Asking for a Friend: Week 3

In this Beyond Sunday Q&A episode, Dina, Peter, Pastor Seth, and Tyler tackle real-life faith questions—from Santa and Christmas timing to tragedy, cremation, baptism, confirmation, worship styles, and hearing the Holy Spirit.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings
podcast, where we dive a littlebit deeper into our message
series and see what we're takingBeyond Sunday.
My name is Dina Newsom, and I amecstatic today to have with me
all three of our campusdirectors.

SPEAKER_04 (00:20):
Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 (00:20):
What?
Go ahead and introduceyourselves, guys.

SPEAKER_04 (00:23):
Hi, my name is Peter Bay, King of Kings Northwest.

SPEAKER_02 (00:27):
Hello.
I don't have as close a sweateras Peter Bay from Northwest.
Uh, I'm Seth Flick from MillardCampus.

SPEAKER_01 (00:34):
Tyler Olfson.
Tyler Olfson from the Fremontcampus.

SPEAKER_00 (00:37):
So we have a little bit of a special edition of
Beyond Sunday today.
We are not exactly reviewing ourmessage series.
We are um just finished weekthree of our asking for a friend
series.
And this was where we allowedyou guys to ask questions that
um got answered during ourmessage series.
And there were a lot ofquestions that we didn't have

(00:59):
time for.
So we thought we'd tackle someof them here today.
So that's what the guys get todo.
We're gonna start off with avery Christmas question.
Yes.
All right, ready?

SPEAKER_02 (01:09):
Christmas is my favorite.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
Yeah, Christmas smiling is my favorite.
Um okay, here we go.
Should Christians teach theirkids about Santa Claus?

SPEAKER_04 (01:19):
Well, what I want to hear what you guys do.

SPEAKER_01 (01:22):
Do you, Santa?
We, you know, in the Rolfsonhousehold, we like let the kids
kind of do their imagining.
We don't affirm anything, but wealso don't come down hard and
denying.
So I do a lot of, ah, yeah, whoknows where this came from, that
sort of thing.
And then our our oldest, she umare Dina, would you say are

(01:45):
there children listening to thispodcast right now?

SPEAKER_00 (01:48):
I would say probably not.
Okay.
We're pretty safe.

SPEAKER_02 (01:50):
So our we we said it was Andy Stanley, Louis Giglio,
five other people.
Yeah.
So we don't next.

SPEAKER_00 (01:56):
All of those other five that I have heard from are
over the age of 30.
So um I think we're safe ifwe're if we're spoiling.
If not, if there's a childlistening, stop the podcast now.
Spoiler alert.

SPEAKER_01 (02:09):
So our our oldest, our oldest um came of age regard
this question um pretty early,but now she's kind of in on it
for the younger two.
And I think it's we've kind offound our way through.
I I the way I've heard it, Idon't take as strong of a
stance, but like, you know, fora Christian that's you don't
want to put so much emphasis onSanta Claus, and then um, you

(02:32):
know, they the the that themoment you say, well, actually
it's not real, and it's like,well, you've been telling me
about Jesus all this time.
Is that real?
Peter, I've I'm curious whatyour take is here.

SPEAKER_04 (02:43):
That was actually just a trap.
Now that Tyler has answered thisquestion, we can move on.
You can't do this, and if you doit, you're not a believer.
Just kidding, guys.
Uh, so I don't want my kids tothink anything's from Santa.
Like, I'm not I don't have anissue with Santa, but I I don't
want him to have any credit forany of the gifts my kids have
ever received.

(03:03):
It all goes to Peter, it allgoes to us.
We're buying all these gifts.
Santa's not.
And so we told our kids we don'tneed Santa's help.
We kicked him to the curb.
We can give help to otherfamilies in their.

SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
We're fully sufficient in the Bay House.
All right.

SPEAKER_02 (03:19):
So now that you said kicked Santa to the curb, yes,
can I segue that into the waythat our family, because it does
have to do with an act ofviolence.
Yes, please.
Okay, good.
So so we we kind of blend alittle bit of the Rolfson
household in that we neverreally said that these anything
is from Santa.
So they just kind of had theirown imagination.
But whenever they would see thelike on the back of like the

(03:40):
watch or the game controller islike made in Cambodia or made in
Taiwan, they're like, Dad, thisis not in the North Pole.
And so it didn't take long.
But we never said that there isa Santa, but we also wanted
Wonder to be a part of theirlife.
And so if they wanted to havethat for a short time in their
life, that was fine.
We didn't correct them.
They'd be like, Dad, is there aSanta?
And when they were like reallylittle, we'd be like, What do
you think?
And then they would tell theirstory, right?

(04:01):
Uh, but here's where the act ofviolence comes in in the
Midwest, and especially inWisconsin.
So I don't know if Peter, yougrew up in Wisconsin, if you had
this as well.
Did you celebrate St.
Nicholas Day?
Uh, we we might have tell memore because he fought people.
Yes, this is where the act ofviolence comes in.
So Saint Nicholas was an actualperson upon which a lot of the
legend and tradition of SantaClaus actually comes from.

(04:24):
So he was a bishop in the timeof the Aryan controversy, which
is when people were denying theTrinity and they were actually
falling away from the church.
Well, there's this big churchcouncil where Arius, the big bad
guy who was trying to teachpeople the wrong thing, kept
being super annoying.
So whenever they'd make a goodtheological or biblical point,
he would just say this rhyme.
There was a time when he wasnot, and he was trying to
downplay the divinity of Jesus.

(04:46):
Saint Nicholas gets up from hischair and punches them in the
face.
And that is the Saint Nicholas Iwant my kids to learn about
that.
Amen.
So in honor of him, what do youguys do in the flick house?
We hang up stockings and putcandy inside of them.
Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_01 (04:59):
You see the one-on-one correlation there?

SPEAKER_04 (05:01):
Yeah, I like it.

SPEAKER_01 (05:02):
Defending the faith since since 325.
That's good.

SPEAKER_04 (05:05):
Yeah, we've actually got a big uh inflatable areas,
and we just allow the kids tobeat them up as much as they
want.
Merry Christmas, you filthyanimals.

SPEAKER_02 (05:14):
And a happy new year, too.
Yeah.
But really, we do celebrate St.
Nicholas Day, and we tell thekids about like how important it
is to talk about Jesus, andthat's why we learn about him,
that's why we study thescriptures, that's why we pray
together, and they love it.
They look forward to it everyyear.

SPEAKER_04 (05:26):
What day is St.
Nikki the Tricky?

SPEAKER_02 (05:27):
I think it's December 10th.
It's somewhere around there, St.
Nikki the Tricky.
Like, are you picturing him inwith like like boxer shorts on
with the big old like cape overhim?
And now in the ring, Saint Nikkithe Tricky.
Bishop.
He was defrocked and then laterfrocked again.
I don't know how that goes.

SPEAKER_03 (05:46):
That sounds naughty.

SPEAKER_00 (05:47):
Well, Saint Nicky.
I don't think we want any morefrocking on this podcast.

SPEAKER_04 (05:51):
What in the world is going on?

SPEAKER_00 (05:53):
All right.
So here's another Christmassyquestion.
What month was Jesus born?
And what calendar was used inthe world when Jesus was born?

SPEAKER_02 (06:03):
All right.
So there's a couple ofcontextual clues that we can use
there.
And some of them are helping usfor dates.
So, and then a little bit ofbackground in the original
language is helpful too, becausethere are some characters that
are given in the Lucan story ofthe birth of Jesus, which is
super detailed and that's great.
One of those says, whileQuirinius was what?
Governor of Syria.

(06:24):
Except that's not actually theonly way it can be interpreted.
Because if it is, Corinius onlybecomes a governor of Syria in 6
AD, which is after, much laterafter.
And there are certain thingsthat aren't going to line up
with the biblical narrativenarrative if that's the case.
But the word is hegemon that'sused there.
And that can be any kind ofauthority position, like uh an
elected official.

(06:45):
And he is actually anauthoritative figure before the
BC time period in the same areaof Syria.
So we don't have to say he hasto be the governor in order to
do that because that messes witha whole lot of timelines that
just will not work later on.
With like in the 15th year ofthe reign of Tiberias, Jesus
turned approximately 30 yearsold.
Well, you start doing thesubtraction and you get to a

(07:07):
point where none of yourtimeline can actually match with
the biblical model.
So we're we're probably talkingwhen you line up decrees,
censuses, Quirinius being anofficial in Syria to somewhere
around like four BC.
And the only real thing that wehave to give us an idea of like
the time of the year when Jesuswas born was do you guys know?

(07:30):
September.
Actually, you're almost right.
Oh, cool.
Like it's between August andOctober, but do you know why?
There's a biblical clue thatlets us know why in that time
period it would be August,September, October, somewhere in
there.
Probably dealing with the thestars or the sheep.
Yes, the shepherds.
Yes.
They only are going to bekeeping their watch over flocks

(07:50):
by night.
That is pasturing them at thenighttime during those three
months of the year, which is whymost people believe that it's
August, September, October inthat time period where you're
avoiding the rainy season andyou're avoiding the winter.
So a lot of people think aboutIsrael like, oh, it's
Mediterranean and it's going tobe.
No, it's on an elevated, likeum, what would you call it,
Mesa?

(08:11):
And so it actually gets snowfallin some of those areas.
So there is cold.
And so they're not going to putthe flock out at night.
They're going to be in and keptwarm at night at that time.
So uh using contextual clues, wefigure it's about six to four
BC, uh, four to two BC for someof the scholars, and probably
August, September, October.

SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
All right, we're gonna shift gears with a little
uh heavier question now.
We got this in a coupledifferent forms.
So, how do I know God is goodwhen tragedy strikes?
Or why does God allow bad thingsto happen?
Or we also got how do youexplain to a non-believer why
tragic things happen, especiallyto someone young?

SPEAKER_02 (08:53):
All right, so this is really tough.
And the reason why I thinkthere's a lot of silence around
this is because someone who'sdoing proper study of the
scriptures knows that you speakas far as the scriptures speak,
and you're silent when thescriptures are silent.
And it means that you have tolike you have to know the

(09:14):
scriptures at least well enoughto know when it doesn't speak
about something, and you shouldnot speak on God's behalf if
he's not going to speak himself.
Because at the best, you areattempting to speak for him, and
you might be kind of right.
But at the worst, you'redefending a God who doesn't need
you to defend him, and you'reprobably speaking something
that's false.

(09:34):
And I don't think anybody wantsto do that, but I do believe,
and I think Tyler and I hadthis, Tyler and I had this
conversation previously that themajority of heresies in the past
of the church has all startedfrom a compassionate perspective
of someone who wanted to answera question that the scriptures
don't answer.
And so uh Jesus does a masterfuljob of this as well.
In Luke chapter 13, uh, hebrings up this point of like,

(09:57):
look, there was a group ofpeople that were in the middle
of worship and a tower fallfalls on them in Siloam.
Like, what did they do that wasso bad that this was warranted?
Why did this all happen?
And it's not because he's tryingto get them to find an answer,
he's trying to get them to apoint where there isn't an
answer that they couldunderstand and that it's okay to

(10:20):
have the integrity enough tohumbly say to a question, I
don't know.
Uh and it's one of the uniquecontributions I believe that you
know the Lutheran church makes,and that is to be able to say, I
don't know.
The Bible doesn't talk aboutthis.
We can save this question forwhen we get a chance to talk to
God face to face.

(10:41):
But for now, let's just say thatGod is good, his character is
good, and we don't know whythese bad things happened.
Now we do have some scripturesthat talk about why bad things
actually happened to people inthe scriptures.
So, like Joseph went through hiswhole ordeal and God actually
tells him this is why.
We are told why Job went throughhis whole ordeal.

(11:03):
It was to illustratefaithfulness in the despite you
know the blessings that youmight have.
So I think when we look at this,we should think about it in
terms of like, if God has notspoken here, why do I feel like
I have to speak for him?
Like pierce through the veil ofGod and say, This is why you
said this, right?
And then teach it as if it'sfact.
Um, in fact, we call that atheology of glory.

(11:25):
Like we glorify ourselves to ahigher position.
But really, we're supposed totake a theology of the cross.
And that is at the cross ofChrist, there's gonna be a bunch
of things that we don'tunderstand.
His ways are not our ways, histhoughts are not our thoughts.
And why do certain bad thingshappen to people?
We don't know.
So we're just gonna be at thecross and say, despite all of
this, God is good.

(11:45):
Despite all of this, God isgracious.
Why that happened, what thepurpose is, I don't know.
And why I appreciate thatperspective, I'm sure you guys
can speak into this, is itdoesn't then call a bad thing
actually a good thing.
So, like, could you imagine howthat lands if you're counseling
somebody and they just say,like, my child has died because
of a terrible disease, and yousay, Well, I'm sure there's a

(12:08):
good reason why this happened.
No, like that is gonna bedevastating to them.
Like, how are you gonnaone-to-one say that this bad
thing happened so that thismaybe surface level good thing
could occur?
And you know, like that'sunconscionable to try to say
that as a Christian.
So sometimes it's just bet justbetter to say, I don't know, and
that's okay.

(12:28):
Um, but God is good, God isgracious.
Let's just go to him and talk tohim.
If you want to bring your angerto him, he's big enough to take
your anger.
You want to bring yourdisappointment to him, he's big
enough to take yourdisappointment.
Let's just bring this to Jesus.
So, I mean, it it is a veryspecific view that I love our
church's view on the scripturesfor because there are so many
different church bodies and somany different preachers that

(12:51):
try to assign false motivationsto God.
Like, God did Hurricane Katrinabecause of all the weird things
that were happening in theFrench quarter.
Well, that's that's baloneybecause I know a whole bunch of
really great faithful peoplethat were there at that time.
Right.
And they served Jesus likecrazy.

SPEAKER_04 (13:05):
Yeah.
Hey, I this reminds me of uhmany years ago when I was doing
kids' ministry, we had anawesome um guy who is a very
faithful small group leader.
His name is Steve, and Stevedied, and his small group and he
was there every week, and so thekids who were in his group, one
of them asked that question.
Like we we did that daydifferently.

(13:25):
We brought all the kidstogether, and I said, What kind
of questions do you guys have?
And one of the kids said, Whydid Steve die?
He was a good guy, he was herewith us every week.
And one of the things, like,one, um, when we look at uh
Romans 5 12, therefore just assin entered through the world
through one man and deaththrough sin, and this way death

(13:46):
came to all people because allsinned, like we're all gonna
die, and that's sad.
And then two, um it's this theknowledge of like God doesn't
desire death, he desired life,he created things perfect.
Sin destroyed that because ofsin, there's death, and that's

(14:08):
why Jesus had to come and defeatit.
But we cannot defeat it.
Jesus did that, so we're goingto experience death, but he
defeated it once and for all, sothat even when we die, we get to
live with him.
And so um, with that, gave someof the answer.
And then the other thing I tryto say to people is asking that

(14:29):
question of like why does Godallow it it for me, it gives
this picture of like God'splaying us like a chessboard.
And uh that's that's not theimage um that is helpful that
God's like, ooh, Seth hasn't hadenough.
I'm gonna burst a pipe in hishouse.

(14:50):
Hey, that's happened, ithappened to you too.
Yeah, like that's that's not howthat works.
Um, and so trying to help peopleknow that, like, when God looks
at you, he sees you as his childand he desires the best for you,
but because of a broken world,we experience hurt and
brokenness.

SPEAKER_02 (15:08):
I love the question that you asked there that is
often asked by folks, especiallylike younger folks.
Why do bad things happen to goodpeople?
And I think you know where I'mgoing with this is that the rich
young man comes to Jesus, Ithink it's in like Mark 10, uh,
and he's like, Good teacher,what must I do?
And Jesus is like, Good, youcall me good, no one is good but

(15:30):
God.
And so, in one sense, he's he isnotifying everybody like he's
good because he is God, andthat's why he should be called
the good teacher.
But it puts us puts him intocontrast to everybody else.
Like, no one is good.
There has been one good personto which bad things have
happened, and that was Christ.
And he voluntarily took on thatrole.
And I know I'm not the firstperson to say it.
I think John Piper probably wasthe one who made that the most

(15:52):
famous uh just a few years agowith some like super viral
sermon that he had.
But uh but I think it'simportant to kind of look at
that too, is like there reallyisn't anybody who's good.
All have sinned and fallen shortof the glory of God.
And unfortunately, in this kindof broken world, why do we
actually expect anything morethan bad things to happen to us?

(16:13):
We're doing bad things to eachother.
Why wouldn't we expect somebodyto do something bad to us?
Not that you deserve it, but itshouldn't be too much of a
surprise either.

SPEAKER_01 (16:22):
Yeah, the only other thing I would add, um Seth, you
brought up um theology of thecross.
The I can only imagine kind ofthe the circumstances and
situations behind why someonewould ask this question, and
most likely something deeplypersonal that happened to them
or to a to a loved one.

(16:43):
And there's a there's a there'sa place for solid theology that
should actually give usemotional comfort, and there's
also just times where it's like,all right, we we just we we need
comfort that comes from theLord.
And I I think about Jesus.
Both of you you referenced thesuffering he had.
Our God is one who enters intothe depths of suffering and

(17:06):
takes it on himself so thatnothing we experience he like
he's acquainted with every depthof experience that we have.
And then we lean into hispromises that indeed a day is
coming where there will be nomore death, no more destruction.
Like we long for that day.

(17:26):
That's why the Bible ends withMaranatha, come, Lord Jesus,
come quickly, Lord Jesus,because it's coming from that
same cry of like, this isn't theway it's supposed to be.
And so, Lord, we look to you.
We're not gonna try and say, Oh,is the devil here?
Was that person's sin there?
It's like some some of thesethings are mysterious.
Um, but we know what God hassaid and that He will wipe away

(17:50):
every tear from every eye.
And we look for that day.

SPEAKER_00 (17:54):
And I just want to encourage you, if you are
struggling with this in yourlife or struggling with um, you
know, how to answer thisquestion for yourself, feel free
to reach out to our staffbecause we would love to connect
with you and more of adiscussion, a one-on-one level
to help walk you through some ofthese things that are just
really hard here in our brokenworld.
So, kind of talking about death,we're continuing along that

(18:15):
line.
We did get a couple questionsabout cremation.
Is cremation biblical?
What happens with bodies thatare cremated?
And looking at cremation versusa traditional burial, is one of
those a better Christian witnessthan the other?

SPEAKER_04 (18:29):
Before someone answers that, I do want to go on
record to say that I do want tobe cremated.
Okay, Peter.
So tell us more.
Yeah, because I think I'm goingto give instructions to my
family on places where I'd likethem to scat shatter, or was it
scatter?

SPEAKER_05 (18:45):
Scatter.

SPEAKER_02 (18:45):
All right, shatter.
You're on public record, andjust acknowledge that in most
states what you're talking aboutis actually very illegal.
Really?
Just say hypotheticallyspeaking.

SPEAKER_00 (18:54):
Well, it depends where you're where you're
scattering ashes.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (18:58):
In in most states, that's considered disposing of a
dead body.
I'm not even kidding you.

SPEAKER_03 (19:02):
That's wild.

SPEAKER_02 (19:02):
Yeah.
But uh hypothetically.
So they can't do that?
Supposedly.
They might get arrested.
I don't think anybody's gonnaarrest anybody for that one.

SPEAKER_00 (19:08):
Well, they would have to get caught.
I know your child I know yourchildren.
They'll be fine.

SPEAKER_04 (19:13):
Yeah, they'll be fine.
And I'm gonna be dead, so theydon't have to do anything I I
asked them to do.
But I think it's just way morefun to like, hey, daddy's gone.

SPEAKER_02 (19:24):
Go have some fun.
See, see, don't do that with mykids because they will totally
weaken at Bernie's my dead body.
They'll just like carry itaround and like lift up my arms
and like voting for stuff.

SPEAKER_04 (19:35):
And uh so now that I've said that I want to be
cremated, um, is that is thatokay?

SPEAKER_01 (19:41):
So get this, guys.
I just wrapped up my firstseminary class and like I've
learned something.
So I literally brought the bookhere.
Hey, you brought it.
There's some knowledge.

SPEAKER_02 (19:52):
There's a little paragraph on cremation.
That book is 200 years old,though.

SPEAKER_01 (19:56):
It's closer to 200 years than it is to two weeks.
I could tell you that.
But this is a little book calledPastoral Theology.
It has a green cover and it justgoes through various pastoral
situations.
Yeah.
And there is a paragraph oncremation.
May I read, Dina?

SPEAKER_00 (20:09):
Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 (20:09):
So, not too long ago, this is according to the
authors, the church viewedcremation negatively because the
general public associated thepractice with heathen religions
and/or an attempt to disprovethe possibility of the
resurrection, and Christianswere reluctant to consider it.
But get this, Peter.
In itself, the practice has notheological significance and may

(20:31):
be used in good conscience.
In fact, because of spacelimitations in some areas, you
know, you can think about someof those tight European
countries, right?
And because of healthconsiderations, cremation is
increasing in favor.
Cost too may be a legitimateconsideration, then it goes on
in kind of issues of conscienceand that sort of deal.
Um, the one thought I have withcremation is like we believe

(20:53):
that God created all of this exnihilo out of nothing.

SPEAKER_00 (20:57):
Dust.

SPEAKER_01 (20:58):
Yeah.
So the same God that like puthis hands into the dust to
create Adam, like, I think if hedid that in original creation, I
think in new creation he couldtake some ashes and create some
resurrected bodies.

SPEAKER_02 (21:10):
Absolutely.
So functionally, uh I've alwaysfallen on the same area, which
is what is the condition ofAbraham's body now?
By this time it's dust and ash,right?
Uh, what is the condition ofJoseph's body?
It's dust.
So functionally, cremation andburial are going to put you in
the same place in the substanceof your body.

(21:30):
Now, one of the reasons whyChristians didn't do it out of
conscience, not out of theology,was because it lined up with a
practice that talked about thebody is only bad because you
have to shuffle off this mortalcoil in order to like move on to
something better.
Now, we do have something betterto move on to, but the cool
thing is God will take thatbody, whatever the state may be,

(21:53):
and give us an actual body.
So you're not just like someethereal floating spirit in the
new heavens and the new earth.
No, you get something back inreturn.
I love the earthiness of that.
Um, but my story is I'm alsohave in my my last will and
testament to be cremated.
But my brother and I have anarrangement because we're both
archers, and I'm not a pagan,I'm not Norse by any stretch of

(22:16):
the imagination, but both of ushave sworn a blood oath, which
is not according to thescriptures.
We don't actually have a bloodoath, that I'll probably die
first because I'm older than heis.
I'll just get like just a littlefloaty of some sort with some
wood on me and just kick me outin a river, flaming arrow.
Like that.

(22:36):
Wow.

SPEAKER_04 (22:37):
Me for him, him for me.
Interesting information.
My thought was more like drop alittle bit off at Ross Dress for
Less, Top of the Bell parkinglot, Popeyes, church.
Peter's favorite places.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (22:53):
My son-in-law would like to be cremated and have his
ashes put into a timer so he canstill participate in game night
with me.
Like an hourglass timer.

SPEAKER_02 (23:02):
All right.
So here's here's one thing aboutlike cremation and being like
scattered, having your ashesscattered.
So, you know, I'm not really forthe ashes scattering thing.
I understand families want to doit.
And so I didn't really know inthe beginning of my pastoral
tenure like what my view was.
And so some really close friendshad their grandmother pass away
and they're like, Well, we'regonna do a spreading of ashes.
Uh and they were like, Could yoube there?

(23:22):
I was like, Well, I'll be there,but I'm just gonna observe.
And they're like, Yeah, that'sfine.
And so, you know, they said somenice things and they did a good
Christian prayer and they talkedmore about Jesus than about her,
which was all good.
And then they have this speciallittle tool you can buy,
actually, that spreads theashes.
So it's like a long cylinder,and you hit a button on the top
and it like opens up the bottomto spread the ashes.

(23:43):
Three months later, they selltheir house.
So I'm like, Well, why did youput grandma's ashes in your rose
bushes in the front yard?
And then you just sold yourhome.
Like, I don't get it.

SPEAKER_04 (23:55):
Yeah, because it doesn't matter.
It's just like she she helpedgrow some roses and move on.
Dude, she's not there.
I'm like, I'm I'm all for it.
I want them to scatter all overthe place.

SPEAKER_02 (24:05):
Like, just like there's an affiller maybe, just
so you know, of people liketrying to throw their loved
ones' ashes off of a bridge, butbecause they're by water and the
air just catches it and it justgoes all over the place.
It's terrible.
That is not what I want.

SPEAKER_00 (24:21):
All right, talking about newness, you're talking
about creating new bodies.
I have a question here relatedto baptism.
So um, somebody asked, I wasbaptized as an infant.
Do I need to be rebaptized as anadult?
And then we also got thequestion kind of related that
does a baby that dies beforebaptism go to heaven.

SPEAKER_04 (24:44):
So to answer the first one, do I need to be
re-rebaptized?
No.
We believe in one baptism.
Um, this is in Ephesians 4, uh,but also the apostles' creed is
all about it.
You got the verse up one Lord,one faith, one baptism.
There you go.
Ephesians 4, verse 5.

SPEAKER_01 (25:00):
Nicene Creed, a baptism for the remission of
sins.

SPEAKER_04 (25:03):
Yeah.
And so um I'd say, yeah, you donot need to be rebaptized.
Uh that being said, you cancelebrate your baptism whenever
you want, but that's not beingre baptized.
So uh we we do practice renewalor celebration or remembrance.
Uh, and um Martin Luther wouldsay that we ought to do that

(25:24):
daily as a reminder that that weare forgiven by Christ and made
new in him and part of God'sfamily.
Great.
Um, but our sin doesn'tdisqualify us and make us have
to be rebaptized because if itdid, it'd be dependent on us.
We'd all be in trouble.
Uh so I'd say, should I berebaptized?

(25:45):
No, you're good.
The first one stuck.

SPEAKER_01 (25:47):
It worked.

SPEAKER_04 (25:48):
Yes.
There was another part of thatquestion.
Uh, I already forgot it.
So someone else.

SPEAKER_02 (25:53):
It was about what happens to babies if they
weren't baptized.

SPEAKER_04 (25:56):
All right, Seth, what do you think?

SPEAKER_02 (25:58):
All right.
So I've actually had to addressthis several times, and I'm
gonna say this uh very clearlythat um these kinds of answers
are much, much, much better madein pastoral counseling
situations where you have atwo-way conversation and people
can give more detail and you canclarify your own commentary to
talk about, like, just so youknow, this is the tone I'm

(26:20):
coming with.
I want to be compassionate here,but I also am called to teach
the scriptures in a way that ifit addresses something, I can
address it.
If it doesn't address aspecific, you know, like
situation, then I can't addressit.
Um, and usually that's where Ianswer this question with what
happens to babies or anybodyelse for that matter, um, before

(26:40):
they come to faith.
Um well, is our God a God ofgrace?
Yes.
Is our God also a God of justicewhere he takes sin seriously?
Yes.
Is our God all powerful so hecan do whatever he sees fit?
Yes.
So if a baby dies before theyget to baptism, like the baptism
itself is so helpful forparents.

(27:01):
So if something were to happento that poor kiddo, uh, those
parents would know I have noquestion in my mind that Jesus
came into this child's life, andI know that Jesus loves him,
Jesus loves her, and I can onlyimagine what life is gonna be
like when I get to see thatlittle baby again.
And you know Jesus loveschildren because he says in Mark
chapter 10, let the littlechildren come to me.

(27:23):
Uh the kingdom of God belongs tosuch as these.
But what I can't say is I knowwhat's gonna happen to that
child that hasn't been baptized.
I can say truths like Jesus isgracious.
And I can say truths like Idon't know what exactly is
happening with your child, butlet's do what we should do, and
that is place your child at thefeet of a gracious Jesus, and

(27:46):
he'll do what he sees fit.
Because then you're not speakingfor God.
You're not saying, I guaranteethis is what he's going to do.
Because what happens when theylook for the scriptures to check
you and they can't find anythingin the scriptures, they're gonna
think you're lying and you can'tlie to protect God.
Like that is not gonna be a netgood for the kingdom.

(28:06):
But you also don't have to gothe route that so many churches
in the past did go to, which isany baby who dies without
baptism is straight, straight up100%.
There are damned to hell becausethe scriptures don't say that
either.
Um, they misapply uh teachingsof the scriptures.
So they look at Mark 16 and theysay, He who is bel who believeth

(28:28):
and is baptized will be saved.
And so they make that into anequation, right?
Belief plus baptism equalssalvation, but then they neglect
to look at the very next clausethere.
He who believeth not will bedamned.
So it doesn't say like by virtueof not being baptized, then you
go to hell.
It's talking about faith.
And faith is a gift that isgranted to the elect.

(28:50):
Now the problem is how are theelect mark marked in here in
time through the means of grace,through baptism, through
reception of the Lord's Supper,those places where Jesus says,
I'm meeting you in grace righthere, right now.
We can't have that same level ofcertainty uh about who is elect
and who is not without thosemarkers.
And so that's why we say Jesusis gracious.

(29:11):
We're gonna take your child andplace him at the feet of Jesus,
and it's up to him to do whathe's going to do.
And so pastorally, that's whereI've fallen with this.
Um because I hope what it doesis it maintains the tension of
compassion but also truth andalso leaves God to be God.

SPEAKER_01 (29:27):
Um the the the prayer that I'll often use in
these sorts of situations, Seth,is um we we we entrust this
child to your mercy, Lord.
And it's no no more, no less umin that sort of situation.
A quick quick circle back to thethe re baptism conversation.
So at our in at our Fremontcampus uh two, three weeks ago,

(29:50):
and we had baptism Sunday, andwe uh did a baptism for a guy in
his forties who actually wasbaptized into the Mormon church
a number of years.
Years ago.
I like where this point is gone.
Yeah.
And and so some might interpretthat as a rebaptism.
We would classify because the uhbecause the Church of Latter-day
Saints are not Trinitarian,therefore a baptism that that is

(30:14):
not a baptism in the name of theFather, Son, and Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_02 (30:17):
Which is prescriptive in the scriptures.

SPEAKER_01 (30:18):
Right.
Exactly.
So we would say that actuallywas not a baptism.
And so for our friend atFremont, we would say, This is
your Christian baptism where weyou are being baptized in the
name of God the Father, Son, andHoly Spirit.
Um, and that and that is hisbaptism.
We weren't rebaptizing, we weresaying, This is it, this is your
one baptism.

SPEAKER_02 (30:39):
So um I have heard the joke, and I don't I don't
hold to this jocularity and thishumor of a re-baptism is merely
a wet confirmation.
So, Peter, as someone who hasled confirmation for years,
that's a gross image.
Well, it's it's I've heard thisseveral times.

(31:00):
Again, I do not hold to thatjocularity, but uh just
wondering from your perspective,then what role does confirmation
play in like connection tobaptism and discipleship?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (31:10):
Actually, we got the question.
Why is confirmation soimportant?
So have at it.

SPEAKER_04 (31:15):
Yeah.
So kids, uh, like I've got an11-year-old, nine-year-old, and
seven-year-old.
And um I ask we we tell themwhat they're doing, and I ask
them to come with reverence, andand and they come to church.
And they're they come becausedaddy and mommy say, You're
coming to church.
Uh, they love church.

(31:36):
Um, they love the music, theylove kids' ministry, they love
to play, and um, so that'sthat's not their choice, that's
our choice.
We make them come.
Uh, if we were to die, theirgodparents would make them, or
their grandparents would makethem.
Um now confirmation in in ourcontext happens in sixth,

(31:58):
seventh, and eighth grade.
And this is uh around the agewhere kids start to have the
brain power to think, what well,I know my mom and dad had me do
this, godparents, grandparents,but what do I really think?
Is the faith that I carrytheirs, or is it mine?

(32:20):
And uh, so this is a time wherethey get to say, This is my
faith.
I'm grateful that my parents,grandparents, godparents gave it
to me, but this is mine that I'mgoing to carry.
And they confirm the faith thathas been given to them.
Uh, and oftentimes um thatparents like my kids were all

(32:42):
baptized as infants.
Now, that being said, I had umwe had uh a gal in our
confirmation who's in right nowwho's never been baptized.
So we taught about baptism, andshe was like, Well, I want to be
baptized.
Yeah, amen.
Let's do this.
Right.
And so now she's been baptized,and um, she'll still confirm her
faith in a year and a half.

(33:02):
So uh that's confirmation isgreat.
They're uh they're of that agewhere they're it's starting to
sink in and we get to dive intoGod's truth and and like what
does the Bible mean?
The Ten Commandments, the um andand for them to say, like, yeah,
my parents chose this for me,but it's mine.
Let's run.

SPEAKER_02 (33:19):
All right, here's my question to you.
Baptism is commanded in theBible, where is confirmation
commanded in the Bible?

SPEAKER_04 (33:27):
Yeah, I don't I don't know this one.
Because it's not, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 (33:30):
It's adiaphra.

SPEAKER_04 (33:32):
You want to unpack what that word means?
Well, yeah, you can't just throwout a word like a diaphragm.
That sounds like a shoe.
Ex niello adiafras.

SPEAKER_01 (33:39):
What I will say is that Jesus does say in the Great
Commission, go make disciples ofall nations, baptize them in the
name of Father, Son, HolySpirit.
And then he follows up teachingthem to obey everything I've
commanded.
So what we would say is thatconfirmation is a way to
accomplish what Jesus hascommanded.
Thank you.
Anytime Seth gives like theapproval nod or the voice of the

(34:01):
little sound in the microphone,I'm like, okay, oh my God.

SPEAKER_02 (34:04):
Uh-huh.
No, you're right.
It's confirmation is a subset ofdiscipleship exactly practice.
Yes.
So he does talk about it, butnot in the word confirmation.

SPEAKER_01 (34:13):
So, like, if if you grew up in the Catholic Church,
confirmation is a sacrament.
We will we don't believe that.
It's a good thing.
There's a reason behind it,there's tradition behind it, but
it is not uh when we sayaudiophra, it is is it Latin?
Does that sound right?
It's neither expressly or is itan it's not an English word, is
it?

SPEAKER_02 (34:33):
No.
But I was mixing what's Latinand what is Greek in terms of
it.
Sounds more like it's a Greekbase.
Okay, gotcha.
Anyway, sounds like a Pokemon.
But it is.
It means it's an evolution ofEevee.

SPEAKER_00 (34:44):
It means those things confirmation.

SPEAKER_02 (34:47):
Ooh, election, that's in confirmation.

SPEAKER_01 (34:49):
It means the things that are neither commanded nor
forbidden in the scriptures.
So it's things that the Bible issilent on.
Um, therefore, it's kind of inour realm of conscience and
realm of um wisdom anddiscernment, that sort of thing.
I will say one thing I likeabout oh, it is Greek.
There we go.
In different things.
Um, what I like aboutconfirmation is because there's

(35:11):
such a heightened church cultureabout it, in especially in our
LCMS world, then the familiesthat take it seriously, it gives
us an opportunity to discipletheir kids.

SPEAKER_04 (35:24):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (35:25):
And for for them to get serious about them
discipling their kids.
And so I'm like, well, that tome, that's a great opportunity.
I'm not looking to get rid of itbecause if it's already kind of
baked into the culture, thenwell, we want to teach your kids
to obey what Jesus has said oneway or another.
Let's take advantage.
Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 (35:40):
And then to piggyback off of this, isn't the
only podcast that King of Kingshas.
The other one is Coffee BreakTheology.
And one of the more recentepisodes that just aired was on
parenting as a vocation.
And uh Marcus and Greg weretalking about why did the small
catechism get created?
And the small catechism is justlike a cheat sheet for the
basics of Christianity.
So, like people are always like,I wish there was a cheat sheet

(36:02):
for the Bible.
I'm like, Yeah, we have one.
And here it is.
It's the cliff notes.
It is, it's like the cliff notesof the most important things
that you find in the scriptures.
It's not gonna have all thenarrative in there, but the
teachings are all reallywonderfully there.
Um, and the whole reason whythis is there, and I knew this
because of my own like researchand studies too, but it was
great to hear Marcus and Greg rereiterate this.
The preamble or the preface tothe small catechism says, as the

(36:24):
head of the household issupposed to teach to his house.
And what happened was uh forsome of our listeners, I don't
know if they're Lutheran or not,but Martin Luther was first a
like priest in an area.
And he went around and he justlike went and visited all the
households in Saxony that he wasresponsible over.
And he was like, Hey, what doyou know about the I don't know,
it's Ten Commandments.
We'll start with the softball.
And like almost every householdis like nine.

(36:48):
Not nine commandments.
That means no in German.
No, we don't know nothing aboutthis stuff.
Well, what do you know aboutbaptism?
Nine, like that, and he justwent through this list of all
these important teachings of thescripture, and they didn't know
anything about it.
So he creates this small littlebooklet uh that actually was
first created into woodcuts sothat pictures actually were used
to teach all of these aspects ofthe scriptures first, because

(37:10):
literacy was not as high.

SPEAKER_01 (37:12):
So, like if you open Peter is actively doing a Google
search for his new kitchenremodel.
Oh, real, because my literacy isnot high.

SPEAKER_02 (37:20):
But they would have these like pictures that would
tell the story of like what isthe first commandment and its
meaning.
It would give a picture of whatit looks like to hold that true.
And they just created all thesematerials, and that's kind of
what we're supposed to do asparents.
And this is why I loveconfirmation, because I find
that in churches, you're notjust discipling the student,
you're actually discipling theparent as much as the student.

(37:43):
And then you get this likeawesome twofer in terms of a
household doing the things thata Christian household should be
doing, spending time in theWord, prayer, uh, looking deeply
at the scriptures together,discussing it.
I mean, this is what a Christianhousehold should look like.

SPEAKER_00 (37:59):
And can you comment a little bit on at my last
church?
I was um part of the studentteam for a while, and I got a
lot of the implication thatconfirmation is like a
graduation.

SPEAKER_02 (38:10):
What?

SPEAKER_00 (38:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (38:11):
That's right.
Sorry to the listeners justheard me vomit in your ear.

SPEAKER_00 (38:15):
Well, and that's I I think that there on some level
parents have an idea of that's abox they need to check, and then
they're done.
And so can you just comment onthat, anyone?

SPEAKER_04 (38:24):
Yeah, I mean, I I I see it as more like um you have
been a disciple throughout, andyou're going to continue to be.
And this is actually time foryou to be an even more active
participant uh and to find aconsistent role to serve and to
give and not just be one thattakes.
Kids take, and then you starteating good food and you're able

(38:46):
to give.
So, I mean, kids can start togive too.
Um, but that's I that's the wayI see it.
Like time to time to get evenmore involved.

SPEAKER_01 (38:56):
Yeah, the um, this is the downside of some church
to culture is that the that canbe kind of the the kind of like,
what's the expectation?
You get your kid baptized whenthey're a baby, you get them
through confirmation, and thenyou're done.
And it's like, well, no,actually, our call to
discipleship is lifelong.
And so we want to continue tofollow Jesus.
Confirmation is just aconcentrated time to focus.

(39:19):
Um, and then it's and then youwake up the next day and you're
like, all right, gonna followJesus.
What does that look like?
Being involved in the church,remembering your baptism,
serving your use, utilizing yourgifts, living out your
vocations.
Like it doesn't stop.

SPEAKER_02 (39:33):
Yeah.
But I think one of the problemsis that as a church in the North
American context, we leaned intoit looking like a graduation.
So one of the reasons why theages for confirmation are what
they are in like sixth, seventh,and eighth grade, something like
that.
And usually that's what it was,is because that was the time by
which you could expect thatchildren would be in day school
uh for so much of agrarianlifestyle in North America.

(39:56):
And so, well, why not?
And so then a kid getsconfirmed, what are they
wearing?
A white robe.
When they get graduated fromthat school in eighth grade,
what are they wearing?
A white robe.
Um what do we put on their robesnow?
Little corsage.
What do we put on people whenthey graduate?
Little corsage.
Uh what happens during that timeperiod?
Intense academic preparation.

(40:19):
And what I love about King ofKings is we add into it
formation like prayer andworship and service and giving,
all these things are added toit.
But for a lot of churches, it'sjust like we're teaching you a
bunch of academic things.
Well, what does that look like?
It looks just like middleschool.
So I think a lot of part of themisnomer is that the church
actually leaned into it and didit way too hard because we were

(40:41):
like, well, this is the latestwe're gonna get them because
they're not gonna go off to highschool and they're not gonna go
to college because they're gonnatake over the over the farm for
dad.
And so, yeah, well, we're gonnatreat it like a graduation
because we'll just wrap it allup together.

SPEAKER_04 (40:54):
Is that what agrarian means?
Farm?
Yep.
Oh, I was thinking horses, but Iwas like, that's a horses aren't
farms, but yeah, there arefarms.
Yeah, agrarian.
Yeah, horses would be equine,like agriculture.
Equine.
Agriculture.

SPEAKER_01 (41:09):
Agrarian, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (41:11):
Also sounds like a Pokemon.

SPEAKER_01 (41:14):
Agrarian.
We have a podcast title.

SPEAKER_00 (41:18):
All right, we're gonna shift gears a little bit
here and talk about worshipstyle.
So we got a couple questions.
Why do we use drums and lightsin worship?
But other churches use organsand keep the lights on.

Uh, but also another question: what is a good response when (41:29):
undefined
family members believe that thetraditional LCMS services are
the only appropriate way toworship?

SPEAKER_04 (41:38):
Yeah, first I want to say that this is not uh this
is neither Agrarian or adiaphragon or uh this would be a
diaphragm.
Yeah, so it is not agrarian andit is a diaphragm.
I'll hand this over to you guys.

SPEAKER_02 (41:56):
Uh I'm excited to hear what Tyler has to say about
it, actually, because of youhave a long-standing practice of
like being heavily involved inworship.

SPEAKER_01 (42:04):
Yeah, you know, this is one of those where depending
on who you talk to within ourchurch body, there there's gonna
be some pretty strong opinions.
Um so if you were to readthrough the confessions as Peter
is planning to tonight, um notit next to your wood wood
panels.
That's right.
Um, but you'll just see a lot oflanguage in there um wanting to

(42:29):
really make sure we keep themain thing the main thing.
And and so you'll they'llthey'll use language of
ceremonies.
Did Greg talk about this duringthe first service, the nine
o'clock service on Sunday?
There was there was a comment uha comment about worship, but the
idea of like the things, thethings that get added into the
service that is outside of thecore, and we want to really get

(42:51):
to the core, which isjustification by faith alone
through grace, and in thecontext of worship, the the two
things are the word of God, wordof God rightly preached, word of
God rightly sung, and then thesacraments, the baptism and
communion.
The the other things that go ontop of that or beneath it on
either side are truly in that,neither commanded nor forbidden

(43:13):
world.
Now there's great reasons andprudential reasons and
contextual reasons to do onething and one way or another.
Um, and we all have our personalpreferences, right?
And churches have preferencesand districts have preferences,
all that sort of thing.
Um, but we would kind of take aall of the all of the above

(43:33):
approach um in saying that um isis the word of God there?
Amen.
Are the sacraments there?
Amen.
And that can be in a nineo'clock here at Millard with
drums and lights, and it can bean eight o'clock blended with a
keyboard and some hymns, and itcan be across town at another

(43:55):
church with organ and followingthe Lutheran service book.
Um, we would take that posturewhere we're not saying, well, it
has to be drums and guitars, orelse, then we're actually guilty
of the same thing where we'readding to what God has said.
No, it really is just word andsacrament.

SPEAKER_02 (44:13):
Yep.
And the problem is if youascribe a certain kind of
musical setting, you'reinvalidating all the rest of the
world's history of worship.
And you're saying that only myway of worship in this specific
time period.
And I think it kind of comesfrom a point of arrogance of
saying this is the only kind ofworship.
And I think our confessions arereally good about being very
clear to say there isn't aprescribed kind of worship, is

(44:37):
is it orderly?
I mean, that was a main focus ofPaul when he would teach.
And is it honoring Christ withthe word and the sacrament?
The one thing that I'd add isthat usually a service should
also have a form of confessionand absolution, and that can
happen within a rightly preachedmessage of long gospel.
So it doesn't have to be like apart of the scripture or a part
of the liturgical setting orwhatever.

(44:58):
But what I love is the wordliturgy, which is often used to
talk about those pieces of aservice, whether it be
contemporary service ortraditional modern, whatever you
want to call it.
The word liturgy means the workof the people.
That is, what is contextuallygoing to be carrying the word of
God to these people, that theycan pray it, they can sing it,
they can confess it, uh, that itweaves its way through, so that

(45:19):
in that time and in that space,people are focusing on Jesus and
Jesus alone.
And like the scripturesthemselves, Psalm 150, three
through five says this.
I've got to, I wish I would havethis all memorized, but it's
praise him with the sounding ofthe trumpet, praise him with the
harp and the lyre, praise himwith timbrel and dancing, praise
him with strings and pipe,praise him with the clash of
symbols, praise him withresounding symbols.

(45:40):
All right.
So uh Tyler, did you purchase atimbrel when you went out to
Fremont to go lead worship?
That was one thing.

SPEAKER_01 (45:46):
Did you get that off Amazon?
Well, no, the the budget didn'tallow us to get a timbrel.

SPEAKER_02 (45:50):
Oh and in Northwest, uh, do you have the double harp
or the triple liar, maybe?
Quadruple harp and the triple.

SPEAKER_04 (45:56):
Yes, we do have the triple liar, we actually have
many liars that attend it.

SPEAKER_02 (46:01):
Well, the the psalms also say all men are liars, but
it's a little bit different of aword, I think.
And women.
That's true.
We name names here right here onthe Beyond Peter podcast.
But anyway, I make this thiscomment to be like, look, this
scripture is not an exhaustivelist of the only ways that you
can praise the Lord.
This is a representative list ofways that you can use some

(46:23):
amazing instruments to give Godglory.
What's the point?
Praise him.
What's the point with uh thetimbrel and the dancing?
Praise him.
All of this is just the wordpraise him.
And so uh prescribing a certainform, a certain instrumentation,
a certain setting is notscriptural.
So yeah, yeah, I think there'sthere's a wide variety of

(46:44):
worship styles that we canpractice and still be faithful
and God honoring.

SPEAKER_00 (46:49):
Okay, so another question that we got here is
about the Holy Spirit.
And the question is how do weknow for sure when the Holy
Spirit is speaking to us?

SPEAKER_04 (47:03):
Yeah, the Holy Spirit um is amazing.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as ahelper, uh, and the Holy Spirit
speaks to us through the word ofGod, makes it kind of alive in
our heart.
So compare it to God's word.
If it contradicts it, not thespirit.
Might be a spirit, not the HolySpirit.

(47:23):
Watch yourself.
Um and then it it leads ustowards Christ.
So if it's not doing that, Iwould I would argue that's
something else in your own mindas well.

SPEAKER_02 (47:35):
Yep.
I I would uh totally 100% agree.
And that is uh on both sides ofwhat you just said.
One, the flesh is gonna bereally loud, and every other
spirit that's dying for yourattention is gonna be really
loud, and it's gonna speak as ifit were God, and it's gonna
allow you to justify so manythings in your life that you
shouldn't be justifying.
So push it up against the word.
And you see that in thescriptures when uh Paul is in, I

(47:57):
think it's his second missionaryjourney in Berea.
He gives this message about whoJesus is, and they spend all of
their time going back in the OldTestament to fact-check what
Paul was teaching to make surethat this Jesus that he's
telling them about, that he'srevealing to them at that time
and he's saying is you knowspirit-led, uh, that this Jesus
is actually the Messiah of theOld Testament.
And I think, you know, maybe wecould do a better job of being

(48:19):
those Berea-inspired typeChristians that check against
the word.
I think that's great advice.

SPEAKER_01 (48:24):
Yeah, I think the only thing I would say, so
certainly if it comes to likewhat um what is what is the word
of God, right?
Like we're not adding to what isis given to us in the
scriptures.
It also could be someone sayingthis, they're like, I have a big
decision in front of me, and I'mtrying to decide, like, Lord,
where are you leading me, thatsort of thing?

(48:44):
Or like, what is it, Acts 16,where uh Paul has the Macedonian
call and what he has a vision ofa man standing begging him, come
to Macedonia and help us, right?
Um, and man, if the Lord couldspeak to us like that all the
time to give us direction inlife, um, but there probably are
some like kind of basicprinciples that again, if we're

(49:05):
not talking like matters ofmorality, sin is like, well, is
is God saying it's okay for meto get drunk tonight?
Like, no, it's no.
Um that was gonna be the plan atthe flick house, but now you're
ruined it.
Um, but like there there aresome like principles of like,

(49:26):
well, are you are you readingscripture?
Are you praying?
Are you in Christian community?
And are are you asking God forfor direction?
Um, and sometimes the the theActs this Acts 16 is not a
promise of God is always gonnado it like this.
But yeah, there are some timeswhere God shows up because he's

(49:47):
our good shepherd and gives usan indication, yeah, here's
here's what's next.
And is it gonna be clear everytime?
No, but there are times we say,all right, I'm gonna take a step
of faith and see what God does.
And that that is the story ofthe book of Acts is God
advancing the gospel through thefaithfulness of his people.

SPEAKER_00 (50:06):
All right, so we are kind of wrapping up our time
here, and we are gonna close itout with uh the speed round.
Are you guys ready for the speedround?

SPEAKER_02 (50:16):
Let's do this.

SPEAKER_00 (50:16):
We have just a few questions left.
And if we didn't hit yourquestion, please feel free to
reach out to our staff, to yourcampus director.
If they don't have the answer,they may say, I don't know.
Like we talked about earlier.
Sometimes the answer to thequestion is we don't really
know.

SPEAKER_01 (50:33):
We're just gonna forward it on to Dina.

SPEAKER_00 (50:35):
Yes.
Greg at G G.
Is that G G at kingofkings.org.
Um, please feel free to reachout if you are struggling with a
question that this has kind ofsparked this message series has

(50:55):
sparked up for you.
Um, but with our speed round,we've just got a few left.
Let's try to answer them.
And you think we can do 10seconds or less, 20 seconds or
less each one?
We'll see how it goes.
All right, number one questionWas Jesus black?

SPEAKER_02 (51:10):
No.
I know that sounds really quick,but like uh Greg answered this
question.
He said, you know, he's actuallyborn on the continent of Asia.
So technically speaking, it'd beAsian, but not what we would
think about Asia.
Uh, he was born in the MiddleEast.
You can take a look at whatpeople look like now in Israel,
and that would be very close towhat he would have looked like

(51:31):
in terms of what does someonefrom that area's hair look like,
eye color, skin color, you know,a little bit more bronze, so not
black, but also not Caucasian inblonde hair, blue eyes, like we
have depicted in so many ways.

SPEAKER_00 (51:44):
All right.
Can loved ones send us signs?

SPEAKER_01 (51:49):
Yeah, I would I would say no.
Um that they're on that side ofeternity.
Um, God is the the one who whomeets us.
Um Seth, do you have anadditional 10 seconds?

SPEAKER_02 (52:04):
I get 10 extra seconds.
Yeah.
So like there's not an approval.
There's nothing in thescriptures that says that people
that were on the other side getagency to send any message back.
But what I would say is thatthere's a lot of people that see
things that remind them of theloved one that they have.
So rather than saying, like, oh,that was from my grandmother,
who I just so everybody knows tolove my grandma, uh, but to say,

(52:25):
my God is so gracious, he gaveme a relationship with my
grandma, and that thing remindedme of how gracious God is and
how much I love my grandmaShirley, you know, that kind of
thing.

SPEAKER_00 (52:35):
All right.
What does the Bible say aboutthe supernatural or
extraterrestrial?

SPEAKER_04 (52:43):
Yeah, the Bible um mentions like angels and demons,
uh, does not mention aliens.
So I I would say probably not.
If there if there was anothercreated being, it would be like
created by God.

SPEAKER_02 (53:00):
So I don't know.
Yep, cosmos are attributed tothe creation of God in the
Psalms, and so that would meananything from another planet
would be created by God.
But this scripture that we haveis just how God chose to
reconcile the the people of thisplanet, and these things are
written that you may believethat Jesus is the Christ, and by
believing you will have life inhis name.
He's talking to residents ofearth.

SPEAKER_00 (53:22):
Speaking of earth, is earth actually heaven?

SPEAKER_01 (53:26):
Uh no.
Um the the story of the of theBible is um God creating places
and spaces of heaven on earthfrom Eden to the tabernacle to
the temple, to then Jesushimself being the heaven and
earth person, and then coming aday when Jesus returns.
The new heavens, new earth, allin one.

SPEAKER_00 (53:48):
That's what we look for to is it more godly to have
a beard?

SPEAKER_02 (53:53):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (53:53):
Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_02 (53:55):
Peter, come on, man.
You gotta chime in.

SPEAKER_00 (53:57):
Two of the four people in the room.

SPEAKER_02 (54:00):
So Peter's is the fullest today.

SPEAKER_04 (54:01):
Yeah, yeah.
Um, I would say that uh uh theway that some people act, the
bigger your beard is, the closerthey believe they are to God.
And um those people also maketheir own beer.
So that hasn't that's neitherhere nor there.
It is a diaphragm.

SPEAKER_02 (54:23):
Well, I there's my life verse.
Well, my life verse is Leviticus1927.
I shall not round off the hairon my temples or mar the edges
of my beard.
And so I just wanted to say thatthat guides my life.

SPEAKER_04 (54:35):
Um he's got super marbled edges, by the way.
My life verse is get up, Peter,kill and eat.
So that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 (54:44):
All right.
Why is having a friend good foryour faith?

SPEAKER_04 (54:48):
Yeah, I've got a scripture on this one.
This comes from Ecclesiastes.
I call this the Mr.
T verse.
Pity a fool.

SPEAKER_00 (54:56):
Are you gonna read it in the voice of Mr.
T?

SPEAKER_04 (54:58):
Oh, do it.
Uh someone remind me what heactually sounded like a pity the
fool.

SPEAKER_03 (55:03):
Okay.
Two are better than one becausethey have a good return for the
labor.
If either of them falls down,one can help them, the other one
up.
Well, pity the fool who fallsand has no one to help him up.
Is that pretty good?

SPEAKER_00 (55:17):
That was great.
Mr.

SPEAKER_02 (55:19):
T was actually like he would preach.

SPEAKER_00 (55:20):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (55:21):
Like he would go on TBN and he would preach sermons.
I loved listening to it with thebling.

SPEAKER_04 (55:26):
So yeah, so friends can uh encourage, correct,
support each other, and thatthat's a really healthy thing.
Call each other out even.

SPEAKER_01 (55:33):
Iron Shepherds Iron, God made us for relationship.
Friends are good.

SPEAKER_02 (55:37):
Yep.
Uh I love the idea that thewhat's the opposite?
Like the devil's job is toisolate, separate, and alienate,
bring us away so that he canattack and take over.
And if you have other friends,they can help protect.
And so the spirit works throughthem too.
So uh from Proverbs 17, 17, afriend loves at all times.
Uh, a brother is born foradversity.

(55:58):
So it's really a text aboutwe're made for this, right?
To be sticking up for oneanother.

SPEAKER_00 (56:03):
And actually, we have a sermon series next year,
early next year.
We're getting so close to thenext year.
Yeah.
February, am I correct?

SPEAKER_02 (56:11):
Yeah.
So January is 21 days of prayer.
And then right after that, we'regoing to not alone because we
want to equip our people to knowthat being alone is not going to
be healthy for you, but beingsurrounded by God's people is
going to be amazing.

SPEAKER_04 (56:21):
So, um, so we said that Jesus was not black.
Uh, what nationality was SaintNick?

SPEAKER_02 (56:28):
Uh, I believe he was a oh gosh.
I think he might have been inAfrica.
He's either Turkey or Africa.
I always confuse him.

SPEAKER_04 (56:37):
So when I put up my African Saint Nick at home that
I get made fun of for, it'sactually closer to correct.

SPEAKER_01 (56:46):
According to a quick search, yeah, born in Patera, a
Greek colony, and which was thenin the Roman Empire, the city is
located in modern day Turkey.

SPEAKER_04 (56:55):
So still kind of that Middle East.
Darker complexion for sure.
If you're hearing that, Carista,it's more correct.

SPEAKER_00 (57:03):
This will be next to your depicted confirmation.

SPEAKER_04 (57:08):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (57:11):
All right.
So thank you for joining ustoday.
Thank you guys for being heretackling these questions.

SPEAKER_01 (57:17):
A marathon beyond Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 (57:18):
Yes, it was longer than normal.
Uh dove in a little bit deeper.
Um, this Sunday, we start a newmessage series called Family
Matters.
So invite a friend, invite afamily member, and come join us
because you know, having afriend is good for your faith.
So um until then, let's keepliving our faith beyond Sunday.