Podcast appearances and mentions of jesus yes

South Side Baptist Church Abbeville, South Carolina Pastor Joel Bradberry December 10, 2023 Sunday AM Service Sermon Notes: 1. The virgin birth is important because it helps us understand the deity and humanity of Jesus. 2. The virgin birth is important because it helps us understand Jesus' sinless nature. 3. The virgin birth is important because it reminds us that salvation begins with God. 4. The virgin birth is important because it reassures us that God knows best. https://www.southsideabbeville.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/south-side-baptist-church/message

South Side Baptist Church Abbeville, South Carolina Pastor Joel Bradberry December 3, 2023 Sunday AM Service https://www.southsideabbeville.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/south-side-baptist-church/message

We got the full pack of Disney-Villains-horrified-by-Hamas'-evil rendered by AI for Israeli propaganda. Ursula, Scar, Thanos--the whole gang's here and openly weeping. PLUS: a teacher giving her student "birthday spankings" goes viral on tik tok and Tony and Alex detail their histories with Birthday Spankings and whether the practice should be illegal ALSO: Facebook users capture REAL ANGELS during live stream in a post with 23k shares and nearly 2m views, and Tony shares an angel story of his own. Sign up http://patreon.com/miniondeathcult for only $5/month and get 2 bonus episodes a week

Episode 168 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Say a Little Prayer”, and the interaction of the sacred, political, and secular in Aretha Franklin's life and work. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-five-minute bonus episode available, on "Abraham, Martin, and John" by Dion. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by Aretha Franklin. Even splitting it into multiple parts would have required six or seven mixes. My main biographical source for Aretha Franklin is Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz, and this is where most of the quotes from musicians come from. Information on C.L. Franklin came from Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America by Nick Salvatore. Country Soul by Charles L Hughes is a great overview of the soul music made in Muscle Shoals, Memphis, and Nashville in the sixties. Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom is possibly less essential, but still definitely worth reading. Information about Martin Luther King came from Martin Luther King: A Religious Life by Paul Harvey. I also referred to Burt Bacharach's autobiography Anyone Who Had a Heart, Carole King's autobiography A Natural Woman, and Soul Serenade: King Curtis and his Immortal Saxophone by Timothy R. Hoover. For information about Amazing Grace I also used Aaron Cohen's 33 1/3 book on the album. The film of the concerts is also definitely worth watching. And the Aretha Now album is available in this five-album box set for a ludicrously cheap price. But it's actually worth getting this nineteen-CD set with her first sixteen Atlantic albums and a couple of bonus discs of demos and outtakes. There's barely a duff track in the whole nineteen discs. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick warning before I begin. This episode contains some moderate references to domestic abuse, death by cancer, racial violence, police violence, and political assassination. Anyone who might be upset by those subjects might want to check the transcript rather than listening to the episode. Also, as with the previous episode on Aretha Franklin, this episode presents something of a problem. Like many people in this narrative, Franklin's career was affected by personal troubles, which shaped many of her decisions. But where most of the subjects of the podcast have chosen to live their lives in public and share intimate details of every aspect of their personal lives, Franklin was an extremely private person, who chose to share only carefully sanitised versions of her life, and tried as far as possible to keep things to herself. This of course presents a dilemma for anyone who wants to tell her story -- because even though the information is out there in biographies, and even though she's dead, it's not right to disrespect someone's wish for a private life. I have therefore tried, wherever possible, to stay away from talk of her personal life except where it *absolutely* affects the work, or where other people involved have publicly shared their own stories, and even there I've tried to keep it to a minimum. This will occasionally lead to me saying less about some topics than other people might, even though the information is easily findable, because I don't think we have an absolute right to invade someone else's privacy for entertainment. When we left Aretha Franklin, she had just finally broken through into the mainstream after a decade of performing, with a version of Otis Redding's song "Respect" on which she had been backed by her sisters, Erma and Carolyn. "Respect", in Franklin's interpretation, had been turned from a rather chauvinist song about a man demanding respect from his woman into an anthem of feminism, of Black power, and of a new political awakening. For white people of a certain generation, the summer of 1967 was "the summer of love". For many Black people, it was rather different. There's a quote that goes around (I've seen it credited in reliable sources to both Ebony and Jet magazine, but not ever seen an issue cited, so I can't say for sure where it came from) saying that the summer of 67 was the summer of "'retha, Rap, and revolt", referring to the trifecta of Aretha Franklin, the Black power leader Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (who was at the time known as H. Rap Brown, a name he later disclaimed) and the rioting that broke out in several major cities, particularly in Detroit: [Excerpt: John Lee Hooker, "The Motor City is Burning"] The mid sixties were, in many ways, the high point not of Black rights in the US -- for the most part there has been a lot of progress in civil rights in the intervening decades, though not without inevitable setbacks and attacks from the far right, and as movements like the Black Lives Matter movement have shown there is still a long way to go -- but of *hope* for Black rights. The moral force of the arguments made by the civil rights movement were starting to cause real change to happen for Black people in the US for the first time since the Reconstruction nearly a century before. But those changes weren't happening fast enough, and as we heard in the episode on "I Was Made to Love Her", there was not only a growing unrest among Black people, but a recognition that it was actually possible for things to change. A combination of hope and frustration can be a powerful catalyst, and whether Franklin wanted it or not, she was at the centre of things, both because of her newfound prominence as a star with a hit single that couldn't be interpreted as anything other than a political statement and because of her intimate family connections to the struggle. Even the most racist of white people these days pays lip service to the memory of Dr Martin Luther King, and when they do they quote just a handful of sentences from one speech King made in 1963, as if that sums up the full theological and political philosophy of that most complex of men. And as we discussed the last time we looked at Aretha Franklin, King gave versions of that speech, the "I Have a Dream" speech, twice. The most famous version was at the March on Washington, but the first time was a few weeks earlier, at what was at the time the largest civil rights demonstration in American history, in Detroit. Aretha's family connection to that event is made clear by the very opening of King's speech: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Original 'I Have a Dream' Speech"] So as summer 1967 got into swing, and white rock music was going to San Francisco to wear flowers in its hair, Aretha Franklin was at the centre of a very different kind of youth revolution. Franklin's second Atlantic album, Aretha Arrives, brought in some new personnel to the team that had recorded Aretha's first album for Atlantic. Along with the core Muscle Shoals players Jimmy Johnson, Spooner Oldham, Tommy Cogbill and Roger Hawkins, and a horn section led by King Curtis, Wexler and Dowd also brought in guitarist Joe South. South was a white session player from Georgia, who had had a few minor hits himself in the fifties -- he'd got his start recording a cover version of "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor", the Big Bopper's B-side to "Chantilly Lace": [Excerpt: Joe South, "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor"] He'd also written a few songs that had been recorded by people like Gene Vincent, but he'd mostly become a session player. He'd become a favourite musician of Bob Johnston's, and so he'd played guitar on Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme albums: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "I am a Rock"] and bass on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, with Al Kooper particularly praising his playing on "Visions of Johanna": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Visions of Johanna"] South would be the principal guitarist on this and Franklin's next album, before his own career took off in 1968 with "Games People Play": [Excerpt: Joe South, "Games People Play"] At this point, he had already written the other song he's best known for, "Hush", which later became a hit for Deep Purple: [Excerpt: Deep Purple, "Hush"] But he wasn't very well known, and was surprised to get the call for the Aretha Franklin session, especially because, as he put it "I was white and I was about to play behind the blackest genius since Ray Charles" But Jerry Wexler had told him that Franklin didn't care about the race of the musicians she played with, and South settled in as soon as Franklin smiled at him when he played a good guitar lick on her version of the blues standard "Going Down Slow": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Going Down Slow"] That was one of the few times Franklin smiled in those sessions though. Becoming an overnight success after years of trying and failing to make a name for herself had been a disorienting experience, and on top of that things weren't going well in her personal life. Her marriage to her manager Ted White was falling apart, and she was performing erratically thanks to the stress. In particular, at a gig in Georgia she had fallen off the stage and broken her arm. She soon returned to performing, but it meant she had problems with her right arm during the recording of the album, and didn't play as much piano as she would have previously -- on some of the faster songs she played only with her left hand. But the recording sessions had to go on, whether or not Aretha was physically capable of playing piano. As we discussed in the episode on Otis Redding, the owners of Atlantic Records were busily negotiating its sale to Warner Brothers in mid-1967. As Wexler said later “Everything in me said, Keep rolling, keep recording, keep the hits coming. She was red hot and I had no reason to believe that the streak wouldn't continue. I knew that it would be foolish—and even irresponsible—not to strike when the iron was hot. I also had personal motivation. A Wall Street financier had agreed to see what we could get for Atlantic Records. While Ahmet and Neshui had not agreed on a selling price, they had gone along with my plan to let the financier test our worth on the open market. I was always eager to pump out hits, but at this moment I was on overdrive. In this instance, I had a good partner in Ted White, who felt the same. He wanted as much product out there as possible." In truth, you can tell from Aretha Arrives that it's a record that was being thought of as "product" rather than one being made out of any kind of artistic impulse. It's a fine album -- in her ten-album run from I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You through Amazing Grace there's not a bad album and barely a bad track -- but there's a lack of focus. There are only two originals on the album, neither of them written by Franklin herself, and the rest is an incoherent set of songs that show the tension between Franklin and her producers at Atlantic. Several songs are the kind of standards that Franklin had recorded for her old label Columbia, things like "You Are My Sunshine", or her version of "That's Life", which had been a hit for Frank Sinatra the previous year: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "That's Life"] But mixed in with that are songs that are clearly the choice of Wexler. As we've discussed previously in episodes on Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, at this point Atlantic had the idea that it was possible for soul artists to cross over into the white market by doing cover versions of white rock hits -- and indeed they'd had some success with that tactic. So while Franklin was suggesting Sinatra covers, Atlantic's hand is visible in the choices of songs like "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "96 Tears": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "96 Tears'] Of the two originals on the album, one, the hit single "Baby I Love You" was written by Ronnie Shannon, the Detroit songwriter who had previously written "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Baby I Love You"] As with the previous album, and several other songs on this one, that had backing vocals by Aretha's sisters, Erma and Carolyn. But the other original on the album, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)", didn't, even though it was written by Carolyn: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)"] To explain why, let's take a little detour and look at the co-writer of the song this episode is about, though we're not going to get to that for a little while yet. We've not talked much about Burt Bacharach in this series so far, but he's one of those figures who has come up a few times in the periphery and will come up again, so here is as good a time as any to discuss him, and bring everyone up to speed about his career up to 1967. Bacharach was one of the more privileged figures in the sixties pop music field. His father, Bert Bacharach (pronounced the same as his son, but spelled with an e rather than a u) had been a famous newspaper columnist, and his parents had bought him a Steinway grand piano to practice on -- they pushed him to learn the piano even though as a kid he wasn't interested in finger exercises and Debussy. What he was interested in, though, was jazz, and as a teenager he would often go into Manhattan and use a fake ID to see people like Dizzy Gillespie, who he idolised, and in his autobiography he talks rapturously of seeing Gillespie playing his bent trumpet -- he once saw Gillespie standing on a street corner with a pet monkey on his shoulder, and went home and tried to persuade his parents to buy him a monkey too. In particular, he talks about seeing the Count Basie band with Sonny Payne on drums as a teenager: [Excerpt: Count Basie, "Kid From Red Bank"] He saw them at Birdland, the club owned by Morris Levy where they would regularly play, and said of the performance "they were just so incredibly exciting that all of a sudden, I got into music in a way I never had before. What I heard in those clubs really turned my head around— it was like a big breath of fresh air when somebody throws open a window. That was when I knew for the first time how much I loved music and wanted to be connected to it in some way." Of course, there's a rather major problem with this story, as there is so often with narratives that musicians tell about their early career. In this case, Birdland didn't open until 1949, when Bacharach was twenty-one and stationed in Germany for his military service, while Sonny Payne didn't join Basie's band until 1954, when Bacharach had been a professional musician for many years. Also Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet bell only got bent on January 6, 1953. But presumably while Bacharach was conflating several memories, he did have some experience in some New York jazz club that led him to want to become a musician. Certainly there were enough great jazz musicians playing the clubs in those days. He went to McGill University to study music for two years, then went to study with Darius Milhaud, a hugely respected modernist composer. Milhaud was also one of the most important music teachers of the time -- among others he'd taught Stockhausen and Xenakkis, and would go on to teach Philip Glass and Steve Reich. This suited Bacharach, who by this point was a big fan of Schoenberg and Webern, and was trying to write atonal, difficult music. But Milhaud had also taught Dave Brubeck, and when Bacharach rather shamefacedly presented him with a composition which had an actual tune, he told Bacharach "Never be ashamed of writing a tune you can whistle". He dropped out of university and, like most men of his generation, had to serve in the armed forces. When he got out of the army, he continued his musical studies, still trying to learn to be an avant-garde composer, this time with Bohuslav Martinů and later with Henry Cowell, the experimental composer we've heard about quite a bit in previous episodes: [Excerpt: Henry Cowell, "Aeolian Harp and Sinister Resonance"] He was still listening to a lot of avant garde music, and would continue doing so throughout the fifties, going to see people like John Cage. But he spent much of that time working in music that was very different from the avant-garde. He got a job as the band leader for the crooner Vic Damone: [Excerpt: Vic Damone. "Ebb Tide"] He also played for the vocal group the Ames Brothers. He decided while he was working with the Ames Brothers that he could write better material than they were getting from their publishers, and that it would be better to have a job where he didn't have to travel, so he got himself a job as a staff songwriter in the Brill Building. He wrote a string of flops and nearly hits, starting with "Keep Me In Mind" for Patti Page: [Excerpt: Patti Page, "Keep Me In Mind"] From early in his career he worked with the lyricist Hal David, and the two of them together wrote two big hits, "Magic Moments" for Perry Como: [Excerpt: Perry Como, "Magic Moments"] and "The Story of My Life" for Marty Robbins: [Excerpt: "The Story of My Life"] But at that point Bacharach was still also writing with other writers, notably Hal David's brother Mack, with whom he wrote the theme tune to the film The Blob, as performed by The Five Blobs: [Excerpt: The Five Blobs, "The Blob"] But Bacharach's songwriting career wasn't taking off, and he got himself a job as musical director for Marlene Dietrich -- a job he kept even after it did start to take off.  Part of the problem was that he intuitively wrote music that didn't quite fit into standard structures -- there would be odd bars of unusual time signatures thrown in, unusual harmonies, and structural irregularities -- but then he'd take feedback from publishers and producers who would tell him the song could only be recorded if he straightened it out. He said later "The truth is that I ruined a lot of songs by not believing in myself enough to tell these guys they were wrong." He started writing songs for Scepter Records, usually with Hal David, but also with Bob Hilliard and Mack David, and started having R&B hits. One song he wrote with Mack David, "I'll Cherish You", had the lyrics rewritten by Luther Dixon to make them more harsh-sounding for a Shirelles single -- but the single was otherwise just Bacharach's demo with the vocals replaced, and you can even hear his voice briefly at the beginning: [Excerpt: The Shirelles, "Baby, It's You"] But he'd also started becoming interested in the production side of records more generally. He'd iced that some producers, when recording his songs, would change the sound for the worse -- he thought Gene McDaniels' version of "Tower of Strength", for example, was too fast. But on the other hand, other producers got a better sound than he'd heard in his head. He and Hilliard had written a song called "Please Stay", which they'd given to Leiber and Stoller to record with the Drifters, and he thought that their arrangement of the song was much better than the one he'd originally thought up: [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Please Stay"] He asked Leiber and Stoller if he could attend all their New York sessions and learn about record production from them. He started doing so, and eventually they started asking him to assist them on records. He and Hilliard wrote a song called "Mexican Divorce" for the Drifters, which Leiber and Stoller were going to produce, and as he put it "they were so busy running Redbird Records that they asked me to rehearse the background singers for them in my office." [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Mexican Divorce"] The backing singers who had been brought in to augment the Drifters on that record were a group of vocalists who had started out as members of a gospel group called the Drinkard singers: [Excerpt: The Drinkard Singers, "Singing in My Soul"] The Drinkard Singers had originally been a family group, whose members included Cissy Drinkard, who joined the group aged five (and who on her marriage would become known as Cissy Houston -- her daughter Whitney would later join the family business), her aunt Lee Warrick, and Warrick's adopted daughter Judy Clay. That group were discovered by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, and spent much of the fifties performing with gospel greats including Jackson herself, Clara Ward, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. But Houston was also the musical director of a group at her church, the Gospelaires, which featured Lee Warrick's two daughters Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick (for those who don't know, the Warwick sisters' birth name was Warrick, spelled with two rs. A printing error led to it being misspelled the same way as the British city on a record label, and from that point on Dionne at least pronounced the w in her misspelled name). And slowly, the Gospelaires rather than the Drinkard Singers became the focus, with a lineup of Houston, the Warwick sisters, the Warwick sisters' cousin Doris Troy, and Clay's sister Sylvia Shemwell. The real change in the group's fortunes came when, as we talked about a while back in the episode on "The Loco-Motion", the original lineup of the Cookies largely stopped working as session singers to become Ray Charles' Raelettes. As we discussed in that episode, a new lineup of Cookies formed in 1961, but it took a while for them to get started, and in the meantime the producers who had been relying on them for backing vocals were looking elsewhere, and they looked to the Gospelaires. "Mexican Divorce" was the first record to feature the group as backing vocalists -- though reports vary as to how many of them are on the record, with some saying it's only Troy and the Warwicks, others saying Houston was there, and yet others saying it was all five of them. Some of these discrepancies were because these singers were so good that many of them left to become solo singers in fairly short order. Troy was the first to do so, with her hit "Just One Look", on which the other Gospelaires sang backing vocals: [Excerpt: Doris Troy, "Just One Look"] But the next one to go solo was Dionne Warwick, and that was because she'd started working with Bacharach and Hal David as their principal demo singer. She started singing lead on their demos, and hoping that she'd get to release them on her own. One early one was "Make it Easy On Yourself", which was recorded by Jerry Butler, formerly of the Impressions. That record was produced by Bacharach, one of the first records he produced without outside supervision: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler, "Make it Easy On Yourself"] Warwick was very jealous that a song she'd sung the demo of had become a massive hit for someone else, and blamed Bacharach and David. The way she tells the story -- Bacharach always claimed this never happened, but as we've already seen he was himself not always the most reliable of narrators of his own life -- she got so angry she complained to them, and said "Don't make me over, man!" And so Bacharach and David wrote her this: [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Don't Make Me Over"] Incidentally, in the UK, the hit version of that was a cover by the Swinging Blue Jeans: [Excerpt: The Swinging Blue Jeans, "Don't Make Me Over"] who also had a huge hit with "You're No Good": [Excerpt: The Swinging Blue Jeans, "You're No Good"] And *that* was originally recorded by *Dee Dee* Warwick: [Excerpt: Dee Dee Warwick, "You're No Good"] Dee Dee also had a successful solo career, but Dionne's was the real success, making the names of herself, and of Bacharach and David. The team had more than twenty top forty hits together, before Bacharach and David had a falling out in 1971 and stopped working together, and Warwick sued both of them for breach of contract as a result. But prior to that they had hit after hit, with classic records like "Anyone Who Had a Heart": [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Anyone Who Had a Heart"] And "Walk On By": [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Walk On By"] With Doris, Dionne, and Dee Dee all going solo, the group's membership was naturally in flux -- though the departed members would occasionally join their former bandmates for sessions, and the remaining members would sing backing vocals on their ex-members' records. By 1965 the group consisted of Cissy Houston, Sylvia Shemwell, the Warwick sisters' cousin Myrna Smith, and Estelle Brown. The group became *the* go-to singers for soul and R&B records made in New York. They were regularly hired by Leiber and Stoller to sing on their records, and they were also the particular favourites of Bert Berns. They sang backing vocals on almost every record he produced. It's them doing the gospel wails on "Cry Baby" by Garnet Mimms: [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms, "Cry Baby"] And they sang backing vocals on both versions of "If You Need Me" -- Wilson Pickett's original and Solomon Burke's more successful cover version, produced by Berns: [Excerpt: Solomon Burke, "If You Need Me"] They're on such Berns records as "Show Me Your Monkey", by Kenny Hamber: [Excerpt: Kenny Hamber, "Show Me Your Monkey"] And it was a Berns production that ended up getting them to be Aretha Franklin's backing group. The group were becoming such an important part of the records that Atlantic and BANG Records, in particular, were putting out, that Jerry Wexler said "it was only a matter of common decency to put them under contract as a featured group". He signed them to Atlantic and renamed them from the Gospelaires to The Sweet Inspirations.  Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham wrote a song for the group which became their only hit under their own name: [Excerpt: The Sweet Inspirations, "Sweet Inspiration"] But to start with, they released a cover of Pops Staples' civil rights song "Why (Am I treated So Bad)": [Excerpt: The Sweet Inspirations, "Why (Am I Treated So Bad?)"] That hadn't charted, and meanwhile, they'd all kept doing session work. Cissy had joined Erma and Carolyn Franklin on the backing vocals for Aretha's "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You"] Shortly after that, the whole group recorded backing vocals for Erma's single "Piece of My Heart", co-written and produced by Berns: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] That became a top ten record on the R&B charts, but that caused problems. Aretha Franklin had a few character flaws, and one of these was an extreme level of jealousy for any other female singer who had any level of success and came up in the business after her. She could be incredibly graceful towards anyone who had been successful before her -- she once gave one of her Grammies away to Esther Phillips, who had been up for the same award and had lost to her -- but she was terribly insecure, and saw any contemporary as a threat. She'd spent her time at Columbia Records fuming (with some justification) that Barbra Streisand was being given a much bigger marketing budget than her, and she saw Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, and Dionne Warwick as rivals rather than friends. And that went doubly for her sisters, who she was convinced should be supporting her because of family loyalty. She had been infuriated at John Hammond when Columbia had signed Erma, thinking he'd gone behind her back to create competition for her. And now Erma was recording with Bert Berns. Bert Berns who had for years been a colleague of Jerry Wexler and the Ertegun brothers at Atlantic. Aretha was convinced that Wexler had put Berns up to signing Erma as some kind of power play. There was only one problem with this -- it simply wasn't true. As Wexler later explained “Bert and I had suffered a bad falling-out, even though I had enormous respect for him. After all, he was the guy who brought over guitarist Jimmy Page from England to play on our sessions. Bert, Ahmet, Nesuhi, and I had started a label together—Bang!—where Bert produced Van Morrison's first album. But Bert also had a penchant for trouble. He courted the wise guys. He wanted total control over every last aspect of our business dealings. Finally it was too much, and the Erteguns and I let him go. He sued us for breach of contract and suddenly we were enemies. I felt that he signed Erma, an excellent singer, not merely for her talent but as a way to get back at me. If I could make a hit with Aretha, he'd show me up by making an even bigger hit on Erma. Because there was always an undercurrent of rivalry between the sisters, this only added to the tension.” There were two things that resulted from this paranoia on Aretha's part. The first was that she and Wexler, who had been on first-name terms up to that point, temporarily went back to being "Mr. Wexler" and "Miss Franklin" to each other. And the second was that Aretha no longer wanted Carolyn and Erma to be her main backing vocalists, though they would continue to appear on her future records on occasion. From this point on, the Sweet Inspirations would be the main backing vocalists for Aretha in the studio throughout her golden era [xxcut line (and when the Sweet Inspirations themselves weren't on the record, often it would be former members of the group taking their place)]: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)"] The last day of sessions for Aretha Arrives was July the twenty-third, 1967. And as we heard in the episode on "I Was Made to Love Her", that was the day that the Detroit riots started. To recap briefly, that was four days of rioting started because of a history of racist policing, made worse by those same racist police overreacting to the initial protests. By the end of those four days, the National Guard, 82nd Airborne Division, and the 101st Airborne from Clarksville were all called in to deal with the violence, which left forty-three dead (of whom thirty-three were Black and only one was a police officer), 1,189 people were injured, and over 7,200 arrested, almost all of them Black. Those days in July would be a turning point for almost every musician based in Detroit. In particular, the police had murdered three members of the soul group the Dramatics, in a massacre of which the author John Hersey, who had been asked by President Johnson to be part of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders but had decided that would compromise his impartiality and did an independent journalistic investigation, said "The episode contained all the mythic themes of racial strife in the United States: the arm of the law taking the law into its own hands; interracial sex; the subtle poison of racist thinking by “decent” men who deny they are racists; the societal limbo into which, ever since slavery, so many young black men have been driven by our country; ambiguous justice in the courts; and the devastation in both black and white human lives that follows in the wake of violence as surely as ruinous and indiscriminate flood after torrents" But these were also the events that radicalised the MC5 -- the group had been playing a gig as Tim Buckley's support act when the rioting started, and guitarist Wayne Kramer decided afterwards to get stoned and watch the fires burning down the city through a telescope -- which police mistook for a rifle, leading to the National Guard knocking down Kramer's door. The MC5 would later cover "The Motor City is Burning", John Lee Hooker's song about the events: [Excerpt: The MC5, "The Motor City is Burning"] It would also be a turning point for Motown, too, in ways we'll talk about in a few future episodes.  And it was a political turning point too -- Michigan Governor George Romney, a liberal Republican (at a time when such people existed) had been the favourite for the Republican Presidential candidacy when he'd entered the race in December 1966, but as racial tensions ramped up in Detroit during the early months of 1967 he'd started trailing Richard Nixon, a man who was consciously stoking racists' fears. President Johnson, the incumbent Democrat, who was at that point still considering standing for re-election, made sure to make it clear to everyone during the riots that the decision to call in the National Guard had been made at the State level, by Romney, rather than at the Federal level.  That wasn't the only thing that removed the possibility of a Romney presidency, but it was a big part of the collapse of his campaign, and the, as it turned out, irrevocable turn towards right-authoritarianism that the party took with Nixon's Southern Strategy. Of course, Aretha Franklin had little way of knowing what was to come and how the riots would change the city and the country over the following decades. What she was primarily concerned about was the safety of her father, and to a lesser extent that of her sister-in-law Earline who was staying with him. Aretha, Carolyn, and Erma all tried to keep in constant touch with their father while they were out of town, and Aretha even talked about hiring private detectives to travel to Detroit, find her father, and get him out of the city to safety. But as her brother Cecil pointed out, he was probably the single most loved man among Black people in Detroit, and was unlikely to be harmed by the rioters, while he was too famous for the police to kill with impunity. Reverend Franklin had been having a stressful time anyway -- he had recently been fined for tax evasion, an action he was convinced the IRS had taken because of his friendship with Dr King and his role in the civil rights movement -- and according to Cecil "Aretha begged Daddy to move out of the city entirely. She wanted him to find another congregation in California, where he was especially popular—or at least move out to the suburbs. But he wouldn't budge. He said that, more than ever, he was needed to point out the root causes of the riots—the economic inequality, the pervasive racism in civic institutions, the woefully inadequate schools in inner-city Detroit, and the wholesale destruction of our neighborhoods by urban renewal. Some ministers fled the city, but not our father. The horror of what happened only recommitted him. He would not abandon his political agenda." To make things worse, Aretha was worried about her father in other ways -- as her marriage to Ted White was starting to disintegrate, she was looking to her father for guidance, and actually wanted him to take over her management. Eventually, Ruth Bowen, her booking agent, persuaded her brother Cecil that this was a job he could do, and that she would teach him everything he needed to know about the music business. She started training him up while Aretha was still married to White, in the expectation that that marriage couldn't last. Jerry Wexler, who only a few months earlier had been seeing Ted White as an ally in getting "product" from Franklin, had now changed his tune -- partly because the sale of Atlantic had gone through in the meantime. He later said “Sometimes she'd call me at night, and, in that barely audible little-girl voice of hers, she'd tell me that she wasn't sure she could go on. She always spoke in generalities. She never mentioned her husband, never gave me specifics of who was doing what to whom. And of course I knew better than to ask. She just said that she was tired of dealing with so much. My heart went out to her. She was a woman who suffered silently. She held so much in. I'd tell her to take as much time off as she needed. We had a lot of songs in the can that we could release without new material. ‘Oh, no, Jerry,' she'd say. ‘I can't stop recording. I've written some new songs, Carolyn's written some new songs. We gotta get in there and cut 'em.' ‘Are you sure?' I'd ask. ‘Positive,' she'd say. I'd set up the dates and typically she wouldn't show up for the first or second sessions. Carolyn or Erma would call me to say, ‘Ree's under the weather.' That was tough because we'd have asked people like Joe South and Bobby Womack to play on the sessions. Then I'd reschedule in the hopes she'd show." That third album she recorded in 1967, Lady Soul, was possibly her greatest achievement. The opening track, and second single, "Chain of Fools", released in November, was written by Don Covay -- or at least it's credited as having been written by Covay. There's a gospel record that came out around the same time on a very small label based in Houston -- "Pains of Life" by Rev. E. Fair And The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio: [Excerpt: Rev. E. Fair And The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio, "Pains of Life"] I've seen various claims online that that record came out shortly *before* "Chain of Fools", but I can't find any definitive evidence one way or the other -- it was on such a small label that release dates aren't available anywhere. Given that the B-side, which I haven't been able to track down online, is called "Wait Until the Midnight Hour", my guess is that rather than this being a case of Don Covay stealing the melody from an obscure gospel record he'd have had little chance to hear, it's the gospel record rewriting a then-current hit to be about religion, but I thought it worth mentioning. The song was actually written by Covay after Jerry Wexler asked him to come up with some songs for Otis Redding, but Wexler, after hearing it, decided it was better suited to Franklin, who gave an astonishing performance: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Chain of Fools"] Arif Mardin, the arranger of the album, said of that track “I was listed as the arranger of ‘Chain of Fools,' but I can't take credit. Aretha walked into the studio with the chart fully formed inside her head. The arrangement is based around the harmony vocals provided by Carolyn and Erma. To add heft, the Sweet Inspirations joined in. The vision of the song is entirely Aretha's.” According to Wexler, that's not *quite* true -- according to him, Joe South came up with the guitar part that makes up the intro, and he also said that when he played what he thought was the finished track to Ellie Greenwich, she came up with another vocal line for the backing vocals, which she overdubbed. But the core of the record's sound is definitely pure Aretha -- and Carolyn Franklin said that there was a reason for that. As she said later “Aretha didn't write ‘Chain,' but she might as well have. It was her story. When we were in the studio putting on the backgrounds with Ree doing lead, I knew she was singing about Ted. Listen to the lyrics talking about how for five long years she thought he was her man. Then she found out she was nothing but a link in the chain. Then she sings that her father told her to come on home. Well, he did. She sings about how her doctor said to take it easy. Well, he did too. She was drinking so much we thought she was on the verge of a breakdown. The line that slew me, though, was the one that said how one of these mornings the chain is gonna break but until then she'll take all she can take. That summed it up. Ree knew damn well that this man had been doggin' her since Jump Street. But somehow she held on and pushed it to the breaking point." [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Chain of Fools"] That made number one on the R&B charts, and number two on the hot one hundred, kept from the top by "Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)" by John Fred and his Playboy Band -- a record that very few people would say has stood the test of time as well. The other most memorable track on the album was the one chosen as the first single, released in September. As Carole King told the story, she and Gerry Goffin were feeling like their career was in a slump. While they had had a huge run of hits in the early sixties through 1965, they had only had two new hits in 1966 -- "Goin' Back" for Dusty Springfield and "Don't Bring Me Down" for the Animals, and neither of those were anything like as massive as their previous hits. And up to that point in 1967, they'd only had one -- "Pleasant Valley Sunday" for the Monkees. They had managed to place several songs on Monkees albums and the TV show as well, so they weren't going to starve, but the rise of self-contained bands that were starting to dominate the charts, and Phil Spector's temporary retirement, meant there simply wasn't the opportunity for them to place material that there had been. They were also getting sick of travelling to the West Coast all the time, because as their children were growing slightly older they didn't want to disrupt their lives in New York, and were thinking of approaching some of the New York based labels and seeing if they needed songs. They were particularly considering Atlantic, because soul was more open to outside songwriters than other genres. As it happened, though, they didn't have to approach Atlantic, because Atlantic approached them. They were walking down Broadway when a limousine pulled up, and Jerry Wexler stuck his head out of the window. He'd come up with a good title that he wanted to use for a song for Aretha, would they be interested in writing a song called "Natural Woman"? They said of course they would, and Wexler drove off. They wrote the song that night, and King recorded a demo the next morning: [Excerpt: Carole King, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (demo)"] They gave Wexler a co-writing credit because he had suggested the title.  King later wrote in her autobiography "Hearing Aretha's performance of “Natural Woman” for the first time, I experienced a rare speechless moment. To this day I can't convey how I felt in mere words. Anyone who had written a song in 1967 hoping it would be performed by a singer who could take it to the highest level of excellence, emotional connection, and public exposure would surely have wanted that singer to be Aretha Franklin." She went on to say "But a recording that moves people is never just about the artist and the songwriters. It's about people like Jerry and Ahmet, who matched the songwriters with a great title and a gifted artist; Arif Mardin, whose magnificent orchestral arrangement deserves the place it will forever occupy in popular music history; Tom Dowd, whose engineering skills captured the magic of this memorable musical moment for posterity; and the musicians in the rhythm section, the orchestral players, and the vocal contributions of the background singers—among them the unforgettable “Ah-oo!” after the first line of the verse. And the promotion and marketing people helped this song reach more people than it might have without them." And that's correct -- unlike "Chain of Fools", this time Franklin did let Arif Mardin do most of the arrangement work -- though she came up with the piano part that Spooner Oldham plays on the record. Mardin said that because of the song's hymn-like feel they wanted to go for a more traditional written arrangement. He said "She loved the song to the point where she said she wanted to concentrate on the vocal and vocal alone. I had written a string chart and horn chart to augment the chorus and hired Ralph Burns to conduct. After just a couple of takes, we had it. That's when Ralph turned to me with wonder in his eyes. Ralph was one of the most celebrated arrangers of the modern era. He had done ‘Early Autumn' for Woody Herman and Stan Getz, and ‘Georgia on My Mind' for Ray Charles. He'd worked with everyone. ‘This woman comes from another planet' was all Ralph said. ‘She's just here visiting.'” [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"] By this point there was a well-functioning team making Franklin's records -- while the production credits would vary over the years, they were all essentially co-productions by the team of Franklin, Wexler, Mardin and Dowd, all collaborating and working together with a more-or-less unified purpose, and the backing was always by the same handful of session musicians and some combination of the Sweet Inspirations and Aretha's sisters. That didn't mean that occasional guests couldn't get involved -- as we discussed in the Cream episode, Eric Clapton played guitar on "Good to Me as I am to You": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Good to Me as I am to You"] Though that was one of the rare occasions on one of these records where something was overdubbed. Clapton apparently messed up the guitar part when playing behind Franklin, because he was too intimidated by playing with her, and came back the next day to redo his part without her in the studio. At this point, Aretha was at the height of her fame. Just before the final batch of album sessions began she appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, and she was making regular TV appearances, like one on the Mike Douglas Show where she duetted with Frankie Valli on "That's Life": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin and Frankie Valli, "That's Life"] But also, as Wexler said “Her career was kicking into high gear. Contending and resolving both the professional and personal challenges were too much. She didn't think she could do both, and I didn't blame her. Few people could. So she let the personal slide and concentrated on the professional. " Her concert promoter Ruth Bowen said of this time "Her father and Dr. King were putting pressure on her to sing everywhere, and she felt obligated. The record company was also screaming for more product. And I had a mountain of offers on my desk that kept getting higher with every passing hour. They wanted her in Europe. They wanted her in Latin America. They wanted her in every major venue in the U.S. TV was calling. She was being asked to do guest appearances on every show from Carol Burnett to Andy Williams to the Hollywood Palace. She wanted to do them all and she wanted to do none of them. She wanted to do them all because she's an entertainer who burns with ambition. She wanted to do none of them because she was emotionally drained. She needed to go away and renew her strength. I told her that at least a dozen times. She said she would, but she didn't listen to me." The pressures from her father and Dr King are a recurring motif in interviews with people about this period. Franklin was always a very political person, and would throughout her life volunteer time and money to liberal political causes and to the Democratic Party, but this was the height of her activism -- the Civil Rights movement was trying to capitalise on the gains it had made in the previous couple of years, and celebrity fundraisers and performances at rallies were an important way to do that. And at this point there were few bigger celebrities in America than Aretha Franklin. At a concert in her home town of Detroit on February the sixteenth, 1968, the Mayor declared the day Aretha Franklin Day. At the same show, Billboard, Record World *and* Cash Box magazines all presented her with plaques for being Female Vocalist of the Year. And Dr. King travelled up to be at the show and congratulate her publicly for all her work with his organisation, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Backstage at that show, Dr. King talked to Aretha's father, Reverend Franklin, about what he believed would be the next big battle -- a strike in Memphis: [Excerpt, Martin Luther King, "Mountaintop Speech" -- "And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy—what is the other bread?—Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying, they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right."] The strike in question was the Memphis Sanitation Workers' strike which had started a few days before.  The struggle for Black labour rights was an integral part of the civil rights movement, and while it's not told that way in the sanitised version of the story that's made it into popular culture, the movement led by King was as much about economic justice as social justice -- King was a democratic socialist, and believed that economic oppression was both an effect of and cause of other forms of racial oppression, and that the rights of Black workers needed to be fought for. In 1967 he had set up a new organisation, the Poor People's Campaign, which was set to march on Washington to demand a program that included full employment, a guaranteed income -- King was strongly influenced in his later years by the ideas of Henry George, the proponent of a universal basic income based on land value tax -- the annual building of half a million affordable homes, and an end to the war in Vietnam. This was King's main focus in early 1968, and he saw the sanitation workers' strike as a major part of this campaign. Memphis was one of the most oppressive cities in the country, and its largely Black workforce of sanitation workers had been trying for most of the 1960s to unionise, and strike-breakers had been called in to stop them, and many of them had been fired by their white supervisors with no notice. They were working in unsafe conditions, for utterly inadequate wages, and the city government were ardent segregationists. After two workers had died on the first of February from using unsafe equipment, the union demanded changes -- safer working conditions, better wages, and recognition of the union. The city council refused, and almost all the sanitation workers stayed home and stopped work. After a few days, the council relented and agreed to their terms, but the Mayor, Henry Loeb, an ardent white supremacist who had stood on a platform of opposing desegregation, and who had previously been the Public Works Commissioner who had put these unsafe conditions in place, refused to listen. As far as he was concerned, he was the only one who could recognise the union, and he wouldn't. The workers continued their strike, marching holding signs that simply read "I am a Man": [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Blowing in the Wind"] The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP had been involved in organising support for the strikes from an early stage, and King visited Memphis many times. Much of the time he spent visiting there was spent negotiating with a group of more militant activists, who called themselves The Invaders and weren't completely convinced by King's nonviolent approach -- they believed that violence and rioting got more attention than non-violent protests. King explained to them that while he had been persuaded by Gandhi's writings of the moral case for nonviolent protest, he was also persuaded that it was pragmatically necessary -- asking the young men "how many guns do we have and how many guns do they have?", and pointing out as he often did that when it comes to violence a minority can't win against an armed majority. Rev Franklin went down to Memphis on the twenty-eighth of March to speak at a rally Dr. King was holding, but as it turned out the rally was cancelled -- the pre-rally march had got out of hand, with some people smashing windows, and Memphis police had, like the police in Detroit the previous year, violently overreacted, clubbing and gassing protestors and shooting and killing one unarmed teenage boy, Larry Payne. The day after Payne's funeral, Dr King was back in Memphis, though this time Rev Franklin was not with him. On April the third, he gave a speech which became known as the "Mountaintop Speech", in which he talked about the threats that had been made to his life: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Mountaintop Speech": “And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."] The next day, Martin Luther King was shot dead. James Earl Ray, a white supremacist, pled guilty to the murder, and the evidence against him seems overwhelming from what I've read, but the King family have always claimed that the murder was part of a larger conspiracy and that Ray was not the gunman. Aretha was obviously distraught, and she attended the funeral, as did almost every other prominent Black public figure. James Baldwin wrote of the funeral: "In the pew directly before me sat Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis, Eartha Kitt—covered in black, looking like a lost, ten-year-old girl—and Sidney Poitier, in the same pew, or nearby. Marlon saw me, and nodded. The atmosphere was black, with a tension indescribable—as though something, perhaps the heavens, perhaps the earth, might crack. Everyone sat very still. The actual service sort of washed over me, in waves. It wasn't that it seemed unreal; it was the most real church service I've ever sat through in my life, or ever hope to sit through; but I have a childhood hangover thing about not weeping in public, and I was concentrating on holding myself together. I did not want to weep for Martin, tears seemed futile. But I may also have been afraid, and I could not have been the only one, that if I began to weep I would not be able to stop. There was more than enough to weep for, if one was to weep—so many of us, cut down, so soon. Medgar, Malcolm, Martin: and their widows, and their children. Reverend Ralph David Abernathy asked a certain sister to sing a song which Martin had loved—“Once more,” said Ralph David, “for Martin and for me,” and he sat down." Many articles and books on Aretha Franklin say that she sang at King's funeral. In fact she didn't, but there's a simple reason for the confusion. King's favourite song was the Thomas Dorsey gospel song "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", and indeed almost his last words were to ask a trumpet player, Ben Branch, if he would play the song at the rally he was going to be speaking at on the day of his death. At his request, Mahalia Jackson, his old friend, sang the song at his private funeral, which was not filmed, unlike the public part of the funeral that Baldwin described. Four months later, though, there was another public memorial for King, and Franklin did sing "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at that service, in front of King's weeping widow and children, and that performance *was* filmed, and gets conflated in people's memories with Jackson's unfilmed earlier performance: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord (at Martin Luther King Memorial)"] Four years later, she would sing that at Mahalia Jackson's funeral. Through all this, Franklin had been working on her next album, Aretha Now, the sessions for which started more or less as soon as the sessions for Lady Soul had finished. The album was, in fact, bookended by deaths that affected Aretha. Just as King died at the end of the sessions, the beginning came around the time of the death of Otis Redding -- the sessions were cancelled for a day while Wexler travelled to Georgia for Redding's funeral, which Franklin was too devastated to attend, and Wexler would later say that the extra emotion in her performances on the album came from her emotional pain at Redding's death. The lead single on the album, "Think", was written by Franklin and -- according to the credits anyway -- her husband Ted White, and is very much in the same style as "Respect", and became another of her most-loved hits: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Think"] But probably the song on Aretha Now that now resonates the most is one that Jerry Wexler tried to persuade her not to record, and was only released as a B-side. Indeed, "I Say a Little Prayer" was a song that had already once been a hit after being a reject.  Hal David, unlike Burt Bacharach, was a fairly political person and inspired by the protest song movement, and had been starting to incorporate his concerns about the political situation and the Vietnam War into his lyrics -- though as with many such writers, he did it in much less specific ways than a Phil Ochs or a Bob Dylan. This had started with "What the World Needs Now is Love", a song Bacharach and David had written for Jackie DeShannon in 1965: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "What the "World Needs Now is Love"] But he'd become much more overtly political for "The Windows of the World", a song they wrote for Dionne Warwick. Warwick has often said it's her favourite of her singles, but it wasn't a big hit -- Bacharach blamed himself for that, saying "Dionne recorded it as a single and I really blew it. I wrote a bad arrangement and the tempo was too fast, and I really regret making it the way I did because it's a good song." [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "The Windows of the World"] For that album, Bacharach and David had written another track, "I Say a Little Prayer", which was not as explicitly political, but was intended by David to have an implicit anti-war message, much like other songs of the period like "Last Train to Clarksville". David had sons who were the right age to be drafted, and while it's never stated, "I Say a Little Prayer" was written from the perspective of a woman whose partner is away fighting in the war, but is still in her thoughts: [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer"] The recording of Dionne Warwick's version was marked by stress. Bacharach had a particular way of writing music to tell the musicians the kind of feel he wanted for the part -- he'd write nonsense words above the stave, and tell the musicians to play the parts as if they were singing those words. The trumpet player hired for the session, Ernie Royal, got into a row with Bacharach about this unorthodox way of communicating musical feeling, and the track ended up taking ten takes (as opposed to the normal three for a Bacharach session), with Royal being replaced half-way through the session. Bacharach was never happy with the track even after all the work it had taken, and he fought to keep it from being released at all, saying the track was taken at too fast a tempo. It eventually came out as an album track nearly eighteen months after it was recorded -- an eternity in 1960s musical timescales -- and DJs started playing it almost as soon as it came out. Scepter records rushed out a single, over Bacharach's objections, but as he later said "One thing I love about the record business is how wrong I was. Disc jockeys all across the country started playing the track, and the song went to number four on the charts and then became the biggest hit Hal and I had ever written for Dionne." [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer"] Oddly, the B-side for Warwick's single, "Theme From the Valley of the Dolls" did even better, reaching number two. Almost as soon as the song was released as a single, Franklin started playing around with the song backstage, and in April 1968, right around the time of Dr. King's death, she recorded a version. Much as Burt Bacharach had been against releasing Dionne Warwick's version, Jerry Wexler was against Aretha even recording the song, saying later “I advised Aretha not to record it. I opposed it for two reasons. First, to cover a song only twelve weeks after the original reached the top of the charts was not smart business. You revisit such a hit eight months to a year later. That's standard practice. But more than that, Bacharach's melody, though lovely, was peculiarly suited to a lithe instrument like Dionne Warwick's—a light voice without the dark corners or emotional depths that define Aretha. Also, Hal David's lyric was also somewhat girlish and lacked the gravitas that Aretha required. “Aretha usually listened to me in the studio, but not this time. She had written a vocal arrangement for the Sweet Inspirations that was undoubtedly strong. Cissy Houston, Dionne's cousin, told me that Aretha was on the right track—she was seeing this song in a new way and had come up with a new groove. Cissy was on Aretha's side. Tommy Dowd and Arif were on Aretha's side. So I had no choice but to cave." It's quite possible that Wexler's objections made Franklin more, rather than less, determined to record the song. She regarded Warwick as a hated rival, as she did almost every prominent female singer of her generation and younger ones, and would undoubtedly have taken the implication that there was something that Warwick was simply better at than her to heart. [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer"] Wexler realised as soon as he heard it in the studio that Franklin's version was great, and Bacharach agreed, telling Franklin's biographer David Ritz “As much as I like the original recording by Dionne, there's no doubt that Aretha's is a better record. She imbued the song with heavy soul and took it to a far deeper place. Hers is the definitive version.” -- which is surprising because Franklin's version simplifies some of Bacharach's more unusual chord voicings, something he often found extremely upsetting. Wexler still though thought there was no way the song would be a hit, and it's understandable that he thought that way. Not only had it only just been on the charts a few months earlier, but it was the kind of song that wouldn't normally be a hit at all, and certainly not in the kind of rhythmic soul music for which Franklin was known. Almost everything she ever recorded is in simple time signatures -- 4/4, waltz time, or 6/8 -- but this is a Bacharach song so it's staggeringly metrically irregular. Normally even with semi-complex things I'm usually good at figuring out how to break it down into bars, but here I actually had to purchase a copy of the sheet music in order to be sure I was right about what's going on. I'm going to count beats along with the record here so you can see what I mean. The verse has three bars of 4/4, one bar of 2/4, and three more bars of 4/4, all repeated: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer" with me counting bars over verse] While the chorus has a bar of 4/4, a bar of 3/4 but with a chord change half way through so it sounds like it's in two if you're paying attention to the harmonic changes, two bars of 4/4, another waltz-time bar sounding like it's in two, two bars of four, another bar of three sounding in two, a bar of four, then three more bars of four but the first of those is *written* as four but played as if it's in six-eight time (but you can keep the four/four pulse going if you're counting): [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer" with me counting bars over verse] I don't expect you to have necessarily followed that in great detail, but the point should be clear -- this was not some straightforward dance song. Incidentally, that bar played as if it's six/eight was something Aretha introduced to make the song even more irregular than how Bacharach wrote it. And on top of *that* of course the lyrics mixed the secular and the sacred, something that was still taboo in popular music at that time -- this is only a couple of years after Capitol records had been genuinely unsure about putting out the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", and Franklin's gospel-inflected vocals made the religious connection even more obvious. But Franklin was insistent that the record go out as a single, and eventually it was released as the B-side to the far less impressive "The House That Jack Built". It became a double-sided hit, with the A-side making number two on the R&B chart and number seven on the Hot One Hundred, while "I Say a Little Prayer" made number three on the R&B chart and number ten overall. In the UK, "I Say a Little Prayer" made number four and became her biggest ever solo UK hit. It's now one of her most-remembered songs, while the A-side is largely forgotten: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer"] For much of the

Mark 5 tells us one of the most important truths anyone could ever know about Jesus: Yes, he cares.

Mark 5 tells us one of the most important truths anyone could ever know about Jesus: Yes, he cares.

Message from Pastor Everage Thomas III on August 7, 2022

Jesus, Yes - Church, Yes New Wine, New Wineskins: a Story series Steve Phillips, Lead Pastor Sunday, May 1, 2022

Luke - Love Like Jesus, Yes to Intrusion

Luke - Love Like Jesus, Yes to Intrusion

She's trapped in a fat black trash can She makes friends at wasteland She takes tabs that taste bad DAMN. Half an acid after ASAP crapped on the map, Back to the BASSPOD for some awful crap She tried to dance to, She's trying—she's trying, but can't Thinks about camp, and the wristband she grabbed as a sample But the black man, her first fan, is holding her hand His first rave ever was at the promised land She left with a plan, panicked in Alaska, then ran Went manic with Uncle Sam, damaged; A sacrifice, like a lamb They call for Christ, and she wants to answer but hasn't; Advice from dad— “Humankind has gone mad.” The Day Met The Night She had to miss the man in the hat; but was glad The act she caught was by an artist that's also black Bass music lacks much, in fact; Every since Skrillex did it, Everyone else just does that Now they're programmed and mathematical, Dubstep is had, Everybody loves Excision and forgot how to dance; No offense to Jeff, It's just his fans are the worst— She was still in the hearse, but witness to the dress rehearsal. Till Death Do Us Part, So she did; but Rest In Peace, she didn't— She was almost asleep, then here comes The Nigga, Skrillex. The Aliens Did it. NO WE DIDNT. THE GODS DID. Call it Divine Intervention Right on Time for Dentention He wreaked of all the sadness and Liquor The Poor Thing, he needed attention she couldn't give it, just wished she didn't exist She was shook, and just booked it out of the Soul Kitchen The whole mission was meant to be a means of prevention; A rockstar musician and a mystic's intuition At Intermission, she interviews with Inside Edition— When he makes his entrance, She breaks away just to kiss him But Listen: In this dimension, the Media Captures the passion She had for the man on camera, a scandal happens! His girlfriend's mad, his fans all hate this random fat black actress, or rapper— whatever she is, she woke up famous, and the FanGirls attack They all love Sonny; Fight over him in forums like vultures; It's part of the culture, she knows because she studies producers— But this one is different, there's only one Skrillex— A loser; Money talks and bullshit walks, and that's an evil doer; She just calmly walked away, she couldn't do him the favor He just came into her life, and then he came back never; Now she just wonders what would have happened, had she acted on impulse; His hands were right between her thighs, but then he acted repulsed, as his fingertips brushed the skin of her belly— The Curse of her body: reality's depiction of gluttony; We all need love. Perhaps what Sonny needed was hugs, But Ugly she was, and had been cracked like a nut; A scar on her lip, A scar on her eye, The Sun God marked “Mine” Blinded by the light, polite tidings, moonlit nights fighting the right side— look at the bright side; We are alike, right? We like white. Fine. What is a pawn to a Knight? What's a King to a Queen? A Lion to a Lioness might seem to be priority; In reality it's just another misogyny She knows she needs; He needs nothing. Rafiki, believe me— I did see Simba under a Tree, With a Hog and a Meerkat, I think Take it easy on the DMT, Before Disney reads this catastrophe. Well, that's random. Well, so is Skrillex in your tent. Is he for sale, or for rent? Is she no more than a friend? I'm offended, but get it— That's just how it is, with a rich kid; I lost 200 pounds, but she's posing for “fitness”, Basic. Forget this shit. At the core, I resent it; I fell in a horrible instant Aplorable, isn't it? Now I just want to prevent; I saw through dimensions, Prayed for him, I went and I fasted Attracted spirits out of crypts with magic I flew the black flag, ship wrecked on an island and died again, All my friends and Family in heaven keep mentioning him I don't know what he did, But I'm just trying to save— Shh. What did Tim say? He tried to warn me about Garrett before I even knew his name; It's fucking crazy, But I lost it when he passed away— I remembered the day I called “A Long Drive, With You, Friends” Cause I was stuck in the Skrillex attemtpting to decipher the message; Ran down the mountain pouting about Dillon Francis, But when I got back to town, I found out what the past is; Los Angeles was smaller, but still back to back traffic— I looked down from Elysian Park at all of the Classics; It had to be about the 60's, it was a nightmare— Time Travel would be fun, if I had chosen to go there, But no! A flash went off as I was leaving the mountain, I didn't even feel the phototelepoertation, It was instant. I'm a crackhead, I'm a mental health case— Five years ago, I said I'd run for President someday I knew as the words came out; it was a fatal mistake I became #1 Enemy of the State The USA was under a brand new administration, We went Global, White Supremacy Funds Corporations Now it doesn't matter what I say or do; On paper, I've been documented as… Doesn't matter. The worst of it was, They gave me Sonny's head on a platter “Invest In Water” Telepathy is easy for me; But gnashing of teeth? I listen to Skrillex, the secrets I keep Now I'm starting to weep, Take it easy— He's probably busy. I'm standing in line at the showers, he's disappearing I can't believe it; His name wasn't on the roster An imposter, impossible; I already saw him His mom worries, a lot— But I don't know which one, She begged and pleaded for me to save her son And the West was won, Annie went and got her gun She's ugly, but she's skinny and she's also a slut; A DJs just a squirrel with a nut— Always looking for another with some tits and a butt Looks young? So what? ID says Connecticut, just turned 21 But she's sucking her thumb Dumb DJ wants to have fun Now thunder has struck; At least this time I'm in luck— I don't know what he's done, But Space Jesus is giving everyone a good in for their money, Here bassnectar comes; My assumption was—you've seen one, it applies to all of them. Apparently not, my previous favorite Previous, I say, because I think someone paid him As years pass by, I see what I've written—it's clearly a given, perhaps this is the reason I've risen; This is a prison. I don't want to listen to Skrillex. I'm so sick of Dillon Francis, And being a black chick I'm so sick of fitness models And Instagram fitness I'm so sick of Sonny Moore and this aryan woman. According to the Book or Mormon, I'm rather important, But neither myself or they would admit it— Untraceably ancient, they have questions of our Family's origins I'm like, Just ask Skrillex. That dudes way more a force than I—not adopted, but unwanted, and unaborted. Now I'm imported, an immortal now with African heritage— Not African, but they have to call me African American or black like, statistically— Thats seeming racist again, I think., I'm also indigenous—but white people see me as black; Blacks know that I'm half, they laugh and turn their back, As if. The Black Cat in the hat sat and splashed blood on his mask; he had to attack the bampheramph master, acting as captain He can't stand him, now he's trapped in a mansion with Dillon Francis and a Masked Banana, Happy with Hammocks for batting practice. [Skrillex is resting in a hammock. The masked banana Approaches.] WHAT THE FUCK. CUT TO: Here he is. is he dead? No, he's Skrillex. Don't be stupid. That's a shiner. It's a doozy… ...This Nigga. This Nigga. This NIGGA. Uh oh. Where is Skrillex? I found him. He's over there. He's over WHERE? You should go. [shrugs] I should stay. Now you're playing. It's your game. I'll kill you. I doubt that. Don't tempt me. Or you'll what? No, no, no! Dillon Francis?!! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE. < GO AWAY DUDE, I GOT THIS. NO, OKAY?! NO. Ay, no! Vamos! JUST STOP IT. What is he doing here? What are you doing here? I'm on the lineup. (Like, 6 people) HOW? Ask My Management. >< Man, fuck your management. GERALD: Hey, fuck you! Gerald?! S'that you? GERALD: Yes, ‘tis I! You look good! Back at cha! ...is that your piñata? Previously, kind of. What the fuck. Dillon. Heh. Oh, what—he's “Dillon” now? I've always been “Dillon” that's my name You're “Dillon Francis” DJ Dillon Francis. You wish you were a DJ. Why would I waste a wish—? [they bicker, as S Ū P A C R E E silently prepares for battle. As she sharpens The Battle Axe, Skrillex takes notice and moves quickly towards her.] Hey—where'd you get that?! Oh, what, this? The Battle Axe? Yeah, it is! What the fuck! I thought you had that. [Skrillex, startled, checks his pockets; which is ridiculous, because he's wearing Skinny jeans.] I thought he was wearing shorts. We like shorts. The Skrillex Shorts (Angrily) What did you DO? What did YOU do? Satan won't tell me unless I give him my sOuL Oh, goodness… Jesus Christ! What? Don't. ((Jesus: GODDAMMIT I TOLD YOU, I'M ON VACATION.)) Why with Satan? I am Satan. What the fuck! He's just kidding. Oh, Jesus Christ. Stop calling on Jesus, he's not coming. ((I ALREADY TOLD YOU, CALL CREE)) [Up, at Jesus] DONT CALL ME BY MY SLAVE NAME, JESUS—I FUCKING TOLD YOU. You know what—? [Jesus Appears.] Dillon Francis: *gasps* JESUS. What, Dillon Francis? What? Do we not spend enough time talking? What? Dillon Francis: Jesus: Just—practice patience, you'll get your fuckin shit—just. Ugh. And, YOU! Skrillex: Me? Jesus: Nah, dog. You're straight. Skrillex: Nice. Dillon Francis: WHAT? The FUCK. Jesus: hey—out of sight, out of mind; unlike your dumb ass—am I right? Dillon Francis: You know him? Jesus: We're booed up. Wait, you're fuckin' Jesus? Not with that inflection. Jesus: Oh what, jealous? Dillon Francis: This is awful. Jesus: It's God Awful. Dillon Francis: That's not punny. Jesus, Skrillex, and SupaCree: YES IT IS. Dillon Francis: Oh, My God. Jesus: Dont call God— SupaCree: No, she is not— —she's probably busy— —she's not available— Dillon Francis: What is happening. Gerald: How do you know Jesus? He's a Distant relative—Look. I don't have time for this; I'm on vacation. You've been on vacation since The Bush Administration! Wait, Which One? Dude, why bother? It's current events! This entire existence is a current event! Would you just forget about Heaven? Look, you're not getting back in again until you finish this—not without your little friends. Skrillex: I'm not her friend. Supacree: Skrillex isn't my friend. Dillon Francis: She's not my friend. GERALD: I'm your friend. Yeah you are! Yeah I am! Love You Gerald! ...Did you fuck? What's with you!? Jesus: She's not your friend. Skrillex: Hell nah! Jesus: I'm not talking to you, I know she's not your friend— Skrillex: Damn straight. Jesus: —You have no friends. Oooh. Goddamn. Christ's Sake. Jesus: Money is the root of all evil. Dillon Francis: Hey— I said that; I said Money Sucks, Friends Rule! [super serious] Jesus: No. Dillon Francis: ...No? Jesus: You—asked for a friend. I sent you a friend! Why isn't she your friend?! Dillon Francis: [makes a face] ...that was the friend you sent? Jesus: YES. Dillon Francis: ...that I asked for? Jesus: YES. What's wrong? Dillon Francis : I just… Adjust. [Jesus receives the Alien communication signal telepathically.] Jesus: Adjust? Fuck me. Supacree: Is that them? Skrillex: Mmmmm…. Dillon Francis: Oh, my God! Jesus: Oh, guess what? Now she's coming. Are they close? Seems like it. Dillon Francis: What the fuck! Fuck, alright then. “Fuck, alright then.” Shutthefuckup— Why don't you shutthefuckup— Jesus: Both of you shutthefuckup. Shut The Fuck Up, And Listen Oh, shit—fuck—there's still a battle? Uh, yeah, there's still a battle; God loves these things. Dillon Francis: Wait, wait, wait— Jesus: wait, wait what? Dude, just shut up go get your...what's your rave weapon again? Supacree: white privilege? Dillon: (at Skrillex) no, that's his. Jesus: oh please, it's basically everyone's—except hers. Yikes. Skrillex: [squints] Jesus: yeah, yikes. Now take a hike so I can talk with these two immortal morons without your face in my face. My face isn't in your face… Your face is in my face! Now get lost! Prepare to Save The Rave! ...this is strange. [to side, cut scene Gerald: what is your rave weapon, anyway? Dillon Francis: it's a secret. Jesus: Alright— [as they prepare, she each scan the skyline for a sign of advanced life.] Skrillex: not another flyby. Supacree: Jesus fucking Christ. Jesus: Where is it? Supacree: He has it. Skrillex: She has it. Both: no, I don't. Both: yes, you do! Jesus: Are you serious? Skrillex: What is your life? Supacree: I'm not alive, I just died! Skrillex: Oh yeah, right? Jesus: oh yeah, right. Skrillex: psh. That's bullshit. Jesus: you don't have to believe it. Skrillex: I don't, that's— Supacree: We get it, you're a satanist. Jesus l: why! Satan can't do shit. Supacree: I know, right? Skrillex: I'm not “Satanist” Skrillex: We're just binded. Supacree: Stupid Ass Skrillex. Skrillex: Nobody called you! Supacree: My phone died! That's how I got stuck with you on the last flyby! Skrillex: It wasn't me! Jesus: Yes it was. Supacree: I don't care. Jesus. You do care. Skrillex: more than cares! Supacree: less. Way less. Skrillex: she's obsessed— Supacree: I am obsessive. Jesus: this is impressive. Skrillex: Gee, thanks ref. Supacree: save your breath— Jesus: You're both miserable. Skrillex: I'm not miserable, I'm rich, Supacree: he's not miserable, he's rich. See? Okay—first of all— you're both rich. SupaCree: wait, I am? Skrillex: wait, she is? Jesus: YES. Supacree: when is this? Jesus: that's on you. And him. Supacree and Skrillex: what? How?! Jesus: Well, do you Wield the Sword of Skrillex? Skrillex: ...The What? Supacree: …oh yeah, huh. Jesus: there you go. Supacree: Huh. Skrillex: what the fuck!? Jesus: Yeaaah...anyway, we're way off subject, and we're arguably moments away from this dimension being ripped open; Half the family's in transit— Half? Oh, Goddamn. This is bad. Gimmie my sword. It's my sword! Technically, it's his. But it isn't. I mean, just because you Weilded it in Skrillex— When was this?! DUDE, QUIT DRINKING. Finally someone said it. Someone had to. *gasp* SUPER WHITE GURL: SKRILLEX HAS A DRINKING PROBLEM? No. What? You just said— This is fictional, Becky—a total-what if. My name Rebecca. My Name is Skrillex. No it isn't— —what is it—-? It's— —What's My Name? —its— —-?!?! ——?????!!! —it's Skrillex, Becky— —rebbeca— —SIT DOWN BECKY. (She sits.) Goddamn. Oh, she will. She's nothing like Rebbeka, Rebekah was beautiful. So you do have my memory. Nails in hands. You felt that? Shove it, Boomer! What are you? I TOLD you already. Jesus: She told you. Are you eating? I get hungry. Skrillex: UGHHHHGGGHHH. Supacree: AGGGHGHGHGH!!!! This is intense. Oh, like camping! It wasn't me!!! (Like, Everyone) Yes it was. This nigga doe. I know, huh. This nigga serious. He hella serious. He aint remember— —he ain't remember— —Nothin! Who the fuck are you? Creative Affirmative Action. What? There's not enough black people in this movie, so. What you mean? Skrillex is black. [Skrillex] No— Sure he is— —look at him— [Skrillex] Ugh, he's gonna sue me. For what?! Ridiculous. Exactly, yeah that. Skrillex is ridiculous. Yes, but si is this: The Nigga, Skrillex As not to be confused with Skrillex, The Nigga (He's a Rapper!) Of course he is. And, while we're at it—might as well go ahead and introduce— The Nigga Skrillex Not a rapper? Oh no, he does rap. It just doesn't matter. Because he's black. *gasp* Black Skrillex?! No, The Nigga Skrillex. What's the difference?! Well… Black Skrillex: Yes, Good afternoon—could I please get, $20 on pump 8 please? Thank you. Okay, so whats the— [As Black Skrillex exits, The Nigga Skrillex enters the same inconvinece store, looking shady.] [Actual Skrillex Makes a Face] Mmm—just wait, it gets better. Cut Back To: The Nigga Skrillex makes a menacing face at the cashier, whose hand hovers over the panic button. Its hella shady. cashier: can I help you? The Nigga Skrillex: Nah, prolly not. [beat] he turns towards the cooler and palms a 40 oz. the tension rises. he plops it on the counter and stares coldly at the attendant. you know what? …? Let me get a….$20 on the lotto, and some berry backwoods. okay. wait—how much is that? …$1.99 a pack. Goddam!... can i just get one? ...yeah. LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE.

PRAISE THE LORD SOMEBODY!!!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/karlinda-l-brown/support

LET US REST IN YOUR FULL PEACE ON THIS DAY LORD JESUS IN THE MIGHTY NAME OF JESUS AMEN!!!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/karlinda-l-brown/support

FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE YES LORD JESUS YES!!!!!!!!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/karlinda-l-brown/support

YES LORD JESUS YES FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/karlinda-l-brown/support

Is Scripture necessary for us to be joyful-to be satisfied with Jesus----Yes. But why----This continues a series on happiness-joy.

Is Scripture necessary for us to be joyful-to be satisfied with Jesus---Yes. But why---This continues a series on happiness-joy.

In the Book of Hebrews, remember, the writer didn’t have the Gospels, Acts or the other Epistles to reference. He referenced the Old Testament Scriptures. That’s what the Jewish Christians were familiar with. It’s what they knew. In Hebrews, a guy named Melchizedek is mentioned a lot. As we look at chapter 5, we’ll also dig into who is this Melchizedek character. Could it have been Jesus? Yes, Jesus in the Old Testament? Let’s take a deep dive into scripture…. Click on over to my blog where there's a special video on "Who is Melchizedek?".... If you want to reap all the benefits of salvation including the 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven then… Believe. Repent. Be Baptized. Receive the Holy Spirit. Pray this prayer humbly and wholeheartedly… “Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. I believe You died for my sins. Please forgive me. Right now, I turn from my sins and open the door of my heart and my life to you. I confess You as my personal Lord and Savior. I surrender my whole life to you and I will follow you for the rest of my life. Thank You, Jesus, for saving me. In Jesus' name, Amen.” Jesus is coming back soon! Are you ready? Soli Deo Gloria — To God Alone Be the Glory! This is a daily podcast, published each evening. Hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out! And please share this with your friends. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app · Charity Promotion: BallotReady: The goal of this initiative is to increase voter education and encourage your listeners to get the vote out during the 2020 General Election this November. https://www.ballotready.org/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/seek-the-truth/message

Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)   [00:00:04] All right. Well, hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us. My name is Penny and we're so glad that you're here with us today for this next session of Get Sellers Calling You. Beatty Carmichael is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm really excited about our call today. What do you have for us?   [00:00:27] Well, I'm excited, too. And for those listening, this a quick disclaimer and heads up, we do two types of calls. One focused on growing a real estate business. By the way, we'll be doing more on that in the commercial sector as well. So you have commercial business. We got some really cool things on that. But the other type of topic we cover is on a spiritual nature. We call it radical faith. And it's where we talk about Jesus talking about Jesus offense. You you don't want to listen. Then you are forewarned and you can turn off this episode and come back to the next one. So that's what we're going to be talking about.   [00:01:10] Awesome. I'm so excited.   [00:01:12] Yes. Well, I'm kind of excited about this on this call, too, because this is, again, one of those studies I've done that I thought I'm going down this path and I know the answer. And then I start to search scriptures and I go, Huh? That's not the answer I was really expecting.   [00:01:31] So kind of as a way of an intro, things are not always as they may seem. Okay, well, let me ask you a question. Jesus is up on the cross.   [00:01:44] You remember that. You remember Jesus Christ. Just making sure that Jesus is up on the cross. And the question is, did God forsake him while he was there?   [00:01:57] What do you think? No. No.   [00:02:04] Yes. Yes. Well, yes, because I know that God turned his back on the thing. He wasn't turning his back on Jesus.   [00:02:14] He was turning his back on the sin that was upon Jesus. And Jesus cried out, Why have you forsaken me?   [00:02:23] So I could be both of you. You may be right, because a lot of times there's multiple dimensions and God's kingdom.   [00:02:37] So it's not always linear and black and white. But for the sake of discussion, just kind of go down this path.   [00:02:45] If you had to choose one or the other. Most likely. Did God forsake Jesus while he was on the cross or did God not forsake him? He did not.   [00:02:59] Okay, give me your reasoning behind it. Do you have any scripture to back that up?   [00:03:06] I can't think of any off the top of my head. I'm basing it on just what I know to be the nature and character of God.   [00:03:14] Okay, great. Good God. Good woman. All right. So now Jesus does say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So does that mean that Jesus was wrong?   [00:03:30] No.   [00:03:32] Jesus was right.   [00:03:34] If that's what he was feeling in the moment. We know that Jesus was perfect. So even though sometimes our feelings can lie to us.   [00:03:46] That's a good question. That's a good question.   [00:03:50] It is because a lot of people say, well, God, obviously for Jesus on the cross because Jesus said he did. You actually have a more accurate answer in reasoning behind it than you may realize. So this is where things are not always as they seem. You have to really look deeper underneath the surface and try to understand what's going on. So let me get you real quickly to turn to Psalm 22.   [00:04:22] Let me give you a little background on Psalm 22. This is David in the Spirit, writing about the crucifixion. This is David watching. I'm assuming he's seen it take place or it's a vision, but he is see, he is writing down what the Lord has shown him. Just start reading the beginning of Psalm 22. And I just want to set the stage of what's going on here.   [00:04:54] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me so far from my cries of anguish? Oh, my God. Okay.   [00:05:06] So Jesus is quoting Psalm 22? Actually, no. David is writing what Jesus says. And so David is actually quoting Jesus as opposed to Jesus quoting David. Does that make sense? Mm hmm. So here we have Jesus saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As you read through Song 22, you see all the things about the crucifixion. You see them. They take my clothes. They cast lot from my clothes. They split them among I am pierced my my ribs, stand out, all these things that happen in crucifixion. So we know very clearly this is the crucifixion. But down real quickly to verse 24 and tell me. But first, 24 says was 24.   [00:05:58] He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one. He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help.   [00:06:09] So this is talking about God. And it says that he has not hidden his face from him. Jesus says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?   [00:06:19] And down here, it says that God never forsook and he never hid his face.   [00:06:27] What in the world could be going on in this interesting. Fascinating. Thanks are not always as they seem, are they?   [00:06:36] No, definitely not.   [00:06:37] You got to dig a little bit deeper, especially when you want to really understand what's really going on and how to apply it in your life, how to live in a way that the Lord called us to live and what actually is going on. You've got to dig deeper to tap into a session we just recently did on when bad things happen. Is it God's will? Got some interesting observations there. So let me share it, because this is not the focus of the call. But I thought this was an interesting way to start it. Let me share kind of what's going on.   [00:07:10] Have you ever heard the top concept that thin blinds you from the truth? Scene creates a veil over our eyes. And this is the whole idea of the wedding ceremony. The bride wears a veil and the bridegroom takes the veil off. And now she can see clearly as a as a foreshadowing of the spiritual. Ceremony with Jesus. And where the bride takes the veil of sin that blocks our vision. So when Jesus is on the cross, he became sin. And as soon as he became sin, a veil came over his eyes and he could no longer see the father. My God, my God, why do you forsaken me? David is saying, I'm right here. God never first took you sin blocks. Okay. So a lot of times we all believe what we've been told. But sometimes we don't really know why we believe it. Other times we believe a certain way because we read God's word and it says this and someone else reads that word and they get something totally different out of it. And the question is kind of flood what's right. So I want to move into the topic now because it's a bigger topic. Here's a question.   [00:08:49] Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven? In other words, once you've accepted Christ, can you lose that salvation?   [00:09:00] Oh, gosh, that's one of those questions that just gets so there's so much controversy.   [00:09:09] Let's go. Let's go back. Let's go back to the root of the question. Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven?   [00:09:16] Yes.   [00:09:18] Why do you believe that?   [00:09:23] Because the Bible says.   [00:09:28] It says, if you believe in the Lord Jesus, he will be saved.   [00:09:34] Is that accepting or believing or are those the same?   [00:09:39] Well, maybe that's the translation I learned.   [00:09:43] So let me let me ask you. Are you absolutely positive? That everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven.   [00:09:56] I have to be honest, I'm not actually positive now that we're doing this call and I'll catch you on a number of things in the past, you're starting to think Beatty may know something. I don't. I'm not going to be quite so positive. Right. Right. Okay. Well, good job. Don't be positive. Okay. Okay.   [00:10:19] So the topic of this series that we're going to do, and it's going to be multi part because it's really threw out all scripture, especially New Testament. And that is the question does do all who accept Christ go to heaven?   [00:10:35] This call is going to be part number one. We're going to lay the foundation and then we're going to start to dissect it. And this isn't for just simply an intellectual pursuit of just saying, here's what scripture say. But really to try to understand. What is God calling us to do and why? And as I've gone through this myself, here's the net result. I've changed my perspective of what's most important. It's really amazing. Okay, just a quick disclaimer. I don't have all the answers. This is one of those topics that you mentioned. Everyone has all kinds of different opinions. Scripture is constantly, consistently true is the question of what are we and how we interpreting and why. So we don't want to share is is what I believe the Lord is directing me in understanding. So I want to talk about some of the controversial versus real quickly. So this kind of tees up why this is such a difficult topic. So let's go to Matthew ten, verse 22.   [00:11:39] Okay. All right.   [00:11:43] By the way, this is this is all these things we're going to go through for passages. And they're all Jesus talking. So go ahead, Matthew, 10 22.   [00:11:52] You will be hated by everyone because of all. But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved, stands firm to the end.   [00:12:02] Okay, that's interesting. Let's use also ESV translation on these. Let's now go to Matthew 24 and we're going to read verses 10 and 13, 10 and 13.   [00:12:21] 24, verse 10 and 13 percent says and then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And then verse 13 says, But the one who endures to the end will be saved.   [00:12:37] And they translates that first verse. And then many will fall away from the face. Okay, here we see. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Let's now go to mark 13.   [00:12:53] Martin, 13 versus 12 and 13. Let's see what that says.   [00:12:58] All right. Verse twelve. And brother will deliver brother over to death. And the father, his child and the children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.   [00:13:17] We see that again. The one who endures to the end. Makes you wonder, well, does that mean not all people who accept Christ? Go to heaven because why would Jesus keep talking about enduring to the end? Let's look at one more loop, 21, 17 through 19.   [00:13:42] All right, 17 to 19 says you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head will perish by your endurance. You will gain your lives.   [00:13:56] There we have it again. Here's the question. When Jesus teaches that you must endure to the end to be saved. Does that mean that some people don't endure to the end?   [00:14:09] Yes, I could see how some people probably give up or decide that I'm done with this. Okay, okay.   [00:14:17] But the fact that Jesus is teaching that you had to endure to the end indicates that there are obviously those who don't endure to the end. Does that make sense? Yes. By the way, here's something else interesting. This was so important, apparently, that God put it in. The scriptures four separate times just by Jesus. We're going to say that this concept is pervasive.   [00:14:43] But four separate times by Jesus.   [00:14:45] If people don't endure to the end, then does that mean that they don't go to heaven?   [00:14:53] I'd like to investigate that a little further.   [00:14:56] Okay, so let me ask this question. Does being Sayed.   [00:15:00] Does that. Men going to heaven. Do you think?   [00:15:05] According to what we just read. No.   [00:15:09] Okay, can you give me some scripture to back up? We're saved in heaven. Don't necessarily go together.   [00:15:18] Well, the ones we just read, Jesus was speaking in reference to being saved and said those who Indore to the end. So three times we read that right.   [00:15:30] So those who who endure to the end will be saved. Can we probably transliterate that? Those who endured to the end will make it to heaven. Probably is just kind of lame, the fact that Jesus is talking about being saved. Going to what we talk about going to heaven. Probably one in the same with that. Would you agree with that?   [00:15:52] Yes, I would.   [00:15:54] Okay. So if Jesus is saying. Or so is Jesus saying that whether or not they endure determines whether or not they are saved?   [00:16:11] That's a very deep thought. I think so. I think that would go hand in hand. Okay, one influences the other.   [00:16:24] Right. So what we're going to find out as we go through it, it's either a determining factor or an indicative factor. It's either the evidence had been saved or they determine that they are to be saved. So we're going to see what the scripture talks about a little bit more. So when Jesus came to Earth, here's another question. What was the main message that he preached? In other words, why did he come to Earth?   [00:16:50] He preached the kingdom of heaven is near. He preached to be safe so that you could go to heaven. That was his message, to believe him to get right there.   [00:17:02] So true. So he never really preaches forgiveness.   [00:17:07] Have you ever noticed that he didn't have to come to Earth for forgiveness because God gave people all through the Old Testament.   [00:17:16] He didn't come to Earth specifically for salvation. You said that on. He came to preach the kingdom of heaven. In fact, this is his common theme. If you can finish the sentence, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near or near here at hand. It's right here in our midst. Okay, so we had this thing called repentance and forgiveness, salvation going to have been saved. All these things are part of the kingdom of God. But what Jesus came to do was much more holistic than just being saved or forgiven. And I think that if we start to then understand what the kingdom of God really means. And understand more about that make more sense. Why? What Jesus talking about enduring to the end really means if we want to understand what Jesus means, the one who endures to the end. We have to go back to his core message that he's always teaching repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And if we understand the kingdom of God, then we can then figure out what he really means about enduring to the end. Does that hurt? So with that then the question is. When Jesus taught on the kingdom of God, because that's most of what he taught on what was his primary method of teaching about the kingdom of God.   [00:18:52] Do you recall the parable parables? Good job. Okay. So if we want to understand the kingdom of God, let's look at some of the parables, because that's what he teaches through which other parables is the most important in understanding.   [00:19:11] All of the parables. Do you recall which one?   [00:19:15] Oh, gosh. He had so many. The one that's popping out is the seed and the sower. But that might not be the one you're thinking of.   [00:19:28] Did many good jobs go to Mark for verse 13? This is a commentary of Jesus on the parable of the seed in the summer.   [00:19:41] Okay.   [00:19:42] Four, verse 13. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?   [00:19:53] So here's something here's something real interesting. The parable of the seat in the Sower, I believe I'm correct, is the only parable in all three of the synoptic gospels. That's the same. And it's the only one where Jesus gives a parable and gives the interpretation. In fact, I think it's the only one that he gives the interpretation on. And he says here that if you don't understand this parable, you cannot understand any of the parables because this parable unlocks all the other parable. So this is a pretty important message on understanding the kingdom of God. Makes sense. Yes. Okay, so now let's read into this. Let's go read the parable of the Sower, and we're going to do this in Matthew. Okay. Okay. So, Matthew, 13 versus three through eight.   [00:20:53] All right. And he told them many things in parables saying a sower went out to sow as he sowed some seeds, fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain. Some 100 fold. Some 60, some 30. He who has ears let them hear.   [00:21:37] Very good. So now we have the soil where the seed goes out. And now we're going to replay what Jesus says this means. That's going to be verses 18 through 23.   [00:21:53] Here, then, the parable of the sower, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been found in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was shown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately received it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. And when tribulation or persecutions persecution arises on account of the word immediately, he falls away. As for what was sown amongst thorns, this is the one who hears the word. But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word. And it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands that he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another 60 in another 30.   [00:22:51] All right, great. So now we're going back to the Requestion. Does everyone who accept Christ go to heaven? We say that Jesus says only the one who endures to the end will be saved.   [00:23:05] We now go into this parable. He starts to describe it. So now let's get an understanding of this parable as we go in. So there are several parts about this parable that we need to break down first just to really kind of understand a little bit more. The first one is the seed. Okay, this is the seed and the seed is a key part. Here's the question. What is the seed?   [00:23:33] The word.   [00:23:34] Okay, so, Jesus, the seed is the word, the word of the kingdom. And what is the word Jesus?   [00:23:45] Yeah. Okay, John, one one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.   [00:23:52] So the seed is Jesus. Right. Okay. Very interesting. So then we have the next. Let's look at the four soils. Okay. What did the soils represent?   [00:24:07] The beginning part where he described it, yes.   [00:24:12] When he's throwing when you're trying to sort out what do the soils represent, there are four types of soil. So what what did they representative of?   [00:24:21] A person's heart, a person's heart. Okay, so four types of heart, four types of people, right. What separates one heart from another? What separates one group of people versus the other group of people?   [00:24:39] The state or the beating of their heart? The state of their heart.   [00:24:45] But less and less narrowed a little bit more. Okay. Okay. I'd like to suggest the stewardship of the seed, which is it represents, to say, the heart, but the state of heart is exemplified and evidenced by how its stewards see. Does that make sense? Okay, so what differentiates one soil from another, one type of person from another is stewardship of the seed. And then if the seed is Jesus and the soil represents the different types of people. What does that mean, that all people receive Jesus?   [00:25:27] No.   [00:25:33] Goes out, the soda goes out and sows the seed. Jesus. Yes. And does the same get sewn on all four soils?   [00:25:47] Yes.   [00:25:49] All four soils receive the seed sown.   [00:25:55] Correct.   [00:25:56] Okay.   [00:25:58] So let me ask the question again. If they did this soil, it's not a trick question. It's a question that.   [00:26:06] We usually don't consider because it doesn't make sense based on what we've been taught. But we have to do is we have to dig deeper than what we've been taught and see what the word says. Because what we've been taught may not be. What the world says, it may be something slightly different. So here's the question at the seat is Jesus and the soul represents people then does that mean that all people receive Jesus? Yes, it does. In fact, Romans, what does it Romans one tells us that everyone has the heart of the law of the Lord written on their hearts already. They see God's law in the skies and in everything. So everyone has received the truth. Jesus says the high priest prayer when he's praying to the Lord of the tables. He says, Die word is truth. God's word is truth. Jesus is the word. Jesus is the seed. And we see truth everywhere in nature that that proclaims God. So everyone has received that seed. But that doesn't mean they've done anything with it. That's the key. So now we've got the seed. We've got the soils. Now we have. Fruit, fruit is really the key message that Jesus is teaching about. And he basically basically says that here's my way of just kind of transliterating a little bit. Only those who produce fruit or are going to be.   [00:27:46] Right, that's basically what we can start to see in his message, and I want to unpack that with fruit.   [00:27:55] Fruit is the key to this parable. Fruit is only found in one soil. Soil is that good soil, the good soil. Okay, great.   [00:28:05] And I want it just for sake of purpose. I'm going to label these soils as soil one, two, three and four soil. One is the path to the rocky soil soil. Three is the thorns and soil for the good soil. And then that way we can just kind of keep keep it simple.   [00:28:23] Okay, so what we had to do is understand what is fruit. So if I were to ask you, what is fruit? This is the kid. This is the key to understanding everything is this fruit? What is it?   [00:28:40] Fruit is what is produced from the seed.   [00:28:47] Very good.   [00:28:49] But what is it that's the prize? What can we call it the result? The seed managed and held and cared for properly.   [00:29:08] All right. All right. We're gonna get there. Let me back up and just kind of bring us into this, because I think this is kind of fun. So seed one of the times another sessions. I was talking about the Bible has been written by one author. Would you agree with that? Yes. Okay. Now, that author inspired many men to actually pen that one author's thoughts, but it's all one author, which is God himself. Exactly. So anytime you have a book, you have characters in the book and those characters keep coming up and they always are the characters that they were.   [00:29:54] In other words, if I'm reading a book and let's say, say, a Tom Clancy novel, I used to read those years back and he introduces a guy named Gosh, I forget the guy, but he introduces a couple of guys up front in the novel.   [00:30:13] Then throughout the novel, every time he calls that person up by name. John did this or John did that.   [00:30:19] It's always that person that he introduced and described at the beginning. Does that make sense? Yes. So the character goes throughout. So we see that same thing in the scriptures.   [00:30:31] We see it with fig trees, olive trees. We see it with light, darkness. We see it with soils. We see it with seed. We see all kinds of thing. So the question is, what does seed represent? What is the character of seed? I like to show you something because this is really cool.   [00:30:46] Where does God first introduce his character seed?   [00:30:54] In the Garden of Eden, if I'm not mistaken, a little bit before.   [00:31:00] Oh, you'll have to tell me.   [00:31:05] Let's go to Genesis 111.   [00:31:10] During creation, now, Save was obviously present in the Garden of Eden, but he introduces what it is.   [00:31:19] During creation, Genesis one 11 with 11 and God said, let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit and which is their seed, each according to its own kind on the earth.   [00:31:36] And it was so seed reproduces after its own time. We used today's technology words that carries all the DNA to reproduce an exact replica of whatever it is, whatever it came from. Does that make sense? Yeah. And then where is seed formed?   [00:32:03] Well. See, far and within the fruit.   [00:32:08] The fruit is the womb of the seed. Interesting, isn't it?   [00:32:15] I mean, we know that it is insane to think of it that way.   [00:32:18] Okay, so this makes sense. A seed is planted. It has to die. Once it dies. It's burst again. Into a new plant after its own kind, as that plant matures, it produces fruit. And inside, the fruit seed is created so that the plant through the fruit can reproduce itself again. Does that. Soun.   [00:33:00] Similar to something else that we would think about in Christian terms. And that's just what Jesus did. He came as a seed of God. Right. The exact replica. He dies and he's planted into the ground, right into the temple. And then when he dies, he becomes born again into a exact replica. And he produces through. Okay. So we see this this pattern of the seed. And the fruit is the womb that causes that seed to produce fruit is in the process of where seed has been reproduced. Making sense? Yes. Okay, so then why does the characteristic of the seed. What is the characteristic of the fruit? It's kind of an aside, but it kind of ties into this. If I were to say, what is the fruit of? Can you finish that sentence?   [00:34:13] What's it called fruit of? Prudent spirit.   [00:34:19] So let's look at that real quick. This is Galatians five. 22, 23. But I want you to do it in The Passion translation on this one, because I think this song articulates what it's really saying.   [00:34:33] And you said the Galicians five, five, 22 and 23.   [00:34:50] All right, here we go. 22 and 23 says the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is Divine Love in all its varied expressions.   [00:35:04] Such a perfect moment.   [00:35:07] A lot of times people say the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace.   [00:35:12] But I think what the term love is, the fruit of the spirit is singular, not plural. There's not multiple fruits. There's one. That's why I love this translation that the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you. Is Divine Love in all its varied expressions. So now we're talking about love. Where else do you recall what the Bible says about love? We're talking about. This is Paul talking about different things and he said about love.   [00:35:43] First Corinthians 13, I think. Yeah. The love. We call it the love chapter in our house.   [00:35:49] Okay, good. All right. And it says that above all.   [00:35:54] First, love is, love is, and in fact, there's here's something else, it says Faith, hope and love abide. But the greatest of these is love. What are you saying? There is that of everything he's been talking about, faith, hope and love. By that means that they are eternal.   [00:36:17] They never go away. Gifts go away. But faith, hope and love abide. But of all of those, the greatest of them is love. This is what Jimmy. This is who God is, representative. Mostly by the character. Bye bye, love. That's what this is talking about. The fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is Divine Love in all its varied expressions. Okay, so now I'll let you finish the passage from there. It's now going to define and describe what that Divine Love, how that Divine Love manifests itself.   [00:36:55] Okay, joy that overflows peace, that some patience that endures kindness and action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart and strength of spirit never set the law above these qualities. They are meant to be limitless.   [00:37:18] All right. So now let's go back. See this Jesus? That's what Jesus says is the word of God, right in the. Fruit is where the seed is formed. And that means really that seed, the fruit, is Jesus being formed in you and producing through you. Does that make sense? Yes. OK. So that's really what I believe the fruit is talking about, is that Jesus has been formed in you. So here's a question. If Jesus is formed in you, would you act like Jesus? We should be informed and you are going to carry the characteristics and the more he's formed and living through, you carry those characteristics. What are some of the things that Jesus did that maybe if he was formed in you, you would likely do to.   [00:38:14] Oh, gosh. I mean, just naming things he did heal the sick, raise the dead. He helped all those that were oppressed. He lost. I mean, he loved first. And everything else was just an overflow of the love.   [00:38:33] He went preaching the message, the kingdom of God. Okay. Yeah. All this.   [00:38:38] All these things. Peace, patience, kindness.   [00:38:43] So that is evidence of the fruit. The fruit is Jesus being formed. But evidence of the fruit being formed into you is a manifestation of all these things that Jesus did. Bring a little bit more clarity, right? OK. So here's the big question. If Jesus has never formed Inju, are you born again and go to heaven?   [00:39:12] Tom.   [00:39:15] According to all this. No.   [00:39:21] It's not us that are righteous. It's Jesus, in a sense, righteous, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay.   [00:39:29] Romans side, I think, says that the righteous fulfillment of the law, the righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled. And you.   [00:39:36] And then we can connect the dots because Christ is in you.   [00:39:41] Who would it be safe to say that only those in soil number four. Hey, bear fruit. Which has been formed in them are the ones who are truly born again, are saved and go to heaven. Does that make sense, do you say? Yes. So now let's look at the four soils. Real quick. No one is the past. This is verse four, so read that again. Let's talk about that.   [00:40:16] And that was go back to that book when we were in Matthew 20.   [00:40:26] Excuse me, Matthew, 13, 13.   [00:40:33] I'm going to switch translations. I'll go back to that.   [00:40:35] I actually actually I got. I think this is versus it's not verse four that I want you to read is going to be verse probably 18 or 19.   [00:40:45] Let me go back. Yes.   [00:40:47] Okay. 18 and 19. Okay. So 19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom does not understand it. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.   [00:41:02] I know that.   [00:41:03] So that's the one that's sown along the path.   [00:41:06] Okay, let's see.   [00:41:13] So that person has heard the word of the kingdom. And they do not understand it.   [00:41:18] Right. So how did they steward the seed? Or did they stay where the stayed at all?   [00:41:26] They didn't. They didn't do it because it just says that they did not understand it. And then the evil one came and snatched it away. So that leads me to believe they didn't pursue understanding what had been spoken to them.   [00:41:40] Got you. So no wonder the path does not seem see deceit at all. It's rejected. Correct. Since it doesn't stay where the seed. Does the soil accept the seed? So there are two things you've got to accept it and you, Stuart. So did the soil ever accept the seed?   [00:42:07] No.   [00:42:08] No. Since the seed represents Christ, does that mean that this person did not accept Christ? That's correct. And is this person born again? No. No. And how do we know that?   [00:42:26] Because it says.   [00:42:29] The evil one snatched it away. What was sewn in their heart? So Jesus was taken out from their heart. They can't be born again.   [00:42:38] That's right. Okay, perfect. So now we have soul. No one does not accept the seed, does not therefore steward the seed. The say never forms itself in them through fruit. They are not born again. They don't go to heaven. Okay, so now let's look at soil number two, the rocky ground. This is going to be versus 20 through 21.   [00:43:02] As for what was sown on Iraqi ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately received it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself but indoors for a while. And when tribulation or persecution persecution arises on account of the word, he immediately falls away.   [00:43:24] So does the soil accept the seed?   [00:43:32] A little bit, right? It tries to, but actually I think it's a little bit a little bit deeper. Let's go back to it and look and says yet he has no root in himself. Do you see that? If there is no.   [00:43:50] Yes, go ahead.   [00:43:51] If there's if there's no route, then did the soil ever accept it?   [00:43:58] Go in the soil, right?   [00:44:00] Yes. One head down.   [00:44:04] Have you ever seen trees or plants grow on the side of a cliff where it's just wrong? Yes. Yes. Is there any. There's no soil, but they can still grow by putting roots down a little bit around the rocks. Does that make sense? So the soil does accept the seed. And we know that because there's no root and with no root, there's no acceptance. How does the soil steward the seed?   [00:44:36] Well, it says as soon as he heard it, he received it with joy. Right. But because there's no route. There's nothing to anchor it when the hard things come, he falls away. He gives up.   [00:44:52] Notice it says that he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. What are those passages that Jesus says?   [00:45:00] What does it say about endurance to endure until the end?   [00:45:05] So this guy only endures for a while, but not to the end.   [00:45:09] Okay. So the soil doesn't accept the seed. The soil stewards, the seed only poorly. It's enough that it grew up, got excited. But it did not endure to the end. Here's the question. Is this person born again?   [00:45:30] Now, how do we know that?   [00:45:35] Well, because they had no route. And because they chose to give up almost OK.   [00:45:42] So those are part of it. But the ultimate technical answers because there's no fruit.   [00:45:50] Because fruit is where Christ is formed in you. And there's no fruit. Therefore, there is no Christ formed in you. And only of Christ is formed. And you are truly born again. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So no one. Not a Christian. So, number two, they receive it with joy. A lot of people you share the gospel. They immediately pray the center's prayer type of thing. And you may see some life change. They're all excited, but they don't endure.   [00:46:21] That wasn't a what we would call in our Christian, these terms a true salvation. Christ was never formed in them. Now let's look at soil number three. This is the one with the thorns. And this is going to be verse 22.   [00:46:35] As for what was done along with thorns, this is the one who hears the word. But the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choke the word. And it proved unfruitful.   [00:46:49] Turn also real quick, I want to show you one other passage on this that it gives a little bit more information. Luke Eighty-seven. It's the same Jesus describing this, but he gives Luke eight, seven, gives one more piece of information. Let's see if you can find that piece of information.   [00:47:06] And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. So this one. Thorns are growing up with the.   [00:47:17] Which means the seed is growing. Right. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Okay. So now let's ask our questions, our diagnostic questions on this. Does the soil accept the seed?   [00:47:30] Yes. Yes.   [00:47:32] Okay. Now, remember, the soil represents people, represents your heart. The seed represents Jesus. So this soil accepts Jesus.   [00:47:44] Yes.   [00:47:45] Follow me. Okay. Okay, so the soil accepts Jesus because the soil accepts the seed.   [00:47:56] How does the soil steward the seed? How well is that seed stewarded? Well, it does it does the soil steward the seat at all. Let's start with their.   [00:48:15] No.   [00:48:17] Maybe a little bit in the beginning, because it says when the cares of the world and deceitfulness come and you choke it.   [00:48:26] Okay, okay. Go back to Luke eight, seven.   [00:48:32] And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it. Grew up with a plant that the seed produced but choked it. So this means that. They grew up means that it actually grew into a plant, which means that the soil did steward the seed enough to produce a plant. Okay, so here soil number three, except the seed. If we put this in human terms, someone accepts Jesus. It's two words.   [00:49:03] The seed enough that it forms a plant. And that plan looks exactly like the replica of what the seed was reproducing, because it is. But is this person born again?   [00:49:22] No, because they do not endure to the end almost.   [00:49:27] Not that they don't endure it to the end. There's the key element. What's the defining moment of whether someone's born again?   [00:49:37] They don't produce fruit.   [00:49:38] It's Christ in you. Right. And the only way to have Christ in you that you have fruit. Where the seed is produced.   [00:49:51] You say that it was unfruitful.   [00:49:53] That's right. There was no fruit. And now here's a person who accepts Christ. Who manifest Christian type of behavior? Because the fruit grows up. But produces no fruit, which is evidence that Christ was never formed in them.   [00:50:17] They did not endure to the end. You had to endure longer for the verb to be formed, that may be one way to describe it. I don't think that's really an accurate statement. But there's something else here. Why was fruit never produced?   [00:50:32] Because of the sarin.   [00:50:35] What are the odds? Come check it out. What do Soren's come from?   [00:50:42] We the ground.   [00:50:48] All blind reproduces after its own time.   [00:50:51] What is blind going? I'll see. There you go. Okay.   [00:50:58] There you go. So here here we have a number three person receives and accepts the seed of the word. But they're also accepting all kinds of other seed and they stoo or the other seed more diligently than they steward the Christ seed.   [00:51:19] And by stewarding other seeds, Jesus calls them the cares of the world. There's this staple ness of riches by stewarding those seeds more. This all number three person allows that stewardship to choke out the Christ. That's pretty interesting. Yeah, that's really good. So is it possible to accept Christ? Had the appearance of growing as a Christian. And yet not actually being born again, having Christ formed into you and ultimately going to heaven. Yes, it is. And this is startling and this interesting.   [00:52:05] Oh, it's going to get a whole lot better. This is setting the stage.   [00:52:12] Now, let's go to soil number four. This is the good soil. This is verse 23.   [00:52:19] As for what was done on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands that he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another 60 in another 30.   [00:52:36] All right, great. So does the soil accept the seed? How is the seed stewarded? Very well, very well. Is this person first off, what happens with the sea?   [00:52:55] Cared for. It's your word. It's helped nurture so that it can grow.   [00:53:02] All right. Is this person born again? Yes. And how do we know? Because they bear fruit. Okay. In terms of fruit. Some hundred, some 60, some 30. Notice also. It's not the soil that bears fruit. What bears fruit? The seed is the seed that bears the fruit, not the soil. The soil is merely the womb in which the fruit is produced that produces more seed. The seed producing the fruit. In other words, it's not us, it's the Lord.   [00:53:52] Now, we've already been to always been taught. It's Christ living through us. There's nothing we can do of our own. The fruit of the spirit is not what we do. It's Christ in us. This is what's going on. It's the sea that reproduces the fruit.   [00:54:06] It's not the soil. We're just the container.   [00:54:12] So now as we start to wrap up, I wanted to talk on two things. The first one is Convert's versus Disciple's, because I think this is what is this is kind of where where a lot of this starts to focus in on. I want to set the definition first off, let me ask you if I were to ask you to define the difference between a convert and a disciple, what would you tell me?   [00:54:40] A disciple to me is one who has a desire and longing for teaching.   [00:54:46] And then.   [00:54:48] Finding someone else and seeing that same quality in someone else.   [00:54:53] Kind of like a leader, a good leader is going to look for someone who also wants to be a leader. And they're going to raise up that leader.   [00:55:01] Right. Let me.   [00:55:08] Give a simple definition that that I like to include a convert is going to be someone who accepts Christ right.   [00:55:21] But a disciple is going to be someone who follows Christ. And I think there's a difference.   [00:55:29] Does that make sense? Absolutely. I was watching this great documentary on the underground Iranian church and they had people from the church talking and everything and sharing, and it was really cool. But one of the guys made a really interesting comment, Converts versus Disciple's. Here's what he says. Disciples for the world and cling to Jesus till he comes.   [00:55:57] Converts don't. Disciples are not engage in a culture war. Converts are disciples. Cherish, obey and share the word of God. Converts don't. Disciples choose Jesus over anything and everything else. Converts don't. Converts run when the fire comes, disciples don't mean that cool. So can you see a difference between merely accepting Christ, which is a convert, versus following Christ? Can you see that difference in the four soils?   [00:56:35] Sure. Absolutely. Okay.   [00:56:38] So the obvious question, but which of those soils are the disciples?   [00:56:45] The last one.   [00:56:46] Number four, which went to their convert's.   [00:56:57] I would say probably number two. It could be three or four years.   [00:57:06] So technically, I guess you could say was two, three and four. The converse, because they all accept Christ to a degree. They all received the word with joy, but only soil for is the disciple who actually pursues Christ. So back to my original question. Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven? No. Okay, so you change your answer now, right?   [00:57:35] Okay. So wrapping up. Let me share what this parable I think teaches us. No one's really kind of cool.   [00:57:43] I think there shows that to a degree. Now, these aren't exactly accurate. But we can kind of pull some some things out of this parable shows that there are actually two stages of obtaining eternal life, two stages of the kingdom of heaven within us.   [00:58:02] First is the seed is sown and the soul has to accept it. But second, after accepting the soul has to steward, it produces Morsey. And without that stewarding and without the production of fruit.   [00:58:21] Which is the seed being reformed in you then? Then your you haven't gone that second stage of stewarding it. Let me show you this also turned to Matthew three eight two three eight. This is John the Baptist. He's talking the Pharisees. And if you remember, John the Baptist comes baptizing with water for forgiveness, basically repentance leading toward forgiveness. A little bit different type baptism than baptism as a new believer. But reading Matthew three eight.   [00:58:59] Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.   [00:59:03] So now we have fruit again. Do you think this fruit might be similar to the fruit that Jesus is talking about?   [00:59:09] Yes.   [00:59:11] And then you have bear fruit in keeping with what?   [00:59:14] Repentance.   [00:59:16] And what was the key message that Jesus came preaching or intent for the Kingdom of God is near.   [00:59:23] So we see all these all these same characters keep coming back up and cycling around.   [00:59:27] Does that make sense? Yeah. So if we have repented. We will bear fruit if we have not repented. We won't bear fruit. Repentance is a key to bearing fruit. I would say repentance is a key to stewarding the sea.   [00:59:47] Right. So when I started this study, I was kind of amazing what I found. And as I started to pursue it further, what's really cool is I start to see this pattern throughout all of scripture, but specifically in the New Testament where this is highlighted. So what we're going to do not on today's call is because we're at the end of the time. But as we go through, I want to start to dissect and open up a lot of these not only the parables, but the epistles and some more things that Jesus says and just kind of show this whole picture of what's going on. And here's to value. So the question is, well, what's so important about this?   [01:00:28] Well, obviously, it's important if God puts it in there, but how does it change what we do not want to share? Kind of how it changed for me. But first, let me ask you, do you remember there is a section in the Bible that is called the Great Commission. You remember the great commission. Do you remember the first you know where it is?   [01:00:48] I feel like it's. Go go to Matthew. 28 a day.   [01:00:58] Well, it is the very end, Matthew, in Revelations is the end of God's word. So you could have the end, right.   [01:01:06] The great commission, verse sixteen through twenty.   [01:01:11] Looks like somewhere in there. Let's begin with all the authority has been.   [01:01:20] Jesus came and said to the disciples, all authority and heaven on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I had commanded you. And they hold. I am with you always to the very end of the age.   [01:01:41] Great. So where did go out and share the gospel. Is that right? Go out and evangelize. Yeah. Okay. Now that's different than sharing the gospel.   [01:01:56] Make disciples go therefore make disciple.   [01:01:59] Yeah. Okay. So you're going to heaven. Is not the reason Jesus came. But it's a part of the kingdom of God. Sharing the gospel is not the great commission, but it's part. Of making disciples. You got to share the gospel to make a disciple. Yeah, that's true. So this is the focus. This is the thing that really hit me as I've come through here. Our focus isn't let's go evangelize. That's important. It's not the focus of what the Lord is called us to do is to make disciples. And the reason it's so important is only the disciples are the ones for Christ has formed in them. It's not enough just to go share the gospel. It's not enough just to quote unquote live as a Christian. We've got to help those people that we are around to steward the seed well, and we have to be careful that we steward the seed well as well. And if we're stewarding our say, well, it will produce fruit and fruit will manifest itself by the fruit dropping off a tree, say, going back in the ground and reproducing. So we're going to see more of this. But anyway, we'll stop there. But before we wrap up the call, any thoughts or observations that are hitting you?   [01:03:26] Gosh, as always, just eye opening to see scriptures revealed in a way that you don't necessarily ponder and consider on a regular basis.   [01:03:39] I thought it was great. I love the just the analogies between the seed and Jesus and the fruit. And it was really good. It was really good. I enjoyed it. Great. All right. Thank you so much for today. Thank you so much for your expertise. The time again that you put into studying and preparing this message for the listeners. Anything else that you want to share with our listeners before we say goodbye?   [01:04:09] Just make sure you listen to. If you're not listening to our podcast, but you're just kind of get this on the Web site. Go to depending on which podcast you're on. Get cellar's calling you what we do for real estate or we have get radical faith, which is just the radical faith podcast by himself. Go back. There's a lot of great content there. And the other thing I would really encourage is there's a lot of stuff here. Don't listen to one time and say, I got it. Go back and really absorb it. Take some time. Pull out your Bible, read and see what you can see the words in print as you go through this and you'll get a lot more out of it.   [01:04:49] Yes. Such great wisdom. Such great wisdom. Well, thank you. And we thank you to all of you who are listening. And we hope you all have a blessed day. And we'll see you next time.   [01:04:59] Thanks, Beatty. Thank you. Be blessed. Thanks.   P022

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text][/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container][fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text] Listen via YouTube video if desired [/fusion_text][fusion_youtube id="https://youtu.be/WvYP0U-3LeU " alignment="center" width="" height="" autoplay="false" api_params="&rel=0" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" /][fusion_text] Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:04] All right. Well, hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us. My name is Penny and we're so glad that you're here with us today for this next session of Get Sellers Calling You. Beatty Carmichael is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm really excited about our call today. What do you have for us? [00:00:27] Well, I'm excited, too. And for those listening, this a quick disclaimer and heads up, we do two types of calls. One focused on growing a real estate business. By the way, we'll be doing more on that in the commercial sector as well. So you have commercial business. We got some really cool things on that. But the other type of topic we cover is on a spiritual nature. We call it radical faith. And it's where we talk about Jesus talking about Jesus offense. You you don't want to listen. Then you are forewarned and you can turn off this episode and come back to the next one. So that's what we're going to be talking about. [00:01:10] Awesome. I'm so excited. [00:01:12] Yes. Well, I'm kind of excited about this on this call, too, because this is, again, one of those studies I've done that I thought I'm going down this path and I know the answer. And then I start to search scriptures and I go, Huh? That's not the answer I was really expecting. [00:01:31] So kind of as a way of an intro, things are not always as they may seem. Okay, well, let me ask you a question. Jesus is up on the cross. [00:01:44] You remember that. You remember Jesus Christ. Just making sure that Jesus is up on the cross. And the question is, did God forsake him while he was there? [00:01:57] What do you think? No. No. [00:02:04] Yes. Yes. Well, yes, because I know that God turned his back on the thing. He wasn't turning his back on Jesus. [00:02:14] He was turning his back on the sin that was upon Jesus. And Jesus cried out, Why have you forsaken me? [00:02:23] So I could be both of you. You may be right, because a lot of times there's multiple dimensions and God's kingdom. [00:02:37] So it's not always linear and black and white. But for the sake of discussion, just kind of go down this path. [00:02:45] If you had to choose one or the other. Most likely. Did God forsake Jesus while he was on the cross or did God not forsake him? He did not. [00:02:59] Okay, give me your reasoning behind it. Do you have any scripture to back that up? [00:03:06] I can't think of any off the top of my head. I'm basing it on just what I know to be the nature and character of God. [00:03:14] Okay, great. Good God. Good woman. All right. So now Jesus does say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So does that mean that Jesus was wrong? [00:03:30] No. [00:03:32] Jesus was right. [00:03:34] If that's what he was feeling in the moment. We know that Jesus was perfect. So even though sometimes our feelings can lie to us. [00:03:46] That's a good question. That's a good question. [00:03:50] It is because a lot of people say, well, God, obviously for Jesus on the cross because Jesus said he did. You actually have a more accurate answer in reasoning behind it than you may realize. So this is where things are not always as they seem. You have to really look deeper underneath the surface and try to understand what's going on. So let me get you real quickly to turn to Psalm 22. [00:04:22] Let me give you a little background on Psalm 22. This is David in the Spirit, writing about the crucifixion. This is David watching. I'm assuming he's seen it take place or it's a vision, but he is see, he is writing down what the Lord has shown him. Just start reading the beginning of Psalm 22. And I just want to set the stage of what's going on here. [00:04:54] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me so far from my cries of anguish? Oh, my God. Okay. [00:05:06] So Jesus is quoting Psalm 22? Actually, no. David is writing what Jesus says. And so David is actually quoting Jesus as opposed to Jesus quoting David. Does that make sense? Mm hmm. So here we have Jesus saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As you read through Song 22, you see all the things about the crucifixion. You see them. They take my clothes. They cast lot from my clothes. They split them among I am pierced my my ribs, stand out, all these things that happen in crucifixion. So we know very clearly this is the crucifixion. But down real quickly to verse 24 and tell me. But first, 24 says was 24. [00:05:58] He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one. He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help. [00:06:09] So this is talking about God. And it says that he has not hidden his face from him. Jesus says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [00:06:19] And down here, it says that God never forsook and he never hid his face. [00:06:27] What in the world could be going on in this interesting. Fascinating. Thanks are not always as they seem, are they? [00:06:36] No, definitely not. [00:06:37] You got to dig a little bit deeper, especially when you want to really understand what's really going on and how to apply it in your life, how to live in a way that the Lord called us to live and what actually is going on. You've got to dig deeper to tap into a session we just recently did on when bad things happen. Is it God's will? Got some interesting observations there. So let me share it, because this is not the focus of the call. But I thought this was an interesting way to start it. Let me share kind of what's going on. [00:07:10] Have you ever heard the top concept that thin blinds you from the truth? Scene creates a veil over our eyes. And this is the whole idea of the wedding ceremony. The bride wears a veil and the bridegroom takes the veil off. And now she can see clearly as a as a foreshadowing of the spiritual. Ceremony with Jesus. And where the bride takes the veil of sin that blocks our vision. So when Jesus is on the cross, he became sin. And as soon as he became sin, a veil came over his eyes and he could no longer see the father. My God, my God, why do you forsaken me? David is saying, I'm right here. God never first took you sin blocks. Okay. So a lot of times we all believe what we've been told. But sometimes we don't really know why we believe it. Other times we believe a certain way because we read God's word and it says this and someone else reads that word and they get something totally different out of it. And the question is kind of flood what's right. So I want to move into the topic now because it's a bigger topic. Here's a question. [00:08:49] Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven? In other words, once you've accepted Christ, can you lose that salvation? [00:09:00] Oh, gosh, that's one of those questions that just gets so there's so much controversy. [00:09:09] Let's go. Let's go back. Let's go back to the root of the question. Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven? [00:09:16] Yes. [00:09:18] Why do you believe that? [00:09:23] Because the Bible says. [00:09:28] It says, if you believe in the Lord Jesus, he will be saved. [00:09:34] Is that accepting or believing or are those the same? [00:09:39] Well, maybe that's the translation I learned. [00:09:43] So let me let me ask you. Are you absolutely positive? That everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven. [00:09:56] I have to be honest, I'm not actually positive now that we're doing this call and I'll catch you on a number of things in the past, you're starting to think Beatty may know something. I don't. I'm not going to be quite so positive. Right. Right. Okay. Well, good job. Don't be positive. Okay. Okay. [00:10:19] So the topic of this series that we're going to do, and it's going to be multi part because it's really threw out all scripture, especially New Testament. And that is the question does do all who accept Christ go to heaven? [00:10:35] This call is going to be part number one. We're going to lay the foundation and then we're going to start to dissect it. And this isn't for just simply an intellectual pursuit of just saying, here's what scripture say. But really to try to understand. What is God calling us to do and why? And as I've gone through this myself, here's the net result. I've changed my perspective of what's most important. It's really amazing. Okay, just a quick disclaimer. I don't have all the answers. This is one of those topics that you mentioned. Everyone has all kinds of different opinions. Scripture is constantly, consistently true is the question of what are we and how we interpreting and why. So we don't want to share is is what I believe the Lord is directing me in understanding. So I want to talk about some of the controversial versus real quickly. So this kind of tees up why this is such a difficult topic. So let's go to Matthew ten, verse 22. [00:11:39] Okay. All right. [00:11:43] By the way, this is this is all these things we're going to go through for passages. And they're all Jesus talking. So go ahead, Matthew, 10 22. [00:11:52] You will be hated by everyone because of all. But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved, stands firm to the end. [00:12:02] Okay, that's interesting. Let's use also ESV translation on these. Let's now go to Matthew 24 and we're going to read verses 10 and 13, 10 and 13. [00:12:21] 24, verse 10 and 13 percent says and then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And then verse 13 says, But the one who endures to the end will be saved. [00:12:37] And they translates that first verse. And then many will fall away from the face. Okay, here we see. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Let's now go to mark 13. [00:12:53] Martin, 13 versus 12 and 13. Let's see what that says. [00:12:58] All right. Verse twelve. And brother will deliver brother over to death. And the father, his child and the children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. [00:13:17] We see that again. The one who endures to the end. Makes you wonder, well, does that mean not all people who accept Christ? Go to heaven because why would Jesus keep talking about enduring to the end? Let's look at one more loop, 21, 17 through 19. [00:13:42] All right, 17 to 19 says you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head will perish by your endurance. You will gain your lives. [00:13:56] There we have it again. Here's the question. When Jesus teaches that you must endure to the end to be saved. Does that mean that some people don't endure to the end? [00:14:09] Yes, I could see how some people probably give up or decide that I'm done with this. Okay, okay. [00:14:17] But the fact that Jesus is teaching that you had to endure to the end indicates that there are obviously those who don't endure to the end. Does that make sense? Yes. By the way, here's something else interesting. This was so important, apparently, that God put it in. The scriptures four separate times just by Jesus. We're going to say that this concept is pervasive. [00:14:43] But four separate times by Jesus. [00:14:45] If people don't endure to the end, then does that mean that they don't go to heaven? [00:14:53] I'd like to investigate that a little further. [00:14:56] Okay, so let me ask this question. Does being Sayed. [00:15:00] Does that. Men going to heaven. Do you think? [00:15:05] According to what we just read. No. [00:15:09] Okay, can you give me some scripture to back up? We're saved in heaven. Don't necessarily go together. [00:15:18] Well, the ones we just read, Jesus was speaking in reference to being saved and said those who Indore to the end. So three times we read that right. [00:15:30] So those who who endure to the end will be saved. Can we probably transliterate that? Those who endured to the end will make it to heaven. Probably is just kind of lame, the fact that Jesus is talking about being saved. Going to what we talk about going to heaven. Probably one in the same with that. Would you agree with that? [00:15:52] Yes, I would. [00:15:54] Okay. So if Jesus is saying. Or so is Jesus saying that whether or not they endure determines whether or not they are saved? [00:16:11] That's a very deep thought. I think so. I think that would go hand in hand. Okay, one influences the other. [00:16:24] Right. So what we're going to find out as we go through it, it's either a determining factor or an indicative factor. It's either the evidence had been saved or they determine that they are to be saved. So we're going to see what the scripture talks about a little bit more. So when Jesus came to Earth, here's another question. What was the main message that he preached? In other words, why did he come to Earth? [00:16:50] He preached the kingdom of heaven is near. He preached to be safe so that you could go to heaven. That was his message, to believe him to get right there. [00:17:02] So true. So he never really preaches forgiveness. [00:17:07] Have you ever noticed that he didn't have to come to Earth for forgiveness because God gave people all through the Old Testament. [00:17:16] He didn't come to Earth specifically for salvation. You said that on. He came to preach the kingdom of heaven. In fact, this is his common theme. If you can finish the sentence, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near or near here at hand. It's right here in our midst. Okay, so we had this thing called repentance and forgiveness, salvation going to have been saved. All these things are part of the kingdom of God. But what Jesus came to do was much more holistic than just being saved or forgiven. And I think that if we start to then understand what the kingdom of God really means. And understand more about that make more sense. Why? What Jesus talking about enduring to the end really means if we want to understand what Jesus means, the one who endures to the end. We have to go back to his core message that he's always teaching repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And if we understand the kingdom of God, then we can then figure out what he really means about enduring to the end. Does that hurt? So with that then the question is. When Jesus taught on the kingdom of God, because that's most of what he taught on what was his primary method of teaching about the kingdom of God. [00:18:52] Do you recall the parable parables? Good job. Okay. So if we want to understand the kingdom of God, let's look at some of the parables, because that's what he teaches through which other parables is the most important in understanding. [00:19:11] All of the parables. Do you recall which one? [00:19:15] Oh, gosh. He had so many. The one that's popping out is the seed and the sower. But that might not be the one you're thinking of. [00:19:28] Did many good jobs go to Mark for verse 13? This is a commentary of Jesus on the parable of the seed in the summer. [00:19:41] Okay. [00:19:42] Four, verse 13. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? [00:19:53] So here's something here's something real interesting. The parable of the seat in the Sower, I believe I'm correct, is the only parable in all three of the synoptic gospels. That's the same. And it's the only one where Jesus gives a parable and gives the interpretation. In fact, I think it's the only one that he gives the interpretation on. And he says here that if you don't understand this parable, you cannot understand any of the parables because this parable unlocks all the other parable. So this is a pretty important message on understanding the kingdom of God. Makes sense. Yes. Okay, so now let's read into this. Let's go read the parable of the Sower, and we're going to do this in Matthew. Okay. Okay. So, Matthew, 13 versus three through eight. [00:20:53] All right. And he told them many things in parables saying a sower went out to sow as he sowed some seeds, fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain. Some 100 fold. Some 60, some 30. He who has ears let them hear. [00:21:37] Very good. So now we have the soil where the seed goes out. And now we're going to replay what Jesus says this means. That's going to be verses 18 through 23. [00:21:53] Here, then, the parable of the sower, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been found in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was shown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately received it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. And when tribulation or persecutions persecution arises on account of the word immediately, he falls away. As for what was sown amongst thorns, this is the one who hears the word. But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word. And it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands that he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another 60 in another 30. [00:22:51] All right, great. So now we're going back to the Requestion. Does everyone who accept Christ go to heaven? We say that Jesus says only the one who endures to the end will be saved. [00:23:05] We now go into this parable. He starts to describe it. So now let's get an understanding of this parable as we go in. So there are several parts about this parable that we need to break down first just to really kind of understand a little bit more. The first one is the seed. Okay, this is the seed and the seed is a key part. Here's the question. What is the seed? [00:23:33] The word. [00:23:34] Okay, so, Jesus, the seed is the word, the word of the kingdom. And what is the word Jesus? [00:23:45] Yeah. Okay, John, one one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. [00:23:52] So the seed is Jesus. Right. Okay. Very interesting. So then we have the next. Let's look at the four soils. Okay. What did the soils represent? [00:24:07] The beginning part where he described it, yes. [00:24:12] When he's throwing when you're trying to sort out what do the soils represent, there are four types of soil. So what what did they representative of? [00:24:21] A person's heart, a person's heart. Okay, so four types of heart, four types of people, right. What separates one heart from another? What separates one group of people versus the other group of people? [00:24:39] The state or the beating of their heart? The state of their heart. [00:24:45] But less and less narrowed a little bit more. Okay. Okay. I'd like to suggest the stewardship of the seed, which is it represents, to say, the heart, but the state of heart is exemplified and evidenced by how its stewards see. Does that make sense? Okay, so what differentiates one soil from another, one type of person from another is stewardship of the seed. And then if the seed is Jesus and the soil represents the different types of people. What does that mean, that all people receive Jesus? [00:25:27] No. [00:25:33] Goes out, the soda goes out and sows the seed. Jesus. Yes. And does the same get sewn on all four soils? [00:25:47] Yes. [00:25:49] All four soils receive the seed sown. [00:25:55] Correct. [00:25:56] Okay. [00:25:58] So let me ask the question again. If they did this soil, it's not a trick question. It's a question that. [00:26:06] We usually don't consider because it doesn't make sense based on what we've been taught. But we have to do is we have to dig deeper than what we've been taught and see what the word says. Because what we've been taught may not be. What the world says, it may be something slightly different. So here's the question at the seat is Jesus and the soul represents people then does that mean that all people receive Jesus? Yes, it does. In fact, Romans, what does it Romans one tells us that everyone has the heart of the law of the Lord written on their hearts already. They see God's law in the skies and in everything. So everyone has received the truth. Jesus says the high priest prayer when he's praying to the Lord of the tables. He says, Die word is truth. God's word is truth. Jesus is the word. Jesus is the seed. And we see truth everywhere in nature that that proclaims God. So everyone has received that seed. But that doesn't mean they've done anything with it. That's the key. So now we've got the seed. We've got the soils. Now we have. Fruit, fruit is really the key message that Jesus is teaching about. And he basically basically says that here's my way of just kind of transliterating a little bit. Only those who produce fruit or are going to be. [00:27:46] Right, that's basically what we can start to see in his message, and I want to unpack that with fruit. [00:27:55] Fruit is the key to this parable. Fruit is only found in one soil. Soil is that good soil, the good soil. Okay, great. [00:28:05] And I want it just for sake of purpose. I'm going to label these soils as soil one, two, three and four soil. One is the path to the rocky soil soil. Three is the thorns and soil for the good soil. And then that way we can just kind of keep keep it simple. [00:28:23] Okay, so what we had to do is understand what is fruit. So if I were to ask you, what is fruit? This is the kid. This is the key to understanding everything is this fruit? What is it? [00:28:40] Fruit is what is produced from the seed. [00:28:47] Very good. [00:28:49] But what is it that's the prize? What can we call it the result? The seed managed and held and cared for properly. [00:29:08] All right. All right. We're gonna get there. Let me back up and just kind of bring us into this, because I think this is kind of fun. So seed one of the times another sessions. I was talking about the Bible has been written by one author. Would you agree with that? Yes. Okay. Now, that author inspired many men to actually pen that one author's thoughts, but it's all one author, which is God himself. Exactly. So anytime you have a book, you have characters in the book and those characters keep coming up and they always are the characters that they were. [00:29:54] In other words, if I'm reading a book and let's say, say, a Tom Clancy novel, I used to read those years back and he introduces a guy named Gosh, I forget the guy, but he introduces a couple of guys up front in the novel. [00:30:13] Then throughout the novel, every time he calls that person up by name. John did this or John did that. [00:30:19] It's always that person that he introduced and described at the beginning. Does that make sense? Yes. So the character goes throughout. So we see that same thing in the scriptures. [00:30:31] We see it with fig trees, olive trees. We see it with light, darkness. We see it with soils. We see it with seed. We see all kinds of thing. So the question is, what does seed represent? What is the character of seed? I like to show you something because this is really cool. [00:30:46] Where does God first introduce his character seed? [00:30:54] In the Garden of Eden, if I'm not mistaken, a little bit before. [00:31:00] Oh, you'll have to tell me. [00:31:05] Let's go to Genesis 111. [00:31:10] During creation, now, Save was obviously present in the Garden of Eden, but he introduces what it is. [00:31:19] During creation, Genesis one 11 with 11 and God said, let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit and which is their seed, each according to its own kind on the earth. [00:31:36] And it was so seed reproduces after its own time. We used today's technology words that carries all the DNA to reproduce an exact replica of whatever it is, whatever it came from. Does that make sense? Yeah. And then where is seed formed? [00:32:03] Well. See, far and within the fruit. [00:32:08] The fruit is the womb of the seed. Interesting, isn't it? [00:32:15] I mean, we know that it is insane to think of it that way. [00:32:18] Okay, so this makes sense. A seed is planted. It has to die. Once it dies. It's burst again. Into a new plant after its own kind, as that plant matures, it produces fruit. And inside, the fruit seed is created so that the plant through the fruit can reproduce itself again. Does that. Soun. [00:33:00] Similar to something else that we would think about in Christian terms. And that's just what Jesus did. He came as a seed of God. Right. The exact replica. He dies and he's planted into the ground, right into the temple. And then when he dies, he becomes born again into a exact replica. And he produces through. Okay. So we see this this pattern of the seed. And the fruit is the womb that causes that seed to produce fruit is in the process of where seed has been reproduced. Making sense? Yes. Okay, so then why does the characteristic of the seed. What is the characteristic of the fruit? It's kind of an aside, but it kind of ties into this. If I were to say, what is the fruit of? Can you finish that sentence? [00:34:13] What's it called fruit of? Prudent spirit. [00:34:19] So let's look at that real quick. This is Galatians five. 22, 23. But I want you to do it in The Passion translation on this one, because I think this song articulates what it's really saying. [00:34:33] And you said the Galicians five, five, 22 and 23. [00:34:50] All right, here we go. 22 and 23 says the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is Divine Love in all its varied expressions. [00:35:04] Such a perfect moment. [00:35:07] A lot of times people say the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. [00:35:12] But I think what the term love is, the fruit of the spirit is singular, not plural. There's not multiple fruits. There's one. That's why I love this translation that the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you. Is Divine Love in all its varied expressions. So now we're talking about love. Where else do you recall what the Bible says about love? We're talking about. This is Paul talking about different things and he said about love. [00:35:43] First Corinthians 13, I think. Yeah. The love. We call it the love chapter in our house. [00:35:49] Okay, good. All right. And it says that above all. [00:35:54] First, love is, love is, and in fact, there's here's something else, it says Faith, hope and love abide. But the greatest of these is love. What are you saying? There is that of everything he's been talking about, faith, hope and love. By that means that they are eternal. [00:36:17] They never go away. Gifts go away. But faith, hope and love abide. But of all of those, the greatest of them is love. This is what Jimmy. This is who God is, representative. Mostly by the character. Bye bye, love. That's what this is talking about. The fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is Divine Love in all its varied expressions. Okay, so now I'll let you finish the passage from there. It's now going to define and describe what that Divine Love, how that Divine Love manifests itself. [00:36:55] Okay, joy that overflows peace, that some patience that endures kindness and action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart and strength of spirit never set the law above these qualities. They are meant to be limitless. [00:37:18] All right. So now let's go back. See this Jesus? That's what Jesus says is the word of God, right in the. Fruit is where the seed is formed. And that means really that seed, the fruit, is Jesus being formed in you and producing through you. Does that make sense? Yes. OK. So that's really what I believe the fruit is talking about, is that Jesus has been formed in you. So here's a question. If Jesus is formed in you, would you act like Jesus? We should be informed and you are going to carry the characteristics and the more he's formed and living through, you carry those characteristics. What are some of the things that Jesus did that maybe if he was formed in you, you would likely do to. [00:38:14] Oh, gosh. I mean, just naming things he did heal the sick, raise the dead. He helped all those that were oppressed. He lost. I mean, he loved first. And everything else was just an overflow of the love. [00:38:33] He went preaching the message, the kingdom of God. Okay. Yeah. All this. [00:38:38] All these things. Peace, patience, kindness. [00:38:43] So that is evidence of the fruit. The fruit is Jesus being formed. But evidence of the fruit being formed into you is a manifestation of all these things that Jesus did. Bring a little bit more clarity, right? OK. So here's the big question. If Jesus has never formed Inju, are you born again and go to heaven? [00:39:12] Tom. [00:39:15] According to all this. No. [00:39:21] It's not us that are righteous. It's Jesus, in a sense, righteous, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay. [00:39:29] Romans side, I think, says that the righteous fulfillment of the law, the righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled. And you. [00:39:36] And then we can connect the dots because Christ is in you. [00:39:41] Who would it be safe to say that only those in soil number four. Hey, bear fruit. Which has been formed in them are the ones who are truly born again, are saved and go to heaven. Does that make sense, do you say? Yes. So now let's look at the four soils. Real quick. No one is the past. This is verse four, so read that again. Let's talk about that. [00:40:16] And that was go back to that book when we were in Matthew 20. [00:40:26] Excuse me, Matthew, 13, 13. [00:40:33] I'm going to switch translations. I'll go back to that. [00:40:35] I actually actually I got. I think this is versus it's not verse four that I want you to read is going to be verse probably 18 or 19. [00:40:45] Let me go back. Yes. [00:40:47] Okay. 18 and 19. Okay. So 19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom does not understand it. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. [00:41:02] I know that. [00:41:03] So that's the one that's sown along the path. [00:41:06] Okay, let's see. [00:41:13] So that person has heard the word of the kingdom. And they do not understand it. [00:41:18] Right. So how did they steward the seed? Or did they stay where the stayed at all? [00:41:26] They didn't. They didn't do it because it just says that they did not understand it. And then the evil one came and snatched it away. So that leads me to believe they didn't pursue understanding what had been spoken to them. [00:41:40] Got you. So no wonder the path does not seem see deceit at all. It's rejected. Correct. Since it doesn't stay where the seed. Does the soil accept the seed? So there are two things you've got to accept it and you, Stuart. So did the soil ever accept the seed? [00:42:07] No. [00:42:08] No. Since the seed represents Christ, does that mean that this person did not accept Christ? That's correct. And is this person born again? No. No. And how do we know that? [00:42:26] Because it says. [00:42:29] The evil one snatched it away. What was sewn in their heart? So Jesus was taken out from their heart. They can't be born again. [00:42:38] That's right. Okay, perfect. So now we have soul. No one does not accept the seed, does not therefore steward the seed. The say never forms itself in them through fruit. They are not born again. They don't go to heaven. Okay, so now let's look at soil number two, the rocky ground. This is going to be versus 20 through 21. [00:43:02] As for what was sown on Iraqi ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately received it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself but indoors for a while. And when tribulation or persecution persecution arises on account of the word, he immediately falls away. [00:43:24] So does the soil accept the seed? [00:43:32] A little bit, right? It tries to, but actually I think it's a little bit a little bit deeper. Let's go back to it and look and says yet he has no root in himself. Do you see that? If there is no. [00:43:50] Yes, go ahead. [00:43:51] If there's if there's no route, then did the soil ever accept it? [00:43:58] Go in the soil, right? [00:44:00] Yes. One head down. [00:44:04] Have you ever seen trees or plants grow on the side of a cliff where it's just wrong? Yes. Yes. Is there any. There's no soil, but they can still grow by putting roots down a little bit around the rocks. Does that make sense? So the soil does accept the seed. And we know that because there's no root and with no root, there's no acceptance. How does the soil steward the seed? [00:44:36] Well, it says as soon as he heard it, he received it with joy. Right. But because there's no route. There's nothing to anchor it when the hard things come, he falls away. He gives up. [00:44:52] Notice it says that he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. What are those passages that Jesus says? [00:45:00] What does it say about endurance to endure until the end? [00:45:05] So this guy only endures for a while, but not to the end. [00:45:09] Okay. So the soil doesn't accept the seed. The soil stewards, the seed only poorly. It's enough that it grew up, got excited. But it did not endure to the end. Here's the question. Is this person born again? [00:45:30] Now, how do we know that? [00:45:35] Well, because they had no route. And because they chose to give up almost OK. [00:45:42] So those are part of it. But the ultimate technical answers because there's no fruit. [00:45:50] Because fruit is where Christ is formed in you. And there's no fruit. Therefore, there is no Christ formed in you. And only of Christ is formed. And you are truly born again. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So no one. Not a Christian. So, number two, they receive it with joy. A lot of people you share the gospel. They immediately pray the center's prayer type of thing. And you may see some life change. They're all excited, but they don't endure. [00:46:21] That wasn't a what we would call in our Christian, these terms a true salvation. Christ was never formed in them. Now let's look at soil number three. This is the one with the thorns. And this is going to be verse 22. [00:46:35] As for what was done along with thorns, this is the one who hears the word. But the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choke the word. And it proved unfruitful. [00:46:49] Turn also real quick, I want to show you one other passage on this that it gives a little bit more information. Luke Eighty-seven. It's the same Jesus describing this, but he gives Luke eight, seven, gives one more piece of information. Let's see if you can find that piece of information. [00:47:06] And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. So this one. Thorns are growing up with the. [00:47:17] Which means the seed is growing. Right. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Okay. So now let's ask our questions, our diagnostic questions on this. Does the soil accept the seed? [00:47:30] Yes. Yes. [00:47:32] Okay. Now, remember, the soil represents people, represents your heart. The seed represents Jesus. So this soil accepts Jesus. [00:47:44] Yes. [00:47:45] Follow me. Okay. Okay, so the soil accepts Jesus because the soil accepts the seed. [00:47:56] How does the soil steward the seed? How well is that seed stewarded? Well, it does it does the soil steward the seat at all. Let's start with their. [00:48:15] No. [00:48:17] Maybe a little bit in the beginning, because it says when the cares of the world and deceitfulness come and you choke it. [00:48:26] Okay, okay. Go back to Luke eight, seven. [00:48:32] And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it. Grew up with a plant that the seed produced but choked it. So this means that. They grew up means that it actually grew into a plant, which means that the soil did steward the seed enough to produce a plant. Okay, so here soil number three, except the seed. If we put this in human terms, someone accepts Jesus. It's two words. [00:49:03] The seed enough that it forms a plant. And that plan looks exactly like the replica of what the seed was reproducing, because it is. But is this person born again? [00:49:22] No, because they do not endure to the end almost. [00:49:27] Not that they don't endure it to the end. There's the key element. What's the defining moment of whether someone's born again? [00:49:37] They don't produce fruit. [00:49:38] It's Christ in you. Right. And the only way to have Christ in you that you have fruit. Where the seed is produced. [00:49:51] You say that it was unfruitful. [00:49:53] That's right. There was no fruit. And now here's a person who accepts Christ. Who manifest Christian type of behavior? Because the fruit grows up. But produces no fruit, which is evidence that Christ was never formed in them. [00:50:17] They did not endure to the end. You had to endure longer for the verb to be formed, that may be one way to describe it. I don't think that's really an accurate statement. But there's something else here. Why was fruit never produced? [00:50:32] Because of the sarin. [00:50:35] What are the odds? Come check it out. What do Soren's come from? [00:50:42] We the ground. [00:50:48] All blind reproduces after its own time. [00:50:51] What is blind going? I'll see. There you go. Okay. [00:50:58] There you go. So here here we have a number three person receives and accepts the seed of the word. But they're also accepting all kinds of other seed and they stoo or the other seed more diligently than they steward the Christ seed. [00:51:19] And by stewarding other seeds, Jesus calls them the cares of the world. There's this staple ness of riches by stewarding those seeds more. This all number three person allows that stewardship to choke out the Christ. That's pretty interesting. Yeah, that's really good. So is it possible to accept Christ? Had the appearance of growing as a Christian. And yet not actually being born again, having Christ formed into you and ultimately going to heaven. Yes, it is. And this is startling and this interesting. [00:52:05] Oh, it's going to get a whole lot better. This is setting the stage. [00:52:12] Now, let's go to soil number four. This is the good soil. This is verse 23. [00:52:19] As for what was done on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands that he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another 60 in another 30. [00:52:36] All right, great. So does the soil accept the seed? How is the seed stewarded? Very well, very well. Is this person first off, what happens with the sea? [00:52:55] Cared for. It's your word. It's helped nurture so that it can grow. [00:53:02] All right. Is this person born again? Yes. And how do we know? Because they bear fruit. Okay. In terms of fruit. Some hundred, some 60, some 30. Notice also. It's not the soil that bears fruit. What bears fruit? The seed is the seed that bears the fruit, not the soil. The soil is merely the womb in which the fruit is produced that produces more seed. The seed producing the fruit. In other words, it's not us, it's the Lord. [00:53:52] Now, we've already been to always been taught. It's Christ living through us. There's nothing we can do of our own. The fruit of the spirit is not what we do. It's Christ in us. This is what's going on. It's the sea that reproduces the fruit. [00:54:06] It's not the soil. We're just the container. [00:54:12] So now as we start to wrap up, I wanted to talk on two things. The first one is Convert's versus Disciple's, because I think this is what is this is kind of where where a lot of this starts to focus in on. I want to set the definition first off, let me ask you if I were to ask you to define the difference between a convert and a disciple, what would you tell me? [00:54:40] A disciple to me is one who has a desire and longing for teaching. [00:54:46] And then. [00:54:48] Finding someone else and seeing that same quality in someone else. [00:54:53] Kind of like a leader, a good leader is going to look for someone who also wants to be a leader. And they're going to raise up that leader. [00:55:01] Right. Let me. [00:55:08] Give a simple definition that that I like to include a convert is going to be someone who accepts Christ right. [00:55:21] But a disciple is going to be someone who follows Christ. And I think there's a difference. [00:55:29] Does that make sense? Absolutely. I was watching this great documentary on the underground Iranian church and they had people from the church talking and everything and sharing, and it was really cool. But one of the guys made a really interesting comment, Converts versus Disciple's. Here's what he says. Disciples for the world and cling to Jesus till he comes. [00:55:57] Converts don't. Disciples are not engage in a culture war. Converts are disciples. Cherish, obey and share the word of God. Converts don't. Disciples choose Jesus over anything and everything else. Converts don't. Converts run when the fire comes, disciples don't mean that cool. So can you see a difference between merely accepting Christ, which is a convert, versus following Christ? Can you see that difference in the four soils? [00:56:35] Sure. Absolutely. Okay. [00:56:38] So the obvious question, but which of those soils are the disciples? [00:56:45] The last one. [00:56:46] Number four, which went to their convert's. [00:56:57] I would say probably number two. It could be three or four years. [00:57:06] So technically, I guess you could say was two, three and four. The converse, because they all accept Christ to a degree. They all received the word with joy, but only soil for is the disciple who actually pursues Christ. So back to my original question. Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven? No. Okay, so you change your answer now, right? [00:57:35] Okay. So wrapping up. Let me share what this parable I think teaches us. No one's really kind of cool. [00:57:43] I think there shows that to a degree. Now, these aren't exactly accurate. But we can kind of pull some some things out of this parable shows that there are actually two stages of obtaining eternal life, two stages of the kingdom of heaven within us. [00:58:02] First is the seed is sown and the soul has to accept it. But second, after accepting the soul has to steward, it produces Morsey. And without that stewarding and without the production of fruit. [00:58:21] Which is the seed being reformed in you then? Then your you haven't gone that second stage of stewarding it. Let me show you this also turned to Matthew three eight two three eight. This is John the Baptist. He's talking the Pharisees. And if you remember, John the Baptist comes baptizing with water for forgiveness, basically repentance leading toward forgiveness. A little bit different type baptism than baptism as a new believer. But reading Matthew three eight. [00:58:59] Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. [00:59:03] So now we have fruit again. Do you think this fruit might be similar to the fruit that Jesus is talking about? [00:59:09] Yes. [00:59:11] And then you have bear fruit in keeping with what? [00:59:14] Repentance. [00:59:16] And what was the key message that Jesus came preaching or intent for the Kingdom of God is near. [00:59:23] So we see all these all these same characters keep coming back up and cycling around. [00:59:27] Does that make sense? Yeah. So if we have repented. We will bear fruit if we have not repented. We won't bear fruit. Repentance is a key to bearing fruit. I would say repentance is a key to stewarding the sea. [00:59:47] Right. So when I started this study, I was kind of amazing what I found. And as I started to pursue it further, what's really cool is I start to see this pattern throughout all of scripture, but specifically in the New Testament where this is highlighted. So what we're going to do not on today's call is because we're at the end of the time. But as we go through, I want to start to dissect and open up a lot of these not only the parables, but the epistles and some more things that Jesus says and just kind of show this whole picture of what's going on. And here's to value. So the question is, well, what's so important about this? [01:00:28] Well, obviously, it's important if God puts it in there, but how does it change what we do not want to share? Kind of how it changed for me. But first, let me ask you, do you remember there is a section in the Bible that is called the Great Commission. You remember the great commission. Do you remember the first you know where it is? [01:00:48] I feel like it's. Go go to Matthew. 28 a day. [01:00:58] Well, it is the very end, Matthew, in Revelations is the end of God's word. So you could have the end, right. [01:01:06] The great commission, verse sixteen through twenty. [01:01:11] Looks like somewhere in there. Let's begin with all the authority has been. [01:01:20] Jesus came and said to the disciples, all authority and heaven on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I had commanded you. And they hold. I am with you always to the very end of the age. [01:01:41] Great. So where did go out and share the gospel. Is that right? Go out and evangelize. Yeah. Okay. Now that's different than sharing the gospel. [01:01:56] Make disciples go therefore make disciple. [01:01:59] Yeah. Okay. So you're going to heaven. Is not the reason Jesus came. But it's a part of the kingdom of God. Sharing the gospel is not the great commission, but it's part. Of making disciples. You got to share the gospel to make a disciple. Yeah, that's true. So this is the focus. This is the thing that really hit me as I've come through here. Our focus isn't let's go evangelize. That's important. It's not the focus of what the Lord is called us to do is to make disciples. And the reason it's so important is only the disciples are the ones for Christ has formed in them. It's not enough just to go share the gospel. It's not enough just to quote unquote live as a Christian. We've got to help those people that we are around to steward the seed well, and we have to be careful that we steward the seed well as well. And if we're stewarding our say, well, it will produce fruit and fruit will manifest itself by the fruit dropping off a tree, say, going back in the ground and reproducing. So we're going to see more of this. But anyway, we'll stop there. But before we wrap up the call, any thoughts or observations that are hitting you? [01:03:26] Gosh, as always, just eye opening to see scriptures revealed in a way that you don't necessarily ponder and consider on a regular basis. [01:03:39] I thought it was great. I love the just the analogies between the seed and Jesus and the fruit. And it was really good. It was really good. I enjoyed it. Great. All right. Thank you so much for today. Thank you so much for your expertise. The time again that you put into studying and preparing this message for the listeners. Anything else that you want to share with our listeners before we say goodbye? [01:04:09] Just make sure you listen to. If you're not listening to our podcast, but you're just kind of get this on the Web site. Go to depending on which podcast you're on. Get cellar's calling you what we do for real estate or we have get radical faith, which is just the radical faith podcast by himself. Go back. There's a lot of great content there. And the other thing I would really encourage is there's a lot of stuff here. Don't listen to one time and say, I got it. Go back and really absorb it. Take some time. Pull out your Bible, read and see what you can see the words in print as you go through this and you'll get a lot more out of it. [01:04:49] Yes. Such great wisdom. Such great wisdom. Well, thank you. And we thank you to all of you who are listening. And we hope you all have a blessed day. And we'll see you next time. [01:04:59] Thanks, Beatty. Thank you. Be blessed. Thanks. P066 [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Part 1 of the series "Simplicity" as part of Practicing The Way. We live with a nagging sense that we never have enough – enough time in the day or money in the bank. We feel torn in multiple directions. Tired of low-grade fatigue. Behind on everything. Beset by constant distraction. We all know the cliché that “the most important things in life aren’t things” is true, and yet time and again we fall for advertising’s ploy. Is there a practice from the way of Jesus that could set our heart free from what Jesus called “the deceitfulness of wealth,” the false promise that money and stuff can give us security and satisfaction? To get free of the endless cycle of desire, and find contentment, margin, and life in the kingdom with Jesus? Yes. It is the practice of simplicity.

Part 1 of the series "Simplicity". As part of Practicing the Way. We live with a nagging sense that we never have enough – enough time in the day or money in the bank. We feel torn in multiple directions. Tired of low-grade fatigue. Behind on everything. Beset by constant distraction. We all know the cliché that “the most important things in life aren’t things” is true, and yet time and again we fall for advertising’s ploy. Is there a practice from the way of Jesus that could set our heart free from what Jesus called “the deceitfulness of wealth,” the false promise that money and stuff can give us security and satisfaction? To get free of the endless cycle of desire, and find contentment, margin, and life in the kingdom with Jesus? Yes. It is the practice of simplicity.

Brent interviews his local backwoods, riverboat, AKA Methodist pastor.

First message in our Lent series, "Why Jesus?" Who is Jesus? And why is he worth following? Scripture: John 4:43-54

Pastor Josh Laryea; a preacher of the Gospel of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this edition of Grace-Pills Title: "The Name of Jesus | YES 2019".

Sr. Pastor A. A. Jackson shared this New Year’s Eve Meditation on 12/31/19, based on Judges 6:15 – You may not be thought of as the best person for what people think is the best, but God does not look at us the way people do.  He has a much greater plan and the power to […] The post Jesus: Yes, Jesus, The Way Maker, Wants You to Serve His Kingdom! appeared first on Realm of Agape Christian Church.

Pastor Chris Waldvogel  ~  All Saints’ Day (Observed)   First Reading:  Revelation 7:9-17 New Testament:  1 John 3:1-3 Gospel:  Matthew 5:1-12

18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Have you ever played the word association game? Many of you have, but for those of you who haven’t the game goes like this: someone gives you a word, and then you are to say the first thing that comes to your mind upon hearing that certain word. If we were to play that game today and I gave you a few words to associate how would you answer? If I were to say food, you might say Pizza. If I said instrument, you may say Guitar. If I said, “movie” what movie would pop into your mind? I may say Batman and you would respond with Robin. If I were to say “Tennessee Vols Football Fan”” you might say, “SAD”…. right???… Many of these would be pretty easy to associate with something else wouldn’t they? But what about this one: Christian… What comes to mind when you hear the word “Christian”??? That term has become very vague in how we as a society use it hasn’t it?? When speaking of being a Christian people often say things like “I’m Christian because my parents were Christian” or, “I’m a Christian because I’m from the south” Or “I’m a Christian… But I don’t care about that church stuff.” “Christians do this” “Christians don’t do that” “Someone is a Christian if they pray before their meals” “Someone is NOT a christian if they see an R Rated movie, unless it’s the passion of the Christ” It seems as if in our world today it’s tough to pin down what we associate with the term “Christian" because we’ve made it into a ton of things. Did you know that Jesus never used the term “Christian”? The first time we see the term “Christian” used in the scripture is in Acts 11:26 when it says, “26 in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. “ So, if the followers of Jesus were not known as Christians what were they known as??? The text tells us… The disciples….. Consider this: The word Christian is used only 3 times in the entire bible… The word disciple is used 281 times in the New Testament alone… We see that even though our primary term would be “Christian” The authors of the New Testament, inspired by the Holy Spirit, primary term was “disciple” You may be thinking right now, “so what? Christian, disciple, tomato, tomAto, it’s all the same…. Why does it matter if we changed our name from disciple to Christian?” Check out what Andy Stanley says of this when he says, “I want to suggest to you that in changing the primary word that we use to describe ourselves, we lost the clarity that the word disciple conveyed about what a follower of Jesus actually is.” So, if we know that “Christian” can mean a ton of things, what does disciple mean?” When looking at the word disciple in the original language we see that in the simplest of terms it means “learner”… or “follower” I hate to say this, but I believe that in our day and age, a lot of people who call themselves Christians are not actually disciples. Just because our parents went to church, does not make us a disciple. Just because we are from the south, that doesn’t make us a disciple. Just because we choose not to watch R-rated movies does not make us a disciple. So, what does? One pastor says that, “Being a disciple is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you.” And I believe that God is calling all of us to be His disciples. From the text here I believe we see 3 realties of being a disciple of Christ: First I believe we see the reality that…….. JESUS DOESN’T CHOOSE THE BEST, HE CHOOSES THE WILLING. 18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Here we see that Jesus is making his first selection of the disciples he’s going to build his dream team with. If you were a religious fan back in this day, I can imagine you would have had your predictions of who Jesus was going to pick. Will it be one of the amazing scholars in Egypt? Or will it be one of the great philopshers from Athens? No. No. I know, it has to be one of the most powerful men from Rome… And the religious fans would’ve waited in anticipation to see who Jesus’ first selection would be… Those of you who know me, know that I love sports… Especially, the eight time national champion Kentucky Wildcats. I sometimes become convicted though, that I get more excited about sports then I do about church… So, I started wondering. What would happen if people treated church like they do sports… Check out what Kyle Idleman has to say about this: See if you can imagine this one.  People arrive hours early for church. On Sunday mornings, they don’t just set a backup alarm on their cell phones to assure they wake up in time —they set a backup for the backup. Throughout the week, they talk about what happened the previous Sunday as excitement builds for the upcoming church service. There are all-day radio talk shows devoted to reviewing last week’s service and breaking down the next one. There’s even a  TV show called “ChurchCenter” that runs highlight clips of  church activities that have happened across the nation.  When Sunday comes, the people load up their trucks, SUVs,  and sedans hours before the service starts.  “Hurry,” Dad says frantically. “We’re behind again.”  “It’s 6:00 a.m.” Mom says. “Church doesn’t start for five  hours.”  “Last time we left at this time, we had to park three miles  from the sanctuary and sit in the nosebleed seats. Someday, I re-  ally want to sit in the front row. But you have to camp out on the  church lawn to have any chance of that.”  The roads are really congested on the way to church, no matter how early you leave. At church, there are vehicles parked as  far as the eye can see. Some members are tailgating, laying out  elaborate spreads of barbequed meats on portable grills. Lawn  chairs dot the church parking lot. Some people have television  monitors and satellite dishes so they can catch updates from  other worship services while they wait for their own to begin.  Even in the dead of winter, they’ll be out here in the same  numbers. And once the church doors open, the masses begin fil-  ing into the sanctuary, cheering with great passion and excite-  ment. As the service starts, the people are all on their feet — not  that they ever sit down. A bunch of young guys stand in the front  row. None of them wears a shirt, but each one has a letter paint-  ed on his chest. Together they spell J-E-S-U-S.  After several hours of worship and an extra-long sermon, peo-  ple start looking at their watches. Everyone is thinking the same  thing: “I hope the service goes into overtime!” Did any of you go to the NFL draft in Nashville this year? They said it was somewhere around 500 thousands people in attendance. People love the draft…. One of the most outstanding draft selections in the history of football came at a very unexpected time in the year 2000. The person walks to the stage to represent the New England Patriots. He takes a deep breathe and says… “With the 199th pick of the 2000 NFL draft, the New England Patriots select… Tom Brady, QB from the university of Michigan…” And everyone looked at each other and said… “WHO!?!?!” Not knowing that he would go on to be the greatest football player of all time. What if there was a disciples draft??? “With the first pick in the very first disciples draft Jesus Christ of Nazareth selects…… Simon Peter & his brother Andrew, fishermen from the city of Capernaum.” And everyone looked at each other and said “WHO?!?!” Fisherman were not on the top of the board of the religious list back in this day. Most likely, they had little education, little spiritual perception, and little to none religious training. It was an unexpected pick… Little did they know, they would be the ones Jesus would use to turn the world upside down. John Macarthur: speaks of this when he says, “God skipped all the wise of the day! The great scholars were in Egypt; the great library was in Alexandria; the great philosophers were in Athens; the powerful were in Rome. He passed over Socrates the great thinker and Julius Caesar. He chose men so ordinary it was comical. No Rabbis, no teachers, no religious experts...” Don’t miss what I am about to say: God may not always call the qaulified, but He always qualifies the called…. Paul describes it even better there in 1 Corinthians 1:26 when he says, 26  Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” So, whether it is a lack of education, it’s an insecurity you may have, a weary heart, or a sinful past, despite our shortcomings Jesus calls to everyone of us as he did Peter and Andrew and says, “Follow me… Be my disciples….” We see the reality that Jesus doesn’t choose the best, He chooses the willing. Not only that, but we also see the reality that…… 2. TO FOLLOW HIM, WE HAVE TO LEAVE ALL. 21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Notice the two things they left in this passage. The Boat Their Father I think the author wants us to notice something here.. The boat is what the place they were most comfortable. Their father was one of their most significant relationships.. The author is trying to show us that a call to follow Jesus is one where He has to be of utmost importance to you, or it’s not gonna work out. We see that Jesus says something similar in Luke 9:57. It says, “57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” In other words, being a disciple means being out of your comfort zone. We’re not gonna stay in the boat the entire time. 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Again Jesus shows us that we have to love Him above everything and everyone in order to follow Him. One of the most popular teachings on this subject would be when Jesus said in Matthew 10:38, “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What do we know about a cross? It’s a death instrument. Jesus is saying, if you are not willing to die to yourself daily, then you can’t follow me. A call to follow Jesus means dying to anything that would be a hindrance to the work he’s called you to. A call to follow Jesus is one that requires anything living within’ us that causes us to love something else more than Him, to be put to death. That’s why Deitrech Bonnohefer so accurately said, “When Christ calls a man to follow Him, He bids him come and die.” I know what you are prolly thinking… “Wow.. This doesn’t sound fun at all to me.” All this talk about dying… I thought that following Jesus meant to have abundant life, not all this talk of dying.. So, which one is it Noah, does being a disciple mean dying or living? Here’s the answer: Yes…. Let me expound… Here we see one of the great paradoxes of Jesus. Taking up your cross means dying to yourself. Trading in your earthly desires for the heavenly desires Christ wants to give you. Trading in the lie of trying to be fulfilled by things of the world, and becoming fulfilled by the things of God. It is the process of dying to the flesh, and living by the spirit. Becoming less of who you were before you knew Christ, and more of who He is calling you to be. The Apostle Paul had this same idea when he wrote to the Galatians and said, “20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” I like the way a popular worship song puts it when one of the lyrics say, “I found my life, when I laid it down." A call to follow Jesus means that we are to leave all. We are to love Him and seek after His will more than anything else in our lives… When it comes to being a disciple, not only do we see the reality that Jesus doesn’t choose the best, he chooses the willing; not only do we see the reality that he calls us to leave all, but lastly we see the reality that…. 3. HE COMMANDS US TO SPIRITUALLY REPRODUCE. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus says, if you follow me, I will MAKE you fishers of men.. Not, “If you do this bible study, or you memorize this gospel presentation, then I’ll make you fishers of men.” NO! In this text there’s a command, and a result… The command: Follow Jesus. The result: become a fisher of men. Spiritually reproducing is not just something that a disciple does, spiritually reproducing is the main factor of who a disciple is… Have any of you heard of the Ennegram thing going around? It’s basically like a personality test.. Like, a 7 is this. And if your result is a 4 then that means that you like this, but you don’t like this… I don’t know… I have to get my students to explain it to me… But, Jesus gives us a bit of a similar personality test in John 15:8..  “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.” How do you prove you are a disciple? By bearing fruit. And if you are not bearing fruit, you have reason to question whether you are a disciple at all. Jesus tells His disciples how to bear fruit in His famous Great Commission: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In his book, The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman said: “When will the church learn this lesson? Preaching to the masses, although necessary, will never suffice in the work of preparing leaders for evangelism. Nor can occasional prayer meetings and training classes for Christian workers do this job... Individual women and men are God’s method. God’s plan for discipleship is not something, but someone.” Church, when it comes to making disciples, WE ARE PLAN A, AND THERE IS NO PLAN B. That’s why we are happy to share with you guys this morning that we are launching what is called the “Who’s Your One” campaign. We are encouraging every member of the church to identify one person whom they know that is spiritually seeking or lost, and commit to praying for that person, and taking the initiative in being the first piece of the puzzle that could help that person come to know Christ… Now, if you have been in church for a while, you may have heard of or been apart of something like this before. So, you may be wondering, what all this will entail. If it will be like the evangelistic campaign you did this time, or that time. I believe the best way I can explain what this campaign is, is to first tell you what it is not. 1. Who’s Your One will not be motivated by guilt. Far too many times in the church culture we see a lot of these evangelist efforts driven by something of the effect “If you really love Jesus, you’ll go knock on this door, hand them this gospel track, give this presentation” Who’s Your One is not that… 2. Who’s Your One will not simply be a leverage point for us to brag of our evangelist success. Will we be excited about people coming to Jesus? Yes! Will we be doing it all so that we can show everyone how amazing we are? No! We will do everything for the glory of God, and not ours. 3. Who’s Your One will not be a process in which we turn people into projects… We will not approach people who do not know Jesus and turn them into our own little project that the church has us working on… Rather, we will love that person as Jesus would love them, and show them that we want them to know Christ because we love them, not simply because we are involved with a churches evangelist campaign. Through Who’sYourOne, I believe that God is going to show us that He is calling all of us to be His disciples. And we can jump into this season with confidence because we know that even though we may not be the best by the world’s standard, God loves to use those who are weak to shame the strong. We know that if we follow Him and love Him above all else, he will in return give us a life that will truly satisfy and fulfill all we could ever long for. And by knowing these things, and believing them, we know that He will use as His disciples, to make disciples, all for the glory of His name.

Jesus is revealing who He is, who sent Him, what His mission is, that He must die and rise from the dead. The Pharisees challenge Him and cry blasphemy. But, there were some Judean (Jews) who believed in Him. Jesus addresses them, and as He continues teaching, a big argument ensues, and they repudiate Him. But....how did they once believe in Him. They wanted to choose what to believe about Jesus - fit Him into their belief system, instead of listening to the truth. A similar problem occurs in our society today. People are quick to jump on the Jesus bandwagon and believe about Him what they will - and still call themselves Christian. Many people today, want to fit Jesus into their own construct of who He is and call themselves Christian.... What can we say about what WE believe and confess about Jesus.

It’s Lent in Avengers world, because half of everybody just poofed into ASHES! Are you ready for Avengers: Endgame??? The Catholic Nerds are counting down to the release of the final installment of the Avengers and the Infinity Gauntlet! Are you Catholic-worthy enough to wield Thor’s hammer? And by the way, did you know the myth of Thor was based on Jesus? Yes, that’s right. Jesus, not Captain America, was the original Avenger … or something like that. Here’s Scott’s full article on “Is Thor Jesus?” https://www.thescottsmithblog.com/2017/11/is-thor-myth-based-on-jesus.html Though we mostly try to forget the Hulk movies, the nerd-out covers all of Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU): Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), and Marvel's The Avengers (2012). And yes, we give Red Skull, Elrond, and Agent Smith - the amazing Hugo Weaving - lots of nerd love. Want to nerd out with us? Join the Catholic Nerds group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/catholicnerdspodcast/ Support our nerdery! Check out our Patreon page for exclusive nerdiness: https://www.patreon.com/CatholicNerds/posts Tweet us @NerdsCatholic Email us at catholicnerdpodcast1@gmail.com

Two poems for you this week.....from from the Prince of Peace to pesto. Do you like eat to eat pungent foods and then breathe on other people? Is the smell of garlic on your partner's breath a turn on? Do you consider yourself to be Jesus? Yes, then this is the episode for you. Again, HUUUUGE shout out this week to Quentin Shaeffer for doing the music and audio editing for this episode. He's an awesome musician and he just came out with a really cool music video that can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfMeFsQ-yI0 Also check out his soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/quentinshaeffer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quentinshaeffer

Can we display a faith that amazes Jesus? Yes you can! Coach Grimes challenges listeners to have the faith to ask for the crazy, outrageous “unicorn” miracle in your life! You just might get a “high five” from our Lord! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/encouragers-united/message

What in the world? Is this really about the circumcision of Jesus? Yes. Readings: Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 2:21

website: ybopodcastmke.com

Let His promises protect your relationship John 15:5 (Part 1 - the critical importance of intimacy with Jesus) “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” “What prompts Jesus to use this image? His figures (shepherd, bread, water, light) all came from ancient Jewish traditions. If Jesus left the Upper Room in 14:30, he may have stopped at the temple to teach and to pray. At the entrance of the Holy Place (west of the altar), steps led to a linen curtain covered with purple, scarlet, and blue flowers. Solid gold chains hung alongside the curtain from the door beam. Above the curtain (beneath the roof line) grew a gigantic grapevine of pure gold, representing Israel. Wealthy citizens could bring gifts to add to the vine (gold tendrils, grapes, or leaves), and these would be added by metal workers to the ever-growing vine. Josephus claims that some of the grape clusters were the “height of a man.” The vine/vineyard metaphor is used frequently in the Old Testament. Israel is often depicted as a vine transplanted from Egypt (Ps. 80:8–11) and brought to fertile soil (Ezek. 17:1–6). Enemies may trample the vineyard (Jer. 12:10–11) but God tends it carefully and looks for fruit (Isa. 5:1–7). The vineyard may be the preeminent biblical symbol of the locus of God's activity, his nurture, and his expectations (cf. Matt. 21:33–41). (Burge, G. M. (1995). John. In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3, pp. 869–870). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.) Jesus emphasizes two things: Abide Proof How does this help your relationships?

Let His promises protect your relationship John 15:5 (Part 1 - the critical importance of intimacy with Jesus) “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” “What prompts Jesus to use this image? His figures (shepherd, bread, water, light) all came from ancient Jewish traditions. If Jesus left the Upper Room in 14:30, he may have stopped at the temple to teach and to pray. At the entrance of the Holy Place (west of the altar), steps led to a linen curtain covered with purple, scarlet, and blue flowers. Solid gold chains hung alongside the curtain from the door beam. Above the curtain (beneath the roof line) grew a gigantic grapevine of pure gold, representing Israel. Wealthy citizens could bring gifts to add to the vine (gold tendrils, grapes, or leaves), and these would be added by metal workers to the ever-growing vine.  Josephus claims that some of the grape clusters were the “height of a man.” The vine/vineyard metaphor is used frequently in the Old Testament. Israel is often depicted as a vine transplanted from Egypt (Ps. 80:8–11) and brought to fertile soil (Ezek. 17:1–6). Enemies may trample the vineyard (Jer. 12:10–11) but God tends it carefully and looks for fruit (Isa. 5:1–7). The vineyard may be the preeminent biblical symbol of the locus of God’s activity, his nurture, and his expectations (cf. Matt. 21:33–41).  (Burge, G. M. (1995). John. In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3, pp. 869–870). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.) Jesus emphasizes two things: Abide Proof How does this help your relationships?  

Christian teaching mingles life-giving teachings of Jesus with other teachings, some of which are needless obstacles for those who need to enter into the family of God. On a handful of key controversies, here are questions with contrasting possible answers. 

Stand-Alone Sermon

Leviticus 1:1-17 The Burnt Offering 1 The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He said, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When anyone among you brings an offering to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock. 3 “‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. 4 You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you. 5 You are to slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 6 You are to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. 7 The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. 8 Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the wood that is burning on the altar. 9 You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. 10 “‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the flock, from either the sheep or the goats, you are to offer a male without defect. 11 You are to slaughter it at the north side of the altar before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall splash its blood against the sides of the altar. 12 You are to cut it into pieces, and the priest shall arrange them, including the head and the fat, on the wood that is burning on the altar. 13 You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to bring all of them and burn them on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. 14 “‘If the offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, you are to offer a dove or a young pigeon. 15 The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off the head and burn it on the altar; its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. 16 He is to remove the crop and the feathers[a] and throw them down east of the altar where the ashes are. 17 He shall tear it open by the wings, not dividing it completely, and then the priest shall burn it on the wood that is burning on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. Notes: The Priests Manual! - Lev 1:1-17 Do we see this as a primitive attempt to imagine what God is like? - it’s not!! This is the first part of God’s progressive revelation of His plan to save mankind. The Old Testament is like a (‘Type’) die - one which when cast gives a true image. Pictures of Jesus: It’s all about offerings It begins with atonement then thanksgiving and then Fellowship. “Without defect” = tamiym - Greek for whole or complete, but also means upright, without sin. “Lay your hand on” = samach- Greek for rely upon, lean heavily upon - A picture of faith and an act of identifying with the bull (or Christ, in our case). “Slaughter the young bull before the Lord” - why is the blood splashed onto the altar? - Lev 17:11 - the blood represents life - Heb9:22. Surely this can’t be suggesting ‘we killed Jesus?’ Yes!!! - with our sin! Different animals are allowed - Lev 5:7 suggests that the animal must represent the status of the person for a sin offering. . God’s provision of atonement is for Everyone. The bull represents strength. Jesus had the strength - Mat 26:53 The sheep represent being submissive and Jesus giving himself up for us - Eph 5:2 The goat represents being wild and wilful and not domesticated. A symbol of self centredness, unwillingness to conform, ungodliness. How is this a picture of Jesus? 2 Cor 5:21 - Jesus took the punishment of we sinners. The dove, or young pigeon is a symbol of being gentle - never retaliating. Isaiah 53:7 Pictures of Jesus: -Male and perfectly righteous - One on whom we can lean on heavily by faith - Who receives punishment for our sin - For whose death we are responsible - Who clothes us in his perfect righteousness - Given for everyone: Rich, poor; Great and small - Like the young bull, strong and determined - Like the sheep, self sacrificing and submissive - Like the goat, being identified with our sin - Like the dove, at peace, not retaliating; stretched out upon the cross and showing his heart of love.

Transformation Tuesdays was inspired by the CD "The Jesus Question" by Matthew Kelly. Deacon Jimmy Ghiglione and Aaron Emig recap the Gospel from the prior Sunday and give action steps and resources to transform our lives for that week every Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. at Morris Hall from Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Collinsville, IL…A Spiritual Home from Everyone where we strive to Be, Grow and Make Disciples. Deacon Jimmy: Hello, I’m Deacon Jimmy… Aaron Emig: And I’m Aaron Emig… We are so grateful to have Riley from the Totus Tuus team at SSPP Parish… Riley attends Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, IN and studies physics and math… And this week are celebrating the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time… And our question for the week is: Are you open to the “cultivation” necessary to be “good soil”? This week’s Gospel come from: Matthew 13:24-43 Deacon Jimmy: When reflecting on this Gospel, two thoughts came to me …. The first don’t be a weed. Last week we heard our Loving Lord telling us in the Gospel to be good soil. Today it seems as if He’s telling us, don’t be a weed. We are called to be a good seed not a bad one. Another thought…… Life is not fair. How many times we have heard people say that, “Life is not Fair.” Maybe we’ve even said it ourselves. Life is not Fair. In today’s Gospel, it seems that life is not fair for this farmer. He works hard to sow good seed, then along came someone to try to mess things up for him. They sowed weeds in his fields. That’s not fair. But the farmer was patient and faithful and in the end things got sorted out. Literally things got sorted out, the wheat from the weeds, the good from the bad. Riley: Aaron Emig: Jesus tells us 3 parables in this week’s gospel… The weeds in the first parable are people of the evil one… Once the harvest is ready which is the end of the age… Angels will come down and collect and burn those weeds… So that the Son of Man, the word and the children of God can spend time with our Father in paradise. What type of seeds are you sowing every day? Deacon Jimmy: Our loving Lord God has a way of making life fair. Sometimes it’s not always when or the way we want it to be. We must be patient and faithful. When it seems that life is not fair to us, how do we react? Do we get bitter, angry, discouraged, depressed or jealous? Or are we like the farmer in the Gospel, are we patient and faithful, accepting what life has to offer, good and bad, all the while trusting in our loving Lord? The master of the harvest. We need to know that if we remain faithful, that in God’s time, in God’s way, that God always has a way of making life fair. If not now... in eternity. Riley: Aaron Emig: To enter paradise with our Father… It all starts by building our personal relationship with Jesus… Yes, I do sound like a broken record… But this is the fundamentals, the foundation, the rich soil that produces fruit that lasts forever… We just need chat with JC every day to grow our personal relationship with Him… Unlike human relationships, you have that opportunity to talk with Jesus 24/7, 365 days a year… How awesome is that? But it’s your decision to make and only yours… Deacon Jimmy: Wisdom Words of the Week are… “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ~Robert Lewis Stevenson Aaron Emig: The Transformation Tool is… A Quick Introduction to Bible CD by Matthew Kelly… Have you ever wondered how to read the Bible? It is quite overwhelming with all the books and chapter… Matthew Kelly give you game plan on how to read the Bible… We are giving out free copies at Morris Hall each Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. Aaron Emig: Transformation Tuesday Prayer… “Jesus, how do You want me to transform my life today?” Deacon Jimmy: God Bless you all from Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, a Spiritual Home for Everyone where we are striving to Be, Grow, and Make Disciples…

Sean Fahy preaches a sermon from Matthew 16:13-28 titled "Jesus - Yes!, Church - Yes!".

The post Jesus – Yes!, Church – Yes! appeared first on Reality Church Ventura.

Sean Fahy preaches a sermon from Matthew 16:13-28 titled "Jesus - Yes!, Church - Yes!".

At the outset, this may seem like an odd sermon. Is Pastor Dan REALLY about to compare Moms to Jesus? Yes... Yes he IS!!! The story of Jesus calming the storm has so many parallel's in our experience with our mom. Moms do so much for us. However, even when moms falter, there' still someone who covers the gaps!

How Do You Imagine Jesus? Yes It Matters! check out http://www.thesecondadam.com today!

Pastor Hoyt discusses with us today about the severity and reality of Hell.

Jesus offers three keys for us to live in the power of God. Find out what they are and what we're supposed to do with them.

Jesus offers three keys for us to live in the power of God. Find out what they are and what we're supposed to do with them.

A classic objection: "Jesus, Yes; the Church No."

A classic objection: "Jesus, Yes; the Church No."