Beware the Snare

Pastor Bob is back! After a whirlwind trip to Colorado filled with board meetings, whitewater rafting, and a little In-N-Out Burger, Bob returns to the mic with fresh insights—and a fresh shirt. In this packed episode, the team dives into the spiritual significance of contentment and the deceptive pull of wealth, unpacking 1 Timothy 6 and its relevance in our consumer-driven world.

They also explore the hot-button topic of current events in light of biblical prophecy, offering a balanced and thoughtful take on Ezekiel 38, Israel, and end-times speculation. Plus: a new book war showdown, commentary on socialism in NYC politics, and a light-hearted challenge to beware the snare of daily cravings (like that third Barrister coffee).

With plenty of laughs, deep theology, and practical wisdom, this episode will both challenge and encourage you. Oh—and you’ll want to stick around for a fiery Theology Sprint tackling gambling vs. investing, and two big church announcements, including a ballpark night you won’t want to miss.

***VOTE HERE***
Vote here to decide who wins this weeks edition of 'The Great Book War
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:58 Pastor Bob Trip Recap
8:00 In The News
15:41 Chart Sightings: What is Israel?
23:45 In The News Continued
28:59 The Great Book War
37:36 Sermon Recap
52:24 Theology Sprint
1:00:40 Church Body Life






Music Credit:
ZDQKW7GSXHGKGFAU

Episode Transcript

Bob (00:00):
Please begin that way.

Dave (00:16):
Hey everybody, welcome to our podcast.
It is the end of June.
We are in the hot days of thesummer in New Jersey.
Hope you're drinking yourwater.
Hope that you are using somesunscreen and enjoying the fun
days of the warmth.
In speaking of having fun andgetting away, finally, after two

(00:36):
podcasts without your favoritehost, the one and only Robert
Erbig IV is back with us.
So welcome back.
back to Pastor Bob with the newshirt.
Notice the

Bob (00:50):
swag.
I'm here.
I was gone.
The W.
I come back with a new wardrobefor my trip.
Do tell.
What does the W stand for, myfriend?
So, I was in Colorado for eightdays, and I was asked to
consider being on the board forour mission organization,
WorldVenture.

(01:11):
And that's what the shirt ishere.
The W.
is the not Wonder Woman, notWonder Bread, but WorldVenture
right here is their logo.
So I was out for meetings forthat and got voted on, so I'm
officially a member at large onthe board.
And my hat here is from Noah'sArk Whitewater Rafting Company

(01:31):
in Buena Vista, Colorado.
So I added a little bit ofvacation where I took my oldest
daughter and we went whitewaterrafting.
out there, and it was quite theexperience.
There you go.
There's a picture of us.
Pastor Dave, feast your eyes onthat.
What would you say was thelevel of difficulty here in your
trip?
Does it have

Dave (01:51):
rankings?

Bob (01:52):
They do have rankings.
I'm glad you asked.
I did not get a chart, but theyrank the rapids anywhere from
two to five.
Five is actually unraftable,but really two to four is what
you're looking at for rapids.
I guess they add ones in there,but that's not really very
much.
That right there was, Ibelieve, a three plus right

(02:13):
there.
So that was the biggest rapidwe went through on the trip.
And you can see me paddling.
My daughter was nervous at thebeginning.
But then once we actually gotin the rapid, she was very
happy.
She does not look nervous atall.
No, she was super excited aboutthis one.
Yeah.
You, on the other hand, look alittle serious.
Well, being on the outside, youget jolted around a little bit.
And it's cold, man.

(02:33):
You got to wear some gearbecause that water is kind of
rigid.
It was like in the 50s.
But that was nice because inDenver it was equally hot.
It was about 100 degrees formost of the days that I was
there.
Oh, a heat wave was over theretoo, huh?
It was.
Now, it's a dry heat.
It's not quite as humid as overhere, but in the mountains it
was like 80 degrees and that wasgood.

Dave (02:52):
Well, welcome back and congratulations on your
appointment to the board.
For those of you who may notknow, we serve as an associated
member with Venture ChurchNetwork and we have an
international organization thatwe partner with and a domestic
organization that we partnerwith.
The International ForeignMissions Society, formerly known
as the Conservative BaptistForeign Missions Society.

Bob (03:13):
Conservative Baptist Foreign Missions Society.
It's now

Dave (03:15):
called WorldVenture.

Bob (03:16):
That's right.

Dave (03:17):
And Bob is in

Bob (03:17):
charge.
So

Dave (03:18):
look out, world.

Bob (03:19):
I don't know.
Do you want to see?
I do have other pictures.
I know Tim was going to dropthem in later from the whole
trip if you want to hear aboutit.
Tell me, what else did you guysdo besides rapid...
The Rapids was like at the end,but we got there.
I flew out of Newark on Sundaythe 15th, and I actually got to
Denver early.
I was there 30 minutes early,which was kind of crazy.

(03:41):
I was nervous about my flight,hearing about all the Newark
stuff leading up to it.
But yeah, the first day we dida little bit of hiking.
There should be a picture ofJen and I up at Mount Falcon
Park just outside of Denver.
We did that for a little bit.
I got to see some friends.
We had some In-N-Out Burger,which I mentioned yesterday in
my message.
You

Dave (04:00):
had introduced me to In-N-Out Burger about a year ago
when we were in Dallas.
That's right.
It's also

Bob (04:04):
in

Dave (04:04):
Dallas.
And you pointed

Bob (04:05):
out in

Dave (04:06):
the bottom of the cup there was a biblical reference.

Bob (04:08):
There are.
So some of the cups have John3.16.
One of my cups out there hadProverbs 3.5.
Some people were mentioningsome other references.
But yeah, it's aChristian-owned company and
they're not publicly traded.
So they have standards on wherethey're going to open up their
branches.
I guess they have to have theirproprietary meat plant needs to
be within a one day of shippingthe meat so it's fresh.

(04:31):
Did you have those nasty friesor trash fries or garbage fries
or whatever it was called?
It was called animal stylefries.
Oh.
I was way off.
Which sounds a little moreappealing than trash fries.

Tim (04:44):
I've heard of garbage fries before.
They actually look really good.
They don't

Bob (04:48):
look like garbage.
Did you try that?
I did.
Yeah, they were good.
They were good.
So we did that.
We saw some family, somefriends.
My brother-in-law's out there.
They work for a missionorganization called Cadence,
which is also headquartered inDenver.
Let's see.
A couple other pictures I thinkI sent Tim after I was done.
Oh, actually at the meeting,there should be a picture of me

(05:09):
And Mark Hanke, who actually isthe chairman of the board, so
he's the taller guy.
And then I have a picture of meand Jeff Denlinger, who's the
president of WorldVenture.
And then you can see a fewpictures here of WorldVenture
itself.
There's one that has a missionstatement for them, and it says,
Billions of people don't knowJesus.

(05:31):
We're not okay with that.
And so they were working onsending people out to the field
to share the gospel, to see morepeople come to Christ, which is
super exciting.
You know, they went to Impactthe World for Gospel Impact.
It was a great time.
I really enjoyed my time withthem.
I'll be going back twice ayear, so I go back in January
and June and have someinterfaces in between, and just

(05:52):
a lot of really good things thatare happening out there in
Denver.
After that was done, Jenna andI headed down to Colorado
Springs.
If you've ever been down there,we visited a place called
Garden of the Gods.
So this should be a picture ofme and her right in front at the
Visitor Center, looking out atthe Garden of the Gods, and then
there's a really famous rock inin the middle of the garden

(06:14):
called balanced rock andeverybody this is their big
photo op if you go out there uhyou can stand next to it you can
see how big it is there and youcan see her trying to hold it
up uh which is kind of the photopicture that you get when
you're out there um and thenright down from garden of the
gods there's manitou springs andthey have a very famous penny
arcade and so we went down thereand jenna loved that so that

(06:37):
was a lot of fun and then um wedid the rafting the next So that
was the rafting picture Timshowed at the beginning.
But also, here's a picture ofus gearing up to go out on the
rapids.
There's us in our gear.
You can see the mountainsbehind us.
Noah's Ark, the raftingcompany, which, by the way, if
you ever go out there and youneed to raft, Noah's Ark is a

(06:57):
great company, a Christiancompany.
I used to take youth groups outthere all the time.
I think Johnny, they did amission trip to Denver, and he
took the youth group out andrafted there as well.
But it's in the middle of avalley, and so the mountains are
just enormous.
And so you can see a picturehere of Jenna right in front of
Mount Princeton.
That Mount Princeton just likeshoots up right from the valley.

(07:17):
It's huge.
It's beautiful.
So that was a lot of fun.
We enjoyed one more thing ofIn-N-Out on the way out and got
to see some friends on Sundaythat I hadn't seen in a while.
And we made it back early alsocoming back from Denver.
So it was a good trip.
I think Jenna enjoyed thedaddy-daughter time.

(07:39):
WorldVenture was great.
We got to see some family andfriends.
And now we're back.
I will tell you, as soon as Ileft the airport in Newark when
I got back, the humidity justliterally engulfed me.
It was a big smack in the face.
I was like, welcome back to NewJersey.
It's been rough.
So here we are.

Dave (07:59):
We've been drinking water.
Here we are.
Hey, man.
Welcome back.
And a lot has happened sinceyou were gone, not only in New
Jersey, but...
Also in the news.
So, Pastor Bob, I don't know ifyou've been keeping up with the
news with all your travels, butthere's some things.
Less than usual, but I saw

Bob (08:20):
a couple things were happening.
All right.
So...
I heard we had some B-2 bombersthat stealthily flew across the
world to bomb a nuclear site.

Dave (08:29):
That was definitely huge news.
We talked about that lastMonday on the podcast.
And since then...
Thank God there's been anagreed upon ceasefire.
So that seems to be holding.

Bob (08:41):
Although a lot of debate about whether there's still some
uranium out there.
I guess people are disputingthe report.

Dave (08:48):
There's a lot of disputing about that and the damage and,
you know, exactly the nature ofthe strike and how successful it
was.
A lot of debates going on.
So I thought maybe we couldtalk about that news story more
from a biblical perspective.
Would that be okay?

Unknown (09:04):
Yeah.

Bob (09:04):
Well, how can I argue with talking about things from a
biblical perspective?
Let's get into it.
What would you like to talkabout, Pastor Dave?
So some

Dave (09:12):
people read the book of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39,
describe a famous war called theWar of Gog and Magog.
And because the territories arein the vicinity of this
skirmish in the Middle East,some people say, Is the world
ramping up and moving toward thekind of alliances that we see

(09:35):
in the book of Ezekiel?
So, interesting.
I've seen people talking aboutthat online.

Bob (09:41):
I've seen people going back and forth on social media about
this.
Speculating.

Dave (09:46):
Yes.
Yes, lots of speculating.
Yeah.
Well, that is probably one ofthe most debated passages, and
there's been differentinterpretations over the years.
Here's just like...
five of them so in the 4thcentury Ambrose just five of
them thought that Gog was theGoths that were invading and
then in the 7th century it wasthe Arab armies and then in the

(10:07):
13th century it was the Mongolsand then in the 17th century
some people saw Gog as the RomanEmperor or the Pope or even the
Turks and then by the 19thcentury during the tensions of
Asia Minor there was somebodywho linked this territory to
Russia based on a Hebrew word inEzekiel 38 Rosh, which actually

(10:27):
means head or chief.
It doesn't actually have thesame derivation as the actual
country of Russia.
And then during World War I,Gomer became Germany.
So there's been a long historyof shifting interpretations
about what Ezekiel 38 isactually

Bob (10:43):
talking about.
So because Rosh began with Rand Gomer began with G, clearly
it

Dave (10:47):
was Russia or Germany.
That's a little bit simplistic,but it was almost that
simplistic.
So it's an apocalyptic part ofthe Bible.
I think we have to be carefulabout How do you interpret
apocalyptic literature?

(11:23):
there's some tricky things todo there.
The passage talks about horsesand bows and arrows and things
like that, and those are notreally modern.

Bob (11:34):
We spent a good deal of time talking about this during
our Revelation series.
We did.
We did.
So,

Dave (11:39):
you know, I think we have to be careful about making
one-for-one, you know, necessarycorrelations between modern-day
geographical categories and thecities that are named and the
countries that are named in theBible.

Bob (11:52):
So are some people saying, Gog and Magog, Iran is...
Gog or Magog and

Dave (11:57):
Israel's Gog or Magog?
So Gog is the name of a person.
So they're hypothesizing thatthis is a future leader that
will arrange for these nationsto come together in some sort of
confederacy where Russia, whichthey're speculating that Magog
is Russia, will join togetherwith Persia, which is Iran.

(12:19):
And along with a couple othercountries, they will align
themselves against the nation ofIsrael.
And so that's What you hearsome people saying, is this
alliance something that'sbeginning to get cooked up?
So it mentions another countrythere, which is modern-day
Sudan, which there is somefriendliness there between Iran

(12:41):
and Russia and Sudan.
And then Turkey, some peoplesay, is another one of those
countries that's part of thiscoming alliance.
You know, I'm not too sure thatthis is something that we can
really know for sure, but I dothink we should avoid the
speculating and kind offollowing the headlines and, you
know, insisting that the Bibleis talking about exactly what's

(13:02):
going on in our

Bob (13:03):
day.
So those that make the argumentis Gog and Magog legitimately
in the historical sense withEzekiel, those territories, or
we're just somehow linking themtogether?
Together.

Dave (13:17):
There's some debate about the exact location of those
territories.
So it's not like you can take aGPS and go, here's exactly what
Ezekiel was talking about.
He uses kind of vague terms.
He says from the far north.
Like, well, there's a lot ofcountries that are actually far
north.
So it's hard to pinpointexactly

Bob (13:36):
what.
From the far north of

Dave (13:37):
what?
From Israel.
Israel would be the kind ofthe.
Everything is related to how itsituates itself against Israel,
right?
So some people think this hasalready been fulfilled.
So I'll just mention, so GaryDeMar actually thinks that this
happened with Haman, the evilenemy in the book of Esther,

(13:58):
that he's the one who actuallycame against, from Persia,
right?
He came against the Jews andtried to annihilate them.
So the book of Esther was thefulfillment of this.
That's Damar's view.
And then Ezekiel's using, like,exhaustive hyperbole language
that...
that the prophets would oftenuse to describe a decisive

(14:22):
victory that God has againstthis enemy Gog.
So that's one view of thefulfillment.
Other people point to theAntiochus Epiphanes guy who came
and waged war against the Jews.
And then other people point tothe– there was a northern
invasion from the Scythians.
During the intertestamentalperiod.
During the intertestamentalperiod.
So some people say this thingalready happened.
And then you see, if you readRevelation 20, it actually

(14:45):
mentions Gog and Magog again.
Remember, you preached thatpassage.
And so in that way, somebiblical interpreters say Gog
and Magog become a symbol.
They become like a larger thanlife symbol of the enemies of
God.
Kind of like how we think aboutthe word Babylon.
Babylon becomes like a cipher.

(15:05):
It becomes this thing that'slarger than life.
Or the Leviathan in the Bible.
It embodies the forces of chaosand the enemies of God that
come against God's people.
So some people see Gog andMagog as what's called a
literary archetype.
And that could be possible inthe future that this is a

(15:28):
picture of something that willculminate at the end of time as
well.
So there's a lot of differentviews on that.
We would just encourage you torefrain from speculation and any
degree of certainty because alot of good godly scholars...
Disagree about that.
But I did want to talk about achart, and this is where I'm
going to put it.
All right.
We're going to save some timelater.
People who read Ezekiel 38, themoral of that story is that God

(15:53):
is going to come to the aid ofIsrael.
God actually rescues Israelfrom this enemy supernaturally.
And so if you read that storythrough modern day 21st century
lens, you're going, well, I gotto be on Israel's side.
because God's on Israel's side.
Well, that can lead to somequestions about what exactly

(16:15):
does it mean to talk aboutIsrael and how does the Bible
use the word Israel and whatexactly is our responsibility as
Christians towards those whoare part of Israel.
And my answer is it depends.
It depends what you mean whenyou say Israel.
So here's my chart.

(16:35):
a friend of mine, John Dyer,actually put this Venn diagram
together.
Hold on, I have to pull it up.
Okay.
So this Venn diagram is goingto talk about

Bob (16:46):
all the different...
You did not have the chart atthe ready, Tim?

Tim (16:48):
I have to email it to myself.
I emailed you, Tim.
I don't know if you got that.
You emailed it to me?
Yeah, I did.
Okay, hold on.

Dave (16:56):
So what this is, is like, how does the word Israel get
used?
And it doesn't get useduniformly...
Always in the same way.
Sometimes Israel meansdifferent things.
And so we have to be carefulwhen we say Israel because you
have to define terms.
It's always a good idea todefine terms.
Like, what do you mean?
That is a good thing.

(17:17):
What exactly do you mean whenyou say Israel?
So there's a sense in which...
Israel refers to an ethnicity,right?
So this is the top circle.
There it is.
The red circle on the top.
Ethnic Jews, those who are ofthe line of Abraham, those who
come through Abraham, Isaac,Jacob, the 12 tribes, they're
ethnic Jews.

(17:37):
In a sense, you could useIsrael that way.
Now, on the right side of theVenn diagram is the yellow
circle, which refers to Israelas a piece of property, as a
land.
This is Israel.
You can take an airplane and gothere.
It's a...
piece of real estate right it'sabout the size of New Jersey
that's also called Israel thenthe left circle the blue circle

(18:00):
in this particular chart refersto those who are believers
remember Paul says things likenot all Israel is Israel so
those who are believers actuallyare the true Israel and that
would be represented in the bluecircle and where they overlap
is really actually quiteinteresting so at the top you

(18:20):
would have Those who areethnically Jewish, but they're
still unbelieving and they'reoutside of the land of Israel.
In the Old Testament, thatwould be like faithful exiles
like Daniel.
Today, they would be Jewishpeople around the world, like
let's say in Brooklyn, whoreject Jesus.
They would be, in a sense, partof Israel.
And then let's move aroundclockwise.

(18:43):
So to the right, you would havethat little slice that has
unbelieving Jews in the land,which is the vast majority of
Jewish people who are actuallyliving in modern day Israel in
the Middle East, right?
Most of them do not have faithin Jesus as the Christ.
So that would be one way to usethe word Israel, that little
section there.
And it would also include likefaithless Israelites in the past

(19:06):
who were also in the land whodidn't have faith in God.
And then that portion in thegreen in the bottom, those would
be believing non-Jews in theland of Israel.
So in the Old Testament, thatwould be like those who feared
God, like Cornelius or It couldbe today, Palestinian
Christians.
Like there's a lot ofChristians who are Palestinian

(19:29):
who are living in the land ofIsrael.
And in a sense, they're notJewish, but they actually would
have more in common with you andI, Bob, than we would with a
non-believing Jew in the land.
Because these are our brothersand sisters in Christ.
These are PalestinianChristians, many of whom are
actually being, you know,persecuted at times and attacked

(19:54):
and so forth.
And so they could be part ofGod's chosen people.
And then in the middle, youhave the believing Jews in the
land.
So the middle one is probablythe most interesting part,
right?
So these are people who They'reethnically Jewish, and they
believe in Jesus as the Messiah,and they're also residing in

(20:17):
the land of Israel.
That's a small group of people,but they exist.
One of them would be Jesus,right?
So he would be the ultimateIsrael, like the true and better
Israel.
Like out of Egypt, I called myson.
He's like the son with acapital S.
That would be faithful Jewsthroughout all time, including
today.
So those who are believing inJesus, who are Christians, who

(20:37):
are Jewish, who are living inthe land.
And there's a sense in whichthe word Jacob refers to a
person, right?
There'll be like one littledot, like Jacob would be one,
because his name is Israel.
So he would fit there.
And then you have the futurefulfillment.
If you see Romans 11 pointingtowards a future fulfillment of
a conversion of Jews at the end,then they would also be in the

(21:00):
middle there as well.
Then you kind of go clockwisearound, and then there's this
overlap of blue there.
You have some believing Jewsthat are outside the land.
Those would be like MessianicJews, like Messianic
congregations, like we have someof those in America, and that
kind of thing.
So I shouldn't have said Danielwas in the red section.

(21:20):
He's more like in the purplesection here.
He's a believing Jew.
Right, right.
All right.
So what is this chart?
What is Israel?
Well, it could be one, two,three, four, five, six, at least
seven things.

Bob (21:31):
Right.
So what does this have to dowith the current conflict with
Iran?
Or was this just for ourbenefit?

Dave (21:41):
I think we have to be careful about unconditionally,
unilaterally supporting themodern state of Israel because
we assume that somehow God isalways okay with everything
they're doing.
That's not correct.
Right.
That's not actually evenbiblical.
And I think we should becareful about— And God himself

(22:03):
brought judgment on Israel,right?
He did, many times.
And so let's define terms whenwe talk about that.
I do think they're ourpolitical ally.
And as Americans, I see a lotof value in coming to their aid
and defense.
But that doesn't mean thatthey're above critique.
That doesn't mean that we can'tever question some of the

(22:26):
things that have been done,including sometimes there's
noncombatants that get caught upin skirmishes that Israel has
started.
Some things that have been donein Gaza are really
heartbreaking.
And I think we have to giveourselves freedom to offer some
criticism in those circumstancesas well.
Yeah.

(22:46):
That might be a littlecontroversial for me to say
that, but

Bob (22:49):
I think it's important.
I think it is important aswell.
There also was a rather fieryviral video with Ted Cruz and
Tucker Carlson that was goingaround.
Did you see that?
I didn't see the whole thing.
I saw clips of it.
I saw some

Tim (23:00):
clips.

Bob (23:01):
The interesting thing to me was when Ted Cruz cited the
Bible says, you know, theblessing and the cursing from
Genesis 12, Tucker Carlsonchallenged him and Ted Cruz
couldn't remember the scriptureverse.
Right.
Which...
I think it's kind of importantto know where the Bible says it
if you're going to claim that.

Dave (23:16):
Exactly.
Yeah.
He said, you know, he learnedthat in church or Sunday school
or something.
Well, universally, all thetime, we should support the
government of Israel.
And I think Tucker was right topush back on him a little bit
and say, wait a minute, whatexactly do you mean there?
Yeah.
Because that's important.
It is.
So, Iran-Israel in the news.
That's a pretty big story.

(23:37):
So, currently, we're at a

Bob (23:38):
ceasefire.
Hopefully, we're getting to adeal.
Yeah.
But who knows?
We'll see.
We'll keep you posted.
All right.
There you go.
Any other news stories weshould talk about?
Didn't you have another one youwanted to mention?
We did.

Dave (23:48):
So if you were following the electoral process, we're at
the phase where we are now goingto be selecting the candidates
from each party to run.
This fall.
And the Democratic Party hasactually selected their
presumptive Democratic nominee.
In the New York City mayoralrace.

(24:09):
In the New York City mayoralrace.
And they have selected ZoranMamdani.
So he is the candidate.
And last Wednesday, I think itwas, they formally nominated him
to be the Democratic nomineefor mayor.
And He's 33.

(24:30):
He's an assembly member.
The interesting thing about himis he is unabashedly a
democratic socialist.
I never heard of him.
I don't know if you did, but hewas not someone on my radar.
But he had recently skyrocketedin the polls.
And I think some people were alittle bit taken aback that

(24:53):
there is now a A socialist thatis officially running and
probably most likely going towin the election in the fall if
the past is any indication as tohow the New York City voters
typically vote.
And we may have a Muslimsocialist who is the mayor of

(25:13):
New York City, which I think ispretty significant.

Bob (25:18):
That is rather significant, I guess.
So it is him, and then EricAdams, the current mayor, is
going to run as an independent.
And then Curtis Sliwa of theGuardian Angels is running.
But, you know, a lot of peoplethat would be opposed to him, I
think, have left the city, so itis likely that he's going to

(25:38):
win, which, how is this going toplay out?
That's going to be a bigquestion mark.
That's

Dave (25:45):
the question.
So from a Christian worldviewperspective, let's talk about
socialism for a second.
So let's do it.
Is there any scriptures thatmight help us here?
So Dr.
Al Mohler had a very intriguingquote that I texted you the
other day about this topic.

(26:05):
And he said, quote, the Biblereveals several important
economic principles.
First, the scripture affirmsthe dignity of work.
That's Ephesians 4.
Second, the scripture affirmsthe fact that those who refuse
to work should not eat.
That's 2 Thessalonians 3.
Third, the Bible clearlyaffirms private property rights.

(26:27):
That's in the law in Exodus 22.
Fourth, the Bible clearlycondemns both theft and
covetousness in the TenCommandments.
Also, if you read through thebook of Proverbs, the Bible
commends the idea of saving,saving for the future.
The wise will store up aninheritance for their children's
children.
Proverbs talks about that quitea bit.

(26:49):
It also talks about thrift,Proverbs 21, 20.
And it talks about the abilityto own land in Acts 4 in the
Bible.
And it talks about the value ofinvestment.
Jesus spoke about that inMatthew 25.
Finally, in 1 Timothy, we'vetalked about a verse that says
the laborer is worthy of hiswages, which is a principle that

(27:10):
may contradict the idea ofsocialism.
So I think socialism is bumpingup against some basic biblical
principles that I think havebeen helpful, not only for the
church to understand, but evenfor society to flourish.
And Some may push back and say,are you creating disincentives
towards productivity,efficiency, creativity by

(27:33):
bringing in socialistprinciples, which have not had a
wonderful track record ofeconomic progress over the last
hundred years.

Bob (27:40):
Where they have been tried, they have not brought about the
fruit that you would like them

Dave (27:46):
to bring about.
Right.
So some concerning trends therein society.
I wonder how this will playout.
I wonder if this will kind ofbackfire or if this will be the
new

Bob (27:57):
normal.
We do have a gubernatorial racein New Jersey, and those
candidates have been selected aswell.
Mikey Sherrill on theDemocratic side and Jack
Cittarelli.
And it's going to be a closerace.
It's going to be a close race.
New Jersey, indeed, might shifttheir allegiances this year.
We'll see.

Dave (28:16):
A little disappointed that the Republican candidate is not
even pro-life.
It's just like that's not evenpart of the platform anymore.

Bob (28:25):
But maybe he won't be chasing down crisis pregnancy
centers, which, by the way, inthe news, of course.
Perhaps that's a win.
First choice, their case isgoing to be heard at the Supreme
Court.
Incredible.
So that's a big

Dave (28:39):
deal.
Yeah.
Big deal.
We are praying for our sisterAmy and all those on the board
and staff at the local FirstChoice locations.
So those are some news stories.

Bob (28:48):
Was there any candidates on the Republican side that were
pro-life?

Dave (28:52):
Great question.
Not really totally.
Can you be pro-life in NewJersey and run for office?
I'd have to look that up.
Not sure.
So those are some news stories.
Let us know what you think.
We'd love to hear from you.
And now we're going to talkabout another segment.
I don't know where you want meto go, Tim.
Book war.
All right, book war.
It's back.
So...

Bob (29:10):
Bob.
Do we have any stats from theprevious book wars?
Oh, yeah.
Where are we holding off onsome things?
We have

Tim (29:16):
been waiting to have the results of the most recent book
war for weeks because someonehad to go, I don't know, Noah,
someone to Colorado orsomething.
Someone.
Yeah, okay.
I don't know who that was.
Before Pastor Bob left, thiswas the score.
Pastor Dave had a 15 to 13point lead.

(29:36):
And if you may notice...
We are getting towards the endof the season of the book war.
We are coming down to it here.
Okay.
And so the winner of the pastbook war, which the votes were
so much better.
There were nine votes insteadof one vote.
All right.
And the winner was somehow thenot Christian book that Pastor

(29:57):
Dave brought in.

Dave (29:58):
Written by Mormons.

Tim (30:00):
You guys...
Like overwhelmingly voted forthe Mormons here.
So that puts Pastor

Dave (30:08):
Dave up.
Nine responses.

Bob (30:09):
Thank you, guys.
Yeah, nine responses.
That's a good turnout.

Tim (30:11):
Pastor Bob, how are you feeling right now?
I

Bob (30:13):
feel like people don't care about disabilities right now.
Yeah,

Tim (30:16):
I actually voted for Pastor Bob's book.
So that was one of my votesthere.
So Pastor Dave has athree-point lead now.
Because...
of the length and time thatwe've not had a book war, this
will be a three-point week.

Dave (30:33):
Oh,

Tim (30:34):
man.
So Pastor Bob will either tiePastor Dave.
This feels socialistic.
Or throw in the towel.
It is.
Or it will clinch.
Listen, we haven't had a bookwar.
Your thumbs are on the scaleright here.
Hold on, hold on.
I'm just saying this isconsistent with how we've done
it all year that when we've nothad a book war, we've added
extra points to the next bookwar.

(30:55):
There have been three no bookwar episodes.
Okay.
or two no book war episodes,therefore it will be three
points.
So Pastor Dave could win thisweek, or we could have one more
episode to win it all before thelast episode of the season.

Bob (31:13):
Okay.
What would Bernie say aboutthis, Tim?

Tim (31:16):
Who would what?

Bob (31:17):
What would Bernie say about this?

Tim (31:19):
Bernie would love it.

Bob (31:22):
It would be amazing.

Tim (31:24):
We need to have equal book war episodes.
Representation.
Equity for the book war.
Okay.

Bob (31:32):
Be quiet, Bernie.
Are you okay with theseonesies?
That's still, man.
Bob

Tim (31:41):
brought a magazine, so I

Bob (31:42):
don't know if he's off to a good start.
I decided to throw a periodicalin today for my edition.
So here is a magazine that Isubscribe to called Salvo.
Right here.
And this comes out every month.
And they cover topics onscience, sex, and society.

(32:06):
So it's dealing with some ofthe really pertinent issues that
are going on within our world.
So the head story here wasscience versus religion.
The Scopes Monkey Trial turns100.
Did you remember that theScopes Monkey Trial was 100
years ago?
I learned about that in school.
I remember reading about it.
Betty Gallagher may remember.
She's 100.
That's true.

(32:26):
My grandmother's almost 100,too.
So anyway, some really goodarticles in here.
Intelligent Design, Darwin.
But sometimes they havedifferent themes.
So in the past they've coveredsome of the gender stuff.
They've covered other topics inhere.
The Age of the Earth, Creation,Evolution Debate is what's kind

(32:46):
of going on in here becausethat's the theme of this
section.
Here, Family Briefing, TheMonogamy of Miracle, Marriage,
and the Founding of theDemocratic Self-Governance.
So it talks a lot aboutmarriage.
stuff in here that's a societything eugenics which is another
big thing that's going on inhere so they cover a lot of
different topics my submissionhere is to to consider

(33:09):
subscribing to to salvo and asalvo is a just to be clear
about why it's named salvo asalvo is a group of shots fired
simultaneously for effect or aforceful verbal or written
assault so the magazine istaking on the false narrative we
talked about yesterday false toTaking on the false narratives

(33:30):
of the day.
Right here.
Salvo.
There you go.
We'll see if that's worth threepoints.

Dave (33:39):
So, ready for mine?
All right.
I am going to recommend today adouble barrel book.
This has actually two booksinside of it.
So this is not only the BaptistConfession of Faith.
But it also is the Baptistcatechism.
So we Baptists do haveconfessions, contrary to popular

(34:00):
belief.
Some Baptists say there's nocreed but the Bible.
That's not true.
So we actually have a veryfamous confession, the Second
London Confection.
It is robust in its theologicaldepth, and it has Reformed
roots.
It is a little different fromWestminster in that it obviously
holds to believer's baptism asopposed to infant baptism.

(34:20):
And there's a note in hereabout polity and congregational
government.
So there's an emphasis there.
It also talks about religiousliberty, the separation of
church and state.
And it's Christ-centered.
It's scripture-saturated.
It is put together by a lot ofwell-known Baptists in the
1600s, including Benjamin Keech,who is the main contributor to

(34:42):
the catechism.
So they call it Keech'sCatechism.
So if you're looking forsomething as a parent and you're
going, what can I do tocatechize my kids?
We're Baptists.
Well, you would want to use theBaptist Catechism.
This is a good tool.
And it's like super short.
Look at this thing.
It's only 121 pages foreverything, including the
confession and the catechism.

(35:03):
And that even includes like awhole appendix here on baptism.
And there's lots, lots, lots ofscriptures and helpful things
in here.
And I think it's worth your...
time and you can get thisfairly cheap.
I bet you can get this forthree or four bucks on Amazon.
This one was published by SolidGround Christian Books, but you

(35:25):
can get it from a bunch ofdifferent publishers.
There's one out there thatactually has more like modern
English.
You might like that one.
But Baptist Confession ofFaith, that's my recommendation.

Bob (35:35):
Yeah.
Founders Ministries has a lotof resources around the
Confession of Faith.
It is a good confession.
I noticed here, first of all,my magazine has only 64 pages
with a lot of pictures.
And it does have a bookrecommendation thing at the end,
like Rod Dreher's book, Livingin Wonder, Natasha Crane, When
Culture Hates You, Katie Faust,Pro Child Politics, Happy Lies.

(35:59):
Wow, I got to get this one.
How a movement you probablynever heard of shaped our
self-obsessed world.
The new thought.

Dave (36:06):
Hey.
We recommend you decide.
Let us know which book that youare going to be picking up
and...
Just a little short littlepreview.
We are going to be talkingabout Baptist distinctives this
coming Sunday in the sermon aswe continue the series on A
Divine Blueprint, thedistinctives of a healthy
church.
And so we're going to kind ofdo more of a topical teaching

(36:28):
this weekend.
And there'll be a little FirstTimothy peppered in there, but
it's mostly going to be topical.
And how does Baptist polity orBaptist church government
compare with maybe some otherchurches that you're

Bob (36:40):
familiar with?
I

Dave (36:40):
heard through the grapevine that you have an
acronym you're going to use thisweek.
Yes, I am.
Okay.
It's not a secret.
It's going to spell out theword Baptist.

Bob (36:47):
Okay.
So if you want to come and hearhow to use the acronym for
Baptist, this is your week, myfriends.
I'm ready for you.
I don't care if it's the 4th ofJuly.
You need to be here.
That's right.
What about a prop?
We've only had four props thisyear.
I know.
We've been falling off on ourprop game.
Maybe we need to work that backin.
We won't even have a top ten atthis rate.
You had a couple ideas forIsaiah, so maybe Isaiah will be.

(37:10):
We're going to finish up.
Believe it or not, Pastor

Tim (37:12):
Dave has three of the four props, which is kind of hard to
believe.
All right.

Dave (37:17):
Well, we're moving on to another segment.
That sounds like a challengeright there, Tim.
Indeed.

Tim (37:20):
Indeed.

Dave (37:21):
And I understand there might be some questions that you
guys wanted us to tackle.
Is that right?
Audience questions?

Tim (37:26):
I don't think we have time for an audience question and the
sermon and everything else.
Never

Bob (37:31):
mind.
I think they were talking aboutquestions for the theology
sprint, right?
Yes.
Okay.
Very giddy about this theology

Dave (37:37):
sprint question at the end.
So here we go.
Pastor Bob was preachingyesterday from 1 Timothy chapter
6, verses 3 through 10, andthen he also threw in there like
verses 17 to 19 towards theend.
But give us a 60-second flyoverof what was that passage about.

Bob (37:53):
Well, it was about some love of money, Pastor Dave, and
I see you over there with yourbank account open checking it
out.
So...
Yeah, 1 Timothy chapter 6.
Not a whole lot of money in

Dave (38:06):
there

Bob (38:06):
to love.
Not a lot of love to go around.
1 Timothy chapter 6, a veryfamous verse in verse 10 about
how the love of money is a rootof all kinds of evil.
And what Paul does within theseseven verses is...
Again, confront the falseteachers who have been spreading

(38:27):
poor doctrine, which has led towrongful beliefs about life
among the church nephesis.
And Paul then ties that intothe financial gain they were
pursuing and warns the believersthat money love is not
something that we should bepursuing necessarily.

(38:48):
So in the message, we talked alittle bit about something
called the fire movement at thebeginning, which is this
financial independence, retireearly.
And the general principle therewas to save now and enjoy life
later.
And we talked about how that isbehind that secular movement,
but also is a biblicalprinciple, but we take it as

(39:09):
Christians to mean we can enjoylife in eternity.
And so we can sacrifice nowbecause we have the hope of the
future in front of us.
And so, so many of us wrestlewith this This idea of money and
contentment, generosity, greed,how do we handle that?
And so that's what Paul covershere in this section.
He talked about, we talkedabout the problem that he brings

(39:30):
up, which is an obsession withworldly cravings.
And then he gives a solution,which is to focus on eternal
contentment.
So really the main thrust ofthe message was to break down
and go deep on what is this ideaof worldly cravings and what is
eternal contentment and how isthat ultimately the solution to
so many of our problems in lifeso I'll stop there and I'll

(39:52):
entertain questions from theroom from the gallery

Dave (39:55):
okay so you had this section that maybe isn't totally
related to money althoughperhaps there's a driver of
money underneath of this butthere's this people in Ephesus
that were stirring upcontroversy and they

(40:16):
unnecessarily cause divisionover things that weren't worth
dividing over.
And you talked about how somepeople are just naturally more
contentious and quarrelsome.
And you just boldly said thereason why people are like that
is because, why?

(40:37):
Why did you say that?

Bob (40:39):
Because they're sick, Pastor Dave.
We got some sick people aroundhere.

Unknown (40:45):
Yeah.

Dave (40:45):
And exegetically, you've rooted that in a word, the word
sound.
Yeah, the sound, the soundteaching.
It's more of like a medicalterm for healthy.
Yes, yes.
Yes.
And unhealthy would be theopposite

Bob (40:58):
of that.
You're healthy or you'reunhealthy, right?
And that can very much, ifyou're taking in an unhealthy
spiritual diet of teaching, it'sgoing to make you sick.
It's going to give youindigestion, hopefully, if
you're somebody who has had anybackground with sound teaching.
Mm-hmm.
So yes, I agree.
I agree with

Dave (41:18):
that.
So I wonder if you could expandon that and tell us what are
some areas that perhaps wouldfall into the modern day
category of quarrelsomeness thatwe should avoid or that perhaps
we could caution people againststrongly leveraging their

(41:41):
opinion on certain topics orsubjects in modern day
ecclesiological life?
How would this show up?
Today, like July 2025, notquite July yet, but June 2025,
how does this manifest itself,this sickness?
Where do you see thishappening?

Bob (41:58):
Well, good question.
I think you've done someteaching on this, and we did do
this behind the pulpit with Amya while back about kind of the
tiered issues.
So there's first-tier issues,second-tier issues, third-tier
issues.
First-tier issues would be likethe deity of Christ and the
authority of the Bible.
So those are things that weshould stand firm on, and if

(42:24):
that needs to create friction,it needs to create friction.
But there are second-tierissues that are not quite as
important, and we talked aboutthings like women in ministry or
– some practical issues thatwere within the church, things
like baptism.
You know, churches will divideover those things because
they're very practical issues,but it doesn't necessarily mean

(42:45):
that those people in thatcategory aren't Christians when
they disagree.
And then third tier issues arethings like eschatology, and we
spent a whole lot of timetalking about that last fall.
But there are some people thatlike to really kind of Put up
their dukes and really fight fortheir position on some of these
topics.
And it can create someunnecessary...

(43:06):
quarrels

Dave (43:08):
and like if somebody was really fighting for the current
fulfillment of Gog and Magog ina very certain geographical area
and they didn't want to hearanother perspective

Bob (43:17):
right and I've seen exactly that is an example I've seen a
lot of people kind of postingthose things on social media so
that's an example it's not theonly example yeah but a lot of
times I think people have ahobby horse that they really
want to see happen within thechurch and and they will just

(43:38):
agitate, agitate, agitate untilthey get what they want.
So,

Dave (43:44):
yeah.
All right.
The other thing you talkedabout was people sometimes see
godliness as a means for gain.
And then I think the wordgodliness was used elsewhere in
the same passage, that godlinesswith contentment is great gain.
Right.
So how is it that you seepeople perhaps– using godliness

(44:06):
as a means for gain today howcan we be aware of that warned
against that how can you cautionus against that where does that
show up in our lives

Bob (44:17):
yeah i mean i think i think in the in the opening part of
the section when he's talkingabout they're imagining that
godliness is a means for gainhe's he's specifically
confronting these teachers whoare peddling these kind of false
narratives, this false gospelthat's appealing to the itching
ears of their listeners, who aregoing to then pay the money.

(44:40):
They're going to be gettingrich off of the appearance of
godliness.
Where Paul corrects that thenin verse 6 is to say, godliness
with contentment is great gain,meaning you're not pursuing it
for...
worldly riches and cravingstoday, your gain is going to be
in the future and ultimately inyour relationship with Christ.

(45:02):
But yeah, people can saywhatever they want.
They can use tactics to getpeople on the door.
They can get people onto theirmovement and their side, even if
they're not teaching thingsthat are biblically correct.
And there has been a lot ofpeople over the years that have
made a lot of money doing that,Pastor Dave.
Sadly, yes.

(45:22):
I gave a couple examples ofthose people in there and got
some responses from the audienceon Sunday.
Got some dialogue going onthere.
I did.
People were like, they werewanting to get up there and
preach.
Shout

Tim (45:32):
out John Batone.

Bob (45:34):
John Batone was heckling on Sunday, right?
Shout for the heckling.

Dave (45:39):
Well, heckling is when they disagree with you.
Isn't it more like thequarrelsomeness?
Oh, I guess.
It's an affirmation.

Bob (45:45):
Okay.
A loud affirmation from theback of the balcony on Sunday.
Okay.

Dave (45:53):
Have you seen people do this, Pastor Dave?
You got any examples?
Well, I mean, the prosperitygospel is the most obvious one,
but I think in a more subtleform, you can see people using
the term blessed to actually bea covering over our greed.
So we tend to mask over ourcovetous heart, our greedy

(46:19):
heart, and we Maybe you justsay, well, the Lord has blessed
me so much, and we actually makeit into a good thing, the fact
that we have these cravings andthese unnecessary desires.
I think that that can besometimes a subtle way of having
a deceptive desire for gettingrich.

Noah (46:40):
Can I float in a question about this verse?
Okay.
Yeah, I had a good question.
So, obviously, you know, thepart where it says, imagine the
godliness and means of the game,typically you think of that
with financially.
But would you guys say thatthis could be applied broader
than that, such as someone whois pursuing, like, a teaching
role or, like, a more prominentrole in the church and wanting
to have their own prestige inelevated through that.

(47:02):
So the gain that they'reseeking through their godliness
and their ministry is not somuch like a financial gain, but
it's more of like a status gain,like wanting to be seen higher
and more elevated because ofwhat they're doing.

Bob (47:16):
I think the principle could allow for that.
I think probably these teacherswere looking for a both-and.
And usually when you gainstatus like that, down the road,
it can lead to a financialbenefit to you in one way,
shape, or form.
But yeah, I think thatprinciple is very much there.

Dave (47:35):
Yeah, it could be money, but it could also be other
things like status or platformor influence or...
Influence, yeah.
You know, I think the principlethere is you're exploiting
faith for some other personal,selfish, or worldly benefit.
You're actually using God as ameans rather than actually God

(47:57):
as the end.
not a means to an end.
And that could be manifested inmany ways.
Money, but other things, too.
Perhaps even other things we'renot thinking of.
Yeah, scary.
We have limited minds, PastorDave.
Okay, let's talk aboutcontentment.
Let's talk about contentment.
If I'm a Christian, and Ibelieve in Jesus, and the Holy
Spirit dwells inside of me, whycan I now rationally and

(48:21):
logically be free of...
The desire to get rich, thedesire for wealth.
How can I not suffer the manypangs, I believe is the word
used in the text?
Why is it that someone who's aChristian actually is able to
break the bonds of the shacklesof greed?

(48:43):
How come I don't have tostruggle with that?
And I know you mentioned oneverse which talks about we've
come into the world with nothingand we...
will one day leave the worldwith nothing, which I think is a
very powerful motivation.
But maybe talk more about thator beyond that.
Why is it that someone who is aChristian can find freedom from

(49:06):
the desire for material worldlywealth?

Bob (49:13):
I like the way you word that to say they can find
freedom.
I would maybe add they shouldfind freedom.
And yet there is this kind ofpull from the world that we live
in.
You know, we still livepost-fall and pre-new heavens
and new earth.
And so we fall in love with thethings that the world affords
to us.

(49:33):
But we don't have to.
We don't have to.
And this is partly where Ithink sanctification and
godliness can come in, becauseif you know that you have
everything you need in Christ,so we're blessed in That was
that Ephesians 1 verse that Idrew out, Ephesians 1.

(49:53):
You've been blessed with allthese blessings in the heavenly
places.
He's given you the riches ofhis grace.
You have all that you need inChrist.
The love, the acceptance is allfound in him, and so you can be
secure in him.
Not only in your identity now,but...
in the promise of the futurehope to be with him forever and

(50:16):
the fact that he is going tocome back and make the world
brand new.
He's going to remake the world.
Everything sad is going tobecome untrue.
That is the future hope that wecan cling to and be secure that
no matter what is going tohappen in this life, we do have
that future hope.
But the reason we aren'tcontent, and I'll just speak for

(50:38):
myself, the reason I'm notcontent is that we still wrestle
and walk through the fallennessof the world right now.
Things happen to us, thingsunexpected.
I had a few people come up tome after the service and they
were basically saying, right nowI'm content, but the weird
thing about contentment is thatjust give it a little bit of
time and you might be uncontent.

(50:58):
So, you know, maybe you walkthrough a hard season
financially and now you're good.
You know, the bank account iswhere you were hoping it to be.
You work pretty hard for that.
But then the next thing youknow, your health fails.
Well, then that's somethingelse to be not content with.
Or your kids, you know, there'ssomething with your family.
Your kids, you know, won't talkto you or whatever it is.
That brings a sense ofdissatisfaction and discontent.

(51:23):
And it's in those moments youhave to remember that there is
one– the Lord Jesus who sees allthings that you go through and
he knows, you know, what doesHebrews tell us?
He, he, um, you know, he, hecan sympathize with us and our
weaknesses.
He knows exactly what we walkthrough and he will be there
with us no matter what.
So it's at least my, mythought.

Dave (51:47):
Yeah.
Did you add, did you, um,choose the song that, uh, we
closed with yesterday, uh, Orwas that something that the
worship director chose on yourbehalf?
No, John chose that one, yeah.
It worked out really well.
It did?
Yeah.
So we sang, I'd rather haveJesus than silver or gold.
I'd rather have Jesus thanriches untold.

(52:08):
I'm not

Bob (52:08):
remembering.
As most people were pushed,that's not reality in their
lives.
No, I'd like to have a littleside of Jesus, but I'd really
rather have the silver or gold.
Right.
There's a

Dave (52:19):
more modern

Bob (52:20):
song

Dave (52:20):
that...
Maybe the Gen Z people whowatch our podcast, which I'm
sure that's our maindemographic, Gen Z.
There's one that I think it'spassion called My Father Has It,
and I think that's a great...
The Lord Will Provide.
I'm sorry, The Lord WillProvide.
Yeah, the chorus is My FatherHas It, right?

Tim (52:41):
I was listening to that on the way to work today.
Yeah,

Dave (52:44):
and it's like everything I need, you know, My Father Has
It, and...
I'm going to be content in him,and I'm going to trust in him.
It kind of quotes from Jesus'Matthew 6 portion of the Sermon
on the Mount.
Yeah, look at the lilies of thefield.
Look at the birds of the air.

Bob (53:01):
Didn't they do that when I did the...
Second Corinthians passage?
I think we sang that in thelast couple months.
I've heard it, yeah.
I

Dave (53:06):
don't know where it went.

Bob (53:07):
I think it was with that one.
I think it was with Johnny'sleading worship.
One of the ones that Johnnydid.

Tim (53:13):
We did that.
Actually, no, Doug.
It was Doug.
Doug.
We did it at Night of Revival,and then Doug did it.

Bob (53:19):
I think he did it for the widow and the orphans a couple
weeks ago, actually.
Yeah, it was a few weeks agowhen he was saying he

Tim (53:25):
might need some help from, what was it, the Zoomers.
Oh, that's right, yeah.
Does he need the Zoomers tohelp the Boomers with this song?

Dave (53:32):
The Lord will provide.
Check it out.
Put it on your playlist.
I think it's pretty new.
Right, Noah?
It's fairly new.

Noah (53:38):
Yeah.
Look it up, Noah.
Yeah.
We sang it at the 2024 Passion.
So it's still

Dave (53:44):
pretty fresh.
Okay.
Never mind.
Yeah.
It's still hip, though.
So godliness with contentmentis great gain.
Good passage.
Anything else on the sermonportion you wanted to highlight
or make mention of?
Application.
Application.

Bob (54:01):
You had four points.
I had four points onapplication.
Journal my cravings?
Journal, list your cravings.
Okay, pray, ask Jesus forcontentment.
Act, remove the traps from yourlife.
And then last, I called itaspire.
Beware the snare.
Beware the snare, man.
That's right.
It'll get you.
Orient your life towardssimplicity.
That was a Pastor Davesuggestion.

(54:23):
So I got that in there for you.
And I told that Paul Wilfordstory about Senegal.
He was happy about that.

Dave (54:30):
Well, the spiritual discipline of simplicity is
something I did want to talkabout a little bit.
I remember being in college andjust eating like spam and being
fine.
So you talked about ramen,right?
Spam was more robust thanramen, maybe.
So the idea of simplicity isone of those disciplines of
simplicity.
where you remove something fromyour life rather than a

(54:53):
discipline of engagement whereyou add something to your life.
So it's like you focus yourlife on God and letting go of
any excess, whether that'smaterial or even mental excess,
so that you're more free to loveand serve God and trust Christ.
So simplicity is about how canI declutter my life?
What's extra so that I can givemore undivided attention to

(55:15):
God?
to God.
That's a spiritual disciplinethat I don't think Americans are
very good at.
We're pretty complicated peopleand we accumulate.
It's amazing how much stuffthat we just continue to add.
So simplicity is aboutprioritizing God above all else
and having a freedom from thematerialism so you can have a

(55:37):
clearer focus, a clearerpurpose, and maybe a more
generous spirit so that you canbe good stewards of what God has
given you.
So Practice the discipline ofsimplicity this week.
And then whenever you'repassing by your cravings,
remember the slogan.
Beware the snare.
Beware the snare.
There you go.
So for me, it's when I'mpassing by Barrister Coffee.

(55:58):
Beware the snare.
Beware the snare.
Beware the snare.
Snare,

Bob (56:01):
man.
I was there

Tim (56:02):
today.

Dave (56:02):
It's going to get you.
Grab that leg.
No offense to the wonderfulowners of Barrister, but some of
us don't have a whole lot offunds for extra coffee in those
kind of places.

Bob (56:14):
There you go.
I just want to read these lastcouple of verses that I did
again because you asked me thequestion about why can the
Christian have hope and I thinkthey kind of capture it.
So, as for the rich in thispresent age, charge them not to
be haughty, nor to set theirhopes on the uncertainty of
riches.
which we didn't get quite into,but riches can be very
uncertain, but on God, whorichly provides us with

(56:39):
everything to enjoy.
They are to do good, to be richin good works, to be generous
and ready to share, thus storingup treasures for themselves as
a good foundation for the futureso that they may take hold of
that which is truly life.

Dave (56:56):
Boom.
Not only are riches kind oftransient and...
tenuous but maybe it's the casethat all material things will
one day you know yeah be eatenup with rust and the moth will
destroy right none of that stuffreally lasts none of that stuff
follows us into eternity as chstud said ct stud said Only one

(57:21):
life will soon be passed.
Only what's done for Christwill last.
Good sermon, man.
Thank you.
And now we're moving on toBaptist Distinctives next week,
and we're going to sprint.
So, Tim and Noah.
Take it away, Noah.
What do you got?

Noah (57:35):
All right.
No one says he's got a realcontroversial one for us today.
Oh, yeah.
A little bit controversialhere.
Potentially.
So this one is inspired by thepassage and the sermon from
yesterday.
So it is somewhat of a two-partquestion, but the two questions
here are connected to eachother.
So here we go.
Is it a sin to place aneducated financial bet on a

(57:57):
sports game or a player, such aswith DraftKings or FanDuel?
Secondly, is it a sin to makean educated financial investment
on a stock that could rise orfall?

Dave (58:10):
I actually talked about this in the Ecclesiastes series.
So chapter 11 talks about godlyrisk and how you might...
engage the topic of risk as aChristian.
I do think, spirituallyspeaking, gambling, although
it's not very explicit inScripture, would fall into the
territory of sinful activity.

(58:32):
It raises several spiritualconcerns to bet because it's not
like the Ten Commandments say,thou shalt not gamble.
But there's principles, Ithink, when it comes to risk in
the Bible that gambling doesn'treally fit the criteria
necessary to be able to berisking something in a biblical

(58:53):
way.
So I would discourage that, andI would say it's markedly
different from making aninvestment in a financial
institution.
I don't exactly remember everypoint I made, but it was the
Ecclesiastes 11 sermon where Italked about the distinction
there.
So I would have to go back andlook up my notes there.

Bob (59:14):
I agree about the gambling thing.
The only thing I would addabout the stock purchase is that
you actually are buying a sharein something.
You're buying a share in acompany.
that is hopefully bringingabout good to the world.
And that's something that'sworthy of talking about as well,
the type of stock that youwould, not that you would make

(59:35):
an educated investment in astock, but the type of stock
that you might want to investin, especially if it's a single
stock, because you are buyingownership and you have then a
responsibility over thatcompany, which some people would
say is a little different thanbuying a broad-based index fund
because you're buying multiplestocks.
So I think that one is fine,but I would agree about the

(59:56):
gambling part.

Dave (59:59):
Somewhat controversial, but becoming more and more of a
problem because you used to haveto like drive to Atlantic City
to gamble or fly to Vegas.
But now it's like you can getan app on your phone and they
entice you with like, hey,here's free $500 to start an
account with us and startgambling.
And it releases chemicals inyour brain that are similar to

(01:00:21):
any other addiction.
That's why there's gamblers,anonymous groups.
It can be very problematic.
Yeah.
You can really ruin yourhousehold by being addicted to
gambling, and it can besomething that really does a lot
of damage to you and yourfamily.

Bob (01:00:37):
Good.
Good question.
There we go.
All right, so should we talkabout announcements and then
wrap up this week's edition ofBehind the Pulpit?
We should, and we only havetwo.
Ooh, okay.
Only two announcements, sohere's the first one.
All right, we got a familynight at the ballpark.
We got the Rumble Ponies andthe Patriots.
And if I remember correctly,the Rumble Ponies are the Mets

(01:01:00):
farm team and the Patriots arethe Yankees farm team, right?
That is correct.
Very inclusive of us.
Right, so it basically is goingto a Subway series right down
here in Somerville, right?
Or Bridgewater, is that wherethe thing is?
Yes.
Yeah, so this is going to be onAugust the 9th, 7.05 p.m.
if you want to sign up forthat.
Do you know when people have toget their...
to get their tickets purchased?

(01:01:21):
Do they want to do this, PastorDave?
What's the date?
Might as well do it

Tim (01:01:23):
today.

Bob (01:01:24):
You should do it today, but if you don't get to it today,
we'll let you know when youabsolutely can't.
But do it as soon as youpossibly can.
It's always a good time out atthe ballpark.

Tim (01:01:33):
And if you're one of our YouTube viewers, you can scan
this QR code with your phone.
if you're not watching on yourphone.

Bob (01:01:40):
There you go.
And by the way, at the ballparkdown there, at the Patriots
ballpark, there is lots ofactivities to do.
There's a fast pitch.
There's other things to havefun with if your little ones get
bored with the game.

Tim (01:01:54):
But not this ballpark.
That's Dodger Stadium in thegraphic here.
That's

Bob (01:02:00):
not a Noah graphic.
Sorry, not the exact ballparkhere, but when you go to the
actual...
It's definitely a

Tim (01:02:07):
fun-filled

Bob (01:02:09):
place.
Good.
All right, what's the next one?

Tim (01:02:11):
The next one is a little announcement.

Bob (01:02:16):
All right.
Oliver Aridi is...
is our new youth ministryintern for the summer.
We have three interns.
We mentioned a few of them theother week, and he is joining us
for a couple months here thissummer to learn what it's like
to actually be doing someministry in the church.
And I'm told that he's got aheart for the church, a heart

(01:02:37):
for people, and is feeling God'sthe Holy Spirit's nudging on
maybe going into ministry.
So if you see Oliver, say hi tohim, encourage him.
And I was told, was there analteration to his picture here?
Is that what you're talkingabout?
This picture right here?
It's not this one.
It's the picture in the emailthat's going out today with the

(01:02:59):
announcement.
All right.
So same picture, but differentclothes that Noah photoshopped
on them.

Tim (01:03:05):
A little bit of

Bob (01:03:05):
work was done.
Some cosmetics on the picture.
Open

Tim (01:03:09):
your inbox if you're interested in seeing the
changes.

Bob (01:03:11):
Anyway, say hi to Oliver.
He's going to do a great job.
We're excited about having himwith us this summer.

Dave (01:03:16):
End of show.
Have a great rest of your day,guys.
Thanks for watching.
Like and subscribe.
See you next time on Behind thePulpit.