Thank you, Samuel, thank you. All right, so I've just turned the recording on and we're going to take a moment to pray and then we will get started. Anybody who would like to lead us in prayer, maybe Tharon, wouldn't you, if it's OK, wouldn't you pray with us? Yes. Father, thank you. Thank you for this day that you blessed us with where we could come together and learn, Father. We pray that there will be your wisdom that guides us and there will be your spirit that surrounds us and helps us to grow more nearer to you as we come together and read through your word and listen from you, Lord Father. We pray that you bless us with that open mind to receive the things the way that you have you have kept for us to be learned, Father. We thank you for your goodness on our lives.  We thank you and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Amen. Thank you. Good. So, you know, we just have a month and a half left in the semester. I need to, we need to write, create your exams and assessments and put that out. So, I have to work on it and we will get that done. And so, we're kind of, you know, getting ready to touch on several things that we wanted to cover in this course. So, today, the plan for today is we want to talk about sharing Christ with a Hindu, sharing Christ with a Muslim, just giving us, you know, I'm not getting into studying Hinduism or studying Islam. That's not what we want to do. We want to keep, give us a little framework. Keep a little, the key points that we need to highlight when we are talking to somebody from a Hindu faith or somebody from the Muslim faith. You know, what would be the main points that we should present to them about the person of Christ? We have spoken about the uniqueness of Christ. We have spoken about the resurrection of Christ. We've talked about salvation only in Christ, which we did last week. So, now we want to talk about, okay, how do I share Christ with these two, these two people of these two backgrounds? Now, we do want to, at some point, you know, the reason I'm looking at Hinduism and Islam is because they are the two major religions outside of Christianity. So, we are addressing them. But if we have time later on, we'll touch a little bit on, you know, other religions like Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, and also maybe some of the cults that are there. We will see if we have time for that. But what we want to do is we want to address these two. And then I want to jump into another subject that is challenging for many of us, and especially in the light of what we've been through globally the last year and this year, the pandemic. We want to talk about the issue of suffering, right now, and, you know, why is there suffering? Why is there all these things? And why is there suffering, right? So, we will talk about that. And so, I'm kind of just rearranging material a little bit so that I can cover these things. And then if you have time, we can do things of, maybe of lesser importance. Anita, I see a comment there. Hindus are major in India or only in the other countries also. So, Hinduism in many ways is global, simply because Indians have gone all over the world, similar in some sense to Islam. When you think of Islam, you think, okay, you think of the Middle East, but actually, you know, Indonesia is not in the Middle East, it's in the Far East, but it's a major Muslim country. And so, in that sense, you know, Muslims have also spread around the world. So, Hindus are no longer, while the majority of Hindus live in India, Hinduism is no longer considered just part of India. It's everywhere. And yeah. So, that's why we're looking at these two main religions. So, the plan is, talk about these religions, then talk about suffering. We'll see how much we cover. Then after that, I want to talk about social issues. How do we respond to social issues?  So, these are all social issues. You want to touch on those things so that we should be able to respond from a biblical perspective when it comes to these things. All right, so that's kind of the plan. And if we finish these, you know, these three main areas, which is responding, sharing Christ with Hindu-Muslim, understanding suffering and having a biblical response to suffering, and talking about some socialists, then we will then maybe come back and pick up some other religions and cults, okay? So, I'm keeping that intentionally. Do a later part if we have time, because I want to cover some of these, probably more important things. And these social issues are becoming more and more important and the church is getting dragged into these social issues.  You're facing it in the workplace these days. Workplaces want to be inclusive, but then if you are the HR manager, what would you do? You know, how would you handle it? So, we need to have a biblical framework within which we respond to many of these social issues. So, that's the plan. Let's get into, you know, sharing Christ with the Hindu, sharing Christ with the Muslim, and then we will get on to the issue of suffering. So, I feel free to ask questions on this as we go along, right? So, sharing Christ with the Hindu, just in a tabular way, trying to highlight some of the key differences or contrasts between the Christian faith and the Hindu faith, right? Now, what do we say about God and different key points, right? So, about God, we're talking about an eternal triune God, the Christians. The Hindus have numerous gods and goddesses and the three main are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Man, about man, we know man is sinful but deeply loved by God. A man is part of God, came out of God and will eventually go back to God from a Hindu perspective. Scriptures, we have the Bible, we see it as an inspiring, valuable book. Similarly, the Hindus have the Vedas and then they have other books that they would quote, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Upanishads, so on. Jesus Christ, we see him as God who became man. From an Hindu perspective, Jesus, you have different kind of responses. Some would readily accept him as, yeah, yeah, he's maybe one of the incarnations, he's a good person, one of the many gods and some may just ignore entirely, right? So, you've got different response from Hindus. Some may be totally against Jesus Christ. So, you've got a mixed response from them. What about life's purpose? We say, look, in our goal is to have a personal relationship with God and live according to God's will. From a Hindu perspective, there's a huge focus on karma, which is having to do with works and somehow to make sure that your good deeds, outweigh your bad deeds, just do more good than bad. And there's also the focus emphasis on knowledge as a means to eventual enlightenment and devotion to God, which is being deeply devoted to God. And that's there. Now, just like in Christian, on the Christian side, you'll have people who are committed to this, to varying degrees. It's not like every Hindu is deeply committed to these things. Neither is every Christian deeply committed to these things, but we're just laying these things out in general. Heaven, what do we say? We know that's the place where God lives and that's where people will go after they die because of their faith in Christ. What does Hindu faith say? First of all, Hindu faith talks about reincarnation. So that means we are going to keep being born on this earth over and over again. We are going to be born, we live, we die, and we will be reborn or reincarnated back here on depending on how well we did in the previous life. And if we did well, then we would get into a higher life form, a higher state, ultimately coming into a place where we would be liberated from this cycle of birth, life, and death. So this liberation from this cycle of reincarnation is salvation, moksha, which is salvation. And eventually the goal is we will be united with the divine, we'll become one with God, or we'll attain nirvana and come into this place of being one with God and in a state of bliss. So the emphasis really is this whole cycle of birth, life, and death, and then coming back, birth, life, and death, coming back, and then eventually you live in such a way that you are liberated from this cycle, right? So going to heaven or salvation is understood as a liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. Now when we talk about Christian faith, we don't have that concept. We don't have the concept of reincarnation. We know, the Bible says, Hebrews 9 and verse 27, we spoke about it in the mentoring hour. It is appointed for man once to die after that, the judgment. So as it's a linear thing, you live life on earth, you die, there is a judgment, and then you're going to go to heaven or hell. So this is it. You have one chance, one life on earth, then heaven or hell. And salvation is God's gift through Jesus Christ. So it's not an attainment or not an escape that we attain to by our works or by some sort of a spiritual enlightenment, but it's something that we receive through Christ. So that's a big contrast here. And then in terms of hell, this is a place of torment, eternally separated from God, the Bible says.  So again, a point of contrast. Some other things that we can add, and I will go through this and others who want to share some more thoughts can do that. Some other things when you talk about the Hindu favor, Hinduism, is at least to some extent, and it's not that prevalent in too much these days. I mean, I have to qualify it, that especially in rural India, in towns and then to some degree in urban centers, there's still the underlying caste system. That means people still look at what caste were you born in on earth. So if you belong to a low caste, then you can't marry people from a different caste. That has changed, of course, in the urban centers, so we qualify that, but in some parts, people still hold on to that caste system and they use that especially in terms of marriage or other forms of alliances, how you interact with people. It's kind of the caste system kind of influences human relationships. Reincarnation, we mentioned that, it's this ongoing birth, life, and death cycle, and people have a strong belief in that. So they look at life from that perspective of reincarnation and trying to escape from that through works. Yoga actually refers to discipline or the right kind of spiritual exercises. So when you talk about yoga, from a Hindu perspective, it's a set of spiritual exercises and they could be whether these are in the form of knowledge, in the form of devotion, in the form of deeds, or in the form of self-awareness, they're expressed in different ways. But it's really forms of expressions, of spiritual exercises, of spiritual disciplines, and that's what yoga is. Karma has to do with your deeds. So what do you do?  Dharma is expressing goodness to people, being good to people, gracious to people, so on. And another point to keep in mind is the idea of avatar, God coming in human form, which is interesting because we also, the Christian faith also talks about incarnation, God coming in human form. The huge difference is that the avatars in the Hindu faith are not flawless. That means they do things, Rama, Krishna, others, they do wrong things. They, whereas in the Christian understanding of incarnation, the incarnation is God becoming man, and he is sinless. He is perfect because he's God who became man, whereas that is not held tightly in avatars from in Hinduism. It is God coming as human form, but being completely human. That's just a quick overview of the people from the Hindu faith and Christian faith. We all understand that not every Hindu necessarily holds all of these things very tightly. They have these underlying philosophy, but you will have various kinds of people in various positions. Some are very strong, and some may be very open-minded. So you've got a wide spectrum of people in Hinduism. And also, Hinduism is very open, very, very open, meaning you'll find that there are Hindus who will readily listen to things about Jesus Christ when they think that, okay, Jesus is just one of the many gods, or one of the many good people, one of the many good teachers. So you will have that openness as well from among the Hindus. Okay, I thought I heard a question. Mangi is raised. Okay, Mangi, you have a question? Okay, thank you, sir. You said that Avatar is a god coming in, one of the gods coming in the human form. There's the ones they call Babas, the Indian Babas. Can you please, are they considered as gods or they're just human, incarnate and they are seen as divine? Babas, okay, Babas. So what was your question, Mangi? Are they human or are they avatars? Is that what you mentioned? Avatars, yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah, I don't think so, yeah. So god, men, or religious men, men in some cases, even women, and there are a lot of others as well on the call who can, in the class who can speak to this, they are highly regarded, highly respected and are in some way a medium to god, through these spiritual leaders, gurus, babas, matas, women, spiritual leaders. Through them you're getting to god and so they're highly respected, highly treated with a lot of respect by Hindus. But to my understanding, they're not considered as avatars, not in the same class as Rama or Krishna. No, they are spiritual leaders, they're very highly respected and they are considered to be in a higher, say a higher spiritual level than the normal human, other humans. But they're not considered as avatars. They're considered as, you know, spiritual people, mediums through whom you can access god and learn god. That was your question, wasn't it? Are they avatars or not? Yes, sir, because people worship them and we've got a large Indian population here in South Africa and you see their pictures all over people worship them, put flowers on them, so does he. Yeah, yeah, so they're highly respected, they are, yeah, Anitha says like they're like pastors to Hindus. Maybe I don't think it depends, right? But see, Christians don't consider pastors as mediums to god. You know, okay, pastors, they will teach us and all of that. But every Christian, every believer can go directly to god and pray. But Hindus do hold these gurus in a much higher place as, like, through them they're accessing god. So they, you know, like you said, they worship them as means of worshiping god, right? But in the Christian faith, we don't worship our pastors or we don't put flowers around our pastors, pictures, we don't do those things, okay? Okay, all right, let's move on. So the main focus is now, when you and I have a chance to speak to somebody from the Hindu faith, what should we focus on? How do we communicate the uniqueness of Christ with somebody from the Hindu faith? Now what we must keep in mind is, you know, so we've kind of, we've outlined or just highlighted some of the main philosophies or perspectives that a typical Hindu will have, okay? So again, I was just saying that, you know, not everybody holds fast to all of these things, but generally we're saying this is their perspective. Of things. So how do we present Christ to them in a way that they can understand and not misunderstand? What are the points of, you know, what are the chances of them misunderstanding Jesus? You know, so when we talk about Jesus, sometimes, like I said, there will be people, Hindus, who readily accept whatever we say about Jesus. Yeah, you know, yes, Jesus is one of them. I will take a copy of the Bible. I'll put a picture of Jesus next to, you know, the picture of the rest of the gods they have. So from that sense, they're very welcoming. They'll be open to prayer. They'll be open to, you know, whatever we say from the Bible and so on. But the thing that they cannot, or very find it very difficult to understand and difficult to accept is, when we say Jesus is the only way. Because in their mind, they already have embraced many gods and goddesses. Right? So that's like a default way of thinking, which is God has come in many ways, many forms, and there are many expressions of God. And here we are. We want to present the Christ saying, Jesus is God who became man, and he is the only way to salvation. And that is a very difficult point, I'm speaking generally, for somebody from a Hindu philosophy, from a Hindu perspective, to accept, why should there be only one way? Because by default, they think or by default, they think that there are many ways to God. And God has to be so big. God is so big so that people can get to him through so many different ways and so many different means. That's one point of difficulty. The second challenge is, for us to deal with this whole issue of salvation by grace. That means because for the Hindu, by default, how do they think? If I do something wrong, I just have to do two times more good and I can, I can, you know, I will, I will, my good will outweigh my bad and I will eventually move up to the point where I can escape this cycle of reincarnation. So the thought process or the pattern of thinking is, in terms of works, I am working towards my salvation. And so I just have to do more good and I can do more good maybe later on in life when I'm old or so until then, even if I do evil, you know, I can make up for it. I will, whatever, you know, but the default thinking is in terms of works. And here we are presenting the Gospel saying, it's by grace, God forgives. So that's a challenging point to speak towards when you're speaking to somebody from a Hindu perspective, from the Hindu faith. And deeply rooted in that is the idea of every person is responsible for their own salvation. But here we're coming and saying, God provided salvation to somebody else because the Hindu is so connected to works. The Hindu pattern of thinking is so connected to works. It simply says salvation is your responsibility. There's no idea of, hey, it can be given to you as a gift. Somebody else can pay for it and you can benefit. It's your responsibility. The Christian faith, we are saying, somebody became our substitute, died for us, and we gain from that, we benefit from that. So not only is it not of works and it's of grace, but that grace is given to you because somebody did something for you. Okay. So again, that, you know, so we're trying to understand, look if somebody from the Hindu perspective is looking at the Christian faith, these are some of the challenges they're going to deal with or how to think through when they are trying to understand what we are saying. So now ultimately we know that it is the Holy Spirit that's going to open their eyes and help them understand Jesus. And many times it is an encounter, divine encounter, a supernatural encounter that is the best, what to say, the best testimony to what we are saying, right? Of course we can present the gospel the best we can, but it's not easy to, you know, address a totally different frame of reference, totally different pattern of thinking. It's not very easy. So the best way is when they encounter God in a powerful way, their lives are changed. Okay. But how do we still communicate the gospel to somebody from a Hindu faith? Right. So we start off by the basic things we agree, right? We agree, that is the Christian faith, the Hindu faith agrees that there is sin, there is evil, there is wrong. That means there is right and wrong. So there is sin, there is evil in the world. And while Bible does talk about Satan as a source of what has happened, here with the thinking in terms of works and reincarnation, right? So even when we talk about sin and evil, there is a little contrast that we need to keep in mind that the Hindu's thinking in terms of works and its man doing these things. And here we have this factor of sin and Satan being causes of suffering, okay? But starting with that point of sin and evil, we then, okay, I've talked about the contrast here, forgiveness. We then need to come into this whole space where we talk about relationship with God, right? God is holy, man is sinful. And no matter what we do, we cannot reach God. We have to pay for our own sin, right? Even one sin is sufficient to separate us from God. So even if we do many, many, many good works, we still have the sin to pay for, which keeps us away from God. And we talk about God reaching man through the person of Christ. And in a very loving way, we present, so when we talk about Christ, remember in their minds, they're going to think about many avatars. Yeah, they say, yeah, we also had 11 avatars. But when we present Christ, we need to highlight the fact that this incarnation of God we're talking about is unique, is sinless, is perfect, and he became the sufficient, one and only revelation of God. So we are lovingly contrasting Christ and drawing a distinction from between Christ and the Hindu thought of avatars, okay? Because we said in the Hindu mind avatars are humans. They make mistakes. They do all kinds of things. But in the Christian faith, the incarnation of God is perfect, is sinless, and there's a reason for that incarnation. And he fulfilled it in his one incarnation. So in a loving way, we contrast that. We don't want to judge or condemn the belief in avatars, but we want to highlight the distinction between Christ and avatars. And then we're talking about a personal relationship with God that the Christian faith brings to us freely by grace, because of what Christ did in contrast to this whole process of liberation and enlightenment, which comes through our own efforts. Right? So you're drawing a distinction that here is God through Christ because of what Christ did, giving us a free gift and an open invitation into a personal relationship with them, which starts here to now, as opposed to something that you're going to keep trying, keep trying to escape from this cycle of reincarnation through your works and eventually try to get one with God. So we contrast that. So look, this is the big difference. God is giving it to us as a free gift. And importantly, yes, in Christ transforms us versus we having to change ourselves. So in Hinduism, the emphasis, like I said, is on your responsibility. It means how do you self-actualize, how do you self-realize or self-discipline yourself, becoming a better person in the Christian faith? We're saying Jesus changes you. He makes us new creation.  He empowers us as opposed to, in Hinduism, I try to improve myself, whether it's through self-discipline or through self-realization or through some form of enlightenment. Again, this is contrast. So if we present the gospel highlighting, and of course, do this in a loving way, we're not going to do it in a judgmental or condemning way. But our goal is to help them see the difference. Look, there are stark contrasts between what the Christian faith is presenting to what Hinduism is presenting. And these are the differences. So you think about it, you ponder about it, you consider that. And what we're saying is very, very logical. When we say God is perfect, well, he has to be. Otherwise, he can't be God. Yeah, so this incarnation is perfect. He was sinless. And he expressed God to us. He revealed what God would do for us. Yeah, this is in contrast to what they would understand about avatars. So we present Christ, present the highlighted differences, and then give them the invitation to make a decision for Jesus. But as we are seeing here, yeah, so, okay, let me come to these comments here. So as we're seeing, God's word is going to say, as we're seeing here in India, okay, this is what I was going to say, is that the thing that impacts the Hindu really powerfully is a demonstration of God's power, supernatural. And in many cases, that is like the clincher, or that is like the point that really convinces them that Jesus is different. When they see the power of Jesus Christ in healing, in miracles and deliverance. But at the same time, what we're also observing is many times people come to get that blessing of healing or deliverance or a miracle. And then they go away. So it is therefore our responsibility as we present Christ, that we know the healing, the deliverance, the miracle is very important. But we need to explain that this Jesus who did the miracle is very different, and he's asking them for a commitment to him and him alone. So we have to emphasize that in a loving way, and help them understand the difference, okay. So I would like others just to add some thoughts. I know Tharon can speak to it. Tharon comes from a Hindu background, and he's accepted Jesus, and he's, so Tharon you want to share some of your own personal experience and your thoughts. And there might be others on the call, if you want to add it to this whole. Just to help us all, give us all a perspective of how best to share Christ with those from a Hindu background. Please feel free to share. Sure Pastor, I was just trying to relate to what you just said. When I came to Christ, in fact, I experienced that miracle of being healed, because I had this swine flu on the bed for five days. Doctors couldn't help, and I got healed with one prayer, and my dad and sister were just watching right beside. I accepted Christ, and I understood that he is the only way, but my dad and sister, they thought Christ is one other God who can heal like anyone else. Like a Baba or someone. So that line of thought, of uniqueness of Christ, is something more difficult to present for the Hindus. That is one aspect, and also there are so many types of Hinduism, like the classical ones who read the Vedas and the mythology, Upanishads and stuff. But the modern Hinduism is more towards the Babas and the way they interpret different challenges and the way they present. It's their intellect that actually attracts them. So that is one thing, and the major challenge, like if you ask a Hindu what's wrong with Christianity, why you don't accept, the kind of arguments that they present is unless we really go to the base of it, it's difficult to understand. Like the first thing they would say is Christianity is a colonizing religion. That's what they believe in. And also they say Christianity is morally inferior because they eat meat, they drink alcohol, they are neglecting the extended family, they try to live individually, live and live. And so they think it's morally inferior to be a Christian. It's more of a backward cast.  That's one thing. And they also think Christians are betrayers of their culture. They leave the entire heritage and try to adopt something which is Western. So tough challenges to present because that's their thought process. But I also had a very, very challenging encounter with argument with my sister. She thinks that if you pray hard enough to a rock, God can appear through the rock because your prayer is hard enough. It's more like a name and thinking God will do it this way. It's a sense of arrogance that is within which they don't realize. But they have very interesting arguments every time something new. And when you're listening to them directly, it sounds very deceptive. But if you ponder a little later, you know, this is not right. But very interesting arguments that they come up with. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Anybody else you want to share your experience in maybe your own personal journey of faith coming if you're from a Hindu background or you're encountering sharing Christ with somebody of the Hindu faith? Anyone? Yeah. So like Tharon was saying, there's a big broad wide spectrum of thinking in Hinduism. It's kind of almost like a universal religion meaning they embrace almost anything. It's like almost like what you make it to be in your thinking. But when we speak to them, I think we should just focus on presenting Christ as unique. This is who Jesus is. This is why he's different and let them think about it and let God deal with it. Ultimately, we cannot save them. We cannot change them. But it's God who has to touch their hearts and open their eyes. And so we do our best to present Jesus in a way that they see Jesus as very different from all the gods and goddesses and gurus and people that they revere. So we present Christ for the unique. This is why he's different and this is what the Christian faith is offering. And then people turn to Christ. Just in my own experience, I've seen that sometimes it's just you can't even explain. And I remember even during my school days and sharing Christ with Hindus and many of them accepted Christ. And it was not that we had some great arguments, but it was just God opening their heart, opening their eyes and touching them inside, that they came to faith in Christ and gave their life to Christ. And then there are the others who've had an encounter, who experienced something supernatural, a miracle that takes place and they come to faith in Christ. And then there are others who want to think through it logically. They want to understand, they want to see the difference and have the questions answered and then eventually make their commitment to Jesus. So we do have a wide spectrum of how they come to faith in Christ, whether it's, you know, you see God opening their hearts supernaturally, they see a miracle or it's a well thought out time, you know, they think through it and then they come to faith in Christ. So we have all three and we do our best in presenting Christ the way we should, okay? I'm going to move now to sharing Christ with the Muslim. Just get it started and then let's see, we have maybe just three minutes more, okay. Maybe we'll just take a break and then come back to this. Christopher, you have a question, maybe we can do that before we go for the break. Go ahead.    So, in your experience and, you know, in some of the, some of the churches that you have, that APC has, what has been some of the experiences around, you know, this, you know, speaking about Christ and, you know, how it sort of, you know, gets, could be, could be construed as, you know, conversion. Yes, yes, we get some guidance from you on that. Sure. You've brought up a very important theme. So, what we are seeing now prevalent in the mind of Hindus, and not only in India, but I think this is all over the world, is this whole ill-will and ill-feeling towards Christians because this whole of holy shift conversion.  And, you know, you're seeing this as keep, this whole mindset escalating.   And it is very prevalent here in India, both in the cities and in towns, and it's kind of getting even into the villages.  So, I think, so now in India, things are getting bad because the laws that people are trying to pass, these are anti-conversion laws, and what the attempt is being made is they're trying to just, you know, open it up so much saying that any form of inducement is a crime, right? So, telling somebody about heaven is a form of inducement and therefore it is a crime. Telling somebody about, you know, being healed or receiving blessing, any form of blessing can be construed as an inducement and therefore it is a crime. It's just, you know, you're trying to convert somebody. So, that's the law that's trying to, you know, the people are trying to pass here and so we have to be all the more careful. So, what do we do? What is our response? One is, we preach the gospel. We make it very clear that, look, you have to make the decision and it's your decision to follow the person of Christ and to read your Bible. So, that freedom every person has, it's an individual choice. Now, we're not asking you to quote-unquote change your religion, we're just giving you an invitation to follow the person of Christ and to read his, follow his teachings. So, we make it very clear that it's your choice. We are not in, you know, this is what Christ has and it's your choice to do this. So, it is challenging and, you know, where this is going to go as far as politically in India. We don't know. Yeah. So, there have been attacks on the churches in northern part of India and so on. But we just have to continue presenting Christ and letting people make the decision. Now, if people make the decision, it's got to be very clear that one, it is their choice to follow Christ. We are not inducing them in any way. Previously, the inducements used to be, oh, if you give them money, or if you give them medical aid, you do some social work, those are considered inducements. Now, talking about heaven, talking about healing, talking about forgiveness of sins are also trying to be classified as inducements. So, the best way to respond to that is, look, it's the individual's choice to believe in the person of Christ and to follow Christ. Why they do that, you know, it's their faith in Christ and if they've received a healing, if a prayer has been answered, if they've found meaning, if they've found peace, they've found joy, that is their choice. It's their personal experience and therefore they're making the choice to follow Christ. So, we have to leave it at, you know, the freedom of choice which cannot be taken away from an individual no matter what. So, we have to reposition that, you know, saying, look, you're not inducing, they're making the choice to follow Christ.  Yeah, maybe just really quick. I mean, this is just, I guess, across the board, not just specifically for EPC Church, but has, I mean, the success factors of, you know, having, you know, people of, well, not, not, not, not being Christians and accepting Jesus has, has that gone down over the last few years or has it, has it, has it, has it sort of kind of remain consistent? My, my observation, what's happening in India is it's, it's the main consistent, maybe it's on the increase. That's, there are more people coming to Christ, especially even if you're seeing what's happening in North India. A lot of people come into Christ. So, that's, there is a lot of persecution. There is, people are not holding back from coming to Christ. All right. So, let's go for our break. I know we're five minutes into our break time. I'll take 10 minutes and then we'll come back, get into talking a little bit about how do we speak to Muslims, then go into this next lesson on suffering. Okay. See you in 10 minutes. Thank you. Bye now.


I read this because the ladies at the Vaginal Fantasy Book Club run by Felicia Day were reading this and they were reading it mostly for a laugh, so I did too. And really, that's what it's good for, mostly a laugh. It has the kernel of an interesting science fiction plot in here and there were a number of times through the book where I found myself wondering what the hell was going on and asking myself, is there a chapter missing? What just happened? And I couldn't figure out really these people's relationships to each other. It's not a great example of writing, but it's not hatefully awful either. The villain in here is such a mustache twirling, snidely whiplash type. There's a scene where he is laughing with glee while his bodyguards beat up a group of orphans. I'm not making that up, I'm not even exaggerating. You can support 30 Second Sci-Fi and my other projects by becoming a patron. There's a link in the description below. And visit the 30 Second Sci-Fi Tumblr, that's my headquarters. In addition to my videos, I publish links and updates there every day.


I don't have much of an appetite for building and, you know, guys two and three years away from really going after it, you know what I'm saying?  I think he just being around him, his disposition, you know what I mean? He listens, his frame, his natural talent and his ability.  And you probably won't find one that will come along the way he has, but, you know, I'm just not, I just ain't interested in that, you know, being honest. And this is not a secret, you know what I mean? I want a chance to go for it. And if the route is to do that, then, you know, that's, you know, that's not my route. So Dame is done with teenagers. That's no more 19 year olds. He's over it, the one's good. But are you buying that he remains a Portland Trailblazer? I am not. I think he's gone. And I think it's, I think he should be gone. I think it's to the point now where it's going to be a mutual, you know, breakup going into this where they understand he deserves better. He proved this year that he can still play at a high level and he can still, you know, he wants to compete for a championship. And he's made it very, very clear. He's given his all to this city, this organization. He's the best Portland Trailblazer of all time. And I think it's just come to it. Of all time? I think so. Oh. And I think it's just come to an end here where this has all worked out fantastic for him to where he can leave, you know, hands free, come back to a standing ovation. And I even think as much as the fan base there will miss him and one that would love to see him back and to add other pieces to compete for a championship. They love him so much that they'll be happy for him to find another home and to be able to play, you know, and be able to compete for a championship. And they know that it's not going to happen in Portland. So I think how it's all worked out. I think he's got the green light to get on up out of there. It confuses me. Really? Dame signed a two year 122 million dollar extension last summer. He didn't have to do that.  I was going to say dollars. He didn't have to do that if he wanted some max flexibility. He could have played it out and did all that. He's been doing this for a few years. I understand it. He's he's conflicted. He wants to win a title. He wants to be loyal to Portland. He wants to do whatever he's going to do. I want him to do it. I want him to hurry up and be done with it. And I want to stop hearing these quotes. I want to stop hearing the exclusive interviews with such and such reporter where he says, yo, I'm locked in to Portland. And then he sits on the podium and says, I actually don't want us to draft. And I let's they got Jeremy Grant last year. They they they're usually active in free agency. They get meetings with everybody because they're the Portland Trailblazers, right? They're in state and no state tax. All this great stuff going on for them. They've tried. If he wants to go, go. There's options out there for him. I think a team like the Nets. I think, you know, people always mention the heat because it's Miami and they have those contracts there that they could get off of. And all this great stuff. If he wants out, please ask out. It's happened before.  Eddie's over it. I'm over it. I think the big date for the Trailblazers is going to be draft lottery night in mid May and figuring out exactly where they end up drafting. Do they get the number one overall pick? Do they get to if they get high up there?  Yammer, you get a chance to play with Brandon Miller, one of these other young guys. But again, what was appetite be? So I think get to that point. And I think we'll have more clarity. But I still think even if Portland gets the number one pick, they're still going to be rebuilding, right? They're still not going to be a contender. Still a teenager. Watching that game last night, I can see him perfectly in Brooklyn. I think that would make the most sense. I think he is what they need. And I think that would be the ideal spot if I was Dame Lillard. Shoms, if you're Portland, Benson, his contract, that's the hall for Damian Lillard? I don't know. If you get all the picks, if you get four or five firsts with Benson, I mean, you got to think about it, right? Don't aggregate that, guys. For a 32-year-old, yeah, please, please. We're spitballing here. I like your vibe. We're spitballing here. But you know, Damian Lillard is 32, going to be 33 in July, I believe. He's got four years and $220 million on his contract. Pretty good agenting for him. Yeah, Lamar Jackson, are you listening? An agent. $45 million on the book. That's not bad. A $63 million player option in 25, 26, I think. Good times to be Damian Lillard, right? I think when he's like 37. Zero tears for Damian Lillard on that one.


James chapter 5 we're going to be looking at verses 16 through 20 and in fact this particular study Could have been divided into three different studies and in the past I may very well have done that because what we have opportunity to look at in these verses is confession and prayer and Then restoration and see these three all go together confession of sin prayer and restoration They all work together and you're going to see how that works in context As we go through this together. So let's begin by reading verse 16 And we'll get into our study. I'll move into verses 17 and 18 and then close with verses 19 and 20 So here in verse 16 James chapter 5 James writes confess your trespasses to one another Pray for one another that you may be healed the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much And so as we've been going through the book of James last time we're together James had written concerning suffering and singing sickness as well as sin And he had instructed the believers to when they're sick to call the elders of the church to pray for them Now when he spoke of forgiveness of sins He was inferring that they had confessed these sins When the people were asking for prayer for healing That's what they would do. They would actually come and they would confess notice verse 14 How it said is anyone among you sick let them call for the elders of the church Let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the lord will raise him up notice And if he has committed sins he will be forgiven. So he's already been speaking concerning prayer He's been speaking concerning confession of sin and healing. This is what he's been speaking of in verses 14 and 15 So verse 16 actually is continuing that thought Now again when he was was speaking of forgiveness of sins He was inferring that these people who are coming and speaking to the elders He was inferring that they would be Naturally speaking concerning Any things that have been going on in their life that aren't proper because they want to be healed And so when they would come and speak I want you to get an idea of what would take place because Sometimes when you read these things you may be thinking well there must must have been some formal way of doing this There must have been some system of doing this where they would come to the elders perhaps they would go And have certain Certain things done to make this proper, but it's more natural than that What it would have been like is what it is like today is uh, they'll come up and they'll say you know I've been going through something. I'm sick. My stomach hurts. I've got headaches. I've got a bad back whatever And uh, you know, I I'd like you to pray for me But before we ask for prayer, I you know, I I'd like you to also be aware that I've been struggling with certain things And could you pray for that too that happens all the time in between services first and second Actually before service on first service in between first and second.  Could you pray for me? And I'll say how are you doing and they'll say well, you know, there's been things in my life I'm dealing with and they may share some personal thing that they want some victory over it That's what that's what would happen And you have to see it that way. It was very natural They'd speak and they'd say I've got these things going on. I haven't been feeling good about this I've been angry about that they would speak like that and that's what would happen They would come and they would ask for prayer and they would open their hearts And as they would open up their hearts to these elders the elders would pray for them on their behalf That would have been part of their request for prayer because they wanted their prayers To be heard and they were aware of Psalm 66 verse 18 Where it says if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me And so they would ask for prayer, but they would also confess and say these are things that are in my life that I want doubt with And so they would humbly confess their their sin if you will to those elders Not so that they could re receive any forgiveness or what might be referred to as absolution Because the elders were not the ones who forgive sins You know we don't I as an elder.  So they're not asking the elders to be the ones who forgive Because they know that sin is forgiven by god What they were doing is humbly requesting Prayer for them and they were confessing their need because if they regarded iniquity in their heart They were afraid that they would close the channel between them and the lord in their Relationship so they wanted it to be something that was pure And so they were in need of healing and confession would be part of their prayer Confession was made so the elders could pray what james called the prayer of faith And so the humility required for confession placed a person in a position to be healed And so verse 16 continues with this thought by saying in verse 16 confess your trespasses Notice to one another And pray for one another that you may be healed The effect of fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much So not only was confession of sin made to the elders But it was also made to one another notice that And that that practice of confessing to one another reveals fellowship and humility as well as accountability Now that idea of of confessing your trespasses to one another the word trespass Also has been translated your sin. It is also translated by the word fault your faults to one another Well that particular practice of doing that And actually being open to one another is a foreign thought to a lot of people who go to church today That's just not going to happen in their life If you're listening right now, you might be thinking are you kidding me? You're telling me that I had to go and tell a stranger or somebody in the church Confess my faults to one another that ain't going to happen No, I won't even tell those closest to me let alone A stranger and and that kind of shows up the shows us the fragmentation of the body of christ today We don't trust one another. We don't we don't love one another The church we need to understand is more than a place of entertainment and and the church members are more than an audience What we're supposed to be according to scripture at least is a loving supporting family Because the bible teaches us that that the church is to love one another to pray for one another to encourage one another to Correct one another to fellowship with one another to support one another It's filled with with admonitions for us to have relationship And so this kind of ministry Of praying for one another and sharing our hearts was was not restricted to simply the elders It was something that was practiced by them all They would humbly confess to one another they would pray for one another to be healed They confessed their sin They prayed for healing and they prayed for the healing of both soul as well as their body They wanted to be a complete person They wanted to be Be whole and and they they knew that sometimes our sin That we're involved in can actually lead us to a place of being sick or not well There are people that are going through things physically Because they have been in sin and the guilt is so heavy on their heart that they don't have any joy They're they're depressed or saddened all the time They they have physical pain and a lot of times it's because They're they're guilty and they're going through something that is very deep and and they're and nobody they're not letting anybody know about it Think about king david in the old testament king david Committed a terrible sin. He committed adultery with a woman by the name of bathsheba And if you remember the story David committed adultery with bathsheba and she became pregnant And she came to him and let him know that she was she was with child and so david knew her husband. He was one of david's bodyguards one of his mighty men his name was uriah And so what he did is to try and cover up his sin He told uriah.  He was hoping that he'd be intimate with her and she'd become pregnant Or he thinks uriah would think she became pregnant by him and his sin would be covered But uriah wouldn't go and sleep with his wife And so david tried to get him to do it a second time and uriah refused to do it the second time And so finally what david did is he said you put uriah in the hottest part of the battle And then withdraw the troops and and allow him to be taken down which took place And so uriah went there and he was fighting on behalf of his king whom he loved and and honored and And they withdrew and then he was killed on the battlefield The word was brought to him when your mighty men uriah has died and david uh went through a time of of pretending to be mourning and all and ultimately He married basheba and the baby born to david and basheba Well that baby didn't survive the baby died But david wrote about that incident and and he did so in the psalms Because his his his sin and his guilt haunted him and he became weak Until he confessed and and repented psalm 51 verse 3 david said i acknowledge my transgressions my sin Is always before me my sin is always before me i wake up it's there i go to sleep at night It's the last thing i think of it's it's with me all the time it never leaves me my sin is ever before me It's the one thing that that i can't get rid of and and he's speaking about the guilt that he was living in In psalm 32 3 through 5 he said when i refused to confess my sin i was weak and miserable I groaned all day long Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me my strength evaporated like water in the summer heat Finally i confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them I said to myself i will confess my rebellion to the lord And you forgave me All my guilt Is gone So when you have gone through something the confession It is it sets you free and and in the case that james is speaking of they would go to the elders But they also did it amongst themselves and they'd say you know i've been dealing with this and and i'm getting sick over it My body is just not reacting the way it should would you pray for me there would be confession Because that's what the body of christ does And so he says in verse 16 he says confess your trespasses to one another pray for one another That you may be healed now notice he says that you may be healed There's no guarantee for healing for everybody what we do is is we entrust ourselves to god to do what is best on our behalf You see the prayer of faith is our responsibility But the healing is always the work of the lord And so we come to the lord and we pray and ask god and it just may be that he will heal us Then he moves on to say the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much When he says the effective that word effective means intense Unwavering its faith filled prayer from the heart of a righteous person In other words this prayer comes from deep within it's prompted by the holy spirit and it's prayed out with passion Fervent prayer is that intense sincere petitioning of the lord. It's that open cry to god It's like like those two blind men on the side of the road there by jericho That when jesus was passing by they had asked Who is this and they said jesus is passing by and the bible tells us in matthew chapter 20 Verses 30 and 31 behold two blind men sitting by the road when they heard that jesus was passing by Cried out saying have mercy on us. Oh lord son of david Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet, but they cried out all the more saying have mercy on us Oh lord son of david they weren't about to lose their opportunity. Who's that passing by it's jesus of nazareth? And so now's my opportunity and they didn't whisper this and when people said you need to shut up They didn't get quiet They cried out all the more. It's a fervent. It's a passionate cry And that's what you do when when there's something going on in your life You're not necessarily going to be quiet about it when you pray to the lord You may do so with fervent agony. You may do so with a passion You may do so with the with the sense of god unless you help me I I think i'm going to die god. I need your help and he's speaking about a fervent effective prayer here It's a it's a prayer that's filled with expectancy Like Hebrews 116 says without faith It's impossible to please god Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists And that he rewards those who earnestly seek him So it's not a half hearted kind of wow lord if you got time could you Now it's a cry out to the lord god help me I need you And he says this is the kind of prayer that is prayed by a righteous man Now he's not speaking of a perfect person He's speaking of the man or the woman who has been cleansed by the blood of jesus christ We are made righteous by jesus christ That's something the church needs to wake up to and remember In second carinthians 521 it says god made him Who had no sin which is jesus to be sin for us So that in him we might become the righteousness of god And so what we have is what is called imputed righteousness Jesus christ had no sin Jesus is the only human being who could point to people and say which of you can convict me of sin And not a single person could because he was without sin Tempted in every way such as we are but without sin the writer of heverse tells us And so when jesus christ died on the cross he didn't die because of his own sin He died on that cross on behalf of us because we're sinners He's the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world So when jesus took upon himself our sin He took upon himself that which he didn't have In order that he could give to us that which we don't have So he took my sin and gave me his righteousness It's called imputed righteousness. He gave to me that which I don't have of my own It's not by works of righteousness which we have done But it's that he saved us by the washing of regeneration the renewing of the holy spirit It's by it's by grace that we're saved through faith and that not of ourselves It's a gift of god and not of works less any mention boast And so what you did what I did if you're a believer in christ Is you said god i'm giving to you my sin and god says and i'm giving to you my righteousness And so you are made righteous by jesus christ There's quite a number of people who are trying to make themselves righteous by trying to do something hard or Or do something that requires much from them so they can somehow feel that they became righteous on their own efforts And god says that's not how it works What happens is you have nothing I have everything you ask me i give it to you i wash you i cleanse you i fill you with my presence You are righteous you are as without sin and that takes place through faith in jesus christ So jesus died for us. He's the one who knew no sin. He's the perfect sin offering He took upon himself our sin. He received our punishment But by faith we receive his forgiveness and we're made right with god through him Romans 4 5 says to him that works not but believes on him that justifies the ungodly His faith is counted for righteousness And so you can pray as a righteous person because you've been made righteous by the blood of christ That doesn't mean that you go off and just live a life that's unrighteous because a person who's a righteous person does Evidence righteousness in the way that they live. It's just not a self-generated righteousness It's a righteousness that comes through faith in christ So as he's speaking concerning this he says the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much But he goes on to give us an example Elijah notice verse 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months He prayed again The heaven gave rain And the earth Produced its fruit Elijah notice how he says I'm going to look at Elijah for a few moments with you Notice in verse 17 that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours Elijah The prophet Elijah one of the best known prophets in the old testament And he's saying he was an ordinary man But he worshiped an extraordinary god Elijah Ministered during the time of the reign of a man who was very wicked this man's name was ahab And ahab was an evil pagan man And he had an evil pagan wife and all of you know her even if you're not even a christian Even if you're a new christian you all know who she is Because we used to use the term to speak of women who were Didn't have a good reputation. They used to say she's a jezebel Well, that was his wife's name jezebel And so if you were brought someone home to your mama and your mama said would you bring in that jezebel here for She was insane something nice Because jezebel was an evil woman And and he was a a man who did much evil much evil In the in the kingdom of israel in first king 16 30 through 33 It says ahab was the son of armory Did evil in the side of the lord more than all who were before him It came to pass as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of jeroboam The son of nebat that he took as his wife jezebel the daughter of ethbal king of the sudonians And he went and served baal and worshiped him Then he set up an altar for baal in the temple of baal Which he built in samaria ahab made a wooden image Ahab did more to provoke the lord god of israel to anger than all the kings of israel who were before him Elijah Was a fearless reformer when you read your bible And you see him he was a fearless reformer who spoke to authority One of the things that That i've seen in the history of my walk with the lord and i've seen this in In history in the churches anytime the church gets close to power. There's a great danger there Because we can be seduced by it But he wasn't He wasn't a man who was seduced by the power of a king He was a man who rebuked the king and when you read the bible concerning him even as we're looking at him right now He's known for various things including being a man of who is mighty in in prayer When it says to us though that he was a man with a nature like ours We need to remember that and i'll show you this in a moment, but we need to remember that he had a competition with some prophets some false prophets and and um and uh God showed himself victorious in this particular competition and at the end of the Of god demonstrating himself to be god and the false prophets being demonstrated that they were false So in a place called mount carmel He left and he found himself in a wilderness in a cave and he was moaning how he was the only one who was Who was righteous and none left in the nation and all so even though he was a man who god used in tremendous ways Uh, he he's recorded as god giving him Um opportunities to see wonderful things done. There were many miracles done at the hands of elijah for example He multiplied flour and oil for a widow who was starving. He he raised the widow's son He was resurrected when he died through his hands. He he defeated the prophets above all he um Called fire down from heaven to consume some soldiers He used his mantle dropped it on the jordan and it split and he went across it and all God used him in amazing ways that he was a man who yielded to discouragement. He was a man like us He was a man with a nature like ours He wasn't a perfect man that he was a man who had a perfect god and and when you read about him This is what james is speaking about he's speaking about elijah and again in verse 17 He was a man with a nature like ours. He prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain and it didn't rain on the land for three years and six months so In first king 17 Verse one It reads elijah the tish fight from tishpa and gilead Said to ahab as the lord the god of israel lives whom i serve There will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word And that's what james is pointing out He's pointing out it didn't rain for three and a half years at the word of elijah And notice in verse 17 how it says that he he prayed earnestly When you look at that account in first kings 18 verses 41 through 46 Those verses tell us that elijah went up to mount car mal He crouched on the ground with his face on his knees and he prayed He did so seven times And at the end of his prayer the sky turned black with clouds and there was a heavy shower And so he's speaking about his fervency how he prayed and sought the lord and how that god moved He was a man with a sin nature, but god heard his cry Like psalm 27 verse 7 here. Oh lord when i cry with my voice have mercy also upon me Answer me he prayed verse 18 says and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit The drought and the famine ended at his prayer So the point he's making is god works miracles And it's reasonable to believe that he will bless us too So when you go before the lord and you say god in the name of jesus christ And you do so with the heart of righteousness because you've been made right with god When you confess your sin and say god be merciful to me as sinner, but lord in jesus name I ask that you would touch this person Very often that person will be touched by the lord not every time But very often that person will Remember if god worked miracles in the old testament god worked miracles in the new There's no reason why he can't work miracles now. I don't know a bible verse. It tells me he doesn't I don't know a single scripture that says that he isn't able So what I do is I just entrust myself to him because there's this old show that I used to watch when I was a kid called father knows best Well, father does know best my father knows best. So that's why I trust him and that's what he's speaking about So he begins by saying confess your trespasses that you may be healed He speaks of elijah being a man with a nature like ours And then he goes on in verse 19 to say this Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins So we looked at confession. We look at prayer and now we're going to look at restoration Notice how he says in verse 19 if anyone among you wanders from the truth So james is concluding his letter by writing about people wandering What is he saying when he speaks of wandering from the truth? Well, we need to believe or understand that for the christian truth isn't theoretical and it's not simply It's moral Christians realize that there is such a thing as truth And that believing in truth has ramifications So to be grounded in scripture produces a solid foundation for living a good life To reject such a thing as truth produces a worldview that translates into an amoral life Getting in the word of god is a very important discipline. It's the beginning of the year guys Start reading your bible through for this year My wife marie and I I read on my own my wife has read on her own for all the years of our marriage And even in our dating I I've never been one who likes to sit down and read out loud to my wife I just have never been she reads I read and god speaks to my heart. That's the way I've been for all of these years So this year I told marie. I'm going to be reading the bible through in the year and she says oh good You can read to me and I was going Because I have to read and concentrate and read and concentrate and read I have to read several times you know, I have A bit of a learning disability and so I have to spend time on the words I have to look at them. I have to think them through and have that and that's how I read. I have to do that You know, it may seem I've never even admitted this in front of anybody here. I'm admitting it to you Um, I have a learning disability in that I have to read several times the same thing My son david's exactly like me. He has to read through it and then read through it and then read through it That's me and so I I read better by myself So I always read by myself now my girl saying no, you can read to me and I'm going ah curses, but you know So we've been doing that so at night we're reading there are a lot of programs We have them here at the church. They're our read through the bible in a year bibles that we have I encourage you to do that husbands and wives, especially I encourage you to do that Get in the word of god together, you know, and especially husbands find the scriptures that really slap her around No, I'm just kidding Wives submit to your husband. Isn't that on every page of the bible? I seem to think of that every time I read it But no, I I'm saying that to you because That's what you want. You want to know what the truth is. How are you going to know what the truth is? Listen, as parents, it's been said and I agree with this If we don't teach the children our children to believe in god, the world will teach them not to If we don't teach our children to believe the word of god, the world will teach them not to That they get thank you christian teachers. I don't know how many christian teachers I have in here, but let me from the bottom of my heart and for all of us Let me say to you we love you and we thank you for your influence on our children I thank you for that. I really do Because there are a lot of people who don't believe in truth They don't and sometimes they're teaching our children all the way to the university level They don't believe in truth for them. It's a philosophic. It's a theory. But for us as believers, it's a person Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life So truth is moral. It is a person and we have a relationship with truth when you read your bible, you'll see this You see, we love the truth Psalm 1997 the psalmist said oh how I love your law. It's my meditation all the day We're to obey the truth and john 14 15 Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments We speak the truth Ephesians 4 15 says speak the truth in love We've been set free by truth john 8 32 you shall know the truth the truth shall make you free And so with this in mind truth can be wandered from the word wander means to stray You can stray away from truth You can wander away and that's what a backslider does They become lost as they wander away from the lord But the fact is people who wander from the truth are not satisfied Their lives are miserable. They had tasted at one time the lord's goodness and then they turn away In proverbs 13 15 it says good understanding gives favor, but the way of a transgressor is hard And james is making it clear that some people wander away from jesus And and it happens very often through deception By false teachers who preach a false message James says again notice that they wander they stray from the truth the truth of christian doctrine that reveals christ to us They no longer walk in the manner that they ought to walk because That teaching has corrupted them. They're seduced from the truth They no longer follow the truth of the gospel So james is telling them that it's of great importance to care about other people One of the dangers of being in a group like this Is that you can choose to sit in one place this week and if you come back the next You can sit somewhere else and you never get to know anybody You're just kind of there. You're just a person In a group of people a lot of people look at the church like a like a bus We're all sitting down facing the same direction, but we don't know the passengers around us And that's the way we do it. We can go in the same direction and not know the people around us That's not what the church was designed to be the church was designed to be a family I've got a community of believers that shared our lives together And false teachers come in and they begin to to bring false teaching to people and they begin to be seduced And they begin to wander away from the truth and because they don't have a brother that goes to turn them back They end up wandering alone. They're being seduced They're being seduced away from the the truth of the gospel And so we're supposed to care about one another every genuine christian has Is to have concern for a fellow believer that that that brother may walk or that sister may walk properly And there's nothing that gives me more joy than than seeing believers living for jesus christ In third john verse 4 it says i have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth And so truth is something you can wander away from but here's the question What are we to do when we see someone going in the wrong direction? What do you do? You know today is the first sunday of the new year Maybe today was a resolution for someone came today to this church or other churches It's a you know, it's the beginning of the year. I'm going to start going to church And you're probably going to lose 100 pounds too.   We need each other desperately. We need to help one another. We need to encourage one another I was sharing with first service today that I have a friend of mine and And he began to isolate himself from from people and and and and I've known him for many years and so I Contacted him and I said We need to get together. Let's get together and we did we had some coffee and we were visiting and all and and as we're having coffee together I began to share with them and I And as friends do because again, I've known him very very long time, but I said, you know Just want you to know I'm that you're isolating yourself And it's not a good thing Because the scripture says that a man who isolates himself Rages against all wise counsel and and The first thing that that god ever declares to be not good is that the man should be alone And and and the body of Christ is a community of believers fellow believers who can lift one another up when one falls Own to the man who has no friend to help him get up when he falls So we need each other Men need other men and women need other women and all of that because we're a family And guys if you don't have somebody in your life, think about it for a moment, please Just for a moment. Who do you have in your life? Let me be pointed with you Who do you have in your life who can say you're going the wrong direction that you don't get mad at? That you will look at and you'll say Busted you're right Who do you have? Yeah, I have my wife every day I have my wife obviously Marie is able to tell me and she does If I'm going in the wrong direction she does And guess what? Do I like it? No. No, are you kidding? Are you kidding? Women submit thyself No Do I like it? Do I like being corrected? Am I somebody who wakes up in the morning saying Jesus, please? May I be corrected 50 times today? No Faithful are the wounds of a friend And when someone loves you enough to tell you the truth Thank god every day that you have that person in your life Thank god every day that you have someone who's willing to take the risk To say to you you're going in the wrong direction because Like kane said am I my brother's keeper? And god said indeed you are Indeed you are that's what you are. We are our brother's keepers We are to care about one another and not just on facebook or instagram or whatever Where we like to post a lot of stuff to strangers when we call friends We we need somebody in our life Who can actually Put their arms around me Somebody who can look me directly in the eye Somebody who knows me not as just that person who stands up there But somebody who's got a real life and real feelings and real real victories and and real struggles That's what we need. That's what we need And when you have somebody that you know That's not doing well a lot of people just ignore it. Well, you know god will hunt them down But you know what sometimes he does god does through you Through that phone call Through that walking up and seeing them when they come in like some some of you today may not have been in Fellowship here for for a while you haven't been in church for whatever reason good or bad You haven't and and you may walk in and somebody may walk up and say oh go.   No, you don't No, you don't do that What you do is you look at i mean you say how you've been i missed you i've been thinking of you How are you? I didn't have any way to connect with you How are you? What's going on? And they know don't get so personal don't get so personal you shouldn't get so personal Sometimes the people who say and you're getting too personal other ones who are posting stuff on facebook I'm at the doctor's office my two-thirds Really?  Anybody know what i mean by that you see a lot of that I fell down and hurt myself Okay, fine. I'm sorry. I wish I was there. I could touch your little head I need i need truth incarnated I already have a savior who is but god touches me through human beings And when you see someone wandering from the truth, there are things that you're supposed to do You seek him out sometimes and you share with them Remember luke 50 and 4 where jesus said what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them Doesn't leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it You see again sometimes it's difficult to share the truth with someone you know Is in error because your own faults loom large you can feel unqualified to speak with them That's why it's important to guard your walk It puts you in a position of having character And character is necessary for correction When I was before I was saved I had people on occasion not often but on occasion There would be somebody who would say you shouldn't smoke pot shouldn't smoke pot. It's bad But they're drinkers Yes, you shouldn't drink And I look at him I'd say and and you should you shouldn't drink who are you? to tell me That I shouldn't do this when you're doing the same thing yourself. Well, this is legal But see You say you can drink and not get drunk, but I've never seen you drink and not get drunk So, how do you do that? How see so have you ever been lectured like that? I have have you And if you if you're preaching to me put it into practice yourself That's how I felt If you're going to tell me not to do something show me how not to do that But don't tell me that it's bad to do that Somebody's real overweight telling me you shouldn't eat that that's bad for you. I'm looking at you.  That's character And I can be corrected by truth because sometimes somebody without character is speaking the truth And I'll I'll just grab the truth, but I don't think they're applying it Most of the time I can be corrected by someone who lives out what they're giving out And that's very important It's very important to live what you give That's why in galatians chapter six verse one It says if a man is overtaken in in any trespass you who are spiritual Restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness considering yourself Unless you also be tempted you who are spiritually mature restore such a one Not just anybody running up correcting correcting correcting you who are spiritually mature correct such a one and consider yourself Look at your own life one finger at them and three fingers at you consider yourself Unless you also be tempted Be careful Be careful and that's the whole point is that if you're going to bring correction to somebody live out what you give out Live it out. Are you perfect? No, but at least you'll be known for your sincerity That you're wanting to live out what you're giving out to somebody else and that's very important And so restoration what we're looking at here is someone wandering and how to restore them because he says that Listen again If anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back we're talking about restoring We're recovering and restoration. Let him know that he who turns the sinner from the herb his way Will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins Now the great example I want to use right now is found in john 21 Would you turn your bibles with me to john chapter 21? I want to show you something here about one who had been restored by the name of the apostle peter It's found in john 21 and we're going to be looking together in just a moment at verses 15 through 19 But let me lay a foundation for you and then I'll read those scriptures to you As I begin this on the night that jesus was Betrayed He told his disciples that they were going to scatter from him Matthew 26 31 says jesus said to them all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night For it is written. I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered While the apostle peter was there and he was upset when he heard that and he even argued about it In mark 14 29 peter declared even if all fall away. I will not In mark 14 31. He insisted emphatically even if I have to die with you. I will never deny you Well later on that evening jesus is taken to the home of a man by the name of anus to be interrogated And it was there that peter denied knowing jesus and he did so like jesus said three times What's going to happen to him? He failed christ Is at the end of the road for him is at the end of his story. He failed the lord. He he he denied him You see right now as I speak there are some believers who are laboring under self condemnation right here right now You live in regret you live in failure and loneliness the bondage of a burdened heart You need to remember that jesus is the bondage breaker You need to remember that he can heal you and he will Psalm 34 18 says the lord is near to those who have a broken heart save such as have a contrite spirit We need to understand that god works to restore those who fall He delights in healing broken lives. He delights in mending broken hearts And psalm 23 1 through 3 the lord is my shepherd. I shall not want he makes me to lie down in green Pastries he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul the word restoring the ancient language of herew Means to repair or refresh. He repairs me. He refreshes my soul He's the good shepherd We know that peter had had contact with jesus on two occasions within eight days. You see that in chapter 20 But chapter 21 of john's gospel is his record of a third encounter with with peter Prior to his ascension You see during all of this time peter has been living with the knowledge that he denied jesus christ his wound hasn't been healed And if it's not healed he can't be fully used He had thought himself to be strong peter thought that he was unable to fall And we can believe ourselves stronger and yet we stumble And we fall And we condemn ourselves Here's a news flash that none of us need God is aware of our weaknesses And he's not surprised by them You think that you've ever failed and god up in heaven has said i didn't think they'd do that ever You know god knew what a mess we were and he still saved us You ever thank him for that he knew what a mess you are and i am he knew what i would do with his message And he saved me anyway That's because god is a restoring god. He's a loving god And so we're going to see that here with with the apostle peter his denial had occurred three weeks before he hadn't forgotten his own words He his words i'm i'm sure haunted him like we read in psalm 51 3 I know my transgressions my sin is always before me I can't escape its presence It haunts me Sin can't be swept into a carpet.  You can't excuse it as a mistake You can't say it was an error.  It has to be brutally dealt with That's how sin has it has to be dealt with brutally It has to be recognized. It has to be acknowledged. It needs to be confessed It needs to be repented of it needs to be completely forsaken I've seen recently more than one invitation We call them altercalls where the the individual who's giving people the invitation is failing to say you need to repent Because without repentance, there's no turning around It isn't just oh, I'm just going to come to Jesus as just as I am no wait a minute You come to Jesus in need of a savior, but you repent from your sin You say god be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. Forgive me lord I turned from it the word repent means just do 180 Lord, I've been going in this direction I repent I turn around the first message that john the baptist gave was repent the first message Jesus gave in the gospel of Matthew is repent the kingdom of heaven is at hand Repent is the first word of the gospel You don't enter into heaven with all your sins you repent from them and that's what confession comes in and that's where the The purging of the blood of christ's washiness and cleansing is that's how that all works But I've seen too many people who've prayed prayers, but never repented from their sin Do you hate your sin? Do you hate it? David said my sin is ever before me He said my body is drying up from within. I hate this and I have to be rid of it. That's how I got saved That's how I got saved I was sorry and sorry so many times and I regretted it a lot. I regretted things a lot I did it wasn't that I didn't have a conscience that said I didn't repent I felt bad that I hurt that person. I felt bad that I did this. I felt bad that I hurt them That's how I felt I felt bad But I did it again until one day I said god, I don't want to do this anymore I still remember the prayer I I prayed god. I'm sick And I need your help God, I'm sick and I need your help help me god help me god. I need to be different I need to be different I hate what I am. I need to be new. That's how I got saved Weeks later That's how I heard the gospel and that was the promise if you turn from your sin and repent and confess You can be forgiven and healed And that's what happens and see Jesus is here to heal. Jesus is here to restore those broken lives and And that's what he's doing In this particular instance here as we look at in a moment Jesus has made a meal for his disciples He gave them fish and bread that he prepared for them And the meal more than likely had been eaten in a tense silence We need to remember in chapter 21 that peter had had led the disciples back into their former lives They'd been out fishing But now there they are on the on the shore of the sea of galilee and and they're having a meal That jesus prepared for them and the tension must have grown steadily The city with jesus they're they're alone on the shore And so when this they they've finished breakfast jesus begins to speak notice verse 15 They had eaten breakfast and jesus said to simon peter simon Son of jonah Do you love me more than these? He said to him yes lord, you know that i love you He said to him feed my lambs He said to him again a second time simon son of jonah Do you love me He said to him yes lord, you know that i love you He said to him tend my sheep He said to him the third time simon son of jonah Do you love me peter was grieved because he said to him the third time do you love me and he said to him lord You know all things you know that i love you And jesus said to him Feed my sheep restoration Let's look at that for a moment They've been sitting there in silence it would seem the silence is now broken and a question is asked peter do you love me more than these peter do you love me more than these other men love me That's what you said recently And those words were spoken with gentleness, but they must have torn simon's heart. He's confronting peter But exposing him that he might heal the pain. So he might restore him. Do you love me? Loving jesus is where healing and ministry begins In verses 15 and 16 you have a word play here the word love The word love is there are two different words that are translated here by the english word love The greek word is agape and the other word is phileo and it's an interplay jesus is saying simon Do you love do you agape me? But simon is saying yes lord. You know that i phileo you Agape is a god kind of self-sacrifice and phileo is friendship love. It's where you get the name philadelphia city of brotherly love philadelphia philos phileo It's a brotherly love. Do you agape me? I phileo you do you agape me?  Do you phileo me? I'm willing to accept you on the level that you're able to give What is this reveal to us? Well one peter no longer is proud of his love He's in need of love He discovered that Though his denial was great jesus's love and grace is greater still Though they all forsake you yet.  He's aware of us. He knows that we're Human beings and we fail.  How do you do that? How'd you get no? I know how you could have done that I've done that in worse I know I know the place of brokenness and many of you do too I know the place of failure. I know that place where I've said god I can't even be used by look at me. Look what I've done with your with your mercy and your grace Look what I've done with your message. Look what I am. I'm such a failure I I don't live the way that I preach and the lord has broken me and broken me and bro And he's done the same for you Because he works out of the place of our brokenness Not that it's an excuse to go back and say no It's that you might learn lessons that keep you from being arrogant and prideful Now third thing is he learns that god will deepen him as he heals him Peter needed to know he was loved and he needed to hear that from Jesus Psalm 51 verse 8 says make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice Jesus's word of love to him was a simple command to go back and minister Not fish And this is how we're to be with those who have failed But have returned to church returned to the lord We encourage them we love them And we welcome them back It's good to see you. We've missed you It's a blessing to have you with us You may think you're just an invisible face in a sea of other faces But but you matter And it's good to have you with us Because we're a family And we're not a complete family when one of the members is not there And when you're here with us We're grateful that you are Because you're going to walk in the truth And that ministers to us We need to encourage people We need to love them And we need to be their welcoming committee What do you do when someone wanders from the truth? Well, James in chapter five verse 20 and I'll close Says let him know that he who turns the center from the air of his way Saves the soul from death It's going to cover them It puts him in the place of repentance It puts him in a place of restoration The bible in first Peter four eight says above all things have fervent love among yourselves Love shall cover the multitude of sins And Psalm 32 verse one Blessed is he blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin Is covered the word blessed can speak of being happy Overwhelmingly rejoicing Blessed is the one happy is that one whose transgression is forgiven whose sin Is covered Jesus restored the apostle Peter Peter didn't deny him again Peter went on to serve him To feed the lambs to tendon care for the sheep and lambs And ended up Laying his life down for Jesus his master never again to betray him Restoration Some of you in this room need restoration. There's no doubt There's no doubt You need to be restored Let me close by saying Jesus is here to restore you. He will wash you.


All right one popular question something the agents need to know and ask a lot about is your warm market There's agents that believe that okay working my warm market is good But some believe that it'll last forever, right and there's others believe that literally after you contact your immediate family that It's over right. I Here's my belief I get asked this question a lot because there's a lot of beliefs around the country when it comes to working your warm market I'm a big believer in working your warm market. I worked my warm market early on insurance business and Helped me make tens of thousands of dollars as a new agent and learn this business and learn how to learn how to present Learn how to talk people learn how to fact find learn how to warm up, right? It's easier with your warm market I'll also make sure that I mentioned how to approach your warm market But I've got something that works. That's a quick idea that I call the rolling 100 how about my Apple watch background there to the Little security mentor. How about that the rolling 100 with the rolling 100 what that means is and you guys probably already understand What I'm gonna say write down a 100 names and numbers 100 names and numbers of people that You know Or that know you right that's pretty broad that could be immediate family that could be Long-lost family that could be cousins that could be you know that could be your pastor that people people from your church People you work out with people you work with people you used to work with people You don't even like people you like a lot people you hate like people you play sports with people You went to high school with college with like that. There's endless people in your networking group There's endless amounts of people in our warm market if I had to sit down right now and I've I Worked my warm market, right if I had to get down and sit down and write about If I had to come with a brand new business and I had to write down a thousand names this weekend of people that Could go into my rolling 1,000 and in that example I could and so could you so we're gonna start with a hundred So you start know we start with the best 100 that you think there is and so what you do is You write them down then you contact them right and there's always a goal So what's the goal the goal is to schedule an appointment? It's a sudden appointment It's to get in front of them, right? It's literally just to get in front of them, right? Get in front of them, okay, then from there If you if they Say no or if they buy You take them off the list so you have a hundred names. Let's just say you got John Betty Sue there's some good names Corb Right, you got different names. Let's just say that John says no. I take him off. Let's say Betty buys Right, this one says no now.  He just you know keeps putting you off, right? Just kind of duty is keeps putting you off.   So I believe in approaching your market when I approach them you say, well, what do you say Cody? Let's just say that the one that bought sue Sue hey, it's Cody. How are you? How's the kids? How's the family? Hope all's been well. Hey, I'm in the Insurance business now. I love it. Like it's gonna be my career for life. It's amazing If you're not confident, they won't be confident about you be confident. I Know you that you own insurance. I'm gonna buy you pizza. I'm gonna come over I just want to review your policies and see if I can save you any money I'm sure you let me do that. What night works best for you guys typically like a Tuesday or a Thursday Did I ask if they wanted to talk about insurance that I asked if I could come over Did I ask if they had insurance? Did I ask if they were interested more insurance? None of that matters the goal is always to get in front of them. So that's my rolling 100 you've got I promise you everybody watching this video right now has a minimum minimum pay attention to me minimum of 100k right now waiting to be deposited into your bank account By helping your warm market and you can do that with a rolling 100 that you're always Taking off and adding more to so when you go make 100k this year in 2019 from this rolling 100 idea That Cody Askins gave you makes you come back to this video and you put comments below Giving me and Dylan Corbett some credit. Thanks for watching. Appreciate you guys. Make sure you subscribe If you have questions anytime Comment below appreciate


Hi, my name is Sheryl Jones and I'm a Senior Emergency Services Coordinator for Southern Region Response Operations. I'm also the lead for some other Southern counties and I mentor the new ESCs. I work closely with the County Office of Emergency Management and our State Department and other partnering agencies. I came to Cal OAS in February of 2008 from the California Conservation Corps. I live in the community that I serve. I'm a sign of Los Angeles County. Having relationships with the leaders that serve my community is important and I'm their conduit to state and federal government. I'm Sheryl Jones and I am Cal OAS.