The Hope Hotline - The Hope Hotline | S01-E12 | 02-24-23

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

Question #1Why does Hope get frustrated with me at times even though I’m the most perfect nephew.Question #2How do I know if I have truly forgiven someone who has really hurt me and continues to make my life hard?Question #3The question begins with a story of this person seeing an elderly man struggling with a basket of clothes, asks if they can help and the offer is accepted. They feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit to pray for the elderly man healing but do not because they felt uncomfortable. They asked, “how do we do this without being a weirdo with a stranger?”Question #4Would you ever gamble? If so, you won a 100 million dollar scratch off, what’s the first thing you would do?Question #5If people were surprised by how Jesus came the first time, how do we know when he’ll come again if he shows up differently than we expect?

Real Talk Hello everybody and how are you doing this fine Wednesday morning? I didn't really want to do that everybody but I was told that I'm too quiet at the beginning of the podcast and that by the end of it I'm making everyone like it's peaking in here so that's why you got that. I just told that was great so I have met the approval of the producer Heather disagrees shocker she never agrees but like my kids I don't know they never agree with me I'm telling you if they let me pick who they're supposed to marry, I told Tommy this. I'm like, Tommy, if you let me run your life, I'm just telling you, it'd be one heck of a great one.

Like, it'd be off the charts. He told me absolutely, positively not. Oh, well. He can have subpar. He can have what I got. You know, I'm like God, not literally like God. But God always has what's better for us, right? We just don't know it.

And that's how my son is. Like, I have so much better for him than he realizes. What? He wants to be, I'm going to hook him up with a married woman with three children. I tried. Oh, dear dear Lord I did try and hook that's true that is true I don't do we have a really cute girl that attends the church and she looks like she's like I don't know 19 years old so I kept checking her out and I'm like, man, she's cute.

Like, she'd be perfect for Tommy. Like, they'd be so cute together. Until I found out she's married and has three children. And she's, is she in her late 20s or early 30s? Late 20s, yeah. Well, I wasn't too far off, but, yeah, I'm not into the adultery thing, and I don't want to steal another man's wife. So maybe he isn't that, maybe he's not that well off.

I think he'll be fine without me. Even I am convinced at this moment. Thank you, Heather, for telling me that I'm not good. Yeah, that's why I have you. Okay, so here we go. Like, okay, so I'm gonna update everybody on our dating situation, but first I wanna make sure everybody knows, one, I'm trying to answer

as many questions as I can in the order they are given. That's not always going to be the case. Sometimes I'm gonna put another one in front of another one because it's too long of an answer or whatever. But for the most part, I'm trying to answer them in the order they were given. Some people have sent me like a long list, like they have multiple questions on the same page.

I'm just gonna do the whole entire page, like one right after the other, unless I don't understand the question. And sometimes the way people, you know, put their question out to me, I read it over and over and over again. And I don't have comprehension problems when I read. So I'm figuring like either the person didn't explain it well enough for me to understand or I don't know what I just don't understand it sometimes so if you didn't get your question

answered um and in about two months then you know that I didn't understand the question and then you can resubmit it otherwise I'm hitting I'm hitting these as fast as I possibly can but I have like I have a stack I have a lot which is great thing keep sending them in keep sending them in keep sending them in I need them they don't all have to be spiritual they can be fun like somebody wants to know like personal things about me I will answer them to a degree and then I mean I do draw the line I'm not like my husband who like shares everything about everything I don't do that I like I like privacy believe it or not I'm more private than he is so I am not as transparent which is okay by me um but you'll i will answer questions but i draw

a line to to what full disclosure is so let me get to this um so you know a couple couple podcasts ago we did the dating we had the dating question and then then Heather said that she would hook people up, which we had some people, you know, send us. We have one so far, one emailed, and she's a hot little thing, I will tell you that. She's a really good-looking woman. And then we got one of these little, somebody dropped something in the Tithe box, and she's very interested as well. Both of these women are looking for a man between 55 and 65. Okay.

This one, both of them are outdoorsy. They're sporty. They want somebody who is athletic. They want fun. They want somebody who is athletic. They want fun. They want funny. The one that emailed, she had a little bit more of what she's looking for. But this one is wanting to do a dating game. I don't think we can do that for you.

But that would be fun. Tom will kill me if I do the dating game. Just going to tell you. But if you're 55 to 65, I don't know what this person looks like, but I do know what the one that emailed, she sent pictures, and she's cute. So if you're a guy between ages 55 and 65, I have two women that might be interested in you. So send your information in. Heather will take good care of you guys. Maybe set you up on a blind date.

I don't know. She's having a fit over there to my right. But we'll figure it out. I can promise you that. Let's go to our first question. It says, if I am not sure if a person is transgender, can I call them what I think they are? And my answer to that is yes. it'd be very inappropriate for you to call them by the wrong gender just because you based on you thinking they want to be transgender now I will tell you it's very very rare that you don't know what somebody's gender is I mean is I mean unless you watch the Saturday Night Live skit

with Pat a lot of people say, what's that? It's Pat. A lot of people ask, who's he or she? Or ma'am or sir, except him or her, or whatever it might be. It's time for androgyny. Here comes Pat. Outside of Pat from SNL,l i mean most of the time you know what sex the individual is even if they're pretending to be something and how they're dressed but normally there's a dead giveaway on you know what sex the person is and i will tell you I mean I've met people like that it's very rare

I will tell you to make sure that the reason you are trying to say you don't know what the person's sex is I mean you might literally not know so you're going to call them by what you think they are but I will tell you if if you really in your heart know and you don't want to be confrontational and call them like what you think they are. For example, I'll tell you a story. My kids, when they were really little, the staples in town had a guy dressed as a girl.

And so we would go in there. He was a really nice guy, very, very sweet, but it was very evident it was a man. Even though he had the fake breasts and he, I mean, it was obvious he was definitely a guy. And so what he wanted us to do is call him by his name, his female name, which I'll call you by that name if that's what you're on your name tag but i'm not going to call it say yes ma'am or no ma'am to you i'm going to say yes sir or no sir and my children were taught the same thing so we say the guy's name was stacy we would say stacy but when we were checking out or if he asked a question when we were being um you know when he

was asking us what we were looking for whatever the answer was always yes sir or no sir or yeah thank you sir or whatever my kids did the same thing and I remember him saying to my daughter uh he corrected and said ma'am and my daughter said sir again to him and she was little but and I don't think she understood what he was trying to do at the time but he looked at me and I just looked at him like you've lost your mind if you think I'm going to correct my child and make her call you ma'am it's not happening um so I was always very nice always very kind and treated him with respect as a human being. But I draw the line on calling somebody a woman when it's a man. I'm not going to teach my child to lie and call somebody else by something they are not. If we condone that behavior, we're perpetuating sin.

And sin, when we lie to the person and call them something they're not, we're lying to them, we're lying to them we're lying to ourselves most importantly we're sinning and we're lying period so but when we teach our children and we indoctrinate them into thinking that it is the appropriate thing it's the respectful thing it's the kind thing to do to someone who's transgender and call them by what they are not we are teaching our children to be deceptive and and deceitful and to be liars and it's super important that you don't train up a child in the wrong way it says train them up in the way that they should go you can train them correctly or you can train them wrong. And you will answer ultimately for God

because you're the one that God has entrusted them with. So if you don't do what's right for them, and discipline is huge, but also teaching them these simple little things as well, that's huge too. Because you're going to teach them to be honest because you're going to teach them to be honest or you're going to teach them to be liars and so for me I think it's cowardice not to stand up to a person and speak correctly to them and tell them the truth even if it means telling them the truth

about themselves and calling them a man when they want to be called a woman. So he didn't like that very much, but we were very kind the whole entire time, every time we saw him. And he knew that we weren't trying to be nasty because otherwise we'd have been rude to him the whole entire time we were around him. He just knew that we weren't going to play that game. So I hope that answers your question.

Do not cave to the wokeness of this world. Okay, the best thing you can do is always be honest and true to yourself as well as to the others around you. Next question. I am considering volunteering to be on a book committee to screen indoctrinating books and get them out of our schools. This would be books that have graphic pictures and include extreme violence, rape, LGBTQ, and the occult.

As a Christian who was backslidden for years, but now getting back on fire for God, I worry about putting that evil in my head and heart none of the content will shock me I'm not fragile or naive but I don't want to poison my spirit it will upset me to know kids are getting influenced by the enemy but I'm willing to go through that to help kids I'm willing as long as it's in alignment with God and his and I ask him to protect me does this sound okay first thing first I think it's a great thing what you're doing I think or that you want to do I think that a lot of people should be even if you don't have kids because this person that wrote this actually I shortened the question they actually

they don't have children in the school system any longer but they're concerned about their grandchildren and so I applaud you for that they're fairly young and they it seems like because I think they said that their child just graduated but they're concerned about their grandchildren at when they do have them what the school system will look like for them. I think that if more Christians did this, whether they have children in the system or not, if we didn't, you know, a lot of times we're like, well, we're not there anymore, so it doesn't really matter.

It's not going to affect me. Oh, it affects you. It affects you because what happens is these kids will it ultimately end up growing up and voting and you will be in your 60s and what how they believe and what they believe and how they vote will ultimately affect you so yes I think it's very important for us whether we have children in the school system or not to be privy as to what's going on and that we have a say in it and that we're voting on it. Voting is extremely important.

On the level of, I think, you know, everybody thinks that the national elections are so important, and they are, but your local elections are far more important and have a higher effect on your life to a great degree as well. So it's vitally important that you know what's going on in your school system. You know what's going on in your community outside of that. You need to know who your sheriff is or who's the chief of police, who your commissioners are, who make the rules and decide what goes on in your

city or your county. It's vitally important that you, the judges that are going to be ruling over whether somebody is found guilty or not of a crime and then the punishment they receive, you need to make sure that that person is not, that aligns themselves with what you believe because ultimately that affects where you live so I think that no one should sit back no matter what age they are or whatever you know if it ultimately is going to influence you in some way ultimately at some point it will so I applaud you and I think it's honorable what you're wanting to do but at the same time i would say this philippians 2 12 says work out your own salvation with fear and

trembling only you know if you can handle what you're going to see and what you're going to hear okay um if it's a male this is a male person and i think i don't know I don't know what the email said um but um if if you are a male and you're going to be looking at pornographic information or anything do not do it you have no business doing it or opening yourself up to that reading it or even looking at it um I I was telling my husband about this question and he said absolutely positively a man should never even watch this stuff the what it can do to the heart and mind for a guy is something that should never be seen. I know I have family who were in law enforcement and one of the things that they had to deal with is

they had to look at and actually I had a personal good personal friend who had to look at pornographic child pornographic things on computers so that they could could send people away for it and it's things that they said they can't even get out of their mind anymore the just the awfulness of what they viewed and what they experienced it said they changed them forever so a guy I mean it's terrible um child pornography and these sex crimes against children are just off the charts and it's so rampant so um i would say if this is a male totally get yourself out of it it's not something that you should be looking at or be involved in um in that respect um if you're newly saved or just recommitted your life i would say be very careful it depends on on how new you are, right?

Because in 1 Timothy 3, that a novice shouldn't be preaching, teaching, anything. It says, not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. So what happens is sometimes when you, like, it's very careful. We're told to be very careful about putting people into positions too quickly when they're newly saved or recommitted to their lives, or even if they're young to a certain extent. And the reason is, is because can they handle it in a mature way?

But also, puffed up means pride. A lot of times, things can go to your head and pride comes before destruction, right? So you don't want to put somebody in a position that ultimately puts them farther away than they were when they finally, when they were saved. So if you're newly saved and then you get put in a place, a position that can make you puffed up, then what happens is you will fall but you'll fall farther than what you were when you initially got saved we don't want that to happen either so if you're it sounds like you rededicated your life how long ago was that

how spiritually strong are you how much of the word do you actually know? How much time do you spend in the word now? Are you going to spend more time looking at these books and studying them and reading them than you are in the word? Good teachings, things like that. There has to be a balance. And the balance is more of word bible things like that less of the world and what it's what you're trying to save the world from ultimately only god can do that and um so we can do our part but as long as it has balance that you're doing more of the spiritual aspect of things and less of the worlds okay and let's just remember bottom line it is the it is we all play a part and we all are responsible okay but ultimately it is the parents responsibility to know what

books their children are bringing home and what they're reading and like you can't take the place of that and um so that even has a balance to it because a lot of times parents don't know what their kids are doing in the school and they don't really care, to be honest with you. They say that kids in elementary school, the parents of children in elementary school, when they do these, you know, like the, when schools first opens, they have these open houses.

And when kids are in elementary school, all the parents are there. They just all attend. When they go to junior high, open house is much smaller, fewer parents, which is really when they need more of their parents because junior high is like a very pivotal time for teenagers. That age group is just all they want to do is be around their friends.

They make really bad decisions because they just want to fit in and be liked. And then when you hit in high school, it's even less parents that go to open houses, less people who show up because there's just less of caring or influence, right? So I think that we can't take the parent place of parents and their roles theirs is way more but we still should be doing our part so i applaud your willingness to get in there and help um but don't put yourself in harm's way because your soul is far more important. Get it where it's solidified. And then maybe you step into these things if you're not already there and start helping out with this stuff.

But make sure first and foremost, spiritually speaking, you're strong enough to handle it. And then if you're not, once you are, then go for it. If you are, more word, spirit, time with, you know, spending time with the Holy Spirit, more word, more teaching, and then you add in the reading of the books or looking at the different things that the school system is putting out there. So, all right, next question. Is using birth control a sin? No.

No, it's not. Unless you believe that, like, abortion is a form of birth control. And if that's the case, yes because that's murder so normal birth control there's nothing in the Bible that says anything about that you can't use birth control now with abortion there's call it's called abortifacient abortifacient I think is the proper I had to listen to how they said it because it spelled so funky um and it was abortifacient is the is the term used and that is still a form of birth control that is um like the morning after pill anything that doesn't allow the um anything that doesn't allow once the the sperm and the egg connect and then like the birth the after birth pill or whatever or the morning after pill what that does

is um it doesn't allow the the egg that's been fertilized to attach to a wall. So that's like a form of abortion. Now, like if you use something like a diaphragm or something like that, that just collects, that's not an egg that's been fertilized or anything. So it just doesn't allow anything to be fertilized, okay? Then there's like birth control pills. Birth control pills don't allow anything to be fertilized. Okay. Then there's like, um, birth control pills, birth control pills don't allow an egg to ever become into an existence to, to, from what I've

been told, um, birth control pills don't allow an egg to really become about. So there's no, um, attaching itself to the uterine line. So, um, let's see, there's, uh, other things like tracking your cycle. And there's even more things that I'm not going to talk about that you can do to make sure you don't get pregnant, um, that are more natural, but birth control outside of anything that is killing a fertilized egg, um, you're fine. Um, cause it doesn't say in in the in the bible that you can't it doesn't even say anything in the bible that you have to have kids uh there's nothing mandating it psalm 127 3 says children are a gift from god they are reward from him but you don't have to

take the reward you don't have to like there's like there's things throughout the bible that are promises that people don't take from god they don't they don't read them they don't have to, like, there's things throughout the Bible that are promises that people don't take from God. They don't read them. They don't receive them. They're like a gift underneath the tree. Okay, children are one of them, all right? But you might say, well, they're not really that to me. I don't want a kid.

Well, they're not a reward to you then. God says they're a reward, but you don't feel like that. So maybe you don't want one. And you don't have to have a child. Psalm 127.5 says, Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate. Again, that doesn't say that you have to have children.

Listen, I looked this up. I looked in the Word. There is absolutely nothing that says that God wants you or mandates you to have children. The only place that I could see was in Genesis 128 when God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. But He told Adam and Eve that. He didn't tell us that. Nothing in the New Testament or anything that I could find at all. Some people want kids, some don't.

Some people think it's selfish not to have them. And I say, well, who are you to say that? There's nothing. I think it's smart when people, I think it's actually smart for people who don't want children not to have them. Like I have a sibling and my sister. My sister, there's four of us. I have an older sister, then there's me, then there's my brother, and then there's my baby sister.

Well, my older sister decided she never wanted to have kids. She was very career-minded. Actually, we tease her. My mom teases her too because she's three years older than me. So when I was growing up, when my mom went back to work, which we were older when she went back to work, but I think it was a fourth grade when she did, my sister was responsible for all of us. She got home first because obviously she's older and then we all came home and she made sure we did our school like she just was like our mom until my mom came home she's always been super responsible very very loving and nurturing like a mother um she and my mom used to call us the three little kids.

I mean, come on. She's only three years older than me, but she was that mature. So she never wanted kids. Like, she helped raise us, so she got her fill. Not that she was resentful of it, but she just never did. And I remember talking to her about it, and she's like, people think I'm selfish for not wanting to have kids. And I'm like, because she wanted to go and travel

which she has she's traveled she has animals that she loves they fulfill her need for nurturing she's very successful in her career and I thought to myself how selfish would it be and I told her this how selfish would it be for you to have children it's not what you want you want different things to add a child into that and then maybe resent the child for taking up your time so that you can't have you know you can't travel or you can't focus on your career or whatever how selfish would that have been otherwise just to satisfy the world who thinks you need one. No, it's far better that if you don't want to have kids, to not have them. There are plenty of people out there in this world who can have children who have no business doing it, and they're popping out one puppy after another.

They don't take care of them. And then you have amazing people who can't have children, who would be phenomenal parents, it just seems so crazy. But it would be nice if it was flipped the other way and the ones that are horrible parents couldn't have them, but that's not the way it works. So I say use birth control until you're ready to have a child. Then go back on that stuff until you're post-menopause and you can't have anymore. We were just having this conversation, ladies, weren't we?

Before the, they didn't even know what we were gonna be talking about. I'm post-menopause, people. And there's women in this room right now who are like, dag, you're so lucky. You're right. I am. They're done having kids.

They don't want any more kids, right? So they're envious of me. They should be. Okay. Beach or mountains? Next question. Beach or mountains? Which place would you rather vacation?

Well, I like this question because it's about me. Of course. I actually, I live at the beach, right? I was born in Sarasota, Florida. I grew up here until I was 10. But I lived in different places. So I was born in Sarasota then we moved to Fort Myers then we moved to Polk County and then I moved um I moved up to Virginia um in the DC area then I uh moved back down here when I was like 24 years old

um I've been at the beach for a really long time. I don't go. I was just telling somebody in Georgia. I probably have been to the beach. I don't know. Not very much. Hardly at all. Nobody that lives here that's like been born here or has lived here a long time. We don't go to the beach. It's a pain in the butt. People are whispering, it's true. It's true. It's true. We don't.

All the people that move down here from northern states that have lived a life of freezing, they go to the beach in the wintertime, and then they jump in the water, and we think they're cuckoo. Okay? Because they are it's flipping freezing but to them it's like nothing it's their blood until you've been here for about two or three years and you move down here from up north for about two or three years your body is still like used to the north and then after that you get a you know your whole blood

thing the blood your blood changes and you're freezing at 70 degrees we all got sweatshirts on it's cold it's real cold so we don't go to the beach I don't go to the beach hardly ever hardly ever at all now when I lived in the DC area we used to go and take Sunday drives my dad was great about this we take Sunday drives to the was great about this we would take Sunday drives to the mountains after church on Sunday so we'd go up to the Shenandoah mountains go through you know take the winding roads the parkway and just enjoy the afternoon I think it was a way because we all fell asleep in the car it's a way for my dad to have a quiet afternoon you got four kids it's loud he'd get us ice cream we'd all shut up

for a while it's a great thing like it was a nice break so I'm a city girl I would say but I got some redneck tendencies in me like like I'm just telling you if i had to like um if i had to uh if it's between me and tom having to make sure we eat i'd be the one going out and killing the animal which i have no problem doing i've done it before so like listen i've slaughtered me some chickens. My son's cooked some squirrel up in my iron skillet. Like, we don't care. Like, it's not a big thing. Now, Tom, on the other hand, he can't kill anything. Like, he is the softy, softy, softy.

He's a hypocrite. He says all the time he is such a meat eater, but he can never kill it. Me and Tommy, not a problem. Not a problem. My daughter even can go out there. She can take care of business. She was out there with me and Heather and Heather's husband when we were slaughtering our chickens in my yard.

She was out there just like cutting. Wasn't Norma's job to cut them up? No, you, no, Heather Heather you didn't cut them up Heather de-gutted them Heather's job was far worse she was pulling everything out didn't she oh she did pluck she plucked with me but didn't she oh she had to go in and clean after you cut them up okay so Norma's job was after the butcher which is Heather took care of business she then me and Travis here's how it went we had a we had a I'm going down a wormhole or a squirrel we had our what do you call he had assembly line okay we had a

system so I went in I took the chickens out I hung them upside down me or Travis mostly Travis slit their necks to drain them after that I took them to the boiling pot so I could pluck them I plucked them then what did Travis do after that Travis was the next in line after he killed them all I yes for the most part but what was his job after that cuz he did something else I don't know oh yeah he had to cut there yeah he had to cut certain things off then Heather got them she gutted them she put them she processed them thea went in, cleaned them, and packed them for us in our packaging. Yep, there we go. And we have pictures, in case you think I'm lying. I got pictures. It was a sight. That's all I can

tell you. Tom came out to go walking the dog. He couldn't even look in our direction. It's like, I can't. I can't. So me and Tommy and Norma, we'd be out there hunting, which I'm not opposed to. Somebody asked Tommy to go hunting and I was like, can I go? This was like, I don't know, a year ago. I'm ready. The Abbotts, if you're watching this,

the Abbotts go hunting all the time. I'm your girl, huh? Call us up, that's right. me and Heather will be there lickety split I don't like pig though so if you could just have us kill something else other than pig I'm not big pork eater so but I'll do deer I got some venison from our Tennessee people but I won't name them because I don't want people to bother them oh you want Heather wants to go with Magalas and Adalas to kill they she said that you guys would be fun unless Magalas brings brings her snacks again and decides to open up her velcro uh

little pouch then that ain't gonna work she learned her lesson because she ended up killing a deer. But I'm up for the abbots. But there's some people that attend our church that are some great people. They gave us some venison. What else did they give us? I haven't eaten it yet. I don't know.

It's something else. Oh, fish. I'm going to be pulling that out. So enough about that. so I say mountains me and Tom want to get a place in Tennessee not to live just to go during the holidays get a break it doesn't have to be Tennessee it could be Alabama my brother lives in Alabama I'd love to be near him so okay next question I attended foundation church a few times in 2014 my question is and I mean this wholeheartedly and seriously I don't mean if she meant sincerely but it says seriously how does one determine and preach about what's right

and what's wrong without traditional theological and biblical seminary training and doctrine okay um so what does the bible say about someone that god's called to be a pastor and regarding going to seminary or biblical college i don't know if this person knows too much about what's being pumped out of seminaries and Bible schools right now, but it's not good at all. It's actually a lot of doctrinal, well, untruths. Somebody said garbage. That's true. It's actually not very good what's going on um in seminaries and um

i mean there are the the baptist faith um pumps out pastors who believe that um the calvinist which is john calvin that you can't learn that you can't lose your salvation um that's not in the bible anywhere then there's the methodist faith that are pumping out um and i'm not busting i'm not busting on these i'm just saying these are things that if you if you're if you're baptist and you're calvinist uh there's a that that's not in the Bible but there's a lot of Baptists who are going to heaven so you can have biblical theologies that are um different um but that doesn't mean they're accurate okay um that the Methodists are pumping out people that pumping out pastors that are gay they're putting them in the pulpit they went to their seminary

I mean doesn't make it just because you go to seminary and theological fear you know theological school does not mean that you're fit to be on the pulpit at all um let's look at what the bible does say about um about who he's called okay because there's nothing at all in the bible that mandates that you have to go to seminary or that you have to go to bible school and i will say this it does talk about like the question here is how does one determine and preach about what's right and what's wrong without traditional theological and biblical seminary training and doctrine. Well, I would ask the person that wrote this,

do you talk about, like, do you win people to the Lord? I hope so. I hope you're winning people to the Lord. So how do you do it? How do you tell them what the word of God says? How did you decipher what's wrong and what's right? You didn't go. We're all to be disciples.

The disciples were with Jesus for three years. They walked with him. Jesus did not go to seminary. He did not go to a Bible school. He went in and he learned and he read the tour himself he memorized the bible himself which is what my husband has done my husband has thousands and thousands of bible scriptures memorized just like paul um he uses the word of god when he preaches and teaches which we're going to look at what the what the churches today use but how do you do it you didn't go to seminary or theological school probably right but you're to go out there when the loss you're supposed to disciple believers

that's not just the pastor so how do you do it how do you decipher what's right and what's wrong? I can probably tell you how you do it. You would use 1 John 2, 27. Verse 26 says this, But the anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you, you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie

and just as it has been taught to you, you will abide in him. So it just says right there that you don't need anyone to teach you. If you're in the word and you're studying the word, which is what it says instead of just reading the word, you really don't need to go to seminary. You don't really need to go to Bible school okay you should have someone you're accountable to like my husband's accountable to somebody he's been accountable pretty much since um we started in ministry we were um accountable to someone to the level and degree that we were accountable to them has changed but we've always had someone

that if we had a question or if we were wondering if something was right or something was wrong we always had somebody that we could go to if we had a question about what something maybe the bible was talking about we've had people that we could go and get counsel on but listen for the most part you can study the word it is not hard it's very simple to understand what's right and what's wrong it clearly says what's right and what's wrong in it okay so you don't need someone to do that for you but what you need is accountability Hebrews 13 uh 13 20 through 21 um talks about how God equips those who he calls now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting

covenant make you complete in every good work to his will working in you what is well pleasing in his sight so he equips who he calls Ephesians 4 11 through 12 and it didn't say that God sends you to seminary or Bible school to equip you because he's called you. It says he equips you who he calls. He can teach you. He's the one. Ephesians 4 11 through 12 says and he himself gave some to be apostles. So he is the one who's done this. God is the one who has called some to be apostles so he is the one who's done this god is the one who has called some to be apostles some prophets some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry for the edifying of the body of christ so he himself gave some to be apostles some prophets some evangelists and some pastors and teachers

for the equipping he equips you of the saints for the work of ministry the scripture above that scripture doesn't say that the apostle and prophets and evangelists pastors and teachers have to go to seminary or bible school but that just that he calls them okay um should anyone preach no they shouldn't preach unless they're called to preach. But we have a lot of men in the pulpit that it's either that their daddy did it, their grandpa did it. It's generational. We're a family full of preachers.

Okay, just because your daddy did it and your grandpa did it doesn't mean that you should do it. You only do it if you're called. There's a reason why most pastors don't make it up to the seventh year of ministry. They're quitting within three to five years. It's because God never called them. And if he did call them, then they weren't equipped. They didn't spend the time in the word.

They didn't spend time in study. They may have gone to school. And I mean, I have family who went to school. I have two different family members that have been in ministry. And one of them says it doesn't really teach you what you deal with at a church or anything like that. It's not what it was about. Not that they're bitter or angry about it. They're not.

They were just basically saying it doesn't teach you anything for what you're going to experience when you have to preach or teach or anything like that and they went to a really good school um or supposedly i should say a really good school um because i have a story about that school and that school that they went to they had a professor there that literally told the students and i heard him myself because he came to a local church here in the area many years ago, and he basically taught that he was their professor that taught about end times. So he taught us at the church what he taught in the classroom.

And he basically, he said word for word that you could take the mark of the beast and still go to heaven. That was just for economic reasons that you would take it. But you still go to heaven. So, and this is an Assemblies of God school. So, I mean, for me, not good. in assemblies of God school. So, I mean, for me, not good. I mean, I think you can read the Bible, get far better knowledge about that was not truth, right?

You're teaching a lot of people or a lot of students that lie when if they would have read the word the word says opposite of that and that's why we go to the word and the word doesn't say you need to go to seminary a theological school okay um doesn't tell you anyone uh that anyone should preach it's just who's called and you need to study the word and know it, not read it. You need to study it if you're going to be a pastor. 2 Timothy 2.15 says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

It's funny because it didn't say you need to go to a seminary or a Bible school in order to understand the word of truth. It said you need to study to show yourself approved. Okay, let me tell you some pastors that are pretty popular that never went to school, or if they did, they quit. Charles Spurgeon, Joel Osteen. Everybody loves Joel Osteen. They think he's great. They buy all his books. He's the best thing since sliced bread. He only went to school for, I think, well, he went to school very, I think it was six months or something like that,

and then his dad passed away from a heart attack. He actually was doing his dad's TV ministry, too. He quit, and he became the pastor of their church. Joyce Meyer. Everybody loves Joyce Meyer. I love Joyce Meyer. And she was doing far better than most pastors in the pulpit in what she was teaching. She has since been, let's see, what is it, an honorary doctorate. She's been given an honorary doctorate by several schools, Bible schools. And I think she ended up getting her theological degree somewhere.

But when she started for, I think it was like her first 10 years or whatever she had nothing Andrew Womack huge teacher um has done far more than most teachers I've ever seen in as far as teaching people about what the word of God teaches healing the sick there are people who are alive today because this man, who has no formal education, taught them what the Word of God taught him, and now he shares it with many people. Martin Luther. That's interesting, right? Never went to school.

None of those people, except for the ones that I told you, ended up getting their stuff. Some of them have honorary doctorates now, but the ones that I told you, unless I told you they have a theological, they didn't. So really, at the end of the day, who's the one that really, having a formal education, who does it really matter to the most? It matters to man not to god only man really cares about whether you have a theological degree or seminary or bible school um but like i said those same places teach false doctrine um There's churches with the gay agenda right now. The Methodists allow gays into the pulpit. Their seminary is pumping those out. Andy Stanley with the Baptist faith, he went to seminary. And right now, and I think it's this summer, he's going to have a conference for parents with transgender children and he just

said uh i just watched it where he put out there that um which is very disheartening that um the homosexual has better faith in god than the heterosexual something along those lines it was astounding the episcopal church allows gay pastors they have to go to seminary so what is their seminary teaching them frightening these are not God's rules these are man's rules if he would have uh if he would have mandated that people go to school in order to be able to preach in the pulpit it would have absolutely been in the bible it's not they're not pastors aren't preaching what uh so this is what i find very very interesting i'm gonna i'm gonna have it so you can actually see this but um it is no longer um i only know i don't really know any pastors that do this

i only know like maybe a handful that actually preach what the holy spirit gives them for the week like my husband when he um steps on in that pulpit it's what the holy spirit gave him for our congregation for the week and that's what he preaches and teaches on and then the holy spirit while he's up there will give him things to say and then he preaches on that um what's going on in churches today is not that you don't need to go to seminary or theological school to get what the pastors are preaching today. It's called sermons.com. Pull it up. We're going to do a little bit for you right now. If you go to sermons.com, you're going to see that you can buy their props, their graphics, and even sermons. I'm going to give you some sermon names. And they're really great because

they always like twist the names of things and make it catchy. But these aren't like that right now. There's one that's coming up. Because the reason for reconciliation is real popular right now. What you can do is you can buy it right now. And then the pastor will memorize it or he'll use his iPad or whatever and he'll preach the message. But he's pulled that message. The series name is Reason for Reconciliation.

And then it's broken down. If you go into Reason for Reconciliation, it's broken down into all these different other little sermon, sermonettes. So you'll have like eight weeks. These pastors are pulling out, like they'll sit down the year before and they'll say this is what we're going to preach for the whole year. If they need to do some building updates, then they're going to pull out messages that talk about giving

or teach you about, they have a process of how to get to wherever they need to get by the end of the year. If they need volunteers, then they have a sermon series so that by the time that sermon series is over, they have volunteers. That's not Holy Spirit conviction. That's manipulation. So another one is response. The word response and then a separate word, ability.

Response, ability. the word response and then a separate word ability response ability the god-given increase remember the rooster toward easter and beyond if you're buying these messages what's the point in going to the uh theologic getting a theological degree what's the point in getting a theological degree? What's the point in going to Bible school or seminary? I mean, anybody can do that. What's really hard is digging into the Word each and every single week, studying it out, listening to the Holy Spirit as you pray daily for God to give you the message that He wants for your congregation. That is not what's going on in these churches today.

And it's a shame because we are doing a major disservice to our congregation. But here's the thing. If you really preached what the Holy Spirit wanted to be taught to the congregation, then the word is an offense. Jesus was an offense. And all these messages are a whole bunch of tickling tickling the ears which it talks about in the bible that in the end in times that preachers will no longer preach the word but they'll only tickle the ears of the people who

are attending it fills the fills the pews and it fills the uh tide basket and it makes the pastor feel like he's really popular and he's really doing something when really he's about nothing okay if you're all you're doing is is uh building a community social club where no one is really saved but they come there they hang out. There's no conviction because there's no real scripture. Like most churches, they don't have a lot of scripture that they use in their teachings. It's a whole lot of repetitive themes. Like what is it when somebody says the same sentence over and over again? It's repetitive, but it's like they have a they have a mantra

they have a mantra that they just have to keep repeating um and in some of these churches what they've done is they've trained certain people in the congregation to stand up and clap and create a momentum or a great uh what does that think what does that call when people like they start clapping for whoever's talking and I can't remember, I don't know what I'm trying to say, but all it does is it creates a hype in the room, like a feel good moment. Like, and then everybody's standing.

What did the guy really say? Like, really, was it worthy of standing up and clapping or is that what everybody's doing? So you just go ahead and do it. It's very, it's's people really need to check out what's going on in churches today they really need to check out where their pastor's getting his information and then they really need to decipher and sit down and read that message or go back and listen to that message and go how much of the word of God is in this message. How much of this is really something that convicts my spirit and

challenges and changes me so that I have a better walk with him? Most of the time it's got none of that. It's mostly about growing a church with a growth track, which is what all of this is. They got a growth track. They got a lot of connect groups, all of the same terminology. If you go into church and they're all using the same terminology it's because they're all using and buying the same material that's just a fact i'm sure that's not what people want to hear but that's the truth and i'm not like i said i will always speak truth i'm not going to tell people what they want to hear but i'm also going to expose the lies of the enemy and i'm also going to expose bad churches and what they're doing. I'm not I'm not going to sit back. I mean the reason why people put on masks and COVID caved

is because of the teaching the weak teaching that is being done in the churches today. And these pastors they're going to answer for it as well as the congregation that didn't study their word on their own on a daily basis to know better okay so everybody plays a part to what degree is is up to them so okay we are down to our last three minutes so what i'm going to do is close out with um salvation if you do not know jesus christ as your lord and savior really you can ask a thousand questions. You may want to be one of these people that has to know the answers to everything. You have so many questions that you just have to know the answers

because you're such an inquisitive person. But what's the point of being inquisitive if you're not going to go to heaven? If you don't know Him as your Lord and Savior. There's no point. And a lot of times, God will reveal the questions that you have just by the Holy Spirit. So if you do not have a walk with him,

or if you have had a walk with him and you've walked away, I want to give you the opportunity to come back to him. Because I did walk away, and I know what it's like to not live with him and you've walked away. I want to give you the opportunity to come back to him because I did walk away and I know what it's like to not live with him and it is miserable. But coming back and being in the fold, there's nothing like it. Absolutely nothing like it. You're, the world will look totally different and it will be so much, I mean the scripture is true, taste and see that the lord is good there's nothing better there's nothing that tastes better there's nothing better the world looks so much brighter when he is the one you're walking with and he's number

one in your life so i offer this opportunity to to you if you don't know him or you want to rededicate your life to him say this prayer with me right now dear lord jesus i ask you um to come into my life i ask you to be my lord and savior i ask you to forgive me of my sins i ask Lord that when I die I would go and reign with you forever and I thank you that you died on the cross so that I have this opportunity.

In Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen. So I will tell you this I thank you, thank you, thank you for tuning in each and every single week with me, two times a week. It means the world to me. I've had some great conversations, some great comments from people who are watching.

It brightens my day. It makes me happy. And I say this all the time, but what's the point in having a podcast if nobody's watching? Like, there's no point. So you guys tuning in, looking at it, listening. Even maybe one question doesn't apply, so you scoot to where the question that you really want to hear is at. And then you just tap out after that. I don't care.

I just care that you're watching. I care that you're, you're tuning in and that you trust me enough to maybe send me a question to hear what my thoughts are about it. And I appreciate that. I appreciate you. And I look forward to seeing you again and have a great rest of your afternoon. Bye-bye.