What Do I Say When My Family Members Reject Their Faith?

The following is a pre-recorded version of CORE Christianity.

We'll be back live again on Monday. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. And of course, you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up, let's go to Rebecca in Wichita Falls, Texas. Rebecca, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Hi, Pastor Adriel and Bill. My question has to do with the news stories reports about the unidentified aerial phenomena. That's the new term for it. UFOs, you know, the government doesn't know what they are.

The Navy doesn't know what they are. And I'd like to get your perspective from, I would like to get a Christian perspective on this. Do you think what we're hearing about, what people are seeing is demonic in nature? Or could it be related to end time events that Jesus talked about in the Bible? Rebecca, thank you for that question. I know that this is something that has concerned many people and even shaken the faith of some.

Here's what I think I can say with confidence. One, we know that everything that exists in the universe was created by the true and the living God. So there is nothing out there that was not created by the Lord. God made everything from nothing.

And that should be a comfort to us. Whatever is going on out there, God knows what it is. And God is the one who created all things. Now, are these, you know, demonic manifestations? Is this the technology of some other country? Are these alien creatures?

I don't know. We do know according to the Bible that there is an unseen realm, the realm of the angels. When Genesis one says, in the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth, the heavens there isn't just a reference to the stars and the planets.

It's also a reference, I believe, to the angels. And of course, in Colossians chapter one, verses 15 and following, it talks about the fact that the angels, the rulers and authorities were made through Christ and for Christ. And so that's where we can confidently say this is where we have clear teaching from God in his word, in his revelation.

He made everything. There is an unseen realm, whether or not these unidentified flying objects are a part of the demonic world or that kind of a thing, this alternate dimension, if you will. I think we ought to be careful that we don't get lost in that because a lot of it is just speculation where we need to stay rooted, Rebecca, especially in times like these is in the scriptures, in the local church, growing together in the word of God, comforting one another with the truth of scripture that God made all things, that there is forgiveness in Jesus Christ, that we have the hope of the resurrection, whatever is going on out there, God knows. And the God who knows about what it is, is the God who we can call Father and who we can trust in and rest in. And so thank you for your question. That's where I'm going to leave it because I think that's what we can clearly say according to the scriptures.

Everything else would just be speculating. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Tyler calling in from Salina, Kansas.

Tyler, what's your question? Hi, Pastor Adriel, thank you for taking my phone call. Yeah, I was wondering in 1 Kings chapter 17 where Elijah is staying with the widow, when her son dies, I was wondering why Elijah took him upstairs, asked questions to God regarding the tragedy brought on, and why he stretched himself out three times over the boy.

Yeah, it's a very interesting scene. Of course, this widow for a period of time was feeding the prophet with a way of God providing for him. And then her son dies and she says that the mysteries of the house, the son becomes ill, his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, what have you against me, O man of God, you have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son. And he said to her, give me your son.

And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, O Lord, my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn by killing her son? And then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, O Lord, my God, let this child's life come into him again. And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah and the life of the child came into him again and he revived. Why does Elijah, why does it happen in this way? I mean, obviously this is a moment of desperation, both for the widow, but also for Elijah, it seems, Tyler, as he's crying out to the Lord, he's wondering what's going on here.

It seems God, like this poor widow, you've taken her son from her. It became, I think, a testimony of the power of God, obviously being able to see her son who was once dead, now raised again from the dead. And the stretching himself out on the child three times, there are all sorts of people who might say, well, this is some sort of symbolic, like three times, maybe the three days that Jesus was in the tomb, that kind of a thing.

But I don't want to read too much into that. It just seems to me, Tyler, like Elijah is crying out to the Lord and pleading with God. And there's this desperation here to the extent that he's basically face to face with this child, crying out to God that the breath of life would fill the child again. And God heard his prayer. And it was a sign, this whole scene is a sign of God's sovereign grace and mercy to this widow. If you remember, later in the New Testament, in the gospels, Jesus actually brings up this situation in the gospel of Luke, in Luke chapter four, verse 25, where he's talking about God sending his grace to people. He says, but in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine came over all the land. There were all sorts of widows out there, Jesus says, and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to the woman who was a widow. And so God was extending his kindness to this woman in particular, giving her an encounter of his grace through the prophet Elijah, and then also raising her son from the dead. And so, sorry, I can't say more about it. Again, I don't want to speculate, but a really amazing scene.

And of course, Elijah as a prophet was this type of the true prophet, priest, and king who would be coming, the Messiah Jesus, who would raise the dead and who would himself be raised from the dead. Thanks for your call. Interesting. I was just thinking about when people are suffering hypothermia, like in a camping situation or whatever, whatever you do, you press your body against them to bring the warmth back into their body again. So, you know, you don't know what was going on there. That's right. Maybe it was cold. We're not cold. And Elijah, yeah, I don't know, Bill, but that's just the thing.

The text doesn't say. We do know that it was a miracle. It was a miracle. This child was brought back from the dead.

And so it was a testament to the power of God. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question, you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com, and you can leave us a voicemail 24 hours a day on our voicemail line, which is 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Gaylene in Topeka, Kansas. Gaylene, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hello.

Hello, Gaylene. What's your question? Yeah, I've been through some things. Like, I have been on a lot of track, but then I also have the Spirit, but they say that you can see your mind can receive when you say the prayers, salvation prayer, but you can not have any heart, but I guess you have the Holy Spirit within you, Spirit within you, or that you still ain't saved.

So I don't know what the, you know, when you have the Spirit in you, like it's the, you know, just in your body. Well, Gaylene, I think what you're bringing up here is a really important problem, frankly, and it's this idea that people can have a knowledge about God, a knowledge about the Bible, a knowledge about Jesus, a knowledge even about salvation, and yet if that knowledge doesn't penetrate into our hearts, if we're not truly embracing the mercy of God, the gospel of God for ourselves, we can be lost, and so it seemed to me like that's sort of what you were getting at, this sort of issue, and you do see this in the Bible. There's this instance in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 8, where you have this man. He was called Simon the magician, and he was sort of awed by the apostles, by what they were doing, by the fact they would lay hands on people, and the gift of the Holy Spirit would fill them, and he wanted that, you know. He sort of went through the motions. He got baptized.

At one point he even told the disciples, hey, can I pay you and you could give me money, or you could give me, I could give you money, and you could give me the ability to impart the Holy Spirit on anyone, you know, that I lay my hands on, and they respond to him. They say, wait a minute, you are still in the gall of iniquity. You're still lost, and maybe you've gone through the motions. Maybe you've gotten baptized, but it seems like what you really need to do is repent, and that's just the thing, is people can have a knowledge about religion, about Jesus, about Christianity, even people brought up in the church and spend a lot of time there, and yet if we don't repent and believe the gospel, we will be lost. Now what does it mean when the Holy Spirit fills us? I think a lot of people, Galen, are looking for this, you know, charismatic experience, you know, I'm not going to speak in tongues and prophesy or feel this just sort of tingly sensation from, you know, the tip of my head to the bottom of my feet, that kind of a thing. No, do you want to know the primary sign of being filled with the Spirit? It's the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, that is what the Spirit does. He produces that in us by his grace, and if you believe in Jesus Christ, Galen, well, you have the Holy Spirit because it's only by the Spirit that anyone can say that Jesus is Lord, truly, and this is what Paul said to the Corinthians, and so this sort of nominal religion where we just sort of know about Christ and the gospel but we don't really embrace it for ourselves, I think that's a huge problem.

There are a lot of people who, that's what Christianity is for them, you know, I go to church sort of, doesn't really have a huge impact on my life, the way I think about the world, the way I make decisions day to day, that kind of a thing, but I would call myself a Christian. No, what we need is not just a sort of knowledge about Jesus, we need to trust in Jesus, and that's what faith is. Knowledge is a part of faith, assent to the truth, embracing it, but also trust. That's the key component, saying, I'm trusting in Christ. I'm leaning on him for my salvation. He is my hope. I'm not trusting in myself, and I'm following him.

I've turned from my sins. I'm following him, and so, Galen, I appreciate your question, and it's something that we do need to be on guard against, this sort of nominal head knowledge, religion kind of a thing, but the hope is, the reality is, we have the grace of the Holy Spirit, and trusting in Jesus and what he gives to us in the gospel is so much better than just the sort of head knowledge. We want to embrace it for ourselves, and so I trust that you've done that, and thank you for your call. You're listening to CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

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When you sign up for the inner CORE, you get a copy of this book, CORE Christianity, written by my friend Dr. Michael Horton, a professor I had in seminary, just really a wonderful book unpacking the CORE doctrines of the Christian faith, what it is that it means to be a Christian, the things that we all believe in and have believed for thousands of years. Get ahold of this resource by joining the inner CORE, and the inner CORE is a monthly donation of $25 or more. And again, if you've been blessed, would you consider joining that group? We should point out that we don't receive contributions from any particular church or denomination.

We count on people just like you to keep this program on the air. So if you believe in what we do here at CORE Christianity, please do prayerfully consider joining the inner CORE. And when you do, we'll start sending you some regular special resources from Pastor Adriel that only inner CORE members receive. So go to our website at corechristianity.com forward slash inner CORE to learn more. Well, let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our callers.

This is a gentleman named Ben. I love your show, and I've been listening to it weekly, but I have a question. We all know hell exists, but how should we handle people we know that are friends and family that may go to hell in this lifetime?

Should we be filled with anxiety and discombobulated, or is there more to it? Should we just pray for them and witness to them until they get it, or are we just going to go to heaven and not really care about the family members going there, because heaven is going to be so great? God bless, and have a good day. Bye.

Hey Ben, thank you for that question. You know, I think each of us as Christians ought to pray that the Lord would give us a greater heart, if you will, for the lost. For those who reject Christ, for those who don't know and embrace the Gospel, it should really grieve us, and especially for those who are near to us, our family members, maybe close friends. It should be something that is at the forefront of our minds, and it should be something, Ben, that we pray about and pray for, longing to see the grace of God at work in the lives of the people who are around us who don't embrace the Gospel yet. And so I just want to start with that, because I think too often, and each of us can confess this before the Lord, we just sort of let that slide.

We don't have the kind of zeal, I think, that we ought to have for those who reject Christ and his Gospel. And it's the kind of zeal that the Apostle Paul had in Romans chapter 9. That's actually one of the places I'd go to answer your question, because there in Romans chapter 9, Paul is talking about his family members, his kinsmen, who are not saved, who had not embraced the Gospel, and he's talking about the grief that he has, and yet he also mentions the confidence that he has in God's sovereign will and power. He begins in Romans chapter 9, I'm speaking the truth in Christ.

I am not lying, my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ, who is God overall blessed forever.

Amen. You know, so Paul is saying, look, Jesus came, he came and preached the Gospel to the Jews, they rejected him, my kinsmen, my people rejected him, and I have this unceasing anguish, this grief in my heart, because I want them to know Jesus. And so you got to believe that Paul was praying and crying out to God for the work of the Spirit in their lives, that the veil would be lifted, that they would turn to Jesus.

And yet in that same chapter, Ben, what's so interesting to me is Paul highlights God's sovereign grace, the fact that the Lord God Almighty is sovereign in salvation. So you have this tension of longing for the salvation of the lost and that they would turn to Christ, praying for them, and also resting in the fact that God is sovereign and in control, and that we look to him. That's one of the reasons why we ought to pray for those who don't know Jesus, because it's the Lord who is at work in their lives, the Lord who can open the eyes of the blind, if you will. And so I would say there is this anguish that we should have as Christians, and if you don't have that, pray.

Pray that the Lord would give you a heart for the lost, the same heart that the Apostle Paul has here in Romans chapter 9. But with that anguish, we also have the great confidence that God is good, that God is sovereign, that he hears our prayers, and that he is able to work in the lives of those who are near to us. And so I think we don't have to be totally despairing. We shouldn't be. We believe in God and in his power to save, and so we have that anguish, and we take that anguish to the Lord in prayer, trusting him to work in the lives of the people around us.

That is a tough one. So many of us have friends and relatives that have rejected the Lord, or at least have not trusted in him to this point, and we do. We worry about them.

We do get concerned. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and one of the ways you can ask us a question is by watching us on YouTube live, and that airs each day at 11 30 pacific time, 12 30 mountain, 1 30 central, or 2 30 eastern. Joel actually sent us a message through our YouTube channel. He says, I'm looking forward to my profession of faith this Sunday.

Recently I slipped up and didn't keep sexual purity. Should I stop with my profession of faith? Hey, Joel. I want to pray for you, and so let me pray for you first, and then I'll answer your question. Gracious Heavenly Father, we lift Joel up to you right now. It sounds like he's weighed down because of sin, and feels guilt, feels shame, wonders if he should even come forward now. I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would draw him near to you, that you would give him a sense of your mercy, a sense of your forgiveness. Lord, that he would even now rest in the gospel as he's confessed his sins to you, that he would know your forgiveness and have confidence, Lord, in the gospel. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, Joel, first, no, I don't think that this should keep you from coming forward. Of course, Satan does not want you to come forward to profess your faith in Jesus Christ, and there are temptations that you will experience, attacks of the evil one, distractions to keep you from approaching Christ, from walking with Christ. I think of what the author of the Hebrews said. He said, let's lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let's look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. I would encourage you right now to set aside that sin, to confess it to the Lord, repent of it, and then come to him ready to receive the grace that he gives to you. You should still make that profession of faith that you were planning on making, and know, according to the promise of the gospel, that when you confess your sins, you are forgiven. You don't have to do penance.

You don't have to say, well, I can't. This is what Satan wants. He wants you to be in this place where you struggle with the sin or you fall into some sin. You just think, well, I can never come to the Lord now. No, we come boldly to the throne of grace in our time of need because we have a great high priest, Jesus Christ. John says in 1 John 1 verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God is faithful and he's just. It's a part of the very revelation of who he is as the God of steadfast love and faithfulness and forgiveness for his people who confess their sins. Brother, you've confessed your sins.

You're forgiven. Let me just give you some other advice with regard to growing in the Christian life. Dig into the word of God every day.

Let God's word wash over you. If I were you, I would begin with the Gospel of John and also reading the Psalms. I think that those are two great places to start to help you learn about who Jesus is and how to pray. And so may the Lord bless you as you make your profession of faith and may the Lord be with you. God bless, brother. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.