Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network Podcast. If you're new to the show, this is a Christian apologetics show.

I've been doing apologetics for a long time and I enjoy it a great deal and want to be able to continue to do it. So we'll just see. Now, you know, yesterday I was starting to read a little bit of a whack-o-mill and I'm trying to find it. It was awesome because what I'll do is read whack-o-mill and, you know, love and hate mail on Fridays sometimes with stuff. So, yeah, I could read some of that stuff but, you know, anyway. Okay, hey, look, I want you to give me a call.

Okay, 877-207-2276. If you want to watch, you can go to rumble.com and forward slash Matt Slick Live. You can do that and I've got to get the Discord server thing opened right now but we've been, I've been swamped so I'm still catching up with stuff. So if that sounds like something you want to do, you can watch. It's not a big deal but what's really good is we have the people who join us in the text, who join us in the chat rooms and we've made friendships, you know, some good friends we've made and having never even met. So that's a, not that it's a good thing we haven't met but it's a good thing we'd be able to make, you know, some good, let's say just some good friendships, all right, and you can participate in that. You can.

All you got to do is go to rumble.com forward slash Matt Slick Live, all one word, Matt Slick Live, that's for radio. All right, so let's see, had some conversations with some people today, well not with, listening to some orientation stuff on some school work and some other things and I found it interesting, I really did find it interesting. There's a lot of stuff, a lot of people as Christians are struggling with, even those who are trained, they're struggling with critical thinking and logic and some other concepts and some stuff and I get it. I get it because they don't do what I do all the time.

I'm not better than them or anything. They got schedules, they got stuff they got to do. I just get to do this a lot and so it was kind of interesting to hear some of the comments and some of the stuff people were talking about.

It's all good stuff but it's got me thinking. One of the things I want to do is be able to train Christians and I just can't quite figure out how to do it efficiently, properly so they can really learn. It's not easy to do. It's not easy to do and even now I'm thinking how can I do this? One of the things I want to do is be able to do seminars where I can just teach and just say here you need to do this and develop coursework for it as well. That's one thing I'd like to do but it just takes so much work and I've got so much going on so I don't know but I want to find a way to communicate truths, simple truths and deep truths so that people can learn and get exposed to them.

Teach them how to do things like outlining and how to get information and oh boy there's a yawn, excuse me and that kind of thing. Now just so you know for those who might be curious I am trying to get into clubhouse or slash club deck. The powers that be updated it and I can't get it to work in my system anymore. It just doesn't work and I've tried all kinds of stuff.

I know some quick and slick things to do, run as administrator, check various things, admin permissions and I can't get it to work so I just want people to know that that's the problem. I'm not able to do it. Okay so when I can I will if and when it works and also if you are interested in listening you can do it in discord. Now that discord is not very easy to work with so I'm just telling you that right now and I'm in the radio show thing on the server.

You can go to carv.org forward slash social media and you can find out what the URL is all that kind of stuff. We've got somebody, oh they're not on hold yet. Looks like they're already on the air.

Hmm that's interesting. Oh there we go now it's off. Let me finish up a couple things we'll get to him. So I just wanted people to know if you're listening I am trying to get to work the clubhouse thing. I'm going to be working on a couple things so we'll see what happens.

We'll just see what happens. All right why don't you give me a call 877-207-2276 and I know we're having a problem now because that caller came on and now it looks like on hold but nothing's showing up with it. So maybe Keith if he's there can type out what's going on and let me know. In the meanwhile ladies and gentlemen if you want to you can email me radio questions and comments. All you got to do is just address it to info at karm.org c-a-r-m dot o-r-g and you can type in the subject karm radio question radio comment something like that. All right let's see if I can get to some of that.

What is weird what's going on with that? Okay we lost a caller. Five open lines 877-207-2276 all right let me just get some of the radio questions. Oh I've already got to that one and where did the karm t-shirts where can they be found?

Well where is that Charlie where are the karm t-shirts? If you're still doing that let me know and I'll tell them where it is. Not you're not?

Okay he's not doing it right now. So you have to put on hold for that but we're going to be working on some stuff trying to get some things going later. We'll figure it out if we can. So it looks like we're having problems with the phones.

I think it looks like it to me. So I don't know maybe Charlie could call the number just to see if we can get in. You can tell me what's going on and try and test it. They might be having a problem with their system. If that's the case that's just what it is. See yesterday the internet went out so we had a cell phone and three Mormon missionaries showed up.

This is someone typing. When I was going back to talk with Matt spent an hour with them. Good that's in the live chat there of rumble. So okay now it looks like we got it there. Let's try this. Let's see if we can get on the air with Joseph from Utah. Joseph welcome.

You're on the air. Hey Matt sorry for some reason I called getting disconnected but I know you helped me find a new church and I said I know you helped me find a new church. I was wondering do you have a set of criteria that I could give to somebody to help them find a new church if I do find people who are you know wanting their church but they're not anywhere near me for example.

Yeah there's an article that I wrote about this on CARM. What to look for in a church or what things should we look for in a church and so I'm looking at the article right now. I listed out several things you should expect to find in a good church. Doctrinal issues like the Bible is inspired and they're in the word of God.

The final authority. There's only one God the Trinity has taught. Jesus was born of a virgin Mary. Salvation is by grace through faith alone in Christ alone not by anything like baptism or ceremonies okay. There are lots of things to avoid in churches so because there are so many.

So if they were to deny any of the essentials then you know just flee. Also a bad church will affirm women pastors and elders and I can talk about that if anybody's interested anyone call me up and talk about that that's fine. I remember hearing you say something about that yesterday too.

I'm sorry you or I said that yesterday. Well I missed the first part. You said that yesterday about women being pastors in churches and I was listening to that I'm like that's really cool to hear that I mean I hadn't heard that before and I know you said that you would love to have someone call you on it and discuss it with you and you know that would be a good one to listen to. Yeah it's a very important topic and the reason is when Adam and Eve were created Adam was created first he has the position of authority when they both sinned they're both hiding but the pre-incarnate Christ came to the man and said where are you didn't address her I addressed Adam. This designates the issue of authority position that Adam was in and by default we men are in as well and so Paul says he doesn't allow women to teach her after she has authority and he connects it with the issue of Adam being first created it's called primogeniture and so this is critical and why is it critical because the church needs strong men not brutes but strong men who stand up for the truth and masculinity is under heavy attack and so because they're not doing their job women are stepping up to do their job of men. We see this in transgenderism and we see it in trans-pastorism because the women are now taking the place of men thinking that they can do that same thing and it's false they can't they're not supposed to do that and like I said I'll offer this again I've been doing this for 20 years on radio that anybody wants to debate me on it officially at your church fly out and it has to be on your church ground whatever or you can fly out here and do it here I'll find a church and we'll debate it formally it's got to be recorded and we'll go through it. I've not had a single offer a single person take me up on that offer in years and years and years I've been offering this over the radio so nevertheless and here's another point is that in my research that 80% of churches and denominations that adopt women pastors within two generations start supporting homosexuality 80% I've done the research and updated in a few years but that's what I found I went to different websites I looked at their views or their denominational websites I looked at their doctrinal statements and their history for denominations and when they started adopting homosexuality and you know I did my research it took me weeks to find this out so that's that so here's another problem that is existing in some churches and it's not heard about I've heard it very often it's unbelievers leading in worship I knew of a church in San Diego where an unbeliever was being paid to play a musical instrument in the worship band because they considered it a form of ministry to that that guy and I just said that that's sinful you have an unbeliever helping to lead in the worship the true living God and you're paying him cash for that I said that's horrible his position is not to be in worship of God he doesn't even know God it's a blasphemy it's a it's a mockery I was really upset about that but that's another thing so no unbelievers being paid or participating in the leading of worship of the true and living God so another issue here is requiring baptism for salvation or being baptized in order to have your sins forgiven and that is heresy we are justified by faith alone in Christ alone and I could talk quite a bit about baptism a church that teaches full preterism is a problem full preterism says that Jesus returned in roughly 70 AD just forget that that's bad and usually associated with that is some form of legalism then universalism everyone's going to be saved if they teach that get away if they teach annihilationism that when you don't when you die you see stop existing or you go into a state of soul sleep there are deleterious ramifications theologically to that and I can get into those or some other type hey we got a break coming up and I got a few more to go through and talk about so if you want to hold on folks we'll be right back after these messages please stay tuned. Welcome back to the show if you want to give me a call 877-207-2276 all right let's get back on the air with Joseph are you still there I'm still here all right all right so you want me to keep going and comment through some of these so yeah I definitely want you to I just want to make sure I got the right article is it the one that says what churches do karm recommend no it's what things should we look for in a church I wrote it in May of 2010 so things should we look for in a church and I've got let's see 14 things listed there that need to watch out for in bad churches universalism annihilationism legalism which is the excessive application of the law of God to the Christian life so that person feels guilty all the time and needs to go to the church for forgiveness or authority also the heresy of positive confession is taught by such false teachers as Kenneth Copeland Joyce Meyer things like that and moralism is preaching morality for the sake of morality instead of for the sake of Christ and his crucifixion there's all kinds of stuff then I remember I went to one church and I never would have thought of this as possible in a church but it was in that a church I noticed after a while it focused on itself the staff was focusing on itself our church this church this one this one this one and it really bothered me after a while and then of course if they teach anything like wokeness you know critical race theory socialism lgbtq the alphabet mob you know they promote this kind of idiocy to stay away from I probably should expand this thing I wrote it 13 years ago yeah well like I said I love the church you found for me but I do have people I want to be able to say you know you need to go back to church and say look for when finding a church for yourself you know sure one of the things I recommend people do is go to a website the church website and just see the two things I look at are the staff the staff is what I go to first I don't know why but I just do if they have women pastors and elders I know they're bad and then I go to the if they don't have them then I go to the statement of faith which takes more time to go through and I'll look for that and then I look for a third thing I'll do is look for related websites or recommended books or any other websites to see they what they promote and that that's also been very helpful okay all right all right there fantastic thanks again as always I appreciate your brother and you have a great rest your day and a great weekend ahead you too man appreciate it all right God bless all right God bless okay all right that was Joseph and let's get to Dionne from Salt Lake City hey Dionne welcome you're on the air hi Matt I've got a question it's not earth-shattering it's not gonna make or break anything but I'm trying to memorize Psalm 23 there's a sentence in there you prepare a table before me mm-hmm what what what kind of picture are they trying to paint there you prepare a table because in the presence of my enemies so the table was a place of fellowship and intimacy so let's put a cultural context on what it meant by the table so so here we go so imagine a table about well you have to lay down on the ground and there's cushions everywhere the table is maybe six eight ten inches high and or sometimes there is no literal table like we would think of a wood table but sometimes it would just be a an area that where the food was put and it might be up on a couple pillows or might be down the ground and it was kind of common to do that now sometimes though they did often you know sit and eat as well at a regular table that we understand but think about this issue of the real way they would kind of eat because they didn't have all this money for all kinds of furniture the average Joe would eat their food around on the ground and it's not bad it's just on the ground like when you're camping you know and you cross your legs just sit down and everyone's eating you know around the campfire whatever okay so imagine this a table spread like that and imagine that they had sometimes something constructed for that purpose and what they would do is have pillows cushions and blankets around that table and you would lean on your left elbow and eat with your right hand and your feet would be away from the table and so on this table they had a dish that usually was full of a stew kind of a thing and they had bread and they would the bread was like the fork and the spoon and the knife except what they would do is take this bread usually flat and they would tear a piece off so think of something kind of like a pizza crust that was not you know solid but more you pull it apart a little bit more doughy and so they do that it would then scoop use it as a scoop to get into the sop into the stew and it would create an inner bowl they would still create a sop sop what they would eat using that bread so this is the kind of thing all right so this is a place of intimacy and as well as vulnerability it means provision it means safety it means fellowship I prepare a table before me you prepare that in the presence of my enemies that even in the midst of the enemies God will provide for you and he will provide a place for you to have rest and nourishment with others and this is what's going on in that kind of a context that's a nice picture so I yeah okay okay and notice what it says you've anointed my head with oil that's the next thing so remember in Luke 7 when the Pharisee asked Jesus to come into his house and eat with them one of the complaints Jesus had was you didn't anoint my head with oil because it was a custom and maybe after the call I'll go through that parable and explain it a lot of what's going on there but uh it's just part see part of the anointing my head with oil is an anointing because their hair would get greasy and get dirty and you didn't have running water like we do and showers and stuff so they would often get a little ripe and they'd be walking on the same paths that a lot of times animals would walk on and so there'd be feces so I'm not saying they're all filthy and everything it's just that a little more than that because the next one it says my cup run overflows yep so with part of the process of eating we still anoint to an extent you know yeah but this is mainly a cultural thing because when you'd come over to someone's house to eat with them one of the customs was for them to anoint your head with oil take a little bit of oil just put it on your head and that's all it's just well sometimes but uh the servant's job was to wash the feet and so anyways he says my cup overflows well they would often have wine a very diluted kind of wine because water could go bad so if you didn't have a well or a place of stream of live water they would often use uh diluted wine okay there we go there's a break here you're welcome all right god bless hey folks we have wide open lines why don't you give me a call 877-207-2276 we'll be right back it's Matt Slick live taking your calls at 877-207-2276 here's Matt Slick everybody welcome back to the show if you want to give me a call all you got to do is dial 877-207-2276 I want to say thanks to Deli Fry for the ten dollar rant in and the rumble really appreciate that every bit helps we just don't want to say thank you very much I really do appreciate that all right we have nobody waiting but if you want to give me a call just dial 877-207-2276 all right and uh let's see let's see you know I was thinking about doing this um is doing some uh hate mail I'm gonna resurrect some hate mail because I've kept some for a while and you know I I've gone over some hate mail 15-20 years ago I'm gonna go for some so I don't know how old some of this stuff is but check this out uh I love this hate mail and this is you know good hate mail just doesn't get old okay I'm already smiling as a THD graduate of Oxford University and recently binge watching dozens upon dozens of Matt Slick's debates one worse than the next this is man I'm cracking up you know I guess there's something really interesting one is worse than the next which means that of the dozens that he's he's watched somehow they were actually arranged from good to worst all the way through now how did that happen each one was worse than the next which means that as you go backward they were getting better but that means there has to be a sequence I want to know how this guy found out that you know either one was worse than the next I don't know anyway if they were in my power I'd have him arrested wow for impersonating a person in our Lord Jesus Christ hmm man I sincerely hope you this reaches you your arrogance and ignorance of the bibbles of the Bible oops of the Bible's historicity is only surpassed by your sheer vandalism of God's word that is awesome then I know it is so good the sheer vandalism of God's work that's awesome so uh well she doesn't doesn't tell me how I vandalize God's word apparently maybe I said something he doesn't like maybe he just got uppity about something because it's the liberal place he came from I don't know yeah I don't know what it is anyway he goes on however as much as I'd like to assign you a 1000 battle batting average on being wrong on everything that can be wrong whilst being a complete and utter waste of time and space this is so good man oh like I said Kent Hovind broke your streak wow man he's a great guy when it comes to creationism and evolution and stuff but I debated him on Reformed theology it did not go well for him he didn't know the topic very well I'm not knocking the guy he just was out of his league on this area he hadn't studied up on it enough there's a lot he didn't know and that's just what it is I don't know all the stuff that he knows about evolution doesn't mean better or not better or not worse or whatever just it's just what it was so uh so I guess I guess he likes Kent Hovind's stuff and since the topic was on Reformed theology I'm assuming he hates Reformed theology that's what I'm going to conclude he says congratulations oh he's worse than you wow so I guess Kent Hovind's worse he's got to read all this stuff it's good stuff do us all a favor shut up you're scaring more people away from the body of Christ than you're attracting Dr Steve blah blah blah okay so uh wow I wish that guy would calm me up and debate me on this stuff I'd love to do that but a thd you know theological doctorate there oh I enjoyed that that was fun I enjoyed it uh you know I needed that kind of respite so there you go all right let's get to uh look at Jason from Arizona Jason welcome you're on the air hey Matt um since uh faith is a gift and this gift is not given unto all men for all men have not faith to Thessalonians 3 2 and faith is granted to the elect thus it is called the faith of God's elect yes and it's been granted unto us to believe this so powerfully is showing me election and vessels of mercy versus vessels of wrath because this gift is not granted unto all men your thoughts correct you're exactly correct and flippage 129 says that God is granted that we believe and has granted is the heirs passive indicative which means his past tense and we receive the action God does this to us he grants that we have faith and john 6 29 says that that faith that God grants to us is in Christ Jesus says this is the work of God that you believe on him on whom he is in him on whom he is sent and then also acts 13 48 says that as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed and we know that the ones appointed to eternal life the Greek word there is tassel and it means to set in order the way military generals would set ranks of individuals in order put in places and that's the word that's used God is the one who's in control God is the one who is the king and if you go to Ephesians chapter 1 starting in verse 4 just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world and I can go into that theology that's there in federal headship representation inter-trinitarian communion eternal covenant the redemptive work eternal sonship it's all tied up in there and so you're right it's all it's all right there matt about two nights ago I really saw this in a deep way for the first time in my life that it's not faith is not granted unto all men it's to God's elect and I got on my knees and I started weeping because I was almost trembling realizing that I was understanding this depth of of Romans 9 in a way I've never seen before if God had not granted me to believe and given me this gift I would have been damned Mark 16 16 he that believeth not shall be damned and I tell you what no one at a deep level until they understand this because it has taken my breath away almost in a trembling way to realize this gift of faith upon Jesus is not granted unto all men and it's very sobering to me and I'm just I'm just in awe matt I don't know what to say but thank you I agree with you and when I had the same revelation after studying God's word it was frightening what if God had not chosen me there's a saying I heard from years ago from some pastor I'm glad that God predestined me from the foundation of the world because if you look at me now he wouldn't pick me and I love that because it confesses to our God our ignorance and we don't have all the answers but I like to tell people that well the more we preach apparently the more people are elected I don't know how all that works but I do know that the preaching of the word of God the proclamation of the revelation of Christ is the means by which God brings his elect into the world and I'm not going to get into this monistic ideology which I believe is false but God has his ways and as I say to people our jobs in not in production it's in sales we're to preach that gospel but you're right well in closing matt in closing matt I just want to say that provision ism and Arminian ism is utterly destroyed forever I will never ever give any shred of truth to that doctrine ever again you know I don't talk like this very often but you're right Arminian ism doesn't work Arminian ism ultimately is heretical it's not damnable but it's man centered and it puts too much in the lap of humans of people and their sinfulness and what you've discovered and what I discovered and others have discovered is the incredible sovereignty of God and it should humble us and terrify us and comfort us and that's just what it is you know what's so powerful matt is it did all three for me when I got this two days ago I was both trembling crying and yet in a weird way still very joyful the combination of emotions I've never experienced before but it's just like worship is going to go to a whole nother level it ain't just singing a tune it's realizing he utterly saved me and there is no provision ism so provision ism is the teaching the idea that God provided a way for every individual it's up to the individuals to make their choices and yes sir thank you for your work well you're welcome and I am tickled that you've seen the truth of what God's sovereignty really is in scripture most people reject it and I can tell you right now there are hundreds of people listening right now who are rejecting what you and I both affirm because they say that's not how God works but it is all right indeed indeed thank you all right man god bless all right hey folks if you want to give me a call all you got to do is dial 877-207-2276 we'll be right back it's matt slick live taking your calls at 877-207-2276 here's matt slick all right and welcome back to the show if you want to give me a call 877-207-2276 john from raleigh north carolina welcome you're on the air hello hello so phone tag oh this is one minute john john man you know you and i have been playing phone tag i don't think i played phone tag with so much with one person so much as you lately that's what it is but yeah the past nobody was going to have go ahead yep i was going to say i i got in the car and i saw that you were doing a wonderful email which you know in the beginning i could send you one it was probably talking to a catholic and i was like how could and i was doing discipleship at this time so this is like a long time ago um and i'm like who's this guy telling people uh that you know they're radical or or whatnot you know the person's a temple onto themselves and you know i have my truth you have your truth you can modify my truth i can modify your truth or we can reject it and uh you've changed me to to be more uh well definitely on the reform side of things so i appreciate that and then that goes with the last caller you know and you and him having such an epiphany but for me you know from the beginning i was just always a child of christ and i i don't want to say i'm envious of of that kind of a of a revelation that you've had um but sometimes you know you just get that feeling uh well am i just playing along the waves or or whatnot but and you've helped along the way on that too uh people have to have their way to get the path yeah you know i've had a lot of people over the years tell me the basics same thing you know they've heard me and they say no way it's not true and then after a while they go but it is that's what it says and i don't take credit for that it's just just what it says you know and so for some people it's revelatory and for others they continue to resist and as the scripture says to kick against the goats and uh they don't want the sovereignty of god they want their own and and that's just what it is you know yeah well in my case i mean it was that i wasn't you know i was just always you know i guess would be a trial of god i didn't i don't know how to put it um you know the reading scripture and the bible have helped me understand that i mean you know being an engineer um i like the mechanics of it and and how it all fits and frankly i don't see how people don't see it but then again you know that's what he said you know i talk in parables uh for that reason um but the the moralist step that i love is how you know christ is from you know pretty much uh genesis one one all the way through and he appears and and it's to me it's just it's obvious i don't see you know even how jews don't get it this time uh you know in this time although you know all the crap that the crusades have done and the prosecutions and whatnot that does not go well with us but we're not necessarily them uh but i guess there's reasons to that as well well yeah yeah there is um but uh before i forget we need to talk tonight so can i believe or not i got a break after the radio show up in about 40 minutes so yeah okay perfect i will uh give you a ring when i'm i'm ready 40 50 minutes yeah at bottom of the hour and uh because after after the radio show we do a lot of people don't know this but we do an aftershow every day after should we talk for a half hour and people uh you know join in and we just talk and go through some more stuff and issues and it's a lot of fun so if people are interested they can do that you know they can join in but yeah okay okay i'll uh give you a ring okay thank you all right see you then okay bye bye okay all right well let's see um we dropped him and we have nobody waiting if you want to give me a call eight seven seven two zero seven two two uh seven six and we have nobody waiting so i think i'm going to jump back into some hate mail i like hate mail hate mail is fun all right here's another one uh oh for those of you if you're new you understand something that uh i'm a little off and uh for some reason i get a total kick out of um out of hate mail i love hate mail i love when i just do i'm cracking up already i love how they uh they insult me so here's an example let's see um let's see we get to that right there because there's an update just started on something so make sure doesn't lose this matt slick you're completely wrong and you completely make actual christians look bad and you do more more driving a wedge between people and christianity than bringing people to true religion i've heard a lot of your work and you can do nothing but boast and berate your opponent i think i've read this one a couple weeks ago maybe it's just similar stuff as people say i don't know that's not what you just taught us to do uh well actually he kind of did uh he did let's move on to the next one because i i recognizing it is uh it is a um uh oh boy look at that oh this is not good timing it just did an update so now i got to go through and do this oh man oh man hey if you want to give me a call all you got to do is dial 877-207-2276 and um so the rest of this email let me read the rest of this says your calvinissi view has warped your mind on jesus teaching and it is ashamed more and more christian influencers are becoming just like you driving people from god now why how do you know that drives people from god what makes you think that's what does that you know that's one of those things i get i don't like about some of these emails is people will will uh they'll contact me and they complain but they don't tell me what the problem is they don't say what it is and that's a problem they they said they shouldn't do that they should tell me what the issue is i wish they would you know you are specifically wrong because well okay thank you very much i appreciate that but they don't even want to do that oh you know i'm just whining about it but i wish they would i wish they would um let me know because i want to be able to comment about them it's kind of a cheap shot you know people will do that and um let's see here we go so uh if you want to give me a call 877-207-2276 i want to let you know that we do stay on the air by your support please consider supporting us we do need uh you know that that support uh we have uh we have um a lot of needs we like today i had to pay for the you know the missionaries that we have over the world that we're supporting and they do work in the respective languages and that's something we're supporting and if you like what we do what happens here on on um on the radio then you know praise god all you got to do is if you want if you want to support all you got to do is just go to a karm.org right karm.org and um forward slash donate that's what you got to do and you can help out that way all right all right all right all right oh man so uh yeah my computer did an update on something i'm trying to open up a certain file so i can get back into some more of the hate mail let's see if we got and there's nothing right there all my hate mail just disappeared all my hate this is not good i love hate mail there's an update on something and it all disappeared maybe it'll download later maybe we'll find out and look all the love mail's gone oh my goodness look at that looks like everything's gone wow man well we'll find out what happens hey if you want to give me a call 877-207-2276 let's get to michael from north carolina michael welcome you're on the air hi um i was going to ask if you are you know willing to uh speak on the topic of like church as they merge like if we have like a small church and a big church and they merge and you're um if we're in like a year of like the of the remnant of the church small church i'm sorry it joins a large church what was that about it what was just just the general topic of when churches have to go through a merge and and they become like a new church or they yeah they uh they come together for a new a new purpose because yeah a certain church is tiny and another church you know and they have needs and that kind of thing you know sometimes that's a good thing to do you know i've heard of that happening where the pastor gets old and there's no one really to fit in maybe they don't have enough money to support a pastor a new pastor and then because one thing or another people can move away from an area and there can be all kinds of factors that can cause a church to become a smaller and sometimes they just join with another church and like the smaller church's pastor it will sometimes move on board into the larger person the church's pastor and that's fine as long as the motives are are good and there's lots of good reasons for it you know and so it's not a problem theologically it's not a problem to occur to happen okay is there is there a certain um scripture that comes to mind that that could encourage the church you mean a small to a large or just the body of christ overall because we are to be the body of christ in their in their function well you know i was teaching on romans 11 1 through 12 was it last night 13 14 15 and um one of the things that was there that i found encouragement in was uh was how god keeps a remnant for himself paul was talking about how israel had missed the messiah and then he quotes elijah who said that he alone is the one who is left and god says no i kept seven thousand for myself and i find that to be encouraging god is the one who's sovereign god's the one in control he opens the hearts of people he keeps them and sometimes in church merges or not or whatever that we need to be encouraged that god knows what he's doing and he's working through all kinds of our difficulties literally it just all kind of difficulties he works through them and he is sovereign through them and that we are to trust him through it i find encouragement in that kind of romans 11 that's right i was teaching last night i appreciate that i'll mark that and i'll i'll i'll be happy to meditate on that i appreciate your your your words um i'm i'm also praying about that topic on the year of the remnant and are we in a year of of heading toward a remnant and what does that kind of look like as well yeah yeah well in fact uh the israel not cast away out of romans 11 one through four um and but god see the first verse is god has not rejected his people as he and he you know he goes on and he talks about a remnant the remnant of the jews and the remnant of the gentiles those god keeps for himself okay and we're out of time but it's worth discussing more very encouraging i i i i appreciate you okay all right brother well god bless call back on monday okay we gotta go hey folks we're out of here may the lord bless you have a great weekend we'll talk to you on monday god bless another program powered by the truth network