so I I just want to do what Jesus did well okay great Luke 22 verse 18 at the Last Supper Jesus said I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom comes so when God pours it I'll drink it but until then if you really want to be like Jesus then maybe you should abstain because he said he wouldn't drink again until the kingdom of God comes so anyway not a prohibition but just in general I think there's a caution and it should be certainly in moderation never to excess never to drunkenness so many good questions somebody asks how do you grow in your faith and still maintain humility so I guess the the idea would be that the assumption would be the more you grow in your faith the more spiritual you become Jesus spent a lot of time rebuking the Pharisees because they were very spiritual they knew the law inside and out they knew Scripture but they just couldn't apply it I think most people that grow in their faith or become more mature are more aware of how far they have to go it's almost like a little bit of knowledge is dangerous it's almost like with any skill you think of I well I think of football the idea of like the more you grow in that area the more you learn about it the more you realize man there's so much about it that I really still need to learn and it's humbling the further along you get I think that's true with in most areas or most skills that we pursue I think Scripture is the same way the more we want to become like Jesus the more we are aware of our own weaknesses and sins and so humility at times can be a natural impact of growing in our faith and so them it and and the scripture is full of questions like this where Jesus basically says follow me and the idea is follow me as I have come to serve I haven't haven't come to be served I haven't I'm not growing in my faith or becoming more like Jesus so that I can puff up will be proud or be great I them the greater I am that the more of a servant I am and the more humble I am and the more that I'm sacrificing myself for other people and so I think I think it's very possible I think humility should be a byproduct of growing in our faith rather than the other way around if you find yourself becoming more proud as you grow in your faith I would see that as a red flag I would see that as an issue as a problem realizing I must not be really pursuing Jesus because all of this is head knowledge rather than me being sacrificial me being more loving me being more honoring me on my knees trying to be more like Jesus that's a very humbling position to be like him and try to be like him more and more every day well we only have like like three or four minutes left let me try to to get in a bunch of these and and if you want to look at one you can answer a last one and I'm just gonna rattle off a few is sex something to be enjoyed in marriage by a married couple or is it just for having children I hope it should be enjoyed for between a married couple more than just having children I hope so the announcement of the u.s. pulling out of Syria has raised a lot of discussions about the prophecy in Ezekiel 38 and 39 what is your position on this I don't think it has anything to do with Ezekiel 38 and 39 I think that has to do with Russia more so than it does with Syria are there TV pastors to stay away from can you name names oh I'd love to name names but the reason I won't I mean in passing I may if somebody you know as has said something or tweeted something that is you know gone really viral I may address it as as something that I need to address but otherwise here's my here's my general position on this and people will think it'll privately ask me and I'm a privately respond I I just was watching one of them the other day and thinking of myself as I'm as I'm watching her some of this is good content and others of it is like ha and I just cringed it's some of the other stuff she was saying my position is this I don't need to try to call out the TV evangelist or other pastors or other authors that I think are not spot-on my responsibility is to equip you in the Word of God and when you are equipped in the Word of God and you do much more yourself than just relying on me to equip you I'm talking about my responsibility as a pastor but as you search the Scriptures yourself as you grow in the Grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the word you don't need somebody like me to tell you you'll know you'll be equipped enough to know you you'll be equipped enough to listen to a TV pastor preacher evangelist and say to yourself that spot on because that scripture that other little thing that person said that's not right and I know my Bible enough to know that that's not right so I don't have to spend my time crawling out other people that I don't think are spot on my responsibility is to help equip you in your faith so that you would know the truth and the truth jesus said will set you free and you'll be able to discern what is true from what is false you know in Scotland Yard's they don't train I think this is true for our own federal government too but I knew I know this for a fact in Scotland Yard's they don't they don't train people to evaluate counterfeit money by studying the counterfeit they trained Scotland officers to look at real money and when they are so ingrained in spotting what is real they know what is false by default and that's the way it'll be - for you as you walk in the truth and as you grow in the truth I'll give the last question - Andy somebody asked how do we pray for someone who is not born again so we have a loved one who's not a Christian how do we pray for them and I think that's a great question something I've thought about a lot because we know in Scripture that God wants this person to be a Christian so it's kind of like God I know it's your will that they're a Christian I know it's my will that they're Christians so how do I pray for them usually what I fall back to is that I ask God God how can you use me in this person's life this this loved one I want them to know you you want them to know you how can you use me if can I listen to them better can the Bible talks about Jesus while he was on earth that he would ask God to help him know what to say and when to say it it was kind of like God I want to know what to say to this person when to say it how to say it because even Jesus while he was on earth was asking God for that God how should I say this and so I think that's something that we can pray for god help me to be sensitive to this person help me to listen to this person help me to know when to speak up when to be quiet when just to simply pray for them when day and when to intervene when to back away how can my life be an influence to this person how can I show this person the love of God and how much you've impacted me and how can that be a blessing to this other person so I think a lot of times our prayers should just start with us God what can you do in me that's going to be an influence to this person that I love that you love what what can I say what what and and what can I not say how can you use me as an influence to best interact with this person that best have impact on this person with the love of Christ okay folks thanks for your questions there are dozens we never even got to but we might tackle one of yours in the next service or the one after so maybe go home and tune in or stick around for that we'll be here for all three if you want to stick around you can let's pray together Lord thank you for your grace and your love in our lives thank you for your word that guides us and guards our hearts I pray that you would continue to help us grow in our relationship with you Lord we thank you for your blessings over this past year you've been so good to us as a church we pray that you would continue to guide us and direct us and protect us and may everything we do here be for your glory and for your honor in Jesus name we pray and everybody said amen okay start with the question just got this two minutes ago it says any advice for a young man trying to live for Christ who hopes to find a woman and get married usually three things come to mind when I think about couples before they get married I do a lot of premarital counseling here and it's fun to work with with couples the first is just understanding the difference between a contract and a covenant a lot of times couples will see marriage as in terms of like a business contract it's kind of like if you make me coffee I'll pick up my socks and it's kind of like if you do this I'll do that and it's more contractual God talks about marriage as a covenant so it's something before God so it's much more serious than any kind of a contract and so that's kind of a a baseline the other two things we talked about are do you have realistic expectations and do you have the maturity for marriage the realistic expectations the idea is I can't expect my future spouse to be responsible for my health my faith my happiness and my when I say I do my spouse is not going to complete me that is between me and the Lord and I need to make sure that my expectations are realistic that once I get married all the problems that I used to have will be gone and things will be awesome just like in the movies and so realistic expectations are really important before a couple gets married the second is regarding maturity couples have to realize am I ready to look beyond myself am I ready to serve someone else sacrifice for someone else love someone else more than I love myself or is my selfish and is so strong right now that I should not be looking to meet the needs of another person and so it's do I have the maturity to look beyond myself and I would make sure that that anyone before they say I do is able to answer that question say I think I'm ready to look beyond myself and try to meet the needs of someone else the interesting thing is I think the first year the first two years of marriage we realize how selfish we really are more so than we ever really possible knew possibly knew so it's impossible for two perfect people to get married we we realized this person Marian is just a sinful human being just like myself but I want to try as best as I can to make sure my expectations are realistic and I'm as possible as mature as I possibly can be all right I'm gonna try to answer three questions real quickly they don't require long answers first is God's love reckless now I'll tell you the reason why somebody asks this question is there's a popular worship song right now called reckless love and it it's a great song as far as the tune the music you know but I personally have problems with the lyrics and only in this regard you know words are important and in the English language reckless is never used in a positive way it's always used with a negative connotation reckless driving right other things that are reckless is a sense of something that's out of order so there's a song reckless love it's very popular right now in in the Christian circles but it talks about God's love being reckless and because the word reckless is always used in a negative connotation in English language I don't prefer the song because I don't want to have to explain to people anytime you have to explain something you know I heard the artist who wrote the song explained the meaning behind it I thought okay the explanation sounds pretty decent but anytime you have to actually explain something and it doesn't stand on its own I have I have issues with it so I've told our worship team I don't want to sing that song here I don't want to sing it I don't want to sing it in the sanctuary because I just don't want that connotation to be misunderstood that God's love is reckless I understand he pursues us I just don't particularly I think that the English word best defines God's love so for that reason we don't sing it in the main service here but if you like it you can like it but I don't think God's love is reckless all right what is your feeling on psychic mediums stay away okay stay away psychic mediums are either charlatans and they're just getting your money or they actually tap into the demonic one or the other but they are not inspired by the Spirit of God they are inspired by demonic spirits either that or they're faking it entirely just to be able to get your money you see mediums mentioned in the Bible there was a witch and Endor First Samuel chapter 28 that's all consulted and they are to be avoided and then the third question jesus said that you should sell everything you have and follow him how do we know how to balance the wealth God has given us in parentheses tithing giving to the needy savings etc okay first of all Jesus never told us as a matter of principle to sell everything he said it one time in Mark's Gospel chapter 10 to a rich young ruler and he said it to the rich young the stories also recorded I think in the Gospel of Matthew but he but it's the same story so he said it once to a rich young ruler when the ruler asked the guy asks what must I do to be saved and Jesus took him through you know the ten commandments are divided into two tablets the first tablet of Commandments are vertical they are your relationship with God the second part of the tablet the other half of the Ten Commandments are horizontal it's about your relationship with one another and Jesus first quotes the second tablet to this young man how is your relationship you know with with everybody else in Mark's Gospel chapter 10 he said you know the commandments do not murder do not commit adultery do not steal do not give false testimony do not defraud honor your father and mother and the guy said yeah all of these I've kept since I was a boy and Jesus looked at him and loved him and he said one thing you lack he said go and sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven then come follow me because what Jesus is referring to was the vertical part of the of the commandments this guy didn't have right he had made money his God and commandment number one is you shall have no other gods for me so Jesus opens up kind of with a softball and he just basically says you've done well with these commandments haven't you yes I have but the first part of the tablet of the testimony the first part of the same commandment you've not done so well with because you've made God your money I sorry you've made money your God and you need to sell everything and give to the poor because in his particular case money was his god but just as a general principle Jesus does not say through the Scriptures that all of us need to sell everything and give to the poor God uses people and uses the resources he blesses people with to do wonderful things for the kingdom money itself is not the problem it's man who does not manage it properly as understanding stewardship that God is the owner of everything were just the managers of it so in principle God isn't his then say to do that to everybody he was challenging one particular person who had made money his god now that said maybe money is your God and maybe you need to reconsider what you need to do in terms of the resources God has given you but otherwise not not spoken of as a principle and you talk about releasing the grip releasing the grip yeah the idea of the holder the the tighter you hold on to money maybe it's maybe it is something that you need to release the grip a little bit and practice generosity it's the Bible talks about practicing it because it might may not come naturally just to most so it's something that we might have to practice a couple questions that just came in regarding depression one was specifically asking is depression a sin in and of itself depression is not a sin a lot of times I look at depression as like a look at a headache it's more and more research coming out talks about things like depression as as something that's physical chemical medical and a lot of times we don't feel guilty when we get a headache we just look for what what are the reasons behind this am I not getting enough sleep do I have too much stress is there some something circumstantial or or situational there's this a side effect of another medication that I'm taking so we need to be careful that we try to rule out what what's going on why are the reasons behind this depression but I think there are some situations where it's okay to go see your doctor and take medication for depression it shouldn't be your first choice again try to rule out what's what else is going on is there something else going on that it that is causing this but if you try to rule everything out it seems like a medical or chemical thing then treat it medically or chemically like you would a headache or diabetes the the the feelings or emotions that come with with depression or anxiety point to the fact that we are human living in a fallen world and and we are not home yet and so a lot of times there are feelings that where we have difficulty coping with and so unfortunately a lot of times there's guilt that comes with those feelings because the Bible talks about having joy and the Lord I think that God is honored when we choose to honor him with in our circumstances by giving thanks by coming to church by singing a song even if we don't feel like it so through persevering through difficult circumstances like depression we can glorify and honor God so that doesn't need to be guilt surrounding it because if I'm a Christian I shouldn't be feeling this way no I'm human that's why I'm feeling this way because I'm a Christian I want to follow Jesus despite the fact that I feel this way so no depression is not in and of itself a sin alright let me see if I can get through some of these real quickly is baptism required for salvation no some denominations a few will teach that it is anytime you add anything to the free gift of salvation that is a matter of grace through faith you've just not made it a works oriented system anytime you add anything that's Jesus plus baptism as Jesus plus speaking in tongues as Jesus plus circumcision is Jesus plus if you add anything to the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that we are saved through faith alone you've made it a works oriented system you have to do something baptism is not required for salvation baptism is an external demonstration of an internal work that you have in shape with Christ we should be baptized out of obedience because Jesus tells us to do it but it is not required for salvation this requires a lengthy answer but I'm gonna just try to say it briefly why do we support Israel we support Israel because God told Abraham in Genesis 12 verse 3 I will bless those who bless you and those who curse you I will curse and all nations on earth will be blessed through you God had a plan for redeeming the world from our sin and his plan was that through a nation that had not even existed but for the divine providence of God through the seed of Abraham then God initiated a plan of redemption for us through a people that were his own out of whom came a messiah Jesus who died for the sins of the whole world Jew and Gentile alike so God has a special plan for the redemption of mankind that emanated through a Jewish Savior a Jewish Messiah who came from a Jewish people that were birthed from the providential plan of God through the seed of Abraham and we should be careful to respect how God has ordained this ultimate plan of redemption and the special place and purpose that Israel the Jewish people hold in that redemptive plan does that mean everything Israel does is right today no does that mean that they are a perfect nation no none of us is perfect and no nation is perfect but we respect God's ultimate plan through Israel and we understand the sacred place that it is held through history and and in the future too in terms of all that God will accomplish in the earth and then let me tackle this one and I don't want to make this a long discussion either but I don't want to shy away from the hard questions does the Bible provide any guidance on immigration for America now by the question I assume the person is asking in terms of the recent you know all of this discussion and debate about immigration and the border in the wall and you know what should the Christians position be on all of this and and I will tell you it's somewhat complicated so I don't want to give a pat answer but let me argue from the standpoint of what is right and what is wrong I heard Nancy Pelosi say that building a wall is immoral that's the word that she used and and I wish that I could personally ask her what do you mean by that word immoral why is a wall immoral and allow her to define that for me because my thinking of immoral is something that is evil something that is contrary to what God's best would be and and and who he is something that is immoral that would be contrary to Scripture for example contrary to God's values is building a wall immoral I kind of see Jerusalem had and still has a wall that there are walls that are built for defensive purposes and I don't understand the argument of immoral from the standpoint of a wall you know I've been taking tourists to Israel for now 20 years and I can tell you the first few times I went to Israel there wasn't a wall and I can tell you the the Intifada and the death and the the constant attack coming against Israel because there was no wall and I've been to Israel many times since they built a wall and I can tell you the the peace that has been secured walls work we need to be compassionate towards people who want to be able to come into America we have the privilege of living in the greatest and freest country on earth I understand why people want to get in here but I also understand that there are laws to be respected and there's a right way to do everything and there's a wrong way to do everything my dermatologist is Vietnamese and he was saying to me as we were working on me the other day he's saying to me any you know using a few foul words to to describe the whole thing but he he's like I had to wait 10 years 10 years to become illegal of a legalized US citizen and he said I came in here like everybody else and I have to do it that and why can't he said he was talking from a very personal standpoint why can't people just simply respect that there's a right way to do it and do it in a legal way and become American citizens and come in the right way but respect the laws of the land so it's not it's not an end compassionate thing to respect the laws of the land so we should have a heart for people who want to get in but we should have a process and respect the process I gotta be honest with you I don't get the sanctuary City stuff and it is a mess what's happening in California because they are respecting the sanctuary cities and giving solace to people who should not be given comfort and solace they should be turning their efforts to help people who are really in need instead of protecting people who are here illegally let's just respect the laws of the land that's what honors God what is moral is to respect the laws of the land that honor God let's start there and do it the right way but still obviously maintain compassion for people who want to get in but let's help them get in the right way and the legal way there's a whole lot more that could be set on that and I don't want to stir the pot any more than I already have but anyway there's my two cents on it Andy why don't you clean it up go ahead okay one that just came in is there power in giving fasting and praying and so my first thought was to go to Matthew five because Matthew six because he talks about giving praying and fasting in Matthew chapter 6 Jesus does in the Beatitudes and so there's a couple principles from the Beatitudes regarding giving fasting and praying that have somewhat of a must have somewhat of a connection and he says similar things when you give when you fast when you pray you do them in secret you don't do them to try to impress anyone and that God will give you a reward for it and so it's very interesting when we give don't don't try to impress others with our giving do it in secret when we pray do it in secret don't try to impress people with our loud and long prayers and when we fast don't tell everyone that we're fasting do it in secret and there will be a reward and I think the power comes because the Bible does specifically say that that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective I think the power comes when we do those things that are in our control we can pray we can give we can fast it gives us to do the power to do those things that are difficult for us to do there's a scripture about forgiveness in Matthew 6 turning the other cheek avoiding divorce avoiding retaliation helping those other people out it's kind of like giving fasting praying certain things that we can do to give us the ability and the power to do those things that we can't do naturally in our own strength and so I think there's a lot of power in giving fasting and praying and I think the disciplines I would call those some of the some of the spiritual disciplines I always think about spiritual disciplines they equip us to do those things that were weakened and so it's difficult for us to love others honor other's forgive others follow Jesus but things that we can do like giving fasting and pray and give us the power to be able to do that somebody asked why do we not say the Lord's Prayer doing during our service you know when Jesus taught the Lord's Prayer I don't believe that he intended it to be a rote recited prayer I believe that he intended it as a model and as an example of how to pray and the types of things to pray for and kind of a a pattern in terms of you know start with praise before you start in with your needs you know our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name you know just worshiping him before you get into the requests about your daily needs and your daily bread and there should be always a component in there about forgiving one another as we've been forgiven and and so I don't believe that he meant it as a recited prayer but simply as somewhat of a model as an example with different elements that we should consider in our regular times of prayer and for that reason we don't we don't say it as a formula and and that's the that's the answer for that but I don't think it's a bad thing if you want to recite the Lord's Prayer I don't think it's it's ever a bad thing I've been in a minute church services where they do I'm just giving you the answer why we don't somebody said can you explain the hierarchy among angels do we have personal guardian angels Jesus did speak about angels particularly in regards to children and there is a hierarchy of angels but it's not described that well in Scripture we know that there is one angel who is Michael the Archangel who is the only Archangel mention in the Bible Gabriel is mentioned by name as somewhat of a messenger angel so there's no other Archangels mentioned except Michael but that is some kind of hierarchy some type of authority you know in Ephesians chapter 6 when when Paul writes about warning us about demonic principalities those angels that have fallen and rebelled he talks about we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms and many believe that Paul is writing there about a hierarchy even among fallen angels powers principalities spiritual forces of evil so we do see in Scripture there seems to be some class or order of angels but it's not really described that clearly in Scripture and so besides knowing my call as the Archangel we don't really know what that structure looked likes looks like where are we in the time line of the return of Jesus closer today than we were yesterday and that's gonna be the Pat answer every day you know it's unknown we we don't know when he will return but again the return of Christ is in two phases the first phase he only comes in the clouds to receive the church to rapture the church as what Paul writes it on first Thessalonians chapter 4 the second phase is after the tribulation he returns to the earth and brings the Saints with him who have gone on already to be with the Lord in heaven those Saints returned with them and then there's a thousand-year reign on earth with Jesus as the Prince of Peace on earth ruling and reigning and then following that there's a new heaven and new earth so right now we're on this timeline between when Jesus ascends and went back to heaven after his crucifixion and when he comes again in the clouds to rapture to take the church there is not another prophecy in the Bible that has to transpire before Jesus comes in the clouds to take us there's a lot of other prophecies that happen still foretold in the Bible but not one necessary before the trumpet call of God when the dead in Christ shall rise and then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with the Lord to meet him in the air that can happen at any time and for that reason we should always be ready and we should always be watching because our Redemption draws near okay one just came in very simple are tattoos a sin so it's a great question I don't believe that they are I don't believe there's anything in scripture that talks about tattoos being a sin there's a scripture in Leviticus in the Old Testament that talks about markings on your body and I think in context that's referring to the Israelites don't put any markings on your body like the Egyptians did the Egyptians put markings of idols false gods that they worshipped on their bodies and would use that for idol worship and so definitely don't put any markings on your body that represents idol worship but just in general tattoos I mean the permanent you might want to think twice before you do something that's going to last forever but I don't think in their nature that they're sinful I think it's much more important what's on the inside than what's on the outside and I think that principle is pretty clear throughout the New Testament someone else also asked how does a husband love his wife as Christ loved the church great question I love this question Ephesians 5:25 it's in Ephesians 5 somewhere it tells husbands love love your wives as Christ loved the church it's a great question and because it's we're trying it seems like such a high standard because Christ when you think about how did Christ loved the church well Christ he was very unselfish he was very sacrificial he did not use his authority to harm he used his authority for good think about Christ in the church he loved the church he honored the church he provided for the church protected the church he washed his disciples feet so if you want to think about examples of what what how did Jesus interact with the church while Jesus was on earth use that as an example it's a huge responsibility for men to take seriously is to save my wife my family what's my responsibility and role towards them to protect them to provide for them to love them to honor them to use the authority that God has given me for their good for their protection for their provision to love them sacrificially and unselfishly and that it's difficult and to do that if we're gonna serve the Bible says and first Peter serve in the strength that God provides we cannot do that in our own strength if it feels supernatural to do all those things as a husband it's because it is we need God's help to be able to do that but God the Bible promises he's gonna give us everything that we need to be able to do what he's called us to do so if you're a husband in here he's called you to love your wife he's going to give you the ability to do that if you seek him and ask for his help okay why did God hardened Pharaoh's heart okay many of you are familiar with the story in exodus between chapter 7 and 14 where God used a series of plagues to release the Hebrew slaves from 400 years of slavery in Egypt and allow them to return to their homeland to Israel and in the process it talks about how God hardened Pharaoh's heart he hardened Pharaoh's heart because Pharaoh was unwilling to let the Hebrew slaves go and so there's this process back and forth of God hardening Pharaoh's heart ten times between X to the 7 and 14 it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart but four times in those same chapters it said Pharaoh hardened his own heart in other words God used Pharaoh's bent to accomplish God's purposes it wasn't that and some some people look at that the hardening of Pharaoh's heart and you know totally focus on the sovereignty of God in terms of how God hardened his heart true but Pharaoh also hardened his own heart four times in those same chapters so God works in conjunction often with human vessels to accomplish his divine and perfect purposes and in order to let the Hebrew slaves go there was this back and forth between Pharaoh and God in terms of God hardening his heart and Pharaoh hardening his own heart so that in the course of those 10 plagues God's perfect will could be accomplished so that the people could ultimately be delivered there are a lot of people who are asking questions about can you lose your salvation and where does cornerstone stand between our minyan ISM and Calvinism and look this this will take you know a long time to answer these questions I would just refer you to on the teaching library go to the just last year go to the teaching library am i teaching through the book of Ephesians and just listen that was a Wednesday night teaching through the book of Ephesians listen all that there is I believe in Scripture a balanced approach to the whole discussion of sovereignty of God and the free will of man and when you look at the ballot subscription the totality of Scripture that tension is kept in place on purpose so we are not five-point Calvinist here we're not five-point Arminian either we are kal minion and it's just basically a combination of those different points of Calvinism and Arminianism if you don't know what those points are you're better off don't enter the debate but for those of you who are curious enough to know these things and to you know dig these things out I would just probably refer you to the teaching library go to the Fijians chapters 1 & 2 when I when I really unpacked all of that on a Wednesday night about a year ago you can search through our teaching library and you can find that Andy do you want to you ready to go sure someone asked question we only have like three minutes left how do I explain to someone why they're experiencing suffering that's a question we often get why do we suffer and I think a lot of times it's important that we don't answer that question because we really can't answer that question I think when we look to the story of Job when job was suffering his children was not were died lost his crops lost his animals job asked God five times why is this happening the Bible tells us that job was a righteous man he over and over asked God why he never got an answer for why the story of Job is will you still continue to trust God even when things don't go your way and so the why of suffering is a really difficult answer a lot of times God doesn't explain suffering to us how are we going to be able to explain suffering to our loved ones or friends or our family members it's going to be very difficult suffering does exist we live in a fallen world so the idea of trying to I usually I try to stop trying to explain that why because God's ways are not always convenient or obvious they don't always make sense to us our ways are not his ways we can't understand why there is suffering always in the world but when you look at scrip sure it is comforting to realize that that Joseph that that David that that Hanna that Paul that Jeremiah that Elijah men of God like job were righteous and yet they suffered so for us always to equate that we're suffering because we must have done something wrong I just don't see that in in scripture there are consequences to our sin but I think suffering falls on the righteous and the unrighteous and for us to try to explain why all the times is it's often fruitless okay I'm gonna try to answer in the next two minutes because our time has already escaped us how should we as godly people approach sexuality and sexual orientation and that's a broad question and that that probably deserves a lot more time than I'm gonna give it but I'll just say this much it starts with each of us in that we should all strive for holy sexuality and by that I mean what honors God and what does God define as holy sexuality in Scripture the Bible tells us in 1st Thessalonians 4 3 to 7 that it is God's will that you should be sanctified and that you should avoid sexual immorality and that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God and then in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him the Lord will punish men for all such sins as we have already told you and warned you for God did not call us to be impure but to live a holy life so the first thing I would say is we need to be most concerned about our own sexual integrity and sexual honor and are we living in a way even as I'm speaking for the moment to Christians who are heterosexual and you love the Lord honor God with your bodies and make sure that you were living a life that sexually honorable unto the Lord okay it begins with us if you're married to be faithful in your marriage if you are single be faithful to God in your singleness abstain you know fidelity and marriage abstinence and singleness this is what the Bible calls us to now as it relates to the broader issue of sexual orientation in our culture today it's become a very difficult subject in this regard that for the church to speak truth into our culture in in terms of this subject we have to do it delicately but we have to do it honestly and there will be people who think we are haters just simply because we disagree with their lifestyle same-sex relationships are simply not God designed in Genesis 1:27 God created male and female and that is his order in that it is that is his design and irrespective of however our culture trends on any subject this one included we have to always maintain our scriptural clarity on the subject and where the culture begins to redefine things that does not redefine it for us to understand that God is the final authority as revealed and Express through his word but it also means that the responsibility is greater on us as Christians in how we communicate the truth and the love of God to people who now believe that their sexual orientation because it's now sanctioned by the government or by the culture is in conflict with our understanding of what is right and what is wrong we have to be very careful in how we communicate and how we come across I've said this on many occasions I think the church has not done it the church in general has not done a great job in helping people who are in same-sex relationships or the same-sex attraction or now that has been legalized in the same sex marriage understand the truth but understand it wrapped in love I don't think we've done a great job with it and I think we've maybe intentionally or I hope often inadvertently alienated people now we'll some people again think that we're just haters just because we disagree with their life yes they will as best as you can possibly present the truth in love some people will still think you just hate me and that isn't true but sexual integrity and holiness begins with ourselves you know are we faithful in marriage or we abstinent in singleness or are we are we not looking at porn or we are we making sure that our sexual lives are in check and order and honorable and godly before the Lord that's where it begins and then in our culture we have to simply maintain our standard for what we believe is true tell others when it is incumbent upon us to do so I don't think you need to try to ignite the debate tell others what the truth is wrap it always in the love of Jesus help people to understand that we just simply understand the whole topic in a different light because of what Scripture teaches us and we want as many people to understand the same saving grace and forgiveness that we've come to understand regardless of your orientation we all need grace we all need a Savior we all need forgiveness from our sins and hopefully that message comes across in a loving way even to people that we disagree with and who disagree with us amen all right our time has escaped us here's what I'm going to try to do because we had dozens and dozens even from the first service that didn't get answered we have many more from this service as well this spring I did it last spring this spring I'm gonna consolidate these questions I'm gonna come back and try to revisit as many of these as possible probably in a series on a Wednesday night so hopefully you'll get your question or the majority these questions answered to the best of our ability but let's pray and let's close our service Lord we thank you for this time in your word and we thank you that you have given a your truth expressed through your word and we pray that we would continue to search the Scriptures daily to learn more about you and to understand your ways and your desire for us and lord I thank you for all these folks here today pray that we would continue to grow in the Grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and whose name we pray and everybody said amen one of the ones that came in recently how do I honor my parents when our relationship isn't very good so I thought this was a great question to ask it's always a good question when people are asking I know God wants me to love the unlovable respect the unrespectable honor someone when they're not being honorable and that's the challenge so the question is how do I go ahead and do that I think first of all it would be a good start to forgive them remind yourself that your parents aren't perfect that maybe they're doing the best that they can but all parents make mistakes and so if you've got you're trying to honor a parent that's you don't have a great relationship with first of all forgive them as God has forgiven you recognize that they're they're not perfect try to support them in any way that you can try to encourage them any way that you can maybe they taught you how to throw a spiral or drive a car encourage that start start small try to be supportive of them there are ways that you can speak well of them as as best that you can even though your relationship with them might not be great so think of those ways what is in my control I can forgive I can speak well of I can try to support I can try to encourage when possible I can try to provide for them when they get older and these are all ways that God would want us to honor our parents even if we think they aren't acting very honorable okay I'm gonna this might eat into a little bit of your time but I'm sorry I'm gonna try to answer a bunch of questions that are on somewhat of the same theme and I'm gonna read several these questions that I'm gonna try to do my best to answer all of this somewhat generically but there's a lot of questions we've had this in the previous two services and I'm getting it here too about sexuality and in our culture right now there's a lot of debate and discussion same-sex transgenderism and so I have questions like this what does the church say about gay marriage can you be gay and Christian how does cornerstone Chapel feel about gay rights and is it okay to date a trans person so obviously these are subject matters that our culture is facing right now there's a lot of confusion in our culture there has been a in my opinion a substitution of reality for perception and we're doing a disservice to people by not really speaking the truth in love and and we are doing a disservice to ourselves when we start to kind of just cater to the culture and just become absorbed by cultural thought and human philosophies so let me start by saying this and I and I always want to make sure on this delicate subject that I preface my remarks by saying that just because we might have a disagreement with some in our culture on the subject of sexuality because our view is shaped by the Bible does not mean that we hate anybody okay God loves everybody Jesus died for everybody and therefore we love everybody too don't misinterpret a disagreement on how we define things for being animus we we don't have any hostility or animosity at all and the church has not done a good job in in the past in my opinion in reaching out to people with same-sex attraction and now that our country has legalized same-sex marriage the church has not done a great job in reaching out and ministering and loving people in same-sex relationships or the same-sex attractions so that's all on us we haven't always done a good job at that but we also can't go the other direction which unfortunately some churches have gone in fact several mainline denominational churches just like well it's almost like if we can't beat them join them and so instead of staying true to what Scripture teaches there have been some now maybe many churches that have just decided well we're just going to embrace the lifestyle and we're gonna you know accept same-sex marriage same-sex relationships transgenderism and all of this and it's not being true to scripture and it's really not being true to people who need the truth and again because we've not always expressed the truth in love people who need the truth don't want to hear it from us because we've almost lost the credibility and respect of speaking the truth so Genesis 1:27 talked about how God created man in his own image it says in male and female he created them so we affirm here at Cornerstone God's design for not only marriage but relationships in general which is heterosexual between a man and a woman so we affirm God's original intent and design and so what is our stance on gay marriage even though the country has legalized it we we reject it as something legitimate because it's incompatible with what scripture teaches on the subject by the way government should always be respected but government is not the highest authority God is and there are times when it might even be incumbent upon us to engage in peaceful but civil disobedience if government ever imposes something upon us that is directly in conflict with the high higher authority of God and His Word does everybody understand that you have an example in Scripture in Exodus well yeah praise the Lord okay so but yeah you have an example of course in Scripture when Pharaoh the most powerful man on earth at that time Pharaoh of Egypt made this edict that all the Hebrew babies being born as part of the slave population in Egypt during the time all the Hebrew baby boys should be basically as partial birth abortion as soon as you see that it's a boy you were to kill the baby and the Hebrew midwives deferred to the higher authority of God and they just quietly disrespected and dishonored the Pharaohs edict and deliver those babies anyway okay so there are examples in scriptures where you don't you don't obey government if government is asking you to do something contrary to God's higher order and higher law so even though our country has legalized and in many ways legitimize same-sex relationships we don't see it that way so we don't perform same-sex marriages here and the day that government mandates it we will no longer do marriages here we will we will you know people will have to get legally married by the courthouse and then we'll just do a religious ceremony too before the Lord to honor God but if the government ever imposes us forces us to have to do that then we just won't do it and so we're in we're heading into new times which is difficult and complicated times can can a a person be gay in a Christian let me say this I don't think I want to word it carefully there are a lot of things in life that we may have tendencies to do but the sin issue is when you act on it so there are people who have same-sex attraction who can be Christian as long as you don't act on it and as long as you realize that those feelings you need to give to the Lord and ask him to correct in the same way someone can be heterosexual and lustful and want to have premarital sex or adult commit adultery you can have those thoughts and you don't like stop being a Christian as long as you don't act on it the issue is are you acting on a lifestyle that is incompatible with how one who loves Jesus should live and act so that's what it becomes a in issue and that's when it becomes the question of Christianity versus your lifestyle it needs to be a lifestyle for something to be incompatible with Christianity people can have can wrestle with all kinds of sin issues and struggles the question is are you acting on it so as long as you're not acting on these things then it may not necessarily be incompatible with your Christian faith then the question becomes about dating a transgender person transgenderism again it becomes a complicated issue but up until 2013 the American Psychiatric Association following the DSM the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for mental disorders is that what DSM stands for yeah something like that up until 2013 it was called gender gender identity as a mental illness and since 2013 has been relabeled reclassified gender dysphoria and no longer treated as a mental illness the World Health Organization just this year decided to remove what they call gender in congruence out of their manual for treatment across the world and it'll be effective in like 2021 or 2022 where people who struggle with gender identity which now they call gender dysphoria is no longer considered a mental illness let me tell you something that is just a denial of reality and we are in a day in our age when unfortunately what we're trying to do is make a mental illness a civil right and it just listen God created us male and female and David said I am fearfully and wonderfully made and when people may have struggles in this area and is no longer treated as a mental illness we are doing them a horrible disservice as some of you may want some some help on this in terms of you know further reading a dr. Michelle Rotella MD she's the president of American College of pediatricians dr. Cottle has said quote what doctors once treated as a mental illness transgenderism the medical community now largely affirms and even promotes as normal but but read different things she's written you can even google she's spoken many times that you can YouTube dr. Michelle Rotella and hear what she has to say about how transgenderism should be still treated as a mental illness as a mental disorder she gave the example of something called be iid body integrity a body identity integrity disorder which is still treated today and here's what it is there are some people actually have a mental disorder where they feel like that they are an amputee within a normal person's body so what they will try to do is cut off a limb because they identify mentally as an amputee but they have a normal healthy body and so they feel trapped in a normal healthy body as an amputee in their mind and so they try to cut off their limbs that's still treated as a mental disorder but yet if somebody wants to surgically remove healthy breast tissue or genitalia now we're just calling it transgenderism and we're not seeing it as a mental disorder and so we're doing a disservice to people and we're not helping them and so to the person who wants to date someone who is transgender you're dating someone who the medical community is not going to agree with this in large part dr. Michelle Cordell and kertel and others would you're wanting to date someone who in many ways has a mental illness and I don't know why you would want to date them I I would ask you instead why aren't you wanting to get them help of course where do they go for help these days because it's not normally treated so you know with the Lord God can make all things new and God can take all of our sinful and mental not to say that there's in many ways legitimate counseling and legitimate medication for things but I want to always make sure that we give the highest regard to the wonderful powerful redeeming work of Jesus Christ in the life of a person and to pray for that individual but don't date that individual witness to that individual but don't have a relationship with that individual because they're confused and and they don't they don't even necessarily know exactly who they are and let me tell you you know when God creates male and female created a female with X X chromosome and he created a man with X Y chromosome there are some rare sexual identity biological disorders okay but that's the exception and you don't make a whole rule with based on the exception and you can change body parts all day long and it does not change the chromosomal DNA of a person because that's the way that God designed you to be if you want some further reading on some things I would refer you to dr. Rosaria Butterfield dr. Rosario Rosaria Butterfield former professor of English at Syracuse University she left a lesbian lifestyle when she became a Christian and now she goes around speaking about it you can also google her YouTube and hear some of her speeches dr. Rosario Butterfield you can also google a guy by the name of dr. Christopher Yuen he's Asian American it's why uan dr. Christopher Yuen he was openly homosexual agnostic drug dealer became a Bible affirming Christian scholar and professor and he's author of a book called out of a far country out of a far country talks about his journey leaving the homosexual lifestyle becoming a Christian and how his life has been transformed and and and yet he he talks about how he doesn't deny that sometimes those thoughts and those desires come up but as a new creature in Christ he walks in newness of life and and then dr. Michelle Rotella wanted also give you one more quote that I had here somewhere dr. Paul McHugh dr. Paul McHugh the University Distinguished Service professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said quote transgendered men do not become women nor do transgendered women become men all and he says including Bruce Jenner become feminized men or masculinized women counterfeits or impersonators of the sex with which they identify in that lies their problematic future end quote so we were living in a very confused culture now you know Bruce Jenner a man was named woman of the year a few years ago you have the story many of you know about the white woman who identifies as being black father of seven who identifies as a six year old these are all in the news a man who identifies as a dog named boomer you have a young lady who believes she's a cat trapped in a woman's body and just last month you had a Dutch man a man a Dutch man 69 years of age who says I identify as being 49 and he wants the government to change his birth certificate and his driver's license so this is the kind of Pandora's box that you open when people get to decide this is who I really am but it is not based in reality and we need to have compassion and we need to have love for people but we also need to be able to share the truth and share the truth well unapologetically but what without being abrasive either and stand for what we know is true and how God designed it and how God ordered things and not get caught up in the whole cultural redefinition of things now that I've stolen most of the time I'll hand it back to you Andy all right so many good questions one just came in why is premarital sex an issue just real briefly I think probably the the easiest answer is because sex is not just a physical thing with God it's a it's an emotional spiritual experience and so God has saved it the culture has weakened our view of sex when actually scripture enhances and makes it an awesome beautiful thing and it shouldn't be cheapened and so gods reserved it for a husband and a wife and so and has basically said that the purity paves the way to to intimacy so if you can stay pure until you're married you you have the way and purity while in marriage gives gives that foundation for intimacy that so many people are hoping for another question why do we pray if God already knows what's in our hearts this great question the prayer is more than just looking for answers or just trying to hear back on an answer that we have prayer builds our relationship with the Lord prayer gives us an opportunity to humble ourselves when we pray we're basically submitting to the one who knows best rather than ourselves gives us an opportunity to seek Him to ask for forgiveness the Bible says when we when we pray when we humble ourselves when we turn then God will heal and and will help and will forgive and save and so there's a lot more reasons to pray than just asking for for answers and then someone else asking about forgiveness someone just can't understand God's forgiveness the Bible makes it very clear that God can forgive sin and does forgive sin and so anyone that's asking that question of can God forgive this can God forgive that what about this what about that the idea the answer is yes God can forgive he forgives our sin that's the reason why God sent his son into this world because he knew that we would not be perfect he wanted to share heaven with us and only perfect things and forgiven things can get into heaven and so God forgives his children who are sinners and so if you are a sinner and doubt that you can be forgiven join the club we are all sinners and are forgiven by God's grace we don't deserve it it's not because we've earned it it's not because we're here in church today but because He is God and he is faithful and so yes God can kenan does forgive can i just kind of piggyback on that because somebody asked a specific question that might apply to several of you i don't know that this person asked before i became a believer i had an abortion and i regret my decision every day well i go to hell when I die because of my decision and I hear the pain in this person's question and they they say before I became a believer so they're a believer in Christ now so as a believer in Christ you will go to heaven because in Psalm 103 verse 12 says as far as the east is from the west so far has he removed my transgressions from me Romans 8:1 says there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus so I'm sorry for your pain but when we commit sin God forgives and God forgives as far as the East is from the West and so yes you will go to heaven and and there's not one sinful decision in our lives that will prevent us from going to heaven so long as we have asked so hard to forgive us of our sins you know and in Christ were made new creatures and so there's no condemnation for you so I just want to assure you that and for anybody else is carrying around that guilt I know that that must be a horrible guilt to to carry but praise be to the Lord Jesus took all our guilt and all our shame and all of our condemnation and he died for it and it's nailed to the cross and so you're new creatures in Christ somebody else also asked this question about when you're married and your spouse dies is your marriage over is your spouse in heaven waiting for the other to arrive so as far as it goes here on earth yes your marriage is over and when you get to heaven Jesus said in in Matthew's Gospel chapter 22 verse 30 that we will be like the angels who neither marry nor are given in marriage so if you have a marriage on earth you don't resume it in heaven we're married in in this allegorical sense to Christ you know the Bible says that that Jesus is the bridegroom and we are the bride that church is the bride so when we get to heaven we're just we're all going to be around the throne of Jesus and we're all worshiping him but we will not be in the same kind of relationships we are now now I know for some of you who have really good marriages that is discouraging others of your like can't wait to get to heaven but even for those of you in really good marriages understand this heaven in general is infinitesimally better than anything on earth everything in heaven is better than we have it on earth so as good as your marriage might be here even though you won't be married in that same sense in heaven your relationships will be even better we're all brothers and sisters in Christ and so as good as you might have something here on earth it's gonna be that much better in heaven and so don't despair it'll just be different but it will be even better than how you knew that individual here on earth someone asked some for some biblical advice on raising teenagers which I think would apply to a lot of people here including myself I think the encouragement that I would give to parents with teenagers God is the perfect parent and yet his children were bail and no one is blaming God for that or at least we shouldn't be when you think of the story of the prodigal son the prodigal son left and until he came to his senses finally came back no one blames the the father for the son for the son leaving so we we do the best we can you prepare them for adulthood prepare them for eternity pray for them those are the three things I try to encourage parents prepare them to leave prepare them for the afterlife for eternity and try to do it so well that it would make it hard for them to stray that's what the Bible says train up your child in the way he should go and in the end he will not turn it's the idea of like you train him you start him off you get him started down the right path so well that it's going to be difficult for them to stray will they have the ability to stray yes they have the ability to rebel just like we do even though God does everything right but just a first encouragement for parents to hang on there's a lot of questions that that ask that what do I do when things are going tough that type of that type of question and the Bible has a lot to say about patience and perseverance and during difficulty and so a lot of times with raising teenagers it's be patient until they come to their senses it's I'm gonna persevere through this when things are going tough God wants me not to give up he doesn't want me to isolate myself he wants me to join together with a group of people a body of believers and if I share my struggle I guarantee there will be other parents with the same issues that you were dealing with Satan wants to isolate us with temptation isolate us with difficulty and make us believe that that temptation that difficulty is the own were the only one that is facing that temptation or that difficulty and so we isolate ourselves and we get discouraged and it becomes difficult to stay patient and not take things and matters into our own hands scriptures full of examples of people like us who could not be patient took matters into their own hands and just made things worse so God says when things don't go well which is life in this life we will have trouble be patient persevere don't isolate yourselves continue to come together with a group of believers who realize that no temptation is unique to me no difficulties unique to me there are other people that are dealing with the same issue let's go through this together let's help each other encourage one another support one another so that we can be patient and persevere until God comes back until we can go to heaven like area was talking about let me see if I can rattle through several these questions this is this is a sweet question because somebody even texted this the woman next to me was nice to let me use her phone very nice of you to let someone use your phone and then she says can you or he or she I don't know can you help me understand what I can expect after accepting Christ as Savior I'm a new Christian and a little unsure what comes next well one of the first things I want to encourage you to jump in is our Christianity 101 and Christianity 201 go to our website is it listed on the events page is under events go to our website cornerstone chapel net one of the top tabs says events when you hit that drop down and you'll see when we offer Christianity 101 and 201 get grounded in your faith start to learn and grow in your faith and attend those classes I'd really encourage you it's on Wednesday nights coming up so take a look at at our online posting for that I'd encourage you to start reading your Bibles and a lot of people recommend reading the Gospel of John start with the Gospel of John all of its good but probably as a new believer right now you don't need to read Leviticus you'll get there and it'll all make more sense but start with like the Gospel of John just learned a little bit about the Ministry of Jesus and your relationship with him but I it is you you know read your Bibles come here and to be fed and to be equipped in your faith you're beginning a new journey and it is not a 50-yard dash it is a marathon and you are now beginning that marathon and so enjoy the journey enjoy the race run with us but you will grow in your faith as you continue to study God's Word and get to know him little by little somebody is I've got similar questions is it a sin to date before your divorce is final someone else asked a similar question if your wife has left you for another man and filed for divorce when is it okay to start dating again so let me just throw a little caution here first of all I don't know the circumstances of why you're separated and I I trust that you've done as far as it depends on you everything possible to try to save your marriage God hates divorce the Bible says it's not an unpardonable sin but it certainly is something that as far as it depends on us we should do everything we can for the healing restoration of our marriage Virginia is a no-fault state so people unfortunately can decide I'm done and get a divorce and there's very little you can do to stop it if that's the case if somebody just wants out and you've done everything you can I would just advise you not to date until your divorce is final we live in a culture right now where you're in the separation stage and that seems to be acceptable culturally I don't think it's acceptable biblically because as far as God is concerned you're still married to that person if and when a divorce were to become legal and binding at that point then I think you're free but until such time don't limit God by that I mean you start to give your heart to somebody else and God might start to work on your spouse before the divorce is final but now your hearts been given to somebody else and you're not really interested in reconciliation it gets very messy and very complicated you just be patient you just need to as far as it depends on you make sure your own life and walk is right with God and peer with God and if your spouse is leaving you and there's nothing really you can do don't just start playing the field and dating people I've even known people it's somewhat rare but I've known people who got divorced and then remarried and so God can do wonderful things but if we start to preempt that it's it's not to our advantage so I don't believe that a Christian should be dating anybody if you're still legally married until that divorce is final so that's my caution to you I try to answer some quick questions someone says why do my parents not want me to date a non-christian because your parents know that your friends help determine the direction and quality of your life friends have a huge impact on us and so for us to be dating or being having close friends that are not Christians we have to be really careful of are they making more of an impact on us or are we making more of an impact on them also not sure why you would want to date someone that you wouldn't potentially marry and as a Christian you would want to marry another Christian so your parents are wise in in saying that someone also asks how can I feel closer to God makes probably a question that a lot of us have experienced before I think a lot of us because we're we're so different there's so many of us a lot of different personalities male-female differences I think feeling closer to God I think for a lot of us is a personal thing first step would be humble and repent before God so it's really difficult to feel God if you're feeling guilt or if you haven't repented of your sin but if you have repented of your sin if you have humbled yourself before God considered situations where you have felt closest to God some people feel closest to God while they're in nature others while they're in their car listening to worship music others when they're in corporate worship or when they're in a small group so consider when do I feel closest to God and then put yourself in a position where you can hear from him put yourself in positions often where you can sense his presence and first for each of us that's that may be a unique situation but I think for a lot of us it's we know when we're in situations when we felt the closest to God and for whatever reason put yourself in the position to continue continue that whether that's with nature whether that's alone whether that's with a group of people but consider to continue to put yourself you know in that position someone has asked the same question twice I guess our time is about up so I'm going to try to rattle through a couple of these is it a sin to kill someone defending yourself or while in the line of duty parenthesis military police somebody else mentioned a similar thing as a member of the military I very well may be put in a situation where I will shoot or have to kill an enemy soldier more than one time how does God view this I was a translate thou shalt not kill so and then somebody else asks the same question about committing murder in the line of duty is it different from killing in in the in the Ten Commandments when the commandment talks about you shall not murder it is a word different from killing in the line of duty and the are exceptions to it and war and serving government is one of those exceptions in Romans chapter 13 it says everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established the authorities that exist have been established by God talking about government authorities and then it says further for rulers hold no terror for those who do right but for those who do wrong do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority then do what is right and he will commend you for he is God's servant to do you good but if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword for nothing he is God's servant an agent of Wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer so when we're serving government and in some kind of a professional duty as military law enforcement Paul talked about here in Romans 13 you don't bear the sword for nothing you bear the sword you have a weapon to punish wrongdoers there's law and order and you can function in obedience to to government Authority in the line of duty for the purpose of unfortunately taking the life of an individual then do you have one more I'm gonna end with one unless you have one more you want to end with where would you point a couple struggling to get pregnant they're looking for a biblical perspective Isaac and Rebekah prayed that they would have children twenty years later God answered their prayer we know that Hannah prayed and cried out to God before she became pregnant with Samuel so the desire for any parents any any wanting to be parents here to have children is a god-given healthy desire it's it's a painful thing not to have that prayer answered immediately but continue to seek Him continue to pray and and continue to be patient and in persevere so I'll end with this one because our time has escaped us but again we'll thread all these three services together you can go on the archive and watch them all and then in the spring we'll try to get to some of these unanswered questions the somebody asks is Jesus God and how do we know and so there's two places I would point you to in Scripture in John 14 Jesus has a conversation with his disciples and Philip says to Jesus show us the father show us God and that will be good enough and Jesus says Philip have I been with you so long and you do not understand if you've seen me this is john 14:9 if you've seen me you've seen the father and then in John's Gospel chapter 10 in verse 30 the Jesus is having this conversation with some of the religious leaders and in John 10 verse 30 Jesus said I and the father are one it's the Greek word hen H en and it literally means one in essence in nature he says I and the father are one now I have debates with my Jehovah's Witness friends who read that verse differently they say no it just means that he's like God I say no it doesn't how do we know because the rest of the conversation it says that they picked up stones to stone him and he says to them why is it I've done all these miracles I've said all these things I'm paraphrasing why is it you have picked up stones to stone me and they say in John chapter 10 verse 33 we are not stoning you for any of these replied the Jews but for blasphemy because you a mere man claimed to be God they understood they understood that he's saying I am God if you've seen me you've seen the father I and the father are one one in essence and nature and so God took on flesh came to dwell among us that's what we just celebrated Christmas God's grand entrance into our world to save us from our sins so we hope this has been helpful to you will resume with Jeremiah next Sunday and Hebrews this Wednesday night let's have a word of Prayer Lord thank you for your grace and your love in our lives and we pray that you would continue to just show us favor and grace and bless this new years we look forward to a new year Lord we pray that you would just continue to guide us and direct us as a church as individuals as families and we give you praise glory and honor in Jesus name everybody said amen you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 112,067

Rating: 4.5411654 out of 5

Keywords: Gary Hamrick, Question & Answer, Cornerstone Chapel, Q&A, Calvary Chapel

Id: tQb2pysazoc

Length: 110min 29sec (6629 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019