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[0:00] Well, thanks again to all of you being here. Anybody needs refill on your coffee? Why? You won't interrupt the thing. Just get up and help yourself and we'll get underway. But before we do begin with the continuation of material we brought last week, I want to make sure that, I mean last month, I want to make sure that you have opportunity for any comments or questions that you may have. Feel free to raise them and always bear in mind that the only foolish question is the one that doesn't get asked. Because whatever your question is, the likelihood is somebody else has got the very same question, but they're afraid to ask. So you can be their hero. Okay. Any thoughts, comments, questions? It doesn't have to be related to prophecy, but it'd probably be better if it were. Anyone? Well, you know the old adage. When a preacher asks if there's any questions and there aren't any, he's got two options. One is that he taught the materials so thoroughly and so completely as to eliminate all possible questions. And the other is that he taught the material in such a way that they are so confused they can't begin to ask a question. Well, I'm not going to volunteer for which it is. But anyway, let's get underway and I want to give you a brief review of what we addressed in our last session, which would have been the August session. And it had to do with the Shekinah glory. This is a theme that is found all throughout scripture and very prominently so. But it is also a theme that is very easily overlooked. And the Shekinah glory literally has to do with the visible presence of the deity. And neither you nor I have any real good comprehensive idea of the God we serve and love. If you are not aware of it, and I suspect you probably are, but you need to understand that our God is not only an awesome God, he is an infinite God. And infinite means without limitations.

[2:53] And right there, with our puny human minds, we just have to drop out. Because each and every one of us has limitations written all over us. But the God who is the uncaused first cause has no limitation.

[3:12] And part of that is realized by his constitution, which is principally spiritual. And that too, is something that we really don't have much of a handle on. Because we are so familiar with, and locked into the physical, that it kind of transcends everything else. But the Bible makes it very clear that it is the spiritual part of our being that is by far and away the most important part of our being.

[3:51] And when Jesus was talking to the woman at the well, he characterized God as being spirit. That means immateriality. That means immateriality. God is not physical. And I don't want to get too far afield, but to just say that we have dealt somewhat in time past with the anthropomorphisms and anthropopathisms in the Bible.

[4:13] And the anthropomorphism is simply a compound word that means man and the shape of. Anthropos and morphe comes the word shape. And it means to ascribe to God bodily parts.

[4:37] Such as the arm of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save. That we are engraved in the palms of God's hands and so on.

[4:47] The Bible frequently uses language like that. And it is described as anthropomorphic. It is a poetic kind of description. And the reason we believe that God speaks of himself that way is simply for the purpose of communication.

[5:06] Because when he talks about having arms and eyes and a heart and a mind, he's getting into an area that we can comprehend. But when he limits himself just to the spiritual, not so much.

[5:21] And an anthropopathism is the same kind of a thing, except it has to do with feelings and emotions. Anthropos is, of course, from man.

[5:33] And pathos is the word from which we get pathetic in pathos. And it has to do with feelings and emotions. And these two are ascribed to God.

[5:45] That God has a heart that can be gladdened. And that he can be grieved. These are human emotions. And yet, God is not a human.

[5:56] And these emotions are used to describe him for the purpose of communication. Because if they are not used that way and brought down to our level, there's no possibility of our comprehending the deity at all.

[6:08] So keep in mind that much of the language of the Bible is the language of gracious condescension. Where God is stooping, if you will, to the human level of his creatures so that we can understand him somewhat and be able to appropriate who and what he is to the degree that we are able.

[6:32] So when the Bible says that God is spirit, this spirit that is virtually incomprehensible and is undetectable, if you will, is something that just tends to escape us.

[6:56] But this is tied to God's being omnipresent. We know that physicality, which is what we are, has to occupy time and space.

[7:11] And we cannot be in two places at once. But that which is spirit, which is what God is, has no boundaries and no limitations.

[7:26] And this is how this infinite God is very much present in the continent of Asia right now.

[7:38] And Alaska right now. And everywhere right now. There is nowhere that his being is excluded. This also ties in with his omniscience and his ability to know everything.

[7:58] Now, when you think in terms of this unlimited being knowing everything and everyone, that is just so mind-boggling.

[8:13] How many people have we? Coming up on what? Six or seven billion. That's with a B. does does this deity without limitations, does he know every one of those individuals?

[8:31] Well, if he doesn't, then he has limitations. So, this is the being we serve. This is the deity who at one time in the past as an act of his will because it pleased him decided to create materiality.

[9:00] Prior to that time, there was no planets, no heavens, no earth, no angels, no anything. there was just there was just the deity, the uncaused first cause.

[9:15] And we dealt philosophically in the past with the idea that everything that has a beginning must have a cause. we live in a cause and effect world.

[9:26] You cannot produce an effect of any kind without having had a cause to trigger it. And the question that some ask is, well, if God made everything, who made God?

[9:40] And the Christian, the biblical answer to that is, is no one made God. He is, he doesn't have the beginning. He is the uncaused first cause. And you have to take a position one way or another, and this was, by the way, was pointed out for your information in the little CD that we did on connecting with God.

[10:02] You have to decide that either a non-intelligent, non-existent entity is responsible for everything, which is kind of crazy.

[10:18] Because if this entity were non-existent, how could it be responsible for anything? But that's the only option left to you if you reject the idea that there is an infinite wise being uncaused who of his own free will decided to bring everything that is in existence into being.

[10:45] Now, either nobody and nothing did it, or somebody did it. You don't have any other option. There is no third option. This is the law of the excluded middle.

[10:55] You've got to go with A or you've got to go with B. You can't go with both, and you can't go with neither. You've got to make a choice. This, of course, is something that confronts every atheist, but unfortunately, they, in our opinion, they go the other way.

[11:11] And when you ask them, how can this possibly be? And the only answer that the atheist and the evolutionist can give is, well, given enough time, back to that again. So, anyway, this being, we're told, so far as I can determine, is just one little old verse of scripture.

[11:29] I think it's Revelation 4.11, where the rationale for God's creating anything comes into play, and this is the result of the four and twenty elders, whom I have yet to identify, can't figure out who those elders are.

[11:48] I'm convinced that they're not angels, they're humans, but I have no idea which humans they are. They fall down and worship before the throne, and they say, worthy art thou, O Lord, to receive honor and power and glory and might and et cetera.

[12:02] For, or because, thou hast created all things, and by thy good pleasure, or by your will, they were and are created.

[12:15] That's the only rationale I can come up with as to why God created anything simply because he wanted to. It was his choice, and he wanted to. And then that brings us to the issue of, well, why did he create the world the way he did?

[12:32] And this, too, is an age-old question. If God is supposed to know everything, didn't he know in advance what Adam and Eve were going to do and all the misery they would bring upon this world and all of the death and disease and suffering and injustice and everything that's going to come from that?

[12:51] Couldn't God foresee that? Then why did he create people? And why did he create Lucifer if he knew he was going to rebel against him and try to depose him?

[13:04] Why did he create him? And once again, we're back to this issue of God chose to. And what comes into play here is this great thing called the redemption of creation.

[13:19] And it is a drama that begins in Genesis and concludes in Revelation. We saw this just this past Sunday with Revelation 21 and 22 that brought our study of the Revelation to a conclusion.

[13:33] So, we have God faced with the decision and I know that I'm emphasizing this.

[13:44] I've been over it before, but I don't feel apologizing for it because it is so critical that you understand this. I really want to beat this drum.

[13:56] And that is we are volitional creatures. God had the choice of creating us with or without a volition.

[14:08] If he did not give us or angels volition, that is the power to disobey as well as obey, then all he does is create a bunch of puppets who are pre-programmed to do what he wants them to do and they can't do anything wrong because they don't have the capability of doing anything wrong.

[14:31] Question. Yes. Now you've raised the question. Okay. Okay, if angels have volition, what prevents the ones that are currently on the side of God from going the other way?

[14:46] It seems like they once made a choice and that was this and they not still make a choice? I've got a very profound answer to your question. I don't know.

[15:02] All I know is this. There does not appear to be any provision for the redemption of angels.

[15:13] They are an entirely different class and in so far as their will is concerned, and that's an excellent question. It has to come from a thinking mind. It's an excellent question.

[15:24] If angels had the ability to rebel and disobey God back when, whenever that was, do present-day angels have that capability? I do not know.

[15:36] I suspect, I'll just throw out a wise man opinion. Take it for what it's worth, and some wise man opinions aren't worth very much. But my guess, and this is just a guess, my guess would be that the unfallen angels have already been able to ascertain exactly what the lay of the land is and the consequences, and they are minding their P's and Q's by their own will.

[16:06] But that's just a guess. I cannot say that none of them have the ability to rebel at this point in time, because I suppose that's a possibility. Marvis? You caused me to think about this, because the way you're saying, it's kind of like we who have decided to go with the Lord, say, once we die and go to heaven and we see what that's like, maybe, you know, why wouldn't we have the option to disobey?

[16:44] But then that's almost like, maybe I'll cut my arm off. You know, you know better, and maybe they know better. You know, they're like, ain't no way I'm going there.

[16:55] So, you know, maybe that's what it is. I don't know. Okay, well, that's two of us that don't know. Is there anybody here that does know?

[17:06] Well, remember that when we exit this body, and here's another issue that is problematic.

[17:19] At what point in time do we receive our glorified body? There's one school of thought that seems to be at the rapture of the church, when this corruptible puts on incorruption, this mortal puts on immortality, and then we have the body spoken of by Paul writing to the Philippians, our body will be fashioned like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[17:41] If that's true, then when we die and our spirit exits the body, just as Jesus did on the cross, when he said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, and he breathed his last, and his spirit left him, and the body was dead.

[18:01] So, when our spirit arrives in heaven, and do we remain in the capacity of a disembodied spirit, awaiting the rapture, and the resurrection of the body, which will be a glorified body then, in which case we've got a whole host who knows how many millions of disembodied spirits in heaven right now, the spirit of all of our loved ones that have gone on, have not yet received their glorified body.

[18:37] And some scholars take the position, and this is a little stretch, I just cannot get into this, that God has prepared two bodies, because Paul does say we have a building of God in the heavens not made with hands.

[18:52] And some are of the opinion that God provides a interim body, a temporary body, until that body in the grave is raised. That's, to me, that's a little stretch.

[19:03] I don't know. I just can't put that together. But, John, straighten us out. Yeah, right. Back to this, the unfallen angels, could they be like we are when we choose Jesus as Savior?

[19:24] we are sealed, and we are eternally secure.

[19:37] So, when the angels made their choice, could they, I mean, this is an opinion, could they be sealed and eternally secure?

[19:49] Well, I do not know why that could not be the case. That's as good an answer as any I've heard. That may very well be. They're kind of locked in to their position, and also locked in willingly.

[20:06] Yeah, that's entirely possible. That's entirely possible. I'll tell you, this volition thing is really, really a big item. You need to understand, this, it is human volition that screwed up the world in the first place, and it's human volition that keeps it screwed up, really.

[20:26] But you know who often gets the rap for it, don't you? God! Where is God when these hurricanes come along? You know, where is God when babies die of cancer?

[20:38] Where is God? And they want to make God out the culprit. But the truth of the matter is, like Pogo used to say in the comic strips, you know, the little creature that lived in the swamps, we have met the enemy, and they is us.

[20:57] That's the problem. We are the problem. And it isn't God's fault that all of this calamity has come upon this earth, although humans are great blame shifters.

[21:10] We want to blame everybody and anybody for everything and anything except ourselves. and that's part of the human problem also. So, that's an interesting observation that you've got to do.

[21:21] It may very well be that that's the case. And by the way, keep in mind that of the fallen angels, and as best we know, and this I can't take to the bank either, talking about a whole lot of things that I don't know much about, but I think probably the best answer for demonic beings and demonic spirits are those of the fallen angels.

[21:48] And it is inconceivable that God would have created demons. That's just completely unlike his character and nature. When he finished his creation, he was able to look upon it and pronounce it very good.

[22:02] And that certainly wouldn't be the case were it fraught with demons and so on. And we do know, and we saw this from our Revelation study, that demons are incarcerated, and that there's going to be a release of them during the tribulation period from the abyss, from the pit, and it's going to be horrendous on this earth.

[22:25] These are demonic spirits and they are going to have their way with humanity. It's going to be an incredible time. But this time period, this tribulation period that we have studied in some detail on Sunday morning, is one wherein the supernatural is front and center and has become the new norm for the seven year period, as opposed to today.

[22:51] We do not see a great deal going on that is detectable that we would truly call miraculous and supernatural. And we're not limiting God, and he can do anything he wants to do, anytime he wants to do it.

[23:06] But the supernatural does not seem to be his modus operandi in the church age. The dispensation of the grace of God, because we are called upon to walk by faith and not by sight.

[23:18] In contrast to Israel, and this is a very important distinction, Israel did not have to walk by faith as much as they walked by sight, because God gave them all kinds of visible evidence, one miracle after another.

[23:34] And yet, they still, what was their capital sin? Unbelief. Unbelief. And that led, of course, to their idolatry, and that led to the Babylonian captivity, and the Assyrians attacking the ten tribes of the north, and so on.

[23:51] Okay, other thoughts or comments? Any other questions? Maybe this has stimulated something else. Yeah. In relation to what John said about I wonder, do angels, do they have the ability to look down on the earth and see the good that's going on and the bad that's going on, and maybe as far as them choosing to go the bad way, that'd be kind of stupid.

[24:19] And to see how evil and bad it is, why would they do that? They see what the good side is, that's where they want to stay. Well, angels are absolutely incredible beings, there's no question about it.

[24:33] And there is no doubt that they obviously surpass man in wisdom and in strength. Angels are going to be put into play in a very large way during the 70th week of Daniel.

[24:49] Daniel. And John, going through the Revelation, constantly refers to directions from angels, by angels, about angels, angels taking on assignments, etc.

[25:00] And it is just abundant in the Revelation. So, there's going to be a lot of angelic activity. And I don't know how it is that angels even contend one with another.

[25:17] For instance, in the book of Daniel, and the exact chapter escapes me now, but in the book of Daniel, I think it was Michael.

[25:30] Michael is described as one of the archangels. Gabriel is another. But Michael, in particular, Michael seems to be divinely assigned to the nation of Israel.

[25:43] And he is going to be a major player in the tribulation period. And I'm quite sure, if memory serves me correctly, that it was Michael who said that he wanted and intended to come to Daniel earlier.

[26:03] But the prince of Persia withstood me. And delayed me. Now, how do two angels contend?

[26:17] I have no idea. I'm sure they weren't arm wrestling. And they are not physical beings. So, of what did their opposition and conflict and combat consist of?

[26:32] I have no idea. But whatever it was, it was on a different plane and a different kind than humans. So, that too comes into play.

[26:43] And there's no question that angels often appear just like a human being. And they are accepted and understood as being a human being. But they aren't human at all.

[26:54] The text indicates that they are angels. And we see that as far back as Genesis 19. when the three men, quote unquote, approached Abraham, the plains of Mamre in the heat of the day.

[27:10] And one of them was a Christophany. One of them was Jesus Christ incarnated thousands of years before Bethlehem. And the other two were angels.

[27:23] And the one who is described as the angel of the Lord, that is Jehovah, that is the pre-incarnate Christ, the Christophany, gave the promise to Abraham. The other two angels, whom Abraham thought were people, were men, left.

[27:40] And they went to Sodom. They were on assignment to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And those were the two angels that Lot put up overnight that the men of Sodom wanted to violate and so on, you know, in the escape.

[27:56] So, and at the tomb of our Lord, we were told, and I just, I just, I've relived this scene in my, in my mind a number of times.

[28:09] I think it's, I don't remember which gospel it is. I thought it might be Mark. So that the angel rolled away the stone from the tomb and sat on it.

[28:23] I just see that angel perched up there on this. This, this is a big stone. You know, this thing may have been as much as five feet in diameter and a foot thick cut out of solid limestone and rounded.

[28:39] And they put this stone in a trough and they put an angle in the trough so that when it rolls down at the bottom of the trough, it closes the face of the tomb.

[28:55] And there's no way that anybody's going to get in there. And the women on their way there when it was still dark, bringing their spices and everything because the embalming job that they started on Jesus never got finished.

[29:09] Because the Sabbath was coming on and they had to hurry and get him buried in the grave before the sunset. That's the Jewish thing. So they had to reserve finishing embalming the body after the Sabbath was over.

[29:26] And that's when they came to the tomb and it was early tomorrow and they're on their way to the tomb. And I could just, I could just, boy, I wish I could make a movie script of this. It'd be great. Steven Spielberg wouldn't have any more.

[29:39] I see these women and they're rushing along and they've got this, they've got this pot full of these spices and aloes and all of this. And all at once one of them stops. And the other one stops.

[29:55] Who's going to roll away the stone? This is a massive stone. These women both put their shoulder to it. They're not even going to move that thing. Who's going to roll away the stone? You know, they are overcome with grief and sadness.

[30:08] Sorrow confuses the mind. Keeps you from thinking straight and everything. But on the way, and one of them was thinking, well, when we get there, we're going, wait a minute. How are we going to get there? And they get there and it's an angel rolled away the stone.

[30:22] And it's sitting up there, perched them. I like to think he hates us. And he says, whom seek ye? He is not here. He is risen. Why seek ye the living among the dead?

[30:34] And they thought there were two men. They looked like men. They were dressed like men. They weren't men at all. They were angels. And that occurs a number of times in the Gospels.

[30:48] So, other thoughts or comments? Anybody? Yes, Susie? I think that when the angels think about people, that the angels, they have a knowledge of God that we really didn't have.

[31:00] Even the following, they knew God. Well, we're taught that. And I know we're good to see it in nature, but we're usually taught that. Yeah. And I think that's a big difference.

[31:13] Who knows what's there? I'm sure that that's true, that that comes into play. Remember when Jesus confronted this one individual who was indwelt by demons.

[31:26] And this was an angastromuthos demon that utilized the vocal cords of the individual and spoke through that person. I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of Israel.

[31:37] Art thou come to destroy us before the time? And he pled with Jesus that he would not send him to the pit. And the pit is where they are going to be finally incarcerated.

[31:51] And this demonic being that indwelt that man, and I've got more questions about demon possession than I have answers. All I know is I don't think it goes on today nearly like it did during the time when Christ was here because he represented Satan's principal threat.

[32:14] And I think Satan pulled out all the stops beginning with the temptation in the wilderness when Christ was just initially introduced into his ministry by John the Baptist.

[32:26] And Satan is involved there. And his minions, his demons, are found particularly in the Gospels. And this is not, this is not a case of neurological disorder called epilepsy or something like that, which is what a lot of the modern scholars like to make it out to be.

[32:51] They don't believe in demons or demon possession and they say, well, these people were just a bunch of ignorant, backwards people and these individuals had epilepsy.

[33:03] But they didn't know what to call it. And if any of you have seen a grand mal seizure in action, you know that the arms and legs are flailing and everything. And Barbara and I lived with that for 30 years.

[33:16] And sometimes, sometimes there were two dozen of those seizures in one day. and the individual is just unconscious while they're doing it, but they lose all control of their body and arms and limbs and everything.

[33:34] And it's scary if you don't know what's happening. It's very scary. And some of the modern scholars feel that that's exactly what the problem was, but these people were uneducated and ignorant and they didn't know anything about medical science and they just thought that this epilepsy was somebody possessed by the demon because they were obviously not under their own control.

[33:55] So they must have been under the control of someone else a la the demon. And Jesus makes it quite clear that he is not treating or dealing with epilepsy.

[34:07] He's dealing with demon possession. And I've often said that the principal forte of Satan is deception. Deception is causing people to think things are other than what they are.

[34:23] And I've made a point of the fact that Satan is so good at what he does, he has succeeded in convincing a whole lot of people he doesn't even exist.

[34:34] But when Jesus was doing battle with him early in each of the Gospels, he wasn't hallucinating and he wasn't talking out of his head. He was talking to a person who actually did tempt him.

[34:48] Scott, then Carolyn. I'm talking about angels, so Hebrews 13, 2, he still applied to us. Yeah. Forget not to show hospitality because you may have entertained angels.

[35:04] Yeah. Angels unawares. Yeah. That's an interesting verse. And hospitality was something that was high on the list of people in the Bible rendering hospitality. And we are told again in Hebrews that angels are ministering spirits.

[35:21] That means they don't have a body ordinarily. But obviously they can assume a body if that's what serves the purpose. Angels are ministering spirits sent to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation.

[35:39] And that's us. we are heirs of salvation. Then that prompts the question, do each of us have a guardian spirit, a guardian angel?

[35:51] Again, my profound answer is I don't know. And if we do, how do you account for the fact that some of these things get by?

[36:04] You know, someone says you might have an angel, you might have a guardian angel, but when you're going down the highway a hundred miles an hour, he gets out.

[36:20] So, I don't know. I don't know. It's entirely possible. that it's entirely possible that these angels who are ministering spirits may have come to our rescue more times than we know, completely unbeknownst to us.

[36:36] We just don't know. None of us have any idea how many times we may have missed death by a fraction of a second at an intersection.

[36:48] We just don't know. Carolyn? I was sitting here and I was playing this and I was bringing this up. that you would bring something into the conversation that would bring that.

[37:00] So, there's no way. You mentioned about legal skills and how they work steadily today. And I don't know if any of you have thought about this or any of you at least this time.

[37:13] But if you look and learn that, you will see that when the computer was invented, invented, and they decided on the Apple and it would be a nervous device and it would be happening.

[37:30] not only that, but the first computer that was sold and did this time was sold for $666,000 and $666,000. It was $10,000.

[37:43] You learned it out. I got it. Someone told me about it and I did research and I was presented to a tech guy to be very knowledgeable and do what's done and do what's left and continue to talk about what it is.

[38:01] And what the reason behind what this is is that when they use the apple as the symbol that they wanted to distinguish it between a cherry.

[38:16] And so they figured they took a $5 and people would know it was an apple and not a cherry. So if you would look up this phone and you wouldn't have to turn and you'd see it. And that they wanted to sell the first computer for two-thirds of the traditional privacy.

[38:35] I don't know how that is, but they thought it was $1,000. So two-thirds are the $6,000 and $6,000. So please don't take my word for it.

[38:49] Look it up yourself and it just stunned me and my mouth still opened because it was a pen-eye that I would talk to you and you didn't have to. Yeah, well...

[38:59] That's why you want a Samsung instead of... I thought about that too. Trade that baby in.

[39:11] Well, I'll tell you what, I'm satisfied that there are probably a number of phenomena out there that have real significance in ways that we don't know because we're not able to connect those dots.

[39:33] Maybe it would terrify us if we knew what was really afoot. It's best we don't know. But talking about computers, I remember reading an interesting article. This too, you could look up.

[39:45] That when the first computer was produced, this thing took up a room size like this. You know, I mean, it was huge, huge. And guess who it was that predicted that the world might have use for four or five of those in the whole world.

[40:11] He was the president and chairman of IBM. So he kind of missed it, didn't he? And as they say, the rest is history.

[40:24] Interesting. You see, part of the problem is we don't know what we don't know. And it's probably best that we don't. Other thoughts?

[40:34] Anybody? Does that mean that, what Carol just said, does that mean that this world of technology is taking us down the wrong earth? Well, I think that's probably, I think that's probably a given, really.

[40:49] We all benefit in so many ways from technology. And I'm not, I'm not panning technology. My air conditioning is part of technology.

[40:59] You know, thank God for technology. but the danger, the danger with technology is that man tends to invest more in it in every way, shape, and form than what it deserves.

[41:15] There are so many things that this world cannot provide nor produce. and only the spiritual source of our being can provide the things that we really need.

[41:27] And I'm satisfied that this is, as I've often said, when people, when people criticize the Bible for being an old outdated book, doesn't have any technology in it, you don't find any TVs, there's no computers, there's no iPhones, there's nothing like that in the Bible.

[41:41] How out of date can it be? But the Bible was never designed by God to talk to man about technological advances or anything like that. No, there's no jet planes, no automobiles, no that stuff.

[41:53] But the Bible is designed by God to speak to the needs and the hurts of the human heart, the human being. And you know, technology doesn't change that one whit.

[42:08] Not one whit. That's the only thing that has changed is on the inside and technology cannot do that. Technology can give us some better ways of living but it cannot produce better people.

[42:23] Just can't do it. And it wasn't supposed to, you know, I mean, it's never intended to. Scott? I'm just thinking what Carolyn said, that technology can destroy the technology because the atom bomb, you had mentioned that, if it's detonated in the magnetic sphere, it fries everything, you have no computers, no electric, no anything.

[42:47] That's right. So, that's a result of technology. Technology can take down technology. Yeah. And everybody who's relied on their cell phones is going to be completely lost.

[42:59] Yeah. Yeah. On the playground we used to say, my dad can whip your dad. And now it's my technology can whip your technology. Did I see another hand?

[43:11] Marvis? Another thing that I see technology doing is it totally destroying relationships. Well, kids today, they don't know how to have a conversation.

[43:24] They sit, I saw it in my family, they sit, four of them on a couch, they say a word to each other, and they're texting each other. Or they're not, or they're playing a game.

[43:36] They don't know how to have a conversation, they don't know how to be with people. They're very uncomfortable. I hear this going on all over the place, and my hope is, I keep thinking this, this is just a fad, and it's going to pass.

[43:49] It's just a fad, and it's going to pass, but it just seems to be accelerating. I don't know. And people do this because they're kind of mesmerized by it.

[44:00] They're kind of... There's something about screen time. Yeah, there is, there is. And you know, the mantra, the mantra of science, and I'm not panning science, I've got great respect for it, and I benefit from it a lot, but the general mantra from the scientific community is, if it can be done, it should be done.

[44:28] And ethics and morality, they have no room for. That must not stand in the way of the advances of technology. And the powers that be see to it that it doesn't, and they just ride roughshod over, you know, over sometimes decency and appropriateness and so on.

[44:48] And cloning is just an example. You know, like I said, if it can be done, it should be done. That's their motto. But not all advances are good.

[44:59] Some of these things have a way of coming back and biting us. And you and I are all, in a way, victims of that.

[45:11] Because you can look back to, well, let's go back, let's say right after World War II, because that seems to be when it really, really started. And that was, and by the way, the war produces an enormous amount of technology, out of necessity, because you want to win that war, you know, and everybody throws everything they've got into inventions and technology and bigger and badder weapons and all the rest of it.

[45:40] But right after the war was over, a big emphasis on domestic life, peacetime, was labor saving devices.

[45:54] and think of how grateful all you women were when you didn't have to take your clothes, this whole heavy basket of wet clothing out in the backyard and hang it up on those lines with clothespins and try to get it dry before it rains and all, now you just throw all that stuff in the dryer, turn the knob, boy, and those sheets come out smelling so good.

[46:20] that's a labor saving device. And we've got that with so many things, but what it does is it keeps us from being as active as we were intended to be.

[46:35] These bodies were made to move. And we don't want to move, that's why I sit on my can and flip that remote.

[46:47] So I don't have to get up and walk over to that thing and change the channel. Actually, I don't even have to have a TV, just give me an easy chair and a remote.

[47:02] It's not that bad. It's not that bad. But really, all of these things, things, and we all love them. We all love them, and we all use them. But what it does is it contributes to more and more inactivity.

[47:18] We call it labor saving devices. And when we engage in doing this, walking there, doing that, you're burning up calories. You know?

[47:29] And what do you do when you don't burn them up? You store them. And boy, they're tough to get rid of once they're stored. Carolyn? Carolyn? Carolyn? I did a bad thing.

[47:51] I screamed out. Yeah. Yeah. And distracting is a key word that really plays in big time.

[48:11] I tell you, there is so much to distract us today, to get your attention off of the things that really matter. And, well, this, I think, has been very profitable, but we're coming down to close.

[48:27] I want to rent something by it. Scott, go ahead. I have a quick comment. The technology can be used for that, but it's also used for sermons, and Barb gets his word out, so it's no different than a hammer.

[48:40] You can use a hammer to build a church or get somebody on the head. That's how you want to use it. Absolutely. Good point. Yeah, good point to make. Same way with money. I remember Bill Ford, our plumber friend, used to say that money is a wonderful servant and a terrible master.

[49:02] Indeed, it is. It works both ways. You can do great things with money, and yet you can do some pretty horrid things with money as well. I just want to run by a comment by Omar Schwartzendruber.

[49:15] I know some of you knew Omar Schwartzendruber, and he was, your Reader's Digest used to, I don't know if they still do or not. They put out those articles in the Reader's Digest.

[49:27] Most unforgettable character I ever met. Well, that's the way Omar was. He was a mechanical genius. He would take a transmission from a Buick and a motor from something else and put them together and make them run, and it was just amazing.

[49:41] He was into steam engines and all kinds of stuff. And he had a Mennonite background. and he, well, I'll tell you this funny story about Omar.

[49:56] Somebody was scheduled to bring special music that particular morning. And I got word right before I went to the pulpit that whoever it was going to bring special music was home with a sore throat, and they wouldn't be able to do it.

[50:13] So, you know, that happened. So I got up and I said, I know in the bulletin it says so-and-so is going to have special music this morning, but we've got word that she got a sore throat. So we just went on with service.

[50:25] After the service was over, Omar came up to me. You've got to know this man. I mean, colorful individual, usually wearing a pair of coveralls, and a hard working guy, worked hard all his life, you know, and lived a very simple, frugal lifestyle.

[50:43] You just, did without a lot of things because he didn't want anything. And his wife, Ruthie, was pretty much the same way. And after the service was over, he came up to me. And they'd only been there maybe a couple of months.

[50:54] This was back in the 70s, mid-70s. He said, Brother Marv, he said, I noticed that you had to forego your special music this morning because so-and-so was sick.

[51:06] And I said, yeah, maybe next week they'll be able to sing. He said, well, if you ever get put in a position like that again, feel free to call on me. And he said, I'd be glad to render something.

[51:18] I said, really? And he says, sure. And I said, you wouldn't need to know in advance. Oh, no, you just let me know. And he said, I'd be glad to come up and sing.

[51:31] I said, well, how about that? So I just kind of logged it in the back of my mind. And sure enough, about a month, six weeks later, had the same kind of situation with somebody else to develop a special music.

[51:45] And I went over to Omar right before the service started. And I said, should people let me sing? Sure, sure. Just let me know when you want me to sing.

[51:55] It's okay. So I made the announcements and everything. And I said, so-and-so was going to have special music this morning, but they're not here. And I'm asking Brother Omar Schwartz and Druber if he will come up and sing.

[52:06] The only mistake I made was, I never told Barb about this in advance. She said, I just about melted.

[52:18] What is he doing to that poor man? She didn't know that he had offered that. And the congregation thought, well, Omar got up. He couldn't sing worth anything.

[52:32] I mean, he had a gravelly voice, but you know something? You could tell the man knew what he was singing about. And you talk about soul music.

[52:45] You just knew, this man knew the Lord, and he was delivering a message with that song. And everybody just sat there.

[52:57] It was, and he sang for us another time. But my big mistake was I never told Barb about that. She about had a heart attack. What in the world are you doing this for me?

[53:08] So one day, we were going to go down to a Reds ball game. And this was, like I said, this was in the 70s. Hey, this was back in the big red machine days. Okay? And Bench was still there.

[53:20] And, yeah, all these Pete Rose before he went to jail. All that good stuff, you know. And it was just a great time.

[53:31] And Paul Cartmill, retired railroader, and we called him our head red. He was a baseball fan, loved the Cincinnati Reds, never missed a game.

[53:44] And he arranged to get a special deal on tickets. He got 100 tickets to go to the Reds game. So we told the people in the congregation, you know, if you want to go to the Reds game, tickets are so-and-so, see Omar, or see Paul Cartmill, our head red.

[53:59] We had a big car caravan, the bus, and everything. We went down, about 95 people, and saw this ball game. I asked Omar, I said, Omar, are you going to the ball game? He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Marsden no, no.

[54:44] No, no. No, no, no, no, no. No.

[54:55] No, no. No. I wonder if a bunch of it isn't just a distraction that the devil uses to keep people from thinking about what really is important.

[55:11] My jaw dropped. And I just thought, gee, you know, I kind of like baseball. But, you know, there's a ring of truth to that.

[55:27] You can take it to an extreme, everything. Everything can be taken to an extreme. But I think there's a moment of truth to that. And Carolyn used that word. It triggered that distraction.

[55:38] There are so many things through sight and sound that are automatic distractions to your time and attention and interest and thinking.

[55:52] And we spend a whole lot of time thinking about a whole lot of things that don't amount to a hill of beans. Trivia. Some people live the lives of trivia.

[56:02] You know, they've got a game that came out several years ago called Trivia. And I've played it and I enjoy it. But you can deal so much in trivia that you never really stop and think about what actually counts, what really matters.

[56:17] Wow. Any other thoughts or comments anybody has? I'll just put the study we intended on ice and we'll have it for October.

[56:33] Unless you all have more questions or comments. But I've really enjoyed this this morning. It just gives us a chance to kind of have an airing and everybody gets to say something or ask something. And I do appreciate it very much.

[56:45] The Lord has created a wonderful atmosphere here at Grace. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

[56:56] And each and every one of you is a part of it. And I am so grateful that that's something really special here. We all contribute to make it that way.

[57:07] So thank you. Well, let's pray. Father, we are grateful for the time that we shared together. For questions that were asked. And even for answers that were not as full or as complete or as certain as we would like.

[57:22] Because they still stimulate our minds and our thinking. And often answers that we do not have. And questions that arise can lead us to concentrate and think about other things that would have never come to mind.

[57:37] And we are grateful that you have made biblical Christianity a thinking faith. And you have endowed us with the ability to receive information and assess it and then act upon it.

[57:55] And this is our responsibility before you. Thank you again for each person here. For the day that lies ahead. And for the truth that you've seen fit to impart to us.

[58:07]  Enable us, we pray, by your spirit to walk in it. In Christ's name. Amen.