Words of Jesus Podcast - Politics And Religion Should Be Discussed

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

"What you hear..." is to be considered, especially when you begin your Christian walk. But, there is another harbinger to be considered as well, "Take heed how you hear." How-we-hear is a mystery. One is our teacher, even Christ. Christians are given a new way to understand, to know beyond the words that are written or spoken (led and guided by the Spirit of God). ***Ch. 29: AND JESUS ADDED:            “Take heed what ye hear. With what measure ye mete, it shall me be measured to you; and unto you that hear shall more be given.  For he that hath, to him shall be given; and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.”***Scriptures:Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-25; Luke 8:4-18

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris and we have been talking about, well, I guess it's some stray sayings of Jesus that they didn't feel like were part of chapter 29, but they added them at the end, like what are we going to do with these? Which is fine with me because I appreciate the fact that they didn't leave it out they just uh they didn't see how they pertain and i assume i agree with them as well but i do think that if jesus said something probably ought to pay attention to it

and we have been trying to pay attention to these particular sayings here. Last time we talked about the measure that you meet, it will be measured to you again. And Jesus used the same description in different ways for different meanings. meanings and this particular one was that should a person receive something from God and in his parables he called it talent sometimes he called it money sometimes he called it different things but what these things are are things that are given to us by God of value that we have deemed somehow unworthy of our attention. We haven't added them to our lives. We haven't made the changes that are necessary

or the additions or subtractions that He has made known to us. And that His threat, and it was nothing short of a threat, that if you do not accept these things at the end you will find that a person who is given much, there's much required of that person and if they don't accept these things into their life, which is the wisdom and knowledge of God

that is received because He loves us and because we've asked or because we've gone before Him and listened for His voice, if we don't add those things to our life, we will find that eventually those things will be taken away from us. And we were given examples of that. Also contained in that scripture that we were talking about was how it started out when it says, take heed what you hear. I was explaining that the church in general has done this, I can't say done it well, but I will say that they have overdone the idea

that we need to be very careful about what we hear. Now, I'm not saying that what Jesus said here is incorrect. We should take heed of what we hear. Now I'm not saying that what Jesus said here is incorrect. We should take heed of what we hear. But I was promising you in the last show that instead of having to deal with the conundrum of not having the knowledge to know whether something is false or not how do we know

what information we're getting is wrong? And so therefore, to avoid it. It's kind of a catch-22 that we need to have the wisdom of God in order to receive the wisdom of God so that we'll know how to reject the false doctrine and in doing so we're supposedly made better. Well, in the book of Luke when he talks about these very things he actually says it a little different way

and it is what I want you to understand here. If this particular subject interests you, I have a DVD called The Parable Paradox that deals with this very thing. And essentially it's, you know, where is the key to the safe? Well, we made sure that it's very, very secure. Well, where is it? It's inside the safe. And all you have to do is get in there

and you've got the key. And you're thinking, something's wrong with this. Something's wrong with this instruction because it teaches us that you need to know the Word of God in order to understand the Word of God. And you need to understand the Word of God so that you can recognize the Word of God, so that you can add the Word of God to your life,

so that you'll have the wisdom to understand what the Word of God is. And it sounds very paradoxical to require somebody that they have what it is they're indeed looking for in order to find what it is they're looking for. And it seems kind of odd until, as Jesus says, you're not going to understand any parable unless you understand this parable, which starts out with what? The sower sows the word. And if you don't know what the word of God is, and frankly, if you think the word of God is

the Bible, you're going to be in trouble. If you don't know what kind of trouble, let me explain what kind of trouble you're going to be in. You know, sit down on your computer and Google Christian denominations. Find out how many there are. There's approximately 4,000 official and maybe 40,000 derivatives of Christianity, all of which are based on the infallible Bible. The clear, easy to understand scriptures. The whatever, however you want to describe your scriptures. Truth is, the same Bible has created a lot of different denominations that can't even sit at the same table and have dinner together because they like to fuss and fight and carry on about what they believe is true

and what they believe about the on about what they believe is true and what they believe about the Bible and what they believe is doctrine and what they think is important and what they think is not important. And so we have this Bible that has been elevated to the point of the Word of God so that we will have confidence in what the Word of God says. I have confidence in what the Word of God says, but I know... I'm sorry. I have confidence in what the Bible says. You see how easy this is to mess up?

I have confidence in what the Bible says, but as far as it being the Word of God, the Word of God is understandable. And it's absolutely flawless. And if everybody paid attention to the Word of God, the Word of God is understandable. And it's absolutely flawless. And if everybody paid attention to the Word of God, we'd all be going down the same road. But unfortunately, we get our clues from the Scriptures as to what to believe. We get our cues from the Scriptures as to what to do. And it's all subject to men's interpretation.

And therefore, 40,000 denominations, all believing that what they believe comes from the scriptures. Well, here's something you should know about leadership of the Spirit of God. The Bible, although it is responsible for 40,000 denominations of well-meaning people, I might add. These are not heretics. These are not people who don't want the will of God for their life. These are people who want it, and they strive to attain it. These aren't people who don't care. These aren't a bunch of sinners. These are God's people that have trouble putting together a solid believable doctrine, a solid believable theology from the scriptures. Well

what they will tell you is you have to be very careful about this being led of the spirit business because the spirit could lead you anywhere my contention is that my Lord Jesus told me that I don't have to wonder about these spirits speaking to us. That could be the devil speaking to you. Jesus says, no, my sheep know my voice. A stranger they won't follow. Either that's true or it's not. Either it's true or it's not. But I happen to believe that it is true.

And the idea that we first of all, that we have voices in our head. If you have voices in your head and you're not just overblowing thoughts in your head as to be voices, disembodied or embodied voices that are in your head, you know, outside of, you know, just the mental illness that can be, that can cause those kinds of things. I think a lot of times it's just well-meaning people that are trying to do the right thing for the right reasons,

but they, you know, there's just a lot of confusion involved in that. There's only one way that we can live our lives so that we please God, and it's not a bunch of confusion. It's not a bunch of convoluted doctrine that doesn't make any sense. It's not a problem with one contradicting another, as our doctrines are. I could give you example after example of things that we teach that contradict one another, but because the two thoughts are never brought together in one sermon or one teaching or whatever, nobody ever

considers the fact that they contradict each other. If you want a doctrine or a theology or a philosophy to live by that actually gives you that kind of confidence and assurance, a voice, if you will, a guidance that is clear and concise and understanding, the Spirit of God is the only place to find this. I'll explain this way. The scriptures are a reliable source. I appreciate them. I believe them.

It's just a matter of the fruit of that has been, as I say, 40,000 disagreeable doctrines, all of the Christian ilk, but none of them can get along. Not scripturally, not doctrinally, not theologically, they can't get along. But mostly because they produce some of the most hateful people that you will ever encounter in your life. Some of the most confused and helpless people you've ever seen in all of your life. And so therefore, I have trouble with that.

There's only one force in the universe. There's only one teaching voice. There is only one guidance that has never led anyone, not one millimeter to the right or a millimeter to the left of perfect truth and that is the spirit of god the spirit of god is not going to lead you astray if i pick up my scripture and it says that a man needs to hate his mother and his father is it true or is it not well it is true but it's kind of like uh well, you know, you got to just, well, you know, you know, you know what I mean, you know? No, I don't know.

I don't know what you mean. Okay, that's an exaggerated example. But when the Bible says, you know, that you need to be baptized to be saved. Well does it really actually say that? Well it says it in a certain way or whatever. These kind of things are just eliminated when we're being led of the Spirit of God. You know exactly what he expects of you and it's really not a matter of remembering a sentence that God said. It's not remembering words that he used when he spoke to your spirit.

Because, well, frankly, I've never heard words come from God's mouth to my ear. It's never happened. But boy, there's been many times that he has infused my spirit with a sense of knowing. I just know that's the way it is. There's things that I know that I can't put into words. Not yet. There's been things that later on I have been able to describe them or say them or whatever, but those things come in his time. So he's just the perfect leader, perfect guidance counselor. He's the perfect guide. And I'm just saying that we could eliminate a lot of these problems

if we would utilize the Spirit of God as our teacher. Now, in the book of Luke, when he is talking about these things, he talks about taking heed what you hear. And we're talking, that's strictly the avoidance of false doctrine and being careful about, you know, what you hear. I think everybody needs to be careful about what they hear, but I don't think they need to be afraid of it. You know, there's people that are just absolutely afraid to talk to somebody that's not of their denomination.

I just don't talk about politics or religion. Well, you know what you just told me? You don't care to talk about the most important things in the world. That's what you just said. I don't think we should talk about politics or religion. Why? They're the most important things in the world. The governments by which they're governed on the earth, the thing that's going to affect every day of your life from the time that you're born to the time you die, those things, you don't want to talk about them. I don't want to talk about religion.

The very thing that is so important that from the moment that you're born until eternity, you don't want to talk about them. I don't want to talk about politics or religion. That sounds good and everybody says it and I think a lot of people say things that don't make any sense and they don't really care. Or it's just an excuse not to talk about something that they know nothing about. A lot of cases that is the problem. I don't want to talk about politics.

Why? And wouldn't it be nice to give a truth serum at that particular point? Well, because I don't even know who our representative is for this particular part of the country. I don't know who our senators are. I'm not really sure I know who the vice president is. I don't think I understand the legislative and the judiciary branch of the government and how they differ. I don't think I understand the legislative and the judiciary branch of the government and how they differ. I don't understand. I don't know. I think it's a matter of they just don't know. It's confusing for them.

They don't give it any time. They can tell you every detail of their favorite soap opera. They can tell you the names and the positions they detail of their favorite soap opera. They can tell you the names and the positions they play of their favorite baseball team. They can tell you the names of some of the cheerleaders of the football teams. Because you know what? What's important to you is what's important to you. And what's not important to you, you don't know anything about. So you don't know anything about so you don't want to talk about it let's can we just be honest all right so i was telling you that okay it's a dangerous thing it's a there may be some apprehension involved some anxiety involved in dealing with different doctrines and different

ideas and and having to you know look at things a little bit differently. And so it is important, take heed what you hear. But I was going to tell you, I promised you last show, that I was going to give you some advice that was going to help you in that area and most other areas of your life. And that is the next thing that he said when he said in the book of Luke, take heed how you hear. Now friend, if your method of gathering information is indeed to find a man somewhere to teach you everything that you're hearing,

you're hearing through your physical ears. Everything you see right through your eyes. You are in a state of learning, of education. And friend, if that is your way of gathering information and making decisions of life and forming your philosophy of life, whether or not you're happy or not, whether or not you're a Christian or not, then buddy boy, you better be careful about what you hear. But if you are more careful about how you hear, a lot of these problems answer themselves.

A lot of these problems actually fall away. They're not problems at all. It's like the guy whose governor's set on his carburetor. They don't have carburetors anymore, do they? But the governor is set on the car to only go 45 miles an hour. This guy has absolutely no concern for any 55 mile an hour speed limit sign. It is not a concern for him. He never has to think about it. He never has to worry about it. Why?

He's incapable of going that fast. It cannot be a problem for him. Here's what I want you to know. Take Eat How You Hear. It's going to take a lot of your life and a lot of education, and it's going to take, well, just a whole lot of learning for you to know it's going to take a lot of your life and a lot of education, and it's going to take a, well, just a whole lot of learning for you to know what to listen to and what not to listen to.

But if you are more concerned with how you hear, a lot of these things are eliminated. Well, how are we supposed to hear? It's not through your physical ears. It's not through your eyes. It's not reading your Bible. It's not hearing somebody read it to you. It's not the preaching. It's not the seminars downtown. It's not the DVDs or the CDs or any of the rest of the stuff that we use today to make ourselves more educated in religion. You see, that is a way of hearing through the five physical senses, and strictly speaking, through our ear holes. If you take heed of how you hear, you don't have anything to worry about. If you have determined that you're going to be the kind of man or woman that God wants you to be because you are determined to receive this from God as He promised that He would do for you

by the Spirit of God, if you've determined that that's your way and that's the way you're going to hear, now you're being cautious how you hear. If you are in tune to the Spirit of God, and it's your daily habit to do that very thing, just to be quiet, just to listen, just to consider, just to think about things, and even in some cases not think about things we can explain all that later but in this process of meditation and quietness before the lord if you've determined

that that's the way you're going to hear man your life just got simple very very easy except when he does tell you something that is kind of goes against the the conventional ideas now you've got the church to contend with but you want the church to contend with you understand that you see anybody who is offering hope is a friend of the center anybody doesn't matter who he is buddhist mormon muslim christian jew anybody who offers hope to the center has got their attention but i mean for for a uh uh a religious person a christian, to not have the attention of the sinner or have negative attention from the sinner. Probably has something wrong with his faith. And he's, you know, whatever it is he's preaching is antagonistic and is not helping anybody. Anybody who sees hope in what's being said, they're going to listen to what's being said. And so it's not really living a life that is appealing to the sinner,

which I think we should have a life that appeals to the sinner, but it's not really having that life that appeals to the sinner that should give us the confidence that we're actually hearing the voice of God. But you need to know that the majority of the churches out there, the Christian churches, will be against what God teaches. Is that hard for you to believe? i want you to think about this because you probably were raised in a sunday school where the little sunday school teacher drug out her little flannel graph and reached in her purse and put the little paper figures on there and was telling you all about

this now uh you know she's going to teach you on the crucifixion this week. And so she pulls out of her purse, you know, the little cross and the little Jesus and the disciples and all this stuff. And all of a sudden she pulls out this Roman soldier. She puts it on the flannel board. And another Roman soldier. And another Roman soldier. What are they doing there, Miss Smith? They came to get Jesus, to crucify him. Oh no! Alright, so the little kids are indoctrinated to believe that the Romans

killed Jesus. I don't know if this is a diversionary tactic or it's just bad history. I don't know where this is a diversionary tactic or it's just bad history i don't know where it came from um you know i want to believe motivations were good but i always want to believe that i don't know that anybody's just trying to divert in the minds of little children that no johnny you need to realize that the church, we, the church, you realize it was us, right? You realize that it wasn't the world, it wasn't the Roman soldiers, it wasn't the sinner, it wasn't the dance hall girls, it wasn't the thieves and the robbers

and all the rest of those people that had Jesus crucified. You do know that it was the church, right? Jesus said that in the last days when we're all being persecuted, he says there's going to be church people that are going to deliver you up to death thinking that they do God service. You think I'm speaking blasphemy here? I'm sorry that it's true.

But it's true. And what I'm telling you is not blasphemy. It's not even twisted history. It's in your scriptures. Do you really think that the apostle Peter reached and got a sword, a fisherman, went and pulled a sword out,

probably the fourth time he had a sword in his hand his entire life. And the Bible says that he took a swing at a guy named Malchus and cut off his ear. I always think it's curious when you investigate what people think about these kind of things. They kind of see the sword coming down on the side of his head and cutting off his ear. Do you really think Peter was trying

to cut that man's ear off? No. He was trying to cut his head off and the guy ducked. All right. So Malchus, who is this? Is this a Roman soldier? Do you really think Peter would have gone against a trained Roman soldier that day?

Why was Peter so emboldened? Why did he feel no compunction whatsoever to pick up a sword and threaten to kill a man with it? Obviously that man posed no threat in the world. Why? He was just an officer of the high priest. He was a deacon. He was an elder. He was just a guy in the church. The high priest came and had Jesus pointed out. They hauled him away. The Roman soldiers didn't crucify Jesus.

The Romans didn't. Matter of fact, the Romans loved him. I think Pilate would have made him king if he'd have kept his mouth shut. But you got this blame being put on the Romans. Friends, it was us. We killed him. Church people, religious people, Bible-believing people. They missed Messiah.

Not only did we miss him, we counted him as nothing. Not only did we count him as nothing, we counted him as a blasphemer, a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber. He was horrible. He blasphemed God. He deserves to die. Who made these decisions? Church did.

So, if you expect to hear from God and receive your revelation from God and everything to be rosy, it'll be rosy with you, my friend. You're going to have a wonderful existence and a wonderful relationship with God, I assure you. Troubles are going to work out. Your family's going to have a wonderful existence and a wonderful relationship with God, I assure you. Troubles are going to work out.

Your family's going to smooth out. You're going to become wiser above any of your expectations. But friend, you are going to come against one of the most formidable enemies that Christianity has ever encountered. It's going to be the church. They're unscrupulous. They are ruthless. It's awful, but it's true. And our time is gone.

That's all for this time. So if you'd like to, and I would certainly like for you to, write to me, don at thinkredink.com. It's time for us to go. Thanks so much for being a part of the show. We'll see you next time bye bye you've been listening to Don C. Harris

of Think Red Ink Ministries email don at thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you