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The dangerous trend of fake prophets on YouTube: 10 Qs with Mike Winger (Ep 76)
01:20:45
Question Time Stamps for Quick Reference:0:00 - Intro1. 0:52 {Fake Prophecies: How To!} How to make money from giving fake prophecies on YouTube. 2. 29:50 {Christians = Pushovers?} Where's the line between graciousness/meekness and tenacity in everyday life situations (such as a store manager not giving me a refund I'm rightfully due, or a restaurant stating no available seating despite me calling in advance and being told “yes” before driving all the way there)? I'm left feeling guilty when I push for what's right, but are we supposed to be pushovers?3. 36:30 {Tithing: A Universal Obligation?} Does Abram’s tithe to Melchizedek support that tithing is a universal moral obligation since that passage is pre-law and Melchizedek is a type of Christ? 4. 48:17 {Discerning the Spirit Realm} Coming out of the NAR where everything is over spiritualized, how would someone know if they are actually seeing into the spirit realm or if they need to see a doctor for psychiatric help?5. 51:55 {Was...
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The theme for today is for you guys to stay coo. I just thought that was funny. Stay coo. Stay coo, guys. Yeah, There's a lot going on in the world right now. Whatever else is going on, I hope and pray that your mind is centered upon the truth of God, the revelation of Jesus Christ, the reality of your salvation, and even the availability of the forgiveness of your sins, no matter how far you've gone. I believe that God's grace is available to you. The thing is, he wants a broken and contrite heart. You provide him with that, you come with a brokenheartedness genuine. I yield, Lord. There's grace. Remind yourself of that. Be encouraged by that. And, yeah, stay cool. All right, let's take the first question, which is going to be about how to do a fake prophecy grift on YouTube. I have studied their tactics. I have learned their. I could do it myself. I kid you not. I have literally got in my brain almost like an FBI agent who knows how to rob a bank if he wanted to, and to get away with it. Like, I've got. I know how to do it because I've studied these guys. Because in all honesty, I want to try to help protect you guys. I have the ear of some of the people who follow fake prophets and some of the people who follow teachers that are hurting them. And so when I talk about them, it delivers those people. You see, when I do these videos, it's not about the bad guy. It's about the victims of them, of the person. Anyways, so what is the fake prophecy grift? Well, I will give you some of the principles that I see, because if you understand how they do it, you will be protected against it. I believe so. Here we go. I do believe in prophecy. I do believe there are real prophetic people who actually have words from the Lord that they share, that are important, that are valuable, that are divinely being revealed to them. I believe that. That's one of my convictions. And unfortunately, when it comes to YouTube, people ask me, Mike, who's the prophet on YouTube? That you trust the guy who gets out there and just does prophecy all the time, and you're like, that guy's legit. I haven't found that guy yet. Okay? I'm not saying everybody out there is fake, because I haven't even examined everybody. I don't tend to look into people unless I have a reason to, and I haven't. But I haven't seen the guy that. That comes out squeaky clean as, like, this is a legit prophetic voice. Instead, they use some tactics often. So the successful ones who make millions and millions of dollars doing fake prophecy, this is some of the stuff that they do. Number one, they will not always do this, but this is a tactic that works a lot. They will just be prolific in the amount of prophetic output they have. They'll put out large numbers of videos, large numbers of hours, hours long videos. I know you're thinking, Mike, who are you talking. Who you talk about large numbers? I don't put out nearly as many hours of content as these guys do. They will prophetically ramble. I had a vision. I saw a thing. And they'll go through hours and hours of content. This is probably the number one most successful trick I've seen for the online stuff. They will then wait for something to happen that sounds similar to one of their many, many, many, many hours of prophecies. They'll find something, and then they will go back and grab that one and. And then they can highlight it and say, guys, I was right. Look, I prophesied this. It's right there. Now, the reason why this is sometimes successful is because there's so much content. They've got. They've got so many hours of stuff that they don't actually. They don't actually have people examining them. I know when I looked into Brandon Biggs, you guys remember this guy? Brandon Biggs was the guy who I would say is a fake prophet who brings harm to people. And I believe he's dangerous to people. Why am I picking on Brandon? He's dangerous to people. The same reason why you do a Yelp review about that restaurant that gave you food poisoning. That's the same reason. But Brandon Biggs is the Trump ear prophet, right? There's this video where he kind of like, if you just casually listen to it, not carefully, it sounds like he's prophesying that Trump would get shot in the ear. And then when it happened, he went back and shows he's got this video. But people don't realize that Brandon Biggs had this massive backlog of tons and tons and tons and tons of prophecies, and this one sort of came true. It's not accurate. It didn't really come true, but it was similar to what he prophesied. And because of this, he went viral, and he became a guest on all sorts of programs. And I'm telling you, all of a sudden, he's going from driving more of a junky car to driving a nice car and living in a small little place to Live in a really nice place. And the money, apparently, it looks like, started just rolling in. They. They started a foundation. They called it a prayer. I think it was called prayer or something. Foundation in the title, they called it foundation. Then they got called out on it, and they had to admit publicly, it's not a foundation. We're just saying prayer is our foundation. Super misleading stuff. Basically, it was a donation funnel that was not an accredited or a 501. It was just a donation funnel, it seems, anyways. But Brandon Biggs, how does he get away with it? Well, step one, prolific amounts of prophecy. Step two, when anything kind of hits, you highlight that and you go, look, I was right. I was right. And if anything's wrong, you go, if you have prolific prophecies, then you've got tons of prophecies that are wrong. What do you do with those? How do you recover from that? Well, the first thing you do is you count on people not remembering what you said. This is actually successful. Most of the time, they just don't remember. I remember there was one guy that used to prophesy. Every December, he'd prophesy about the coming year. And at one point I started writing down his prophecies. And then in the same spot next year when he prophesied again, I'd look at his last year's prophetic stuff, and I would examine whether it came to pass, because I found that I didn't remember any of was exciting in the moment to think you were hearing from the Lord, maybe about the coming year. But I didn't remember any of this. A year later, I had no recall of what it was that he prophesied. So there was no track record there. There was just memory of an exciting moment where you felt like maybe somebody was communicating something from the Holy Spirit. That's what happens most of the time with these guys. And so prolific amounts of prophecy ends up being stuff people don't remember. The other thing is that it's just for those of us like myself, who actually want to dig into and go, hey, if this guy's a real prophet, let's celebrate it. If he's manipulating people, maybe it should be exposed. Those of us like me who think that way, it's a lot of work to go through countless hours of prophetic stuff, and it's just tons of work. And that's why a lot of it doesn't get exposed, because it's just the amount of labor and effort it is to go through the content. It's just hours and hours and Hours and hours and hours. And you got to be really careful and specific. And these guys are reckless as anything, but you have to be very careful and cautious and very clear. And you have to have receipts and you got to have clips, and you got to have everything seen in context before you can go forward with anything. So you have to do the opposite of what they do. You have a high, laborious, intensive research project for them to be recklessly throwing out prophetic stuff all day long. So it just is unbalanced. So a lot of times they get away with stuff because nobody's looking, nobody's looking, nobody remembers. But there's other tricks, too. So Brandon Biggs does this as well. This Trump ear prophet, you know, he looks kind of like. Well, I want to say. I'm not trying to be rude. Even that sounds rude. I don't mean it that way. He's just a bald guy who's maybe a little bit overweight. And anyway, so you might recognize with a Southern accent, which. I like Southern accents. That's not an insult. Anyway, this guy, Brandon Biggs, what he'll do is he will also prophesy about, like, you know, what was it like? Italy will be hit by this massive underwater volcano and earthquake and all this tsunami and stuff. He'll say things like that. And then when it doesn't happen, he'll say, if people do bring it up, right, because people forget a lot of times, but that's a real specific one. People tend to remember those a little bit more. Then he will say, guys, it worked. We prayed it away. I actually watched him do this in a video, and he's super viral. The guy's doing amazing on YouTube. He makes way more money than I do. I'm confident, which is fine. I mean, I don't. I get a paycheck. I don't make the ad revenue. So I don't know. And I don't take personal donations. Anyway, so it all just goes to the ministry and I get a check. Anyhow, the. This guy's being very. It's working is my point. Brandon Biggs, it's totally working. He's an example of how to make the fake prophecy grift on YouTube and be rich and infamous, but also within a certain circle, famous. So he does this, and then he says, after he gave a prophecy about specific stuff happening, like at the Olympics, this will happen. It was really doom and gloom. Specific didn't happen. I think that might have been the example I'm remembering here. Then he came out later and he goes Instead of I got it wrong, he opens the video with, guys, we did it, we did it. We prayed it away. The Lord warned us and we prayed it away. And so I in principle believe that God can give you a warning and you can pray and it can be a warning that you're saved from. Jonah is a perfect example of this, right? Jonah prophesied to Nineveh, they repent and God forgives them. But the prophet Jonah knew, even in the moment of prophesying, he was aware and may have communicated to the Ninevites. If nothing, the Holy Spirit communicated to them somehow that if they repented, they could be forgiven and it could avert this coming judgment. And there's times the Israelites knew this stuff as well. But there are times when prophecy comes and it doesn't have that sense at all that there's like, oh, let's pray this away. This is an easy measure to pull out, to pull out of his pocket anytime he's wrong. Oh, we prayed it away. We prayed it away. We prayed it away. And I don't think that there was this massive worldwide prayer that prayed this away. I think it's just Brandon was wrong and now he's going to claim victory still. So that's one of the grifts you do now. You're going to lose some audience members, but the people who stick around will be even more locked in because now they're thinking, this guy not only warns us of stuff to come, but now when he says things and we pray, we can actually prevent that stuff. So now he's impossible to disprove. He can never be disproven, because even if his prophecies don't come to pass, we prayed it away. It's too easy to say we prayed it away. There's no massive, you know, with Nineveh, it was easy. We knew they prayed it away. Why? Because there was a massive nationwide or statewide or whatever you want to call it, repentance and prayer and fasting before God. So, yes, it's reasonable to say that they prayed it away, right? But that's about the only time and not like the Brandon big stuff. Then there's the issue of vagaries. So some of Brandon's prophecies are very specific, but a lot of them are very vague. And I'm actually not inherently opposed to vague prophecy, because prophecy can be vague. Lord's warning you something is going on in your life and it's wrong and you have to stop or else he's going to come down on you. For it. That may be a word from the Lord, but we have to admit that vague prophecies can be used to manipulate people and to avoid any kind of accountability in your prophetic statements. So vague prophecies, that's one of the things that will be done and is done frequently. That's easy to spot because when you actually. And this is what happened with when I wrote down this one guy's prophetic words every year and I started writing, I did it for three years, then I quit in December. He'd give a prophetic word, I'd write it down. And then I stopped. After the third year, I just said, forget this. And the reason why is because when I looked back at what I wrote down the year before, I realized it was what the remnant radio guys call a nothing burger, meaning it was just a lot of words. But ultimately it signified nothing. It just didn't mean anything. The Lord's working. He's renewing things, things. He's uncovering things. He's protecting things. He's exposing things. He's guarding you. He's equipping you. This is a season where there's going to be a shift and there's going to be a convergence, and we use words like that. But ultimately, the prophecies were so vague that a year later, when I looked at them in my book, I went, I actually can't test this because this is just stuff that happens every year. And I did that the third year. I said, forget it. I just stopped. I just quit. And I would recommend, if you're listening with your ears glued to someone who's a prophetic voice, who tends to. When you actually really think about what they're saying, they tend to say nothing. A lot of nothing. That's probably a grift. There's a good chance that's just a grift. So that's another one of the things people can do. One of the tricks that they can pull. Another thing that they can pull is prophetic spin. And so oftentimes, if you're doing fake prophecy, your prophecies won't line up perfectly with the events that take place. And Brandon Biggs did this with Donald Trump with him being shot. Brandon got lucky. I just genuinely think he got lucky where he said he had a vision where Trump was shot and the bullet went past his ears and did not hit him, and that the sound waves from the bullet ruptured Trump's ear, and so there was blood. Okay. Some of those details came after the event took place, and some came before. But Brandon was milking this like crazy. This is what launched him into the stratosphere as far as views and all this stuff. And he's a fake prophet and a dangerous man, and I have no qualms about that. He's great. Swelling words of emptiness. He is a terror to those who follow him. They probably have nightmares on a regular basis from his terrorizing visions. So he's. It's. It's bad stuff. But what he did with the Trump thing is you do prophetic spin where you have a prophecy that was not actually accurate, but some details look similar to what happened. And so you go, I'm going to take this and spin it. And so in his retelling of the Trump prophecies, and I've already outlined this in my Brandon Biggs video, which I'll link down below for those who are like, tell me more about this guy Mike. I did a whole video on this guy, long video warning about Brandon Biggs. He. He's only grown more since then. So I'll put that video below for the sake of the people he's going to ruin. And others do the same thing. They will take what they said is prophetically, but when they repeat how they prophesied now it's not, maybe this will happen. I said it was going to happen, not it might happen. Right. And they'll add more details and they'll massage the facts so it looks like they had a really accurate prophecy. So a test for online prophecy is let me listen to the original prophetic word, not you telling me about your prophetic word. I'd like to actually hear it myself because this can even just be human error where he's excited and he's retelling the story and he's just being inaccurate. But you can't do that with prophetic stuff. So that's another one of the things that they do. Another one, though, is following trends. So I think this guy is it Sadhguru, is that the guy who is doing prophecy stuff online. I looked into him once because people kept asking me to. I never did a video on it. I just spent a little bit of time on it. And he did what I've seen a number of other guys do, which is you follow the news or you follow the trends, like say in cryptocurrency or in weather, weather trends. And you just follow one of those categories, maybe politics, a little more than the average person does, and then you know more about it than they do. Right. So you have insights that are not based on Revelation, but that are based on the newspaper, that are based on. I don't know if anybody reads those anymore that are based on articles or maybe podcasts you listen to where it's like a financial podcast that you really trust these guys and they say, this is coming with crypto, or this is coming with the market, or you're looking at weather reports and you're just paying more attention to weather than other people are. And what you can do is you can then put what you expect to happen based upon your research into prophecy. So I saw this with this Indian guru guy, and he was talking about weather stuff that was going to happen. And I looked it up and sure enough, there were articles from before he made his prophecy that all that stuff was going to happen. So he was most likely just reading the news, looking at articles, and then couching it as prophecy. So if I think that silver is about to jump or that gold is about to go up in value, because I'm following this financial advisor online, and then you can actually find correspondence where it's like, oh, so? And so whenever they prophesy that we should invest in gold or we should hunker down and, you know, get our money in cash instead of, you know, investments or something, Whenever the prophet says this, it's also when Dave Ramsey is saying it, you know, and you'll have, like, connections. You can find out who they listen to if you actually pay a lot of attention to that kind of thing and who they're reading. So James Gaul is a guy who I believe did this, and I'm convinced of this, and I made a video about it. James has reached out to me, said I'm wrong, and he didn't do it. I think that he's being deceitful. So because it's a matter of public issue, and because there's actual. If he's lying in God's name, that's blasphemy against high, blasphemy against God. And it is an affront and a harm to people who follow Christ and an embarrassment to the name of Christ around the world. So it's high stakes. You know, prophecy is either amazingly glorious or it's terribly evil, and there's not a whole lot in between there. I'd give a little bit of wiggle room to people who just make mistakes, but no, people who regularly deceive others. That's huge. So looking up information, being a little bit more informed on a topic than others, and then couching it in prophecy, that's another thing. Another one is not so much information. It's just following trends, okay? And acting like you're announcing something that is already happening. This happens a lot in prophetic spaces as well. And what you do is you say things like, guys, in 2026, I can sense it coming. There's going to be. I saw guys do this. There's going to be more exposure. There's going to be more exposure in the prophetic realm of people who are being dishonest and people who are being manipulative and they're not being really in tune with the Holy Spirit. I'm trying to think how they might say it. And their ministry is not pure. And there's even people who are wrongly exposed. And so we have to be careful about that because there's also people who are going to go too far with exposing things. And so they're going to be, you know, wrongly exposing people or maybe getting carnal and getting into the flesh in these. In this. In this stuff that's going on. And this was a prophetic word I heard from multiple people who I'm convinced are fake prophets going into 2026. They gave these words. Now, what I thought, being a guy who's been involved in this space for a little bit is, guys, this is already. Nothing's. This isn't news. This has already been happening. And I've literally Even heading into 2026, me, Michael Inger. I've already announced I have multiple other videos to make about multiple people in the charismatic movement. So this isn't even news at all. We know we can smell it in the air, and there's a tide. And there's other people like the minor prophets and like Ron Cantor and Blaze from Wake up and Win. And you, you've got these other YouTube channels that are involved in helping expose things. And these guys, everybody knows this. So what you do is you take something that is already true and everybody knows it, but you're really good with your words, and you massage the audience and you get them to think that you stating the obvious is actually prophecy. Now, here's where it gets scary. That kind of fake prophecy can be utilized to protect you. Well, I know that now. I warned you guys last year that there's going to be good exposures, but there's going to be bad exposures. And I warned you guys about this. And I just want you to know that now I'm your person who will tell you which exposures are good and which are bad. And you can look to me. And Mike Winger's done some good stuff, but there's some bad stuff, too, and he's not really right about everybody. And I'll be vague about it, and I won't give any details, and I won't answer any of the evidence or witnesses or testimony or any of that, but I've got this prophecy I can use now to tell you there's going to be some bad exposures, too. I warned you guys about this. Trust me. Trust me. So prophecy can be used in that sense to manipulate you, do the either or thing. You also prophesy two sides of a coin, which I just demonstrated, but I didn't call it out as what it is. You prophesy the pro and the con. There's going to be some economic shaking going on in the country, and some things are going to be up and doing really amazing, and some things are going to be torn down and be destroyed. And I'm like, dude, that's like every year. And with the advent of AI and the shifts that are going on, yeah, we all know that's already the case, but it allows you later that year to have false confirmations. Every time something does good, you go, see, I said some things would be lifted up. And every time something goes bad, you can go, see, I told you that some things would be destroyed or torn down in the economy. So it's that kind of thing. This vague prophecy grift is amazingly successful on YouTube. And. And I think it's primarily because we are not a community, okay? We're not a natural, normal community. This is a parasocial thing, right? That's the nature of YouTube. You guys kind of know me, and if I'm honest with you about who I am, then you really do know me. If I'm transparent and real as I talk to you right now, then the mic that you would meet in person would be the same guy that you're meeting now. Now, it might be weird to hear me, like, joking about stuff I never talk about online or saying, hey, let's watch a show or something that might seem strange, or telling you that I like to play Nintendo sometimes might be kind of funny, but it's still the same me. Now, that is probably not normal online. I think if we're honest, you're not really getting full people, even with me. You're getting a real me, but you're not getting the full me. You're not getting the full me. You've never seen me just have a bad day and be irritated at somebody that I care about, which I've done even recently. Which I've apologized for. So I think that you have to know. You don't know the full person. But this parasocial dynamic where you're on YouTube and you have this prophecy output that you can then massage and filter, you can delete old videos. If you said something really embarrassing, which Brandon Biggs deletes stuff all the time. Even any prophet who deletes old videos, I immediately put them on a list of, I don't trust this man. He's not willing to let his words stay online. Okay, so just that alone. But most of their followers don't know if they delete videos. They would just assume that there's a good reason if they did. And there's not a lot of discernment that usually happens in those circles. So as I saying, yes, the nature of the parasocial relationship on YouTube, so it creates a lack of accountability. People on YouTube are bigger than life. You know, when I go to church, I'm just the guy sitting in the church. I'm just another guy in the church. Nothing special on YouTube. I'm bigger than life, whether I like it or not. That's the nature of the medium. You know, like, here's me talking. There's 2,000 people in the. Over 2,000 in the live stream right now. It just inherently makes you outsized. You know, you probably think I've said this before, but you probably think too much of me. I'm probably smaller than you, than you think. I mean, I'm six foot tall. Okay, that's very curious. But I'm probably like, me as a person. I'm just like another normal guy that you would see. That's how you should view me. If you ever meet me in person, feel free to treat me as a normal guy, not a celebrity, any of that. But it's just going to happen anyways. I'll meet somebody and then they blush because they're just like, oh, my gosh, I'm meeting this guy, or whatever, and they forget to say things they were trying to say and they get nervous. And I get it, you didn't do anything wrong if that was you. But it shows you the bigger than life nature of online. Now imagine if I was a prophet, if I was getting online and I was like, literally the prophet Mike, and I'm coming to tell you what God's doing in government and what God's doing in the church and what God's doing in your life. And I'm giving you words, prophetic words. Oh, there's another one I should Mention, I'll mention in a minute. Prophetic positive thinking. I'll talk about that later, then I'll go to your guys questions in the live chat. By the way, so I'm pro, I'm the prophet. So I have this like sort of outsized personality and outsized level of respect to people who don't know me at all. This is the real problem. There's no accountability online. There just isn't any. My accountability. The only accountability online is if things get exposed, then when your audience knows what you did, then you can be accountable online. But otherwise, unless someone exposes you or expose yourself, there is zero accountability online. This is where the local church steps in. This is where I like what remnant radio, what those guys say when they say make prophecy local again. You see, they went on a journey. Guys who are very charismatic, very much believe in the gifts, very much engaged in those things. And they went on a journey of like trying to evaluate some of the stuff that goes on on YouTube. They felt like it was not getting any sort of critical thinking or any sort of discernment. And they feel their hearts, I think, go out to people who watch these YouTube prophets. They think maybe they need some assistance because prophecy according to scripture is supposed to be tested, right? Let two or three prophets speak and let the others judge. But on YouTube there's no judge of anything for the most part, unless we make it happen, it doesn't happen. So they started testing prophecies and at the end of the year, instead of giving prophetic words like everybody does at the end of the year, they would pull up prophetic words from earlier that year and test them. So from a variety of different prophets in the charismatic circle and on YouTube in particular. And they found them wrong so many times. I don't know if they ever found one that they thought that's legit, that's 100% legit. I trust that. And that was good. I don't know if they ever found one that was like that. They found some that were like, maybe that's good. But for the most part it was just junk. It was just online junk and waste of time stuff. These are guys who were looking for good. In fact, they invited me to do one of their prophetic reviews one time, which is why I did James Goll. And I told them I'd love to do it. But guys, I'm always like exposing things that are wrong. I mean, usually I do Bible teaching, but when I do talk about these things, it's like I'm always going and this guy was wrong, and you guys should know. Can you give me a prophecy that you think is legit? Because I would like to be able to go, I tested this, and I think it's real. That was my preference. So they gave me James Goll because his was really specific and it looked like it was fulfilled. And I discovered that, in my opinion, he just was reading the newspaper, and I called him the newspaper prophet for a reason. And that's all in a video. I'll link it down below. The James Gall thing. I'll link that below along with the Brandon Biggs video. You guys can check that out. But remnant radio, after a while, they were like, we just need to make prophecy local again, because we need accountability. This testing that's being done. These guys are online for years and nobody ever tests them. But if they were in a local church as, like, just another person in the church and they had a word, you could test it locally. You could confirm. You would know the person they're talking to. They're in the room. And so testing it, testing it, testing it, that's necessary. The Bible commands you to test prophecy. If you're watching YouTube prophets and you don't test their prophecies, you're not following scripture. Okay, two more things than your questions. The first is prophetic positive thinking. And this is where they say nice things about you. They're super, super vague. Paula White. Cain does this all the time. Paula White, the senior advisor, religious advisor, I think is her position to the president. She runs the faith office for the White House, which is a travesty. Some of you think I'm being judgmental. No, this is true. It's really. It's like if the head of the Mormon Church was running the faith White House, it would just be obviously a bad idea, right? So Paula White doing it is obviously a bad idea. But she will do this positive thinking thing. She'll post stuff on Facebook about like, today's gonna be your breakthrough. This year is gonna be the year of your financial independence in Jesus name. And they say things like that that really minister to people in a way is a good ministry. Probably not, but they, you know, it scratches the itch. And that stuff comes out all the time. And then when it doesn't happen, it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything. You just keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. When their prophecies don't come to pass, when their promises don't come true, it doesn't mean anything because there is no accountability in that space. So, yeah, prophetic positive thinking. Now, Westerners, Americans are particularly weak to this. We're weak to positive thinking. We've sort of our culture, we've worn ourselves down to it where if somebody could be the worst person on the planet, they could be like super evil. But when you meet them, they're like, man, it's so good to meet you. You're handsome and good looking and wow, you're so smart. And they could just say nice things about you. And because of our culture, you'd be like, I don't know, I like that guy. It wouldn't matter who he was. It would matter that he said nice things to me. We are like that. And the fake prophet grift takes advantage of that. And that's really unfortunate. I said there was two things. There was one other. What was it? I forget. I forget. So, yeah, maybe I'll remember it later. We'll see. But I'm gonna go to your guys. Questions? Yeah, that's the thing. Watch out for the fake prophecy stuff. It's a huge grift on YouTube. It is actually very successful and the majority of them don't make it, but there's always the ones that do. Brandon Biggs is a great example. Someone who's been absolutely proven to be false, who has actually been successful because they don't need. They don't need the majority of people to not catch on. They just need enough people to not catch on. And that is, in his case, exactly what's happened. So guard yourself. Real prophecy is amazing. It's from the Lord. It's beautiful, it's good, we like it. And it's definitely not any of the stuff I just described. Okay, let's go to your questions in the live chat. Question number two. This comes in from an anonymous person. Where's the line between graciousness, meekness, and tenacity in everyday life? Situations such as a store manager not giving me a refund I'm rightfully due, or a restaurant stating no available seating despite me calling in advance and being told yes before driving all the way there, I'm left feeling guilty when I push for what's right. But are we supposed to be pushovers? That's a really interesting question. That's a super interesting question. There are times where we see in scripture people pushing for stuff that is like a rite. You know, Paul appeals to Caesar against the persecution that he's receiving. We have things like that where obviously there's a guy standing. Now this is a life death situation. It's not an inconvenience, like you don't get the restaurant seating that you wanted. Overall, I think that a. I think the things I would think are sound biblically speaking would be like. And let me try to unpack it a little bit for you. So we have with Jesus, he says, like, hey, your brother sins against you. Go and tell him. There is a sense in which we are not just passively quiet whenever people wound us, we can also confront them. Now that encourages me, like, hey, that's actually wrong what just happened there. And it's okay to, as a default, be able to say that, be able to say, hey, that's wrong what you're doing or what just happened. Because there's this sense of which when they sin against you, go confront them, go and tell them. But the agenda of telling them is to fix the problem, not just for me to get catharsis in arguing with the person. That's the danger of my flesh. My flesh just wants to. And I've totally done this myself, my flesh just wants to just get out there how upset I am or how bothered I am and how wrong it is. And there's a sense in which that can be healthy to one degree, but it can also be dangerous. It's kind of a mixed bag. So the nature of confrontation suggests that maybe we should go forward and say things like, hey, you know, I did call ahead of time. Can I talk to your manager about this? But you can be gracious about it, you can be meek about it in the process of confrontation. And there is, however, scripture that says wisdom that is from above is willing to yield. In James, it tells us, they said it's willing to yield. And that willingness to yield, to not insist on my way and on what I deserve all the time, that is something we should have in our pocket as Christians. And we can say, hey, maybe it's wise in this situation, just let it go. And I've definitely let lots of things go. And as you have, as you guys have, there's lots of things you let go because you go, this isn't worth it. I remember a guy who, I cut him off unintentionally. I was 18, just leaving high school. Senior year, I was driving out in my 66 Mustang, which was my first car, and it was not in great shape. It was a cool car. And I pulled out of the high school parking lot and as I was pulling out into the slow lane, there was a guy, there was a three lane road there, There was a guy in the next lane over who As I start pulling out, I see his blinker on and I don't know if it had already been on. I missed it. Let's assume it was. He's going to get into my lane and I'm pulling out, which created a dangerous situation because he's probably looking behind himself as he's changing, as he's beginning to change lanes and doesn't see that I'm pulling out. So this was my mistake. I shouldn't have pulled out. Then the man pulled up in front of me. He was very mad. He honked at me, pulled up in front of me and he slammed on his brakes all the way to a complete stop. He didn't just brake check me. He hit his brakes, completely stopped. Now I'm driving an old boat of a car, a very heavy car. There is no anti lock brake system in the 1966 Mustang. It is powered by your foot. Okay? I am shoving my foot down on that brake. My car is skidding, which means it's like actually wiggling around in the road because again, there's no analog brakes and, and the bucket seats are flopping forward and I'm getting pushed against the steering wheel. This is super hard material and there's no crumple zones. It's a very dangerous thing. There's no shoulder belt. There's just a little old school lap belt buckle. And my backpack's flying in my car. And I come to a stop. I mean, less than a foot, probably from his bumper. I am amazed I didn't hit him. And it probably would have hurt him and it definitely would have hurt me. There's no safety in that car. I was irate. I was so mad that he did this. I was just beyond angry. I wanted to fight him. That was the first thought. I just wanted to go and punch him or something. That was the first instinct I had. Now again, I'm 18 years old, but I am a Christian and I'm serious about that. And so he then begins driving and he just looks smug, like mission accomplished. I think he feels like he did to me whatever I did to him. Maybe, but I wanted to follow the guy. I mean, he's right in front of me. I just wanted to follow him wherever he went. And oh man, I wanted it so bad. And then I thought about the Lord and I thought about. And I'd been reading proverbs and stuff like that. And so I put my blinker on and I took the very first turn. Immediately after that, I just, I need to get away from it as fast as possible because I'm so mad. I don't know what I'll do if I'm still in this guy's sight. And so I pulled away and I just got out of there. And I'm really glad I did that. That was wisdom as above is willing to yield from above. I could have had a beef with him and pushed it, but I would not have handled it right. I would have gotten in the flesh. There's a good chance it would have ended up in us being in blows. Now, I haven't had an adult fight with anybody, nor do I hope that ever happens. But you wonder where it would have gone, right? So at that moment, yeah, that was wisdom from above willing to yield. I was in the right. I was in the right to confront the man, but I would have sinned had I done so. Be mindful of your own sinful temptations and that you may step into sin so that in your anger you do not sin, as Ephesians says. There's a few things. I feel like I'm going on about this, but, you know, there's a few things to juggle there and consider. You could consider that Paul's epistles, a lot of them are confrontations. They're not evil confrontations, they're not carnal, but they are confrontations. Paul confronted Peter, Jesus confronted the disciples multiple times. We do live in a culture that is averse to confrontation and probably would be healthy if as people, we were a little better at confronting, but doing so in a godly manner. Maybe that's the balance you're looking for, but knowing that it can be wisdom to yield. All right, number three. Jeremiah here says, does Abram's tithe to Melchizedek support that? Tithing is a universal moral obligation, since that passage is pre law and Melchizedek is a type of Christ. Thank you for your work. Yeah, let's think about this, because the debate about tithing is perpetual, like it's never going to go away. Do you have to tithe? I. I'll preface it with this is that we give on a regular basis to our own fellowship. And my whole life, since I was a teenager and I first thought about it and started giving from my allowance, I've been giving 10%. And then we do some stuff above and beyond, as a lot of Christians do, but not the majority. I think the majority of people that go to church, the tithing question is almost irrelevant because they don't even give 3%, let alone 10 of their income. And their church is probably struggling as a result. And there's probably a lot more that they could get done. Now, other churches, some churches are bad with finances and you just honestly can't trust them with a lot. And life is complicated. But I do think that we're supposed to be givers and give generously and all that. But the 10% rule, even though we do give 10% as a tradition, not as a rule, that rule is not biblically taught. Nowhere in the New Testament are you told to give 10%, the 10% tithe to Israel. It's weird how we'll take that and we take where God's like, give to the Levites 10%. That's going to feed them. It's going to take care of their needs. It's going to do this. You're also going to give this thing to that. Why is it that Christians aren't giving to the Levites? We take this thing out and we don't even do the real 10% that we see in the New Testament. There's differences. In fact, there's times where. In the Old Testament. I meant the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, they would take what would have been their tithe and they would spend it on, like, food and drink for a party, a feast day. This is a particular feast day in Israel where they would take what would have been their tithe and they would not give it to the Levite. They would spend it on stuff to celebrate for a feast, food and drink. And you never hear any of the people who ask for all their church members to give 10% say, well, for the month of August, save your 10% and let's have a big church party and you guys can buy whatever you want for it. Let's just have a great party. You never hear that because it's not a rule. And we're inconsistently applying Scripture. And the inconsistent application of Scripture is a red flag that you're doing it wrong. So that being said, we do have this story of Melchizedek, and this is not about the law. It's not about the law of Israel. It's not about. It is about Abraham hundreds of years before the law. So we're going to read a portion of that now to you guys. This is Hebrews chapter seven. Now, if perfection had been attained through the Levitical priesthood, and I'm going to skip explaining a lot of this stuff, but I want to give us the context for under it, the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek. This is about a prophecy in the Old Testament about Jesus Christ, rather than one named after the order of Aaron. For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one, the one of whom these things are spoken, belonged to another tribe that's talking about Jesus. He was of the tribe of Judah. He was not of the tribe of Levi, for which no one has ever served at the altar. So he's not of the priestly tribe, but he's our high priest. Well, how is Jesus our high priest if he's not of a priestly tribe? Well, he's of the order of Melchizedek, which is this amazing prophecy in the Psalms that only makes sense in light of Jesus. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not on the basis of legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect. But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. This is where we get, like the comparison. I have to give some commentary, I can't help it, between the Old Testament and. And that which was prior to the Old Testament and the Chronicles of Narnia. So in the Chronicles of Narnia, there's this law by which Aslan must die. That's if you know the story. You know, he takes the place of. What's his name? I don't know the story that well, apparently. And I forget his name anyway. I'll remember it later. And he takes his place and he dies in his stead. And then it breaks the tablet of the law. And then Aslan resurrects. And then this explanation is given that there was like a deeper magic or a deeper law. There was something that predated the law that then took effect because of the sacrifice that took place there. And this is kind of Hebrews doing that. It's saying, like, Jesus was foreshadowed before even Moses. Law shows up and it's in Melchizedek and then in a prophecy about Melchizedek. And that's pretty cool, right? Because the New Testament is in the Old Testament. Concealed. For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness. For the law made nothing perfect. But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath. I'm gonna. Let me see. I'm gonna find where the tithe takes place. There's a lot here. Give me a second. I'm gonna find this, the verse that actually mentions the tithe. Because I know my time is going to run out and I can't help but comment more. Okay, yeah, yeah, I jumped. I jumped to the wrong spot. Okay, Hebrews 7, starting in verse 1. For this Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of kings and blessed him. Okay, background here. Abraham goes and rescues Lot. They have a battle and he wins. And they get all the spoils of the war. And on the way back, delivering the prisoners and all this stuff, he meets this guy, Melchizedek, and Abraham, Melchizedek, he's the king of Salem, which became Jerusalem. I think there's some debate on is it that Salem? Because there's multiple. But I think it is. And the priest of the most High God. So he was a priest in Salem. He's like a picture of Christ, basically. And Abraham gives him 10% of the spoils of the war, and then he keeps none of it for himself because he won't let it be said that that's how he attained his riches. So to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all being first, or first being translated, king of righteousness. That's what Melchizedek means. Melekzedek, King, righteousness, and then also King of Salem, meaning king of peace. So Melchizedek is the king of righteousness and the king of peace, New Testament. Doing Christology typology stuff over here. Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like a son, like the son of God, remains a priest continually. Now we can get into the Christology of this. I think it's about the narrative. I don't think that the real Melchizedek had no genealogy or had no father or mother. I think in the narrative, he didn't have one. And it was constructed that way so as to be a better picture of Jesus. Anyway, that's another debate, but I have a video on that. You can look it up. I'll link it below. About Melchizedek. So here's the question. If he Tithes to Melchizedek and by which even the Levites, in a sense, tithe to Melchizedek. As you could read on in verse 4, this concept of tithing, does it then become binding upon all Christians that we are supposed to give to our local fellowships 10% of all of our income because Abraham tithed to Melchizedek? All of that was to get to this question. And the answer I have is, why would I think that? And it's important to ask it that way because in a sense, I feel trapped when I'm asked this question. I go, I don't know how to defend this except to say I see no evidence of that conclusion. Just the fact that Abraham tied like Abraham dug a well. Are Christians all supposed to dig wells in their churches? Should every church have its own well because Abraham dug wells? Abraham left his homeland. Should all Christians leave their homeland and relocate once they get saved? I don't understand why. I would think that if Abraham tithing to Melchizedek one time only, that that means that Christians are supposed to give 10% of their income to their local fellowships. Every single paycheck or every single month or week or whatever, forever. It just doesn't compute to me. I don't see. I don't see it. The best you could do is you could say, and this is probably the strongest case one could make for tithing, in my opinion, okay, for a 10% tithe, because the word tithe means 10th. I think offering Christians should be offering and giving, and they should give freely according to however they're prospering. And if you're really struggling, I don't think you should give as much. That's my controversial opinion. Someone came to my church and they're like, man, financially things are really rough. I don't think I can even pay for our rent this month. I would be like, dude, don't offer. Can we take care of you instead of you giving an offering to the church this month? Can maybe the church come alongside the deacons, can look into this and say, hey, maybe they need some benevolence. Should go the other way around, right? Giving to the poor instead of taking from them. But maybe the strongest case for tithing could be, hey, it looks like when there's offerings in the Bible, 10% seems like a pretty consistent amount. That's what you got. Hey, why is it he just. Of all the things he could have given, he gave 10%. Hmm. Why did he give 10% and not 8%, 15%? You can say that and say Offerings seem like they're often 10%. That is probably the strongest case one could make for saying how much Christians should give to their local fellowship is 10%. But you in no way can make that binding upon people. You could only say, hey, offerings seem like they're 10%. Maybe 10% was good. But I have other objections to this as well. As, as I think about it in detail, I go, what, what if the guy at your church makes. It's a church with 20 people. It's, it's 35 people. Average sized church in the U.S. 35 people. You've got a pastor who's maybe on staff or part time, and you've got some volunteers in the church. And the guy that goes to the church there, he makes $30 million a year. And so they're all told, they're told in this 35 member church they're supposed to give 10%. And so this guy's supposed to give $3 million a year to this church of 35 people who have some volunteers. Is that wise to do that? Is that wisdom to give that much money to this local church? What if they're, you're like, I don't think they're actually that good with money. How about I give generously to my local church, but I also invest in ministries that I think I really trust what they'll do with this money. So I, I think it's complicated. Those are my opinions. I'm imagining a southern church here when I talk about this for some reason. But anyways, we'll go to the next question. Number four. Number four, and I know I can read it. All right, this comes from an anonymous person coming out of the NAR where everything is over spiritualized. How would someone know if they're actually seeing into the spirit realm or if they need to see a doctor for psychiatric help? Thank you. That is actually a super good question. I mean, people, some people would probably laugh at it or something. I think that's actually a really insightful good question. Well, I think you first. Step one, I would recommend get away from people that are kooky and don't ask them, you know what I mean? But then get around people who believe in the gifts, but who are willing to call balls and strikes. You gotta have access to somebody like that, right? This guy calls balls and strikes. He believes in the gifts, so he doesn't think everything is crazy, right? But he does call balls and strikes. So you find those people and then you become very transparent with them about what you're experiencing. They can help you have some discernment and wisdom. They can help you try to discern, like, am I experiencing something from God? Or is there maybe something else wrong with me? Is it the enemy? Is it maybe me? Some sort of delusions that I'm experiencing? And you can ask them for help and you bring in outsiders. Because this is what I know. I had a buddy who was schizophrenic. And the best thing he had going for him was because I've had two friends who were schizophrenic. One went off the rails, way off the deep end. He was utterly unteachable. He wouldn't listen to anybody. He just had his own mind, which he couldn't trust, and he believed it, and he wouldn't listen to anybody. I had another friend who was schizophrenic, who was humble, and he would listen to people, and he would even ask people. Like, he would come up and he would hit me up and be like, mike, are you upset with me? Because he knew in his mind he was building this, like, delusion, which he thought might be real. He couldn't tell that I was angry at him, and it was creating distance between us. And so he just asked me, and he believed me when I told him, like, no way, man. I'm not upset with you at all. I didn't realize you were thinking that, like, no, you're my friend. We're good. We're totally good. And it was so healthy because he was willing to check his thoughts with other people and trust those people. That's one really good thing for anybody who's dealing, even potentially with delusional thinking is check those ideas with people you trust, and then trust those people, but make sure they're not wackos. Another thing is to consider scripture. So is my visions consistent with scripture, or is it giving me new theology and maybe perhaps strange theology? Is that the case, then? Yeah, obviously it's not of the Lord. And I'm trying to think what else you might ask yourself, what impact do these experiences and things have in my life? Is it drawing me closer to Jesus in genuineness, or is it having a harmful impact on me? In which case you would at least question whether or not this is something that's from the Lord. At least ask that question. Those are some thoughts I've got. The scripture says, test all things. Hold fast that which is good. Do not believe every spirit. But when you are the one struggling with it internally. Well, let's look at the prophecy. It says in the Bible about prophecy in 1 Corinthians tells us, Let two or three prophets speak and let the others judge. Let the rest judge. The implication is that you outsource the discernment. When you're the one getting this revelation, you outsource the discernment about that to somebody else. Which is what I'm talking about, finding people you trust. Okay, let's go to the next question. Number five. Donna Grems says, I can't imagine Jesus depending on others for money. Didn't Jesus work as a carpenter for 15 plus years before he started his ministry at age 30? He was probably good at it. So he had his own money. I love that you're thinking about these things. These are questions. People often will read the Bible and it never occurs to them. But there is an answer for you. I'm trying to think of how to find this passage. It's in Luke. Luke talks about there was multiple women. I may not be able to find it. Maybe someone else will. Multiple women who provided for Jesus during his ministry. So we have, I'll give you like four pieces of evidence here. Right? So you have. First you've got. Jesus did work as a carpenter. And probably that doesn't imply large amounts of savings. And we say carpenter. He was probably more of like a. It wasn't like carpenters are more specialized now. He's. He's probably working with stone a lot and probably wood as well. And anyway just doing all kinds of stuff, building. Right. But he had that job. But we're not talking like he had like all the savings. It was probably more like they live day to day, you know, most likely, I'm guessing. But there's more evidence for this. Another one is when Jesus is confronted about talking about. I should say about how much, how much he has, like money they have and stuff. He says the Son of man has no place to lay his head. Right. The foxes have this, but he has no place to lay his head. The implication here is that he doesn't actually have, like, why doesn't he have a home in this place and a home in that place and a home in this place. We know he had a home in Nazareth, but it wouldn't have been his home really. It would have been his family's property and family's home. We also know that it said he had a home in Capernaum, except that was actually just Peter's house. That is called Jesus's house because he was staying there. Just like when I'm traveling, I call places home. Even though they're not really home. It's not my home. I own. When Jesus is talking about money and financial stuff in the scripture, he seems like he doesn't have much right. When they need to feed people, he multiplies bread and fish. He just doesn't seem like he goes around with much money. He seems poor. And it's actually important that he was poor. I think theologically it's important that he was poor. We do have this coat he has that's very nice. It's the one thing we know that he had that was nice. But somebody else made it and gave it to him. And so it was a gift. He had this nice coat that they gambled over because they didn't want to rip it up when they were crucifying him. And then we have. I mentioned I give several pieces of evidence. Then we have. I guess it's gonna be more than four. We have the apostles standing at the gate or the entrance to the temple, to the temple courtyard. And there they see a guy who is paralyzed, and he's reaching up for money. And they say to him, gold and silver we don't have. But what we do have, we give to you in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. And then he gets healed, and he rises up and I'm going, why do they not have gold and silver? Why don't they have gold and silver? Why would they not have gold and silver? Well, maybe because they didn't have gold and silver. And you're like, but wait a minute. Judas was guarding the money. They had money. Judas took care of it, right? That was money for the poor. This is another piece of the puzzle, is Jesus got money for the poor. He didn't just enrich himself with finances. Remember when Judas complained about the breaking of the alabaster flask or the box rather? And he goes, this could have been sold to get a lot of money for the poor. And then when it came to Judas enriching himself or getting wealthy off of donations, he was stealing when he was doing that, that he was a thief. So the money coming in wasn't like lining the pockets of the individuals. So, yeah, they were actually taking offerings for the poor. Paul takes offerings for the poor, not just for himself. So that's another piece of the puzzle that's there. But then we've got this statement in Luke that actually says that there were women who traveled with Jesus who provided for him out of their wealth, out of their finances. These are women who could afford to travel. They were well off. And so they took care of his needs, which implies that he couldn't do it himself, he just didn't have the money. So all of those things put together, I think Jesus depended on others for food and money and that he didn't enrich himself by it, but he did depend on others for it. And again, Jesus is only going to be around for three plus years of ministry and then he's going to be with the Father. So it's not like he needs to save retirement or he's not going to have kids and provide for a wife and kids. So it's not like I'm recommending other Christians live hand to mouth. But that is, it seems how Jesus lived based on all those things. And that's encouraging to me just to know it. Number six from Middle DZ says, how do people go about finding reliable definitions of specific terms in the Bible? Specifically words like the word works in James. There's tons of free Bible resources you can use. There's software like Logos Bible software which I do use and that will provide you with all kinds of resources. But there's lots of free resources. You can look up Greek and Hebrew resources online. I think stepbible, it might be.com or I think it's probably.org has resources about languages and stuff like that. I think blueletterbible.com also has free resources about languages to look up terms. But when you look up words, it's good to just be aware that there can be a lot more information you're not actually getting. So an example of resources like Strongs, which a lot of people know this one resource, it's a big old book you can get, you can get it online for free now because it's old. That is like level one resource. It's not that great to be honest, but it's better than nothing, right? Like I have strongs that's nice, but it's not actually that great for a few reasons. Like it gives you how it's translated in the King James, not necessarily the meaning of the word. And there's a difference there. So then there's other resources that are a little bit more thorough, but they're still nice and succinct like a quick dictionary. But there are some sources, resources that will give you a lot more detail. And like one of them is something called BDAG B D A G for the New Testament. Now this is like you might need to know just a little bit of Greek if you're going to understand this, but that gives you more information. Or the LSJ LSJ can be useful, too, although sometimes it tends towards, like, more like classical Greek and not just New Testament focused. BDAG focuses on New Testament usage of terms, which is more useful for us, usually. And that's one of the gold standards that people refer to. But those resources will give you even more details, and you can have some that give even more. You can even then go Google online and look up someone did their dissertation in the word work, Ergon, you know, in the New Testament. And they said, I'm going to do a whole thing on this. You know, there's people who've done that. Who is it Dan Wallace, who's like one of the premier scholars, as I understand it, for New Testament manuscripts and stuff right now. And he did his. Was it his PhD thing? I mean, it was a huge thing he did on the Word. The. The definite article in Greek. So, yeah, there's all these resources. They're all available. Just start Googling and start looking into stuff and just get your feet wet and you'll see what you see. And don't worry about it if you're a little over your head. And if you read and you go, I only understood 10% of that resource, that's okay. Just know that you only understood 10%. So you won't, you know, use the information poorly. Yeah. All right. Number seven, Robbie Badgett says, mike, do you have any advice on how I can get out of my own head while worshiping? I play bass on Sundays and my ego always tries to take over. Yeah, my advice would be to think about the people in Scripture who had an encounter with God and what they did when they had those encounters. Moses sees the burning bush and the Lord's there and he's like, take off your sandals free. Stand on holy ground. Or how about when he's delivering the law and God's presence is there on the mountain? And then they're all told, don't even touch the mountain. If even an animal touch this mountain, they will die. Or Elijah, who sees. Excuse me, I was thinking of Isaiah, who sees God? Sees God in Isaiah, chapter six. And he says, woe is me, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips. Or if you get even, New Testament John in the Book of Revelation, where he sees the Lord, he sees the Father, in some sense, he sees Jesus, a lamb, like a lamb that was slain. And he's so overwhelmed, he falls down on his face and he starts worshiping at an angel because he's just so overwhelmed with all this stuff. And the angel's like, hey, stop it. Don't do that. Worship God. What I'm saying is you're there worshiping, playing bass, and what you're doing is so small and minuscule compared to the incredible weight of the glory of God. And if you think about that and think about, oh my goodness, Lord I am, I even get to stand here and participate in the glorification of the Creator of the universe and the Savior of our souls, the one who died for our sins and rose again and just get like, anytime your awareness of yourself is overshadowing your time of praise and becoming like, oh, people see me. Forget all that and let that be the smallest little tiny atomic sized dot of concern compared to your awareness of the glory and goodness and strength and dignity and faith fearfulness of God. And that will solve that problem, I think, 100%. Yeah, do that. All right, number eight, Vanessa Klassen says, what is the prince referred to in Ezekiel 44:46? I've heard it explained as Jesus during the millennial kingdom, but that doesn't make sense given that he must sacrifice sin offerings. Thanks much. Here's where I will probably disappoint you, because I don't know, I have a lot of questions of my own about Ezek. Read through some of it though, because I just want to give a little bit of time to your question. So Ezekiel, I'm going to start just here in chapter 44. I won't read the whole three chapters that you mentioned, though. Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east, and it was shut. And the Lord said, this gate shall remain shut, it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it. For the Lord the God of Israel has entered by it, therefore it shall remain shut. Now people will take this. I'll give you some things people say. Okay, I'm not sure. My jury's still a little bit out on some of the interpretation of Ezekiel, and I'm just not sure. But some people will say this is messianic because Jesus, he'll be the one that enters through that gate. The east gate will open up and he'll enter through. And it's the same one he entered through on his way to Jerusalem coming from the Mount of Olives in the triumphal entry. So he says, only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate and shall go out by the same way. Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. And I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And I fell on my face. Reminder for the person who asked the last question fell on his face. And the Lord said to me, son of man, mark well, see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I shall tell you concerning all the statutes of the temple of the Lord and all its laws. And mark well the entrance to the temple and all the exits from the sanctuary and say to the rebellious house, to the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God, O house of Israel, enough of all your abominations in admitting foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh to be in my sanctuary. Profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood God's not literally eating. This is all metaphorical. You have broken my covenant in addition to all your abominations. And you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep my charge for you in my sanctuary. Thus says the Lord God, no foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel shall enter my sanctuary. So this is a cleansing. God's like, I'm going to cleanse the temple. I'm going to get things right. And. And you can read on. And it gets very detailed here. There's three full chapters that you're referencing. So it's rules for Levites. This is an establishment of a renewed temple. And in this section of Ezekiel, in these many chapters at the end of Ezekiel, there is a vision he has of a new temple being built. Now, no temple has ever been built that matches this description. It's like a mile square. It's massive, massive, massive temple area. And it's built up and it's huge and it's purified. And God says this is a good thing. And we have Jews and Gentiles worshiping together in this temple, which does cause some people to think this is about like the future when the Jews return and you have this mass salvation across Jewish people that I do believe Romans talks about, and I do expect to happen at some point, maybe long after I'm dead, at some point. So the prince that is discussed later on, could that be Jesus? And you're concerned about why is that Jesus? Why maybe that isn't Jesus. Although in some ways it's this messianic figure. It certainly in my mind makes a lot of sense. If it's Jesus, although I'm trying to be open to the idea that maybe I've misunderstood it. But how do you explain that he's sacrificing animals? In fact, in this temple, animal sacrifices do take place. They take place. And to a lot of Christians, this is considered taboo. And I should say, not just taboo. That's probably too weak of a term. It's considered an affront to the cross. To sacrifice animals in a temple even now, is an affront to the cross. Now here's where I'm going to back up and say I actually don't agree with that principle. That's the thing I disagree with. Now, if you do believe that you're going to feel pressure to re. I shouldn't say reinterpret, but you're going to feel pressure to lean a different way with your interpretation of Ezekiel. So you might say, oh, sure, that could even be Jesus. But it's all metaphorical. There's no literal temple. The sacrifices is just a symbol or symbolic of people being cognizant and aware of who Christ is, being covered by his blood. Jews and gentiles coming under the fullness of Christ, who is our sacrifice. He is the Lamb. And you can go that way. Maybe you're right. But if it is literal, if it's, if it's actually going to happen, there's a future coming where there'll be a giant big temple that's rebuilt, that is perhaps during the millennial kingdom. That's what a pre. Millennial view would say, or at least a lot of us would say. They'll build this temple and there'll be Jews and Gentiles and they'll be sacrificing in there. How is that theologically okay, okay, I'm going to give you a case now why I think that could be theologically okay. Number one, if it's. If sacrifices are all inherently wrong, if they're all inherently wrong, why is it that in the book of Acts, the apostles continued to do sacrifices in the temple after the resurrection of Jesus? And the response could be, well, this was. It was fading. It wasn't wrong yet, but it was fading. And I say, well, that is consistent with. Sort of consistent with what we read in Hebrews. But I think we're missing the point. I say sort of consistent because you're extrapolating with unevidenced assumptions to get there. So you have a verse that sounds like that, but you have to add some details to make it work. I'm going to push back on that and suggest that when Paul, years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, years later, when he's talking about how Jesus is the sacrifice and he's fighting against people who say otherwise or that another sacrifice is needed, and he's fighting against people who say, you need to have sacrifices in the temple or you can't be saved, you need to be circumcised, or you can't be saved. You got to be Jewish if you're going to be Christian. And Paul's fighting this fight. And yet that same Paul goes to the temple and makes an offering because he took a vow and he shaves his head off. And he went there to complete his vow, which involves a sacrifice. That's what scripture says in the Old Testament for this procedure, there's an animal sacrifice as part of that vow. Do you know that Paul would continue, like a year after the resurrection, they still did another Passover meal where they offered a lamb, where they did the whole thing. Paul said he wanted to be in Jerusalem for Passover. He's still an observing Jew. And the apostles were as well. And they were still engaging in these things in the New Testament. And I don't think they stopped. I don't think they stopped. But it's important to distinguish that the gentile Christians did not have to do those things and were not asked to do those things and were kind of dissuaded against doing those things if you're not circumcised. Paul says, don't become circumcised, means don't take all that on. But he also says, if you're circumcised, don't become uncircumcised. Which I know there's stuff about medical procedures that people think about here, but the point of what Paul's saying is if you're a Jew who becomes a believer in Jesus, who realizes he's the Messiah, you don't have to stop being Jewish. And this is the thing I think a lot of probably the majority of evangelicals would think I'm wrong about. And I think that they're mistaken about, because I did a careful study through acts of how Jews and Gentiles interact with the law, and I came to this conclusion. All that to say I'm droning on. I feel like I'm droning on this. I'll skip to the end. I don't think there's any problem with future temple, with future sacrifices that are specifically and explicitly done as a commemoration of how Jesus is our sacrifice, that this is merely like an illustration of How Jesus is our sacrifice. It's kind of like when people even now do Passover meals as Christians. Non Jewish groups of Christians will get together and they'll be like, let's have the bitter herbs and let's have all these things. And it's meant to commemorate what God did, and we use it to tell the story of Jesus. This temple would be a testimony if it is a premillennial, if that's even right, which I may very well be wrong. God knows the end times plan better than I do if it is premillennial. And that temple will be physical, and there will be Jews and Gentiles gathered together and physical sacrifices. I think that that will be something in honor of Christ, in honor of his sacrifice, and that the teaching in the temple will be, this is what it represents. But all those are a lot of ifs. Then who knows for sure? Because I'm still not convinced I know what Ezekiel is saying. All right, number nine. Thewepecdemarcus says former pastor Mike. That's funny. Thank you for your ministry. You're very welcome. What advice would you give someone who wants to change but keeps choosing laziness instead? Okay, I have one tip for you that has helped me a lot in my life. Obligate yourself to stuff that you're likely to not want to follow through with, and this will work for you. If you are a person of your word, if you're a man or woman of your word, if you say, I volunteer for that, I will do this. I will find this out and help you with it. I will research this thing and I will do a thing for it. I obligate myself to things. And this means that because I'm going to be honest with my word, I'm going to go through with it and do it. If you wishy washy, someone goes, hey, you want to come to this thing? And you're thinking like, I don't know, maybe. And you think, I probably should go. It would be good if I went, but I'm kind of lazy and I don't feel like it. That's when you go, yep, I'll be there. And then you have to show up. So you lock yourself into doing the right thing by making commitments. That's one thing that I found helpful. The other thing is to take a long look at the cost of laziness. And that's a depressing but very revealing moment. Proverbs is a great way to do this. Read the book of Proverbs and it talks about the lazy man and then just reflect and be like, if I behave in lazy ways, this is me. This is me. Read what it says about the lazy man or the sluggard and read go to the ant, you sluggard. Let's read it now. Let's read now what it says because it's good encouragement to all of us. Proverbs chapter 6. Starting in verse 6, put on your screen. Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. There's something inherently foolish about laziness. Like it's actually folly. And so it's wisdom is diligence, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. Okay. Key for those who deal with laziness, you need to self motivate. Don't require that someone is a taskmaster over you and husbands. If this is you, you turn your wife into the taskmaster because of. This does happen because of laziness. So she becomes the taskmaster who's like, and then you can actually start feeding into it by I'll wait till she pushes it and then I'll go do it. And I've done this now. My wife's never been a taskmaster. I don't mean that. That's a strong word to use. But I've done this where I've. I know where I've relaxed on a responsibility I had until she finally said something. Now there's. It doesn't mean you're a sluggard if you ever do that one time or if it happens every once in a while. But you don't want it to become this pattern or habit. Yeah. The ant has no captain, overseer or ruler yet. What does she do? She provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. What is this about? Summer and harvest are so different because they come very far apart. I've got tomatoes growing in my backyard. My favorite thing to grow because I make yummy, homemade from scratch pasta sauce and salsa and super yummy. It's like one of the few things I cook and it's super tasty, but man, it takes months and there's other crops that take even longer. So she provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. That is, she has long term plans where she's investing time and effort and energy so that there will be fruit much later on. And the sluggard or the lazy person doesn't project forward at how much his laziness will cost him long term. Think about those things. Go to the ant and Consider these things. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler and your knee like an armed man. Just one of the passages of scripture that speaks to the issue of laziness. So you actually scare yourself a little bit with your laziness, and you'll do better at it. And I believe you can do better. And good for you. All right, number 10, last question for today. It says, how do you explain to someone that is saved and still messes up, they still sin, that they are still going to heaven if they have trusted Christ for salvation? I will give you one passage of scripture I'll read on this. And here's where it gets sticky. I can't help it. I didn't make it sticky. The issue is inherently sticky because there are people who, when Jesus says that, when he sees them, he'll say, I never knew you. And they'll be like, lord, I did this in your name and did that. And he goes, I never knew you. Never not. I don't know you anymore. I never knew you. So there are those who think they're Christians and are not. I'm not going to address those people. I'm sorry that that fact exists. I know it disconcerts people. It makes you feel nervous to even be aware of that reality. But I do think scripture talks about this very clearly, and so we can't hide it or make it go away. But I'm going to speak to the person who's a believer who sins, which is going to be 100% of my audience, that is Christians. Okay, Romans 5. Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Those two verses, let me break them down for you a little bit better. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, if you're a Christian, you know, and many of you listening, you know, let's just say this is you. You're like, I. I struggle with, does Jesus still forgive me because I keep messing up? But you really are a believer. Well, you know that you're justified by faith. You know, going back in time, that thing on the cross that saves you. You know that when you first gave your life to Jesus, first trusted in him. You believe you are washed and clean. And it is now, years later, where you've messed up and messed up and messed up, even though you still truly believe in Jesus, even though you still truly are trying to follow Him. But there are some areas in your life where you've allowed carnality to just overwhelm. And that's your fault. And you allowed it. But, you know, looking back, you were totally forgiven, but now you're nervous that that grace you started with, that the salvation, the forgiveness you had initially, that it is somehow worn out, that has somehow gone soft, that it has lost its efficacy, that has been diluted, that its potency has dissipated, Right? That's the fear. But verse two helps us understand that, right? Both verse one and two. Let me read it again. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, that because I've been saved by faith, no works of my own, just purely made righteous because of trusting in Jesus. Therefore because of that, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You have actual peace. I like what I've heard. Was it James White like to highlight this? He goes, you don't have a ceasefire. You have peace. You don't have a temporary cessation of hostilities. You have peace with God. Through who? Through Christ. Not through yourself, not through your works, not through your goodness. Then verse two says, through him. Now this is the part I want you to highlight in your minds. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. That is, that grace that had first saved you, it didn't lose efficacy. No, no. Through Jesus you have obtained constant and continual access into that same grace. And you stand currently, ongoingly, today, years down the road. You stand now in the same grace that you were saved in. You are covered by the blood of Christ as fully as you ever were. You are given the righteousness of Jesus as your qualifications for heaven. And he has taken your sin, even that which you just did. And he has dealt with all of it on the cross. That which you have not done, he have dealt with sin as a category on the cross. He dealt with it all. And so I would want to encourage you that this is what it means to stand in the grace of Christ. And if you get this, that you understand that you stand in grace, then you have the result of verse 2. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And then your ideas of heaven, your ideas of the future, is rejoicing in is pleasure, is joy, not just fear. Where you're like, ah, I don't feel like I'm covered. I don't feel like I'm forgiven, something must be wrong. So please take that to heart. I can give you other verses as well. You could look at Hebrews 4:16. You could examine that passage as well. I think that you want to know what it means to stand in God's grace because it's good to feel conviction of sin, but it is not good to doubt the grace of God. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for this time to just talk about your word and hopefully be refined and refreshed. You are good, Lord, with all that's going on. We trust in you, we wait on you. And for our persistent sin issues that so many of us deal with, we pray for grace. And we don't just pray asking have grace on us. But Lord, we pray in faith, knowing that you do have grace on us. Because we stand by that same grace that Jesus purchased on the cross. We ask for your help. Transform us more into the image of Christ. Show us how to overcome with our regular struggles. Give us some greater insight, some greater wisdom, some greater ability, discernment to be able to navigate that stuff and overcome and honor you in those areas of our lives. Let us be overwhelmed by your glory and let our lives reflect that we actually believe in Jesus name Amen. Amen. All right, guys, it's been good. I'll see you next Friday and I'll have some other updates and so much going on, but I'm going to share that, save that for another time. So there we go.