Man, Luke chapter 11 beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads,
And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place,
when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,
Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
So just from this one verse, we can see the importance of prayer,
because it's something that Jesus himself did.
John did it.
John taught it to his disciples.
Jesus is teaching it to his disciples.
So it's something that all believers everywhere are to participate in.
The Bible commands us to pray without ceasing.
Now first of all, you say, you know, why is Jesus praying?
He's God in the flesh.
But Jesus, when he prayed, was not going through the motions,
or going through an exercise, nor are we going through the motions,
or going through an exercise when we pray,
but rather this is the Son praying to the Father,
because they're two different persons.
Amen?
Right?
The Trinity.
So this is two different persons.
That's why Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane and says,
Not my will be done, but thy will be done.
Right?
Two different wills.
Why?
Because Jesus is the Son of God,
because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost all compose God.
God is made up of, and has always been made up of,
and always will be made up of, these three.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
And so this is the Son praying to the Father in heaven.
And it's definitely not an exercise when there's sweat coming off him
like drops of blood as he pleads with the Father.
If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
He's not just doing that to give an example.
He clearly feels it very deeply,
and he's actually very sincere in his conversations with the Father,
and when the Bible talks about the Father loving the Son,
and the Son loving the Father,
it's actually a real relationship there.
Okay, so it says in verse 2,
And he said unto them,
When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
And he goes into what we know as the Lord's Prayer.
Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone that's indebted to us,
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
And then he moves on and begins to talk about the parable of the three loaves.
But first of all, let me say this.
This prayer is not meant to be chanted.
Now if you would, keep your finger there and flip over to Matthew 6,
because a lot of people have misinterpreted when Jesus says,
When you pray, say, and they think they're supposed to say those exact words,
and chant them over and over again, and repeat that over and over again.
Now the Roman Catholic Church will give this as an assignment.
If you've committed sin, then you go to the priest and confess.
He'll say, You need to do five Our Fathers.
And he's saying to chant this five.
Hey, ten Hail Marys and ten Our Fathers.
And that's what they do when they pray through the rosary.
They go through this, they go through the Hail Mary,
and they go back and forth, and they count it off on beads.
That is what the Bible condemns as a vain repetition.
Go if you would to Matthew chapter 6.
It says in verse number 7,
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do,
for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
So right there, that goes to show us that to be heard,
you don't have to pray in huge quantities.
You don't have to say things over and over again.
You don't have to go on and on for hours.
The Bible says you're not going to be heard because you said a lot.
That's what the heathen thinks.
Be not ye therefore like unto them,
for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him.
After this manner therefore pray ye.
So he's saying pray in this way.
This is a pattern prayer.
This is a sample prayer to pray like this.
And he gives the same prayer,
Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name.
And so again this is not to be a chant, but it's rather a pattern.
So go back to Luke chapter 11 and we'll go through this.
First of all it says,
Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name.
The first thing that we see is that when we pray we should be very respectful to God.
We should give him his proper respect.
Hallowed be thy name speaks to the fact that we should give
God the glory, praise, reverence, honor that he deserves.
So we say,
Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven so in earth.
So when we pray we should pray for God's will to be done.
We don't always know what the best outcome is in any given situation.
The Bible says in Romans 8 that we know not how to pray as we ought.
And therefore the Spirit maketh intercession for us
with groanings that cannot be uttered.
I can't even count how many times I've gone to the Lord in prayer
and I just didn't even know what to say.
I knew I needed to pray about a certain situation,
but the situation seemed so messed up or complicated
I didn't really understand what was needed to fix it.
And I just pray,
God let your will be done.
But whenever we pray we should always keep God's will in mind
and try to pray according to his will.
Because the Bible says that if we ask anything according to his will
he heareth us.
And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask
we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
So if we pray according to God's will
we're guaranteed to get our prayers answered.
So we want to try to get our prayers in tune with the types of things that God wants
and what we believe to be his will.
And also the Holy Spirit will make intercessions for us
with the things that we forget to say or the things that we don't understand to say.
So he's our prayer partner that will help us get the right prayers across
to the Father in heaven.
So we should pray that God's will be done.
Thy will be done as in heaven so in earth.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
Now this is most notably referring to our physical food.
We should pray that God will provide our physical needs.
Now notice he didn't say give us our daily filet mignon
or our daily surf and turf or our daily caviar.
Obviously we can't expect to always wine and dine in the lap of luxury.
But God does promise to meet our needs
and he'll give us the food that we need to sustain us, bread and water.
And whatever he gives us above that is a bonus, is a blessing.
And he does bless us with a lot of good food in this country.
So give us day by day our daily bread.
We could also pray for the bread of God's word
because man does not live by bread alone
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
And so we could pray open now mine eyes
that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
We could pray for God to feed us physically and from his word.
The Bible says forgive us our sins
for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.
Now in Matthew chapter 6 he goes into this in a little more detail.
He says forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
But then a few verses later he says
for if you forgive men their trespasses
your heavenly father will also forgive you.
But if you forgive not men their trespasses
neither will your father forgive your trespasses.
Now that's a pretty important thing to keep in mind.
When it comes to forgiving other people
is that however you forgive other people
that's how God's going to forgive you.
So be careful because with what measure you meet
it shall be measured to you again.
So when people do you wrong
you better be quick to forgive them.
You better be quick to let things go.
You better be quick to turn the other cheek
and to let things roll off of you.
Don't be a person who's bitter and holds a grudge
because if you do just expect God to chasten you fully
every time you make a mistake.
Now I don't know about you
but I want God to look the other way on some of my mistakes.
I don't want God to cloud up and rain on me
every little thing that I do wrong.
Okay but if I'm the type of person
who clouds up and rains on the people around me
for every little thing that they do wrong
that's exactly how God's going to treat me.
So if every time somebody makes the slightest mistake
I jump down their throat I get mad
a week later I'm still thinking about it
I'm still talking about it
three weeks later I'm still mad
then that means that when I sin
God is still going to be mad three weeks later
God is going to jump down my throat at the little
I'd rather that he gives me more grace
so then I'd better be quick to give other people around me grace.
So if you're great at forgiving people
then God's going to be lenient with you
and we all make mistakes
we all sin we all do wrong things
and so we need that grace
because if God were just strict with us
to the point where every single time
we do something wrong
he just brings down his scourge on us
boy we're in trouble big trouble.
Now this is exactly how it works in a family
I mean think about it
if we have children that are just exacting
every error from their younger children
how do you think that we as parents
are going to discipline that child?
We're going to come down on them
and you know we deal with this in real life
people because we have nine children
number 10 is on the way
so we've seen this play out many times
and you know sometimes an older sibling
just wants to hold the younger sibling to account
for every little thing that they do wrong
and come run and tattle on them
and tell on them and get them busted
but you know when we see that happening
we don't like that as parents.
We like it when they are kind to each other
and forgiving of each other
and when they let things go
not when they just come running to us
for every little infraction
of he did this she did that you know
and there's a thing it bothers us
it irritates us
and that child who comes to us
and wants to take their sibling to task
for every little thing
guess what
we're ready to just find an excuse
to punish them
to show them
and often we'll say to them
you know
well I can either spank both of you
or neither
and usually they walk away saying
do neither
because you know
if you want us to be that strict with them
well here's what you did wrong
okay so shall I discipline you both
but this is exactly how it is for us
even as adults
even as God's children
that if we are not gracious and forgiving
and long-suffering
then God's not going to be gracious
forgiving and long-suffering with us
because he can either punish us
at the drop of a hat
or he can let things go
now how many examples are there in the Bible
of God letting things go
a lot of examples right
I mean how many times did he say
well you know in the days of this king
they worshipped in the high places
but nevertheless his heart was perfect
before the Lord is God
well they made this mistake
they did this wrong
they didn't purify themselves the right way
they you know
but the Lord was gracious to them
you know God says
nevertheless their heart was
I mean there were a lot of people in the Bible
that got away with a lot of things
why?
because they had a godly forgiving heart toward others
and so God's going to treat them more leniently
but if you want to be really strict
with everybody around you
and especially unforgiving
because the main thing here is forgiving
if you forgive not men their trespasses against you
your heavenly father is not going to forgive your trespasses either
so if you're still holding a grudge about something from a week ago
or two days it's time to just let it go
not be bitter in your heart against your brothers and sisters in Christ
now obviously this has nothing to do with heaven and hell
you see my children will always be my children
no matter what they say or do
but there's still a big difference between me forgiving them their trespasses
and me coming down on them
and punishing them to the full extent of what they've done
every single time they do it
so if you would back there in Luke chapter 11
it says we forgive everyone that's indebted to us
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil
so we should pray to God that we would not be led into temptation
that we would not be put in situations where our flesh will cause us to sin
now he goes on to give this story
he said unto them
which of you shall have a friend and shall go into him at midnight
and say unto him friend lend me three loaves
now the reason the friend is capitalized
some people have made a big deal about this friend being capitalized here
the reason that the word friend is capitalized here is because this is the beginning of a quotation
the Bible does not use quotation marks in the King James Bible
no quotation marks
so every quotation is marked by capitalizing the first letter
so it says that the friend will say unto him
here's the quote of what he says
friend lend me three loaves
for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me
and I have nothing to set before him
and he from within shall answer and say trouble me not
the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed
I cannot rise and give thee
I say unto you though he will not rise and give him because he's his friend
yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needed
and so this is a parable about prayer
and what he's saying is that if you go to your friend's house at midnight
and start banging on his door
I need to borrow three loaves of bread
your friend's not going to like that
he's going to say hey the door's shut buddy
my children are now in bed with me
I cannot arise and give thee
leave me alone
what are you doing here at this hour
but here's what he's saying if you kept bugging that friend and just kept not
look I need three loaves
you know he's not going to do it because he's your friend
but he might just to shut you up
right just here take it get out of here
leave us alone
right isn't that what it's saying
so what the bible is saying is that if we
go to the lord and ask him and continually ask him
he will answer us because of our importunity
because of just coming back
and he gives another story where there's the woman
and the unjust judge so there's a crooked judge
he does not judge righteously
and this woman needs justice
and she goes to the crooked judge
and she asks him for justice
and he just ignores her he ignores her
he won't give her her day in court
he just keeps throwing out the case and throwing out the motion
he won't even rule on it
but then the unjust crooked judge finally says you know what
I don't fear God and I don't fear man
but I'm just sick of this woman bugging me
so I'm just going to do what she wants
and God's saying look if that's what the unjust judge did
how much more is God going to avenge his elect
which cry unto him day and night
so I mean it you're saved you're his child
and he's not a crook he's not an unjust judge
don't you think he's even more likely to answer you
than that judge was what's the bible saying
the bible is saying that God wants to answer your prayer
he wants to he's ready to answer your prayer
he wants you to ask and that's why the bible says in jade 4
you have not because you ask not
if you ask you shall receive
so prayer actually works prayer actually changes things
prayer is not just an exercise or just a going through the motions
but it's really a way to get God to intercede on your behalf
and sometimes we need to ask for things multiple times
not chanting not a vain repetition
but just continually going to the Lord and bringing those needs before him
until we get an answer that's what the bible teaches
now I remember I worked at round table pizza when I was a teenager
and I still love round table pizza every time I'm in California I go there
we don't have one here but there was this guy and he had brain damage
he had tons of major seizures and so he was very slow
had brain damage he was a really nice guy but he just
had issues and this guy wanted a job at round table
and he came in and applied and the assistant manager was there and he said
told the guy no sent him away and said I'm not going to hire this bleeping
retard you know he's just blankety blank idiot
you know because the guy was a big jerk this
assistant manager at round table the guy just kept coming back every day
trying to get hired and the assistant manager is treating him bad
rude telling him no well the the main manager
was a really nice guy and so he ended up coming in on a day where the main
manager was there and I mean he'd been they said this guy's
been coming in he's been in 15 times
so they're just like just give him a job I mean he keeps coming
just give it to him just give him like you know the
something mundane have him do something easy
just give him a three hour shift give him 12 hours a week or whatever
and so they eventually hired him and he worked there for years I worked there
side by side with him and I mean this guy just the persistence
paid off and I mean other people they throw in
the towel like they oh I can't get a job I I don't know what to do
I mean even this guy got a job and this guy did not have the skills to pay the
bills but yet he was hired because of what his
importunity so sometimes we have to be persistent
and keep trying and keep asking God so
the bible says in verse number nine and I say unto you ask and it shall be
given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall
be open unto you and it's pretty easy to remember that verse
because ask seek and knock actually spells the word
ask right ask starts with an a seek knock a-s-k ask and it shall be given
you and it says in verse 10 for everyone that
asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him
that knocketh it shall be open now I think this is a great verse also to
apply to salvation because I believe that what this verse
teaches also carries over to the idea of salvation that
people who are really seeking after God they're going to find him
the bible says in the old testament they that seek me early shall find me
and the bible says seek the Lord while he may be found
and so those who ask and seek and knock at that door
it's going to be open to them and if there really is some sincere person out
there who wants to know the Lord who wants to
know the gospel who wants to be saved who asks God to
show them the truth he will answer them he will show them
they they can find the Lord if happily they would feel after
him if they seek him they will find him and then also to us as
Christians if we ask we shall receive if we pray
we will receive blessings from God if we don't pray
we will have not because we asked not and we shouldn't just get this
fatalistic attitude that for example the Calvinists have
just that everything's foreordained everything's predestined
and that nothing can change I don't believe that for one second
we have free will and every day we make decisions
and when we don't pray we miss out on blessings when we do pray
God's blessings are available to us and it matters whether or not we pray
he said if a son verse 11 shall ask bread of any of you that is a father
will he give him a stone or if you ask a fish
will he for a fish give him a serpent or if he shall ask an egg will he offer
him a scorpion if he then being evil know how to give
good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly father
give the holy spirit to them that ask him now in Matthew
this scripture states in Matthew chapter 7 it says
that your heavenly father will give good things to them that ask him
here he says that he will specifically give the holy spirit
to them that ask him and again you could apply this two different ways
obviously the person who calls out to the Lord for salvation
the Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved it
says of course how then shall they call on him in whom
they have not believed so obviously you have to believe first
but if you believe on him and call upon him no matter who you are
you shall be saved the Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God
has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation so in that sense he will give the holy
spirit to them that ask him if we ask for salvation in faith in
Christ we shall receive it but not only that this is specifically
though in context saying if you then being evil know how
to give good gifts unto your children so this is even God's children praying
to him for the holy spirit now you say well
why would the child of God need to pray for the holy spirit
we already have the holy spirit right i mean if
Christ is in you the hope of glory and the Bible teaches
that if any man have not the spirit of Christ he's none of his
so the holy spirit indwells every single believer
if you are saved the holy ghost is in you
the Bible teaches you are permanently indwelled but
that's not all there is to the holy spirit because the holy spirit's
ministry goes beyond just the indwelling of the believer
for example in the old testament believers were not indwelled by the holy
spirit permanently they did not have that indwelling of
the spirit that's why in john chapter 7 it says this
spake he of the holy ghost he said the holy ghost was not yet
given because that Jesus was not yet glorified
after Jesus rose from the dead he breathed on them and said receive ye the
holy ghost so the indwelling of the holy spirit did
not begin until the new testament but in the old testament you still have
the holy spirit coming upon them right prophets and warriors all throughout
the old testament over and over again the spirit of lord
came upon him and he did x y and z well we still have that same phenomenon
in the new testament so the old testament
spirit of lord upon you was not replaced by the indwelling of the holy spirit
but it was an add-on so now in the new testament we have both
the permanent and dwelling of the holy spirit which guides us into all truth
the comforter the holy ghost from heaven that will
lead us into all truth but then we also have still
the old testament phenomenon of the holy ghost coming upon us and we see that
throughout the book of acts where the holy spirit comes upon them in
mighty power keep your finger here in luke 11 and go
to acts chapter 4 acts chapter number 4
in acts chapter number 4 we have an example of praying
and the holy ghost being poured out upon them look at
acts chapter 4 not only that but the bible admonishes christians
to be not drunk with wine were in his excess but to be
filled with the spirit now if you have to be commanded to do it it's not
automatic now the indwelling of the spirit is
automatic upon salvation we're sealed by the holy ghost under the day of
redemption he will never leave us nor forsake us
but the power of the spirit of god upon us
is something that is temporary that's why david said take not thy holy spirit
from me why because when saul sinned the holy
ghost was removed from king saul and an evil
spirit from the lord troubled him and then the holy ghost rested upon
david from that day forward david didn't want to lose that anointing
of the holy spirit that outward manifestation look at acts
chapter 4 great verse verse 31 a great verse to
memorize and when they had prayed the place was
shaken where they were assembled together and they were all
filled with the holy ghost and they spake the word of god with boldness
now what's interesting is that these are the exact same people
who were filled with the holy ghost in acts chapter 2
but notice even though they were filled in acts chapter 2
they needed to pray again in acts chapter 4
and be filled with the holy spirit once again in chapter 4
and what was the outward manifestation of being filled with the holy ghost did
they roll in the aisles and bark like a dog and laugh
hysterically and and and blabber and spit no
the bible says that they spake the word of god with boldness
so a great evidence of the fullness of the holy ghost
is speaking the word of god with boldness you know when you see a
preacher get up and preach the word of god boldly
that's a manifestation of the fullness of the holy ghost
when you see someone out soul winning and just boldly
preaching the gospel and i look i've seen
some people that are not likely candidates for being a good soul winner
people that are shy people that are really quiet
but then when they get out soul and they do great
why because of the fullness of the holy spirit they can preach with power they
can preach with authority they can speak the gospel with boldness
why because of the holy spirit in their life
and so when the bible talks about giving the holy ghost to them that ask him
you know we should pray that god would give us that boldness
right i mean paul gave it as a prayer request in ephesians chapter 6
pray for me that utterance may be given unto me
that i may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel
paul wanted them to pray that he would have boldness
we should pray for boldness we should pray for the power of the holy ghost to
come upon us we should pray that we would be filled
with the holy spirit and not to just be content with the the
well i've got the permanent indwelling well i want the fullness
i want the holy ghost power resting upon me
and it's not a one-time prayer it's a prayer that's prayed over and over again
and he will give the holy ghost to them that ask him why
because just as we give our children the things that they ask us for
now if our children ask for bread we're not going to give them a
a stone if they ask for a fish we're not going to give them a serpent if they ask
an egg we're not going to give them a scorpion
but what if they come and ask us for candy
what if they come and ask us for dangerous weapons when they're small
children what if they come and ask us for things
that are just ridiculous superfluous unnecessary
expensive dangerous harmful unhealthy are we gonna give all that to
them well look the heavenly father's the
same way so if i was saying ask and ye shall receive
that means if my son comes to me and says dad i'm hungry
i'm ready to provide him with nutritious food bread
a fish an egg and by the way give eggs a break all
right because eggs are good for you as evidenced by this parable
and by the way the bible is not into veganism
the bible doesn't even teach vegetarianism and people
and look all all the comments i get on this the youtube comments from all the
vegetarians and vegans look if you think that the bible
promotes vegetarianism of any kind you are severely lacking
in biblical understanding now look if someone wants to be a vegetarian
just because they want to be a vegetarian for whatever the reasons
that they think it's good for them or whatever
if it's a health thing or you know some people might have special
uh health situations where they need that you know that kind of a diet or
whatever you know i'm not look i'm not gonna
judge you and i'm not worried about it and look
just let me get this straight if i go out to eat with people that are
vegetarian i don't try to trick them into eating
animal products i help them order right paul
remember paul's been with me when we were in the presence of a vegetarian
and what i do i said here let me help you i go here all the time
i will order you something that's vegetarian i know how to order here
i help people out with that i don't jump down their throat
i'm not look i'm gonna preach about it because this this pulpit right here is
where i get up and preach the whole bible
that's where i preach everything in the bible but i'm not gonna go to people
and badger them and neither should you don't pick on people
because they eat a weird diet okay or a vegetarian diet or a vegan diet
don't pick on them be nice to people okay amen
be nice if somebody says hey i'm gonna order vegetarian
sure let me help you you don't have to be a jerk about it
okay but but when i'm preaching i want to make
things clear because if i don't make things clear from the pulpit
if i'm at all unclear people don't always get the message
one thing i've learned you know after preaching for 12 years
is you have to make things really clear or the message doesn't get across
to most people because people are only picking up like sometimes half or
three-quarters of what i'm putting down so i got to make things clear so i'm
going to get up here and be super clear about this
but in our personal lives we need to be kind
unto the the vegetarians and the vegans out there
although they are misguided and i'm not going to get up and lie to you and say
that i don't believe that they're misguided because i believe they are
misguided but look if somebody wants to be
vegetarian or vegan for whatever reason okay great but if you're gonna say
it's because god wants us to that's a doctrine of devils that's right
because the bible says that a doctrine of devils is commanding to abstain from
meats so we need to be careful of that so look
so if a vegetarian starts commanding me to abstain from meats
that's why i'm going to say hey get thee behind me satan now if a vegetarian
says hey i'm gonna abstain from meat okay
you're welcome to abstain from me but when they start imposing that on us
saying hey this is what god tells us to do
this is what god wants us to do that you need to do it too
you know what they're preaching false doctrine i mean that's that's a doctrine
of devils now let me just put this thing to bed
once and for all
it was impossible to be a vegetarian in the old testament and be right with god
could not do it impossible you cannot obey the commandments of
god in the old testament and be a vegetarian how
because you must eat the passover and the passover
is not a tofu passover it was not a soybean
passover it was not uh you know some kind of a veggie burger
passover the passover was meat and you had to eat it
in fact aaron got chewed out by moses why didn't you eat this meat
and aaron said whoa i couldn't eat it because i was unclean
and i did the right thing by night he's like okay
but when you're cleaned up you better eat it buddy
look priests part of their job was to eat meat
every day that's their job to eat meat to eat meat to eat meat
daily every day but even just joe israelite
or even joe ethiopian who wants to join the nation of israel he has to do what
he's got to be circumcised he's got to eat that passover
oh i'm vegetarian eat it and if he refused to eat it he's not obeying the
bible so to sit there and say hey god
kind of allows us to eat meat because he knows what barbarians we are
but that you know his perfect will for our lives
is that we get to this higher level where we're eating a vegetarian or a
vegan diet that is false because the most righteous
men in the old testament are eating meat all day long
they're commanded to jesus christ himself ate meat
first of all he ate it in genesis 18 he ate beef
in genesis 18 when he appeared unto abraham in the in the heat of the day
but not only that we know that he kept the law
on this earth so he did what he ate the passover so we know he ate lamb
not only that we have evidence of him eating fish
on multiple occasions now some vegetarians will say well fish isn't
meat and they'll make an exception for fish
and on meatless friday the catholics still eat fish that's why even to this
day every restaurant has clam chowder on fridays
so if you love clam chowder like i do you know that you can only order it on a
friday right at most restaurants so the the point is
here you know these good things that that
the father gives the children are things like
fish and eggs amen good things okay and by the way nobody has ever eaten
a vegan diet their whole life because you'll die as an infant
if you don't eat animal products or you have to drink your mother's milk
which is milk which is non-vegan right it's not some woman tried to feed
her newborn a vegan diet and the baby died
and she was charged with manslaughter negligence
because she's trying to give this newborn baby
you know it needed milk that it may grow thereby and she refused to give it milk
because she wanted it to be a lifelong vegan
but i'll tell you what this veganism is it's a substitute for biblical morality
it becomes save the animals morality god doesn't take care for oxen
friend
he cares about us we're made in his image let the youtube comments roll in
you bunch of bunch of vegans and vegetarians
bring it on
but look i know people do mistreat vegetarians and vegans and it isn't
right it isn't right and look i'm against it
i'm hardcore against it but i don't mistreat them
and the reason i know they're mistreated because occasionally
i'll order a vegetarian item at a restaurant not because i'm a vegetarian
but just because it looks good or just because i start feeling like i man i
didn't eat enough vegetables i start feeling guilty
so i'll order some and i mean my wife sometimes she looks at me like
my i ordered some vegetarian we were on vacation i ordered some
triple veggie lasagna or something and my my wife was just like
even my wife was persecuting me i'm like what's the problem she's like is that
really that's what you're going to order really i'm like yeah that's what i'm
ordering so then i don't know if this was just
her plan she didn't finish her food and then i
ended up finishing that and then i ended up getting all that
meat from her plate so then she's like all right you know
you're not you're not scaring me anymore but look i i like i like to run
and if you eat meat right before you run bad idea doesn't it's not good for
running for some reason just the way it's digested
so if i know i'm going to be running sometimes i'll get a vegetarian burrito
at chipotle where you get the guacamole instead of
the meat for the same price amen no no amens on that
this is a meat loving church i don't see what i mean
you don't get a single amen so i'm empathizing right now with the with the
vegetarians of this world yeah so here's the thing yes to meat
all meat you know dog cat whatever but all meat is
acceptable but but we need to make sure that we're
not unkind to people about what they order at a restaurant
you know if they want to or you know and i've experienced this myself even in my
own family amen no i'm just kidding i'm just joking my
wife and i were just kidding about that but we basically just need to make sure
that we're nice to people if they want to order a vegetarian option or whatever
just humor them they'll eventually get around in their
bible reading to that part or if they look if they want to eat that way
is no skin off your chicken amen
so i'm there's no way i'm going to get through the whole chapter tonight
uh so i'm just going to close on that i mean that's a great place to end the
sermon right there amen because everybody's hungry now myself
included i'm hungry you're hungry all right beef
it's what's for dinner and you know what's funny
i and i didn't plan this i ate a vegetarian meal before church tonight
and i didn't even plan it my wife's nodding her head but this was
approved by her because she cooked it we had these burritos that were rice
beans corn and salsa and you know that's a good way to save
money too is every once in a while do some vegetarian meals all right it
doesn't make you any less of a man all right to eat a vegetarian meal a
couple times a week all right so i ate one right before church
tonight all right but maybe i'll squeeze in a little meat
before uh bed tonight but anyway uh we want to make sure that
and look sometimes this is just something that people don't understand
the difference between preaching and one-on-one dealing with people
there's a difference people you don't you think i go
and it's so funny when i meet people they're like wow surprised by how laid
back and easy going you are because they just expect me to just
get in their face and tell them how it is
it's like they don't understand that there's a difference between behind the
pulpit and in person you know when i'm on an airplane with
somebody i mean i i've sat with an obama supporter for three four
hours and got along with them great the whole time
you know i'm not a jerk don't shake your head at me i'm not a jerk
you know i can sit out i can talk to people i can be reasonable
and talk to people and be not you know being nice to people being kind trying
to get along these are virtues especially when you're out soloing we're
not out to fight with people and badger people and get in their face
and some people it's like they're just acting out their fantasies of preaching
in their one-on-one dealings with people yeah you need to save that for the
pulpit now a lot of people need to get meaner
in the pulpit amen and then a lot of people need to get
nicer out of the pulpit why and it's not but it's not being uh
it's not being a hypocrite or too it's just different
wait but why because when you're talking to 300 people
it's not just as offensive to them personally because they can either take
it or leave it if the shoe fits they can wear it
it's less direct than to just go to that person and tell now look sometimes
people do things that are really bad and yeah they need to be rebuked strongly
to their face but that's pretty rare usually we
should be nice to people right and i i i'm constantly being told
by people like i was just so i went soul winning with you
as your silent partner and i just couldn't believe how nice you were to
everybody it's like what do you think i was gonna
do what did you expect i mean they think i was gonna knock on
the door you're catholic let me hear turn let me show you
something revelation 17 about the great whore
that's your church buddy you know do you think i'm just gonna just
jump down their throat and just be like you're catholic
the pope is the vicar of satan you know obviously that's not gonna work as a
soul winning method i've never been that way you know there's
a difference between preaching generally to hundreds of
people or thousands of people or 20 people or 50 people and when you're
just one-on-one talking to somebody usually shouting is not going to be
called for usually so there's a time and a place for things
but you know usually it's about being nice right
so be sure to keep those things straight especially when dealing with your
vegetarian brothers and sisters let's bow our heads
and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word
lord and thank you for prayer that we have the availability where we
can just pray and ask for things and you'll give us
good things just like we would give our children eggs or fish or bread or
whatever nutritious food they need lord you'll
give us what we need and if we ask you for junk you're probably going to tell
us no lord and thank you for telling us no
and withholding junk from us that we don't need
and lord i just pray that you would help out all of us lord myself included
to be faithful in praying and asking for the things that we need
and lord give us wisdom to pray according to your will
and it's in jesus name that we pray amen