 Talk to a pragmatist about methodologies like this. When you say to the pragmatist, hold on, let's open our Bibles and try to determine whether or not this fits within the context and confines of what God says about evangelism. The response is usually, why are you trying to put God in a box? The importance of careful Biblical interpretation couldn't be overstated. It's impossible to overstate it. Misinterpreting the Bible, listen, is essentially no better than not believing it. Because everybody knows if you really want to love God, you got to be ignorant. The United Negro College Fund has a motto, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Modern American Christianity has a different take on that. We just believe a mind is a terrible thing. I told you all that I came from a charismatic Pentecostal background and there are a lot of things that I believed that I now no longer believe. But in kind of dealing with that, in making that transition, it was hard. And there was a reason why it was hard and the reason why it was hard is the reason why we have a lot of the same problems that we have in the church today. We've got a lot of issues in the church, a lot. And trying to figure out what's the most dangerous thing happening, what's the most problematic thing in the church? Well, ultimately it's going to come down to one root cause. That is how we read the Bible. That is if we read the Bible. That is if we place any importance. There are some people who also kind of fit the same category on how we read the Bible that really don't place a lot of importance on the Bible. Because if you thought that the way you read the Bible mattered, then thinking that the Bible is important, the Word of God is important versus your experience, that would be nullified. The problem is you think of you think of whatever the problems are that plague the church. And when I say the church, it's hard to identify who the entire church is. We don't know who all the believers are. And so let's just put everybody in one bundle. Those that actually are Christian and those that profess to be Christians. But we can't tell. And those that we think aren't Christian, but actually are Christians. So the entire body, those that profess to be Christian. So that's what I'm speaking of. But even, even also the problem, not only plagues just those Christians who profess to be, but are not, the problem also plagues and bothers and hampers actual authentic, shown up as we say, born again Christians. This problem is how we read the Bible or the word is hermeneutics. For me, having to deal with some of the things that I just had problems with that I could not understand that I matter of fact, it was hard for me even to bring myself to understand those things. Why? Because how I read the Bible was the problem. I read the Bible and you hear this term a little later on, but I kind of spiritualize the problem. I mean, the Bible, I made my experiences and my thoughts, my feelings. I pushed those to the forefront of how I read the scriptures. However, we don't read anything else that way. Well, is the Bible a special book? Sure it is, but is it supposed to be read in a special way? No, it's not. Why? God doesn't think we're that special. God doesn't think we're that smart. God doesn't think that we are that intelligent or that smart to where we can read through any sort of hidden minutiae. We can't, we can't do that. We don't, we don't have that ability. So it gives it to us in a way that we can understand. God communicates to us in and with the rules of communications. In other words, when he speaks, he expects us to understand it. Just like when you and I speak to each other, we expect the person that we're speaking to to understand it. And so what we try to do is we try to speak in a way that the hearer can understand. And so the point is, I need to figure out what it is or what I intend to say, what I mean is important and how they understand it is important. Now how those on the periphery think about it isn't as important as the two people in the conversation are with me. You and I can have a conversation and third person can be listening in and don't understand the dynamics. We can be having some little cold words or some things that maybe they're not privy to or someone from a foreign country might be listening to two Americans speak and don't quite get the lingo or some of the idioms, the figures of speech that we might use. And now because of that, the Bible will also recognize and utilize figures of speech. The Bible I believe is to be interpreted, this is how I do so, in a literal grammatical historical fashion. Now I would say this, you need to figure out what your hermeneutic is. The question is, do you have a hermeneutic? Do you know what it is? The other question is, is it consistent? We'll get into hermeneutics in just a little bit but you need to understand something that is this, how you read the Bible matters. Now, we are all not going to come to the same conclusion even if we all have the exact same hermeneutics but it helps. I do so many good men have a differing view of a certain text of Scripture. And my initial answer to that is because none of us is perfect, all accuracy doesn't reside with any of us. Because we are prone to presuppositions because we may be ignorant of certain facts that have been outside our purview and our education. We could come to a wrong conclusion or we could just decide that we want something to mean a certain thing and read it in. Now, what we're going to find out is that even we, again, you and I can have the exact same hermeneutic but if you know my hermeneutic and we're going to talk about hermeneutic in a second but you'll at least be able to understand if I'm wrong, where I'm wrong, why I'm wrong and then how to kind of explain it. We can, we're on the same plane so to speak. Now, the question is, what is a hermeneutic? First, I'm going to give an example of what is not a hermeneutic. A hermeneutic is, it's a basic definition but this gentleman, this next gentleman, he gets it wrong and I'm gonna show you where his error comes in in just a second. Interpretation of Scripture, all right? Every Christian needs a basic class in hermeneutics. Hermeneutics by definition is the interpretation of Scripture or better yet the practice of the correct interpretation of Scripture. That actually is not the definition. A hermeneutic is the method that you employ in interpreting Scripture. Now, some folks might, their hermeneutic is more art than science. It needs to be more science. There are rules, there are structures to it. Are you with me? And there it needs to be some sort of consistency. Are you with me? Now, he's off to a bit of a shaky start in his explanation and he's gonna go off the rails and we're gonna pull him back in but remember it is the method that you employ, how you read the Bible. And I want you all to think about this for a second. As we're going, I want you all to be thinking, what is my hermeneutic, how do I read the Bible? How do I read a newspaper? It really should be the same because all I'm doing is I wanna take what the text says, then I will apply that. Now, application is not the same as interpretation, okay? The interpretation has to come first. Now, you're gonna hear this guy kind of mix it to. All right, and everybody needs to know basic hermeneutics which means that if you read a Scripture out of the Bible which is a text, please read the pretext and the posttext to put the text into context. Don't just take a Scripture out of the Bible and set up a denomination, a style of ministry or a thought without looking at pretext and posttext, hermeneutics. That part I can certainly agree. And we do have people, we do have groups that seem to do that, set up a denomination or a group or a perichurch or ministry based off of one particular passage or an obscure understanding of it. Not just that. You also need to know who said what was said and who were they were talking to. How was it a cultural implication back then and how would we apply it culturally to our life today? Now that you already said, he said, by the way, someone asked who was the speaker. I have no idea. I came across this and it's not really important who he is or the fact that he made a mistake. Did you already just say he said the cultural context then and how we apply it now? No, that's the problem. Trying to, if you look at the Scripture and think from the lens of someone in the 21st century, that's not how that goes. We are reading a 2,000 year old and in some cases older text and Eastern text. This is not a Western text. This is not from the lens of having technology and having the different creature comforts that we have in life and so forth. It was not written here in America. It was not written here in English. So therein lies the problem. That's the issue. And so he started off okay, a little bit shaky, but then putting in your view of how you see things culturally, because that's what it is. Because think about this. What if a person is homosexual? Then what is that person gonna wanna do? If they're gonna wanna read things culturally, their culture into the text, how to apply that. If how you apply that to your culture is how we should do interpretation whether then you're already wrong. Not only that, when you extract the Scripture, please look at the tone of the full context of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, what has been the tone of God throughout his entire word, okay? Let me give you an example. There's a Scripture in the Bible. Now that part is correct. You do wanna look at, there's an overall term. Every book has a context. There is a reason for the writing. For example, and we use this particular book a lot and so you ought to think about this as you read all of the chapters in this particular book. And that is 1 Corinthians. Paul is writing the letter to the church at Corinth with a specific idea in mind. He's communicating something. You can see it all woven through. It's this issue of unity and not having disunity. As a matter of fact, he starts off by saying that I want you all to be unified. I want you to speak the same thing. Not, we all believe that this color's the best color, the best, no. But in terms of doctrine, I want you guys to be on board. Not dividing yourself. I'm a Paul, I'm a Paulist. Then he also goes to, with the church. He deals with the marriage. He deals with concerning spiritual gifts. And so that's the theme that's woven into the book of 1 Corinthians. Now, are there some little sub-chapters? I mean, some sub-plots. I mean, sub-parts to that, that have their own little kind of nuances. Yes, but it's still under the overarching theme of unity. And that also fits in with the entire theme of the Bible. 1 Corinthians does not give something different that would contradict 2 Corinthians, or John, or Ezekiel, are you with me? So that part is correct. But now listen to how he applies it, and you're gonna see him add something culturally to it and he is going to just mess it up. Women keep silent in the church. You can come to a church with his entire word. Let me give you an example. There's a scripture in the Bible that says women keep silent in the church. You can come to a church like this and we have anointed women that are preaching, anointed women that are leading, and you can look at that and take one scripture out and say false doctrine, that's wrong, you're incorrect, I'm out of here. Now, I don't know who says that women can't be pastors off of one passage. There are multiple passages. And then you're gonna hear him. He gives a little basic understanding, even though it's flawed of hermeneutics, but even in this short little clip, he violates his definition and the rules that quick. But you don't even know basic hermeneutics. Basic hermeneutics says this, look through the entire context of how God used women, and all of a sudden you'll study somebody named Queen Esther, you look over a woman named Deborah, you look at judges, which were in leaders. Now, you see what he's doing? So now he's gonna take it. Every time a woman did something special, that means she ought to be leading. Well, first of all, Esther didn't lead. Deborah gave leadership, but at the point of fact, she was not the leader. And then we go back and look at Hebrews, the person who we thought she was leading, or it seems to be saying that she's leading, which is Barak. The book of Hebrews says that Barak was the one that was created with faith. Not that Deborah didn't have faith, that's not the point, but he's now building something off of because he sees these women doing something. The Bible, we know the Bible's not against women, but we're talking about in terms of leadership, one in the church, Esther was a queen. Esther was not a part of the church, are you with me? And so what's happening is he's bringing in, he's reading culture into his hermeneutics, or his extrapolation of the text. I don't know what the issue is going on with him and his household and his community, but that's not how we read the text. Leadership positions in the Old Testament, you'll go over to the New Testament and you'll see there was women deaconesses and women prophetesses. I'm sorry to keep stopping, but they wanna make some women out to be more than what they really were, Phoebe being a deaconess. Yes, she was a deaconess, but not in a sense of having a role in the body. We know what the qualifications of our deaconess, because Paul gives us the qualifications of a deacon. We know that women can prophesy in the sense that they're giving these, not the office of a prophet, but they can be prophets in the sense that they actually give a revelation of the Lord. They can do that, but can they have this position? No, they cannot. Paul is clear on that, because Herman Nukes is also gonna tell you that this passage is not gonna violate that passage. Are you with me? Even Aquila in Priscilla was a husband and wife ministry team that traveled and ministered with Paul, very similar to how Ken and Tabitha does ministry. The Bible says that a man and his wife are heirs together to the grace of life. Before the fall of man, there was no Adam and Eve. They were both called Adam. They were both speaking spirits, both. Now, yeah, they were both called Adam in the sense that they were all man, but Adam, but also in the sense that used as a proper term is used, Adam is used generically, but also Adam is used as a proper name for the man, Adam. We know that for a fact, but again, he's reading his culture into it. And there was headship even there. Immediately after the fall, since the two were equal, I would ask this young brother, who did God go to? Who did God call? He didn't call both of them. He called Adam the man and the man he spoke. Here I am, and God spoke to him specifically and then God arranges him, man to woman to even Satan. And he asked who first? Adam, and what does Adam do? Point to the woman. And so after that, what does God do? Pronounce the consequences of their actions Satan or the certain has his consequence. And then we're told prophetically, what God is going to do ultimately by the seed of woman crushing his head. Well, if they're all the same, then are we also gonna say the seed of man and woman? No, the seed of woman. Speaking of Jesus, she has her consequence for all women to follow in that she will strive after this man until when? Until it's all said and done on this planet. That part cannot be misstated, brother. Both been made in the image and likeness of God. And the Bible specifically says that there's neither male or female, but we're one in Christ Jesus. So we are equal in the eyes of God. Okay, and this is the part, this is the problem. First of all, we're not equal. We've never been equal in the eyes of God. We are in terms of salvation. Yeah, the Bible says there's neither Jew nor Greek in him. There's neither male nor female. However, does that mean that we don't have any more gender distinctions? I know the world will have us think so, but there's a XY chromosome makeup with me. My wife has XX. As a matter of fact, let me just say this. Again, going back to this issue of men and women not being equal, we are not equal. We are not equal. As a matter of fact, because what does the word equal mean? The same. The reason why I'm attracted to my wife, the reason why I have a wife is because we're not the same. That's what I love best about her, that we ain't the same. If we were the same, then guess what? We wouldn't be together. I am not attracted to a male. Have no, I don't, listen, I don't care how much makeup he puts on. I don't care what he does with his hair. I don't care what kind of high heels he wears. I have no affinity for him. Why? Cause he's the same as me. Dusty, rusty, crusty, and ashy. I do not have any desire for a male. We are not the same. Are you with me? And God is clear on that. That's why when he states the qualifications of an overseer, he states a male. So him, he is in just a span of two minutes violated the hermeneutics, which he purports that we all should know. Well, I would ask him to go back and sit under somebody to teach him. Now, John MacArthur gives a better definition of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the science of Bible interpretation. And I want you to identify it as a science because it is a science. That is, it operates under fixed rules. That's very important to establish. It is the crucial science behind all accurate doctrine, all sound doctrine that is faithful to the Word of God. Where you have a deviation from sound doctrine, inevitably you have a failure to stay by the science of hermeneutics. Or you have a flat out denial of the veracity and authenticity of the text itself. Now, here's the point. There are rules associated with how we read. C-A-T in English spells cat. It does not spell rock. The science of it tells us the C makes the CUT sound, the A makes the I sound, and I guess because English is kind of fudgy a little bit, but we know that it spells A and then the T makes the T sound. Well, we know that make the R sound or L sound. There are rules to English. There are rules of Spanish. There are rules to Greek, Hebrew. There's rules to Swahili. There's rules to Mandarin. And when God speaks to us and when the Word speaks to us, we are operating in the confines of those rules. God is not trying to fool us. Now, what we can do is we can either read the text and take what it says, or we can allegorize or spiritualize a text. In other words, we see a text and then we think to ourselves, huh, what does it really mean? It says this, but I wonder, does God really mean that? God, are you trying to pull a fast one on me? No, he's not. You know why? Because God does not think that highly of our intellect. I'm sorry to break someone's bubble, but he just doesn't. He doesn't think that you're that smart, which is why he speaks to us in a way that we can relate. And guess what he does? Also, all throughout scriptures, have you ever noticed that God, when he says something, he doesn't just say it once and he doesn't just say it one way. He typically is gonna say it different ways. Let me give you an example. How has God described salvation? Well, a couple of different ways. He's described as believing. He's described as being baptized. He's described as being disciples. He's described as being repentant. Guess what? You don't have. All of those are in essence the same. Why do I say that? Well, in order to be a believer, what first must happen? Your heart must be regenerated. Oh, by the way, born again. Your heart must be born again, regenerated. Then what do you do? You are instantly repentant. You are sorrowful for your sin. You have placed your faith in Christ. There's the believing part. And because of that, you are a disciple. You are following Him. The Bible knows of no Christian who is not a disciple. The Bible knows of no Christian who is not a believer. The Bible knows of no Christian has not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Paul says all of us have. The Bible knows of no such Christian who doesn't fulfill all of those things. The reason why he says these different ways, is sometimes we just don't get it this way. It's like a math teacher. A math teacher may give you a problem and say, you know, here's a formula to solve this problem. Here's another way. Here's another. You know what, use your fingers. Or here, use the paper. Here's another way of doing it. And so that's kind of how God has to deal with us. Why? Because we're just calling what it is. We are, we sometimes can be knuckleheads. And the problem is sometimes our own presuppositions get in the way. Let me give you an example before I go on. Really, really, really quick example. If I were to ask you a couple of questions, and we do this in the Bible study, which is gonna pick back up again, but we do this in the Bible study, I just wanna ask you a couple of questions. And I wanna see if your presuppositions or what you think I mean by the question comes up. For example, if I ask you how old is the earth? What we're going to do oftentimes is confuse the question with how old the earth is with how old creation is. Two different things. Now, the dates might be the same. The date of the earth and the date of creation might be for all intents and purposes, practically the same. But we know, according to Genesis, that the earth was formless and void. So what predated creation? The earth that was formless and void. Then he said, let there be light. How long did it take for him to say let there be light? I don't know. Could have been a year, could have been a thousand years, could have been a minute. And so the correct answer would be eliminating our presuppositions and divorcing what we wanna feel is that let's just go with what the text says. It's good to say, I don't know. It's good to say, and this is how you know you're growing and you have it, you're growing in a healthy fashion. I just don't know. The Bible, here's another one. When was Satan cast down to the earth? Don't know. We really don't know. Do I think, though, that he was cast down prior to the creation of man? I don't think so. And there's some reasons why. I look at every time he looks at creation, he says it is good. Is it possible that he could have cast Satan down and he wasn't in the garden? And still it's possible. I don't see that as keeping with him, but ultimately I've gotta say I don't know. Was he there on the seventh day? Was he cast down to earth on the 50th day? The first year, we just don't know. We can say, I think, because of this, but it's always good to say, you know what, I don't know. I'm not totally sure. I think this, but that's because it helps you to eliminate what grandma told you, what your favorite church pastor told you, whatever credo confession you may have, what it says, it helps to say, you know what, I'm not sure, but I'll keep investigating. Let's guess what? God has not told us everything that we want to know. He just has not. Here's another one. Did Eve lie? Well, wait a second. And we're going to this passage, as a matter of fact, in just a little bit, but Adam is told of the tree in the midst of the garden, you should not eat of it. When Eve is confronted by Satan, she says you should not eat of it, nor shall you touch it. Now, watch how our own cultural or our own personal view creeps in the text. Many people have stated Eve lied there because God didn't say that to her. Why do we say that? Well, because we have written what God said to Adam, that's true. Is it possible that both of those statements can be true? Yes, it is. Here's why both of them are true. Here's one big reason the Bible didn't say that she lied. That's the biggest reason the Bible never said she lied, but she added something. Well, guess what? The difference between first and second, I mean, the first chapter and second chapter of Genesis is that God added some more detail in the second chapter. Are you with me? But did God like? No, it's the exact same account. He's just adding more detail. Eve in speaking to the serpent adds more detail. And oh, by the way, who's telling the story? Well, Moses is telling the story, but Moses wasn't there. Who told Moses God did? Did God indicate that Eve lied? No. By the way, when did sin come about? When was the first recounted sin? When they ate of the fruit. So are we saying that the first sin was actually a lie? Then she compounded a lie by disobeying God and eating the fruit? No. She said what God said. She was not a liar then, but because we think what we lie, people lie, she added that. No. So what happens? The Bible does not tell us that. And so where the Bible is silent will be silent. Are you with me? So now, if we are going to stick with sound hermeneutics, and again, a hermeneutic is your method of interpretation, I suggest that your method be consistent. Now, again, mine, I've said mine is a literal, grammatical, historical hermeneutic, meaning that I take into account, I read things literally. Until it says not to. And people think that when I say read it literally, that that didn't open up or give the opportunity for idioms and for figures of speech and metaphors and similes. Yes, it does. I understand how speech works, but I'm gonna read it literally or take it literally until I've got a reason not to. For example, if I say it is hot outside, it's burning up. Well, you're gonna take what I just said literally, I didn't give you a temperature, but when I said burning up, you all didn't think that the world was on fire burning up, did you? You understood that I was using an idiom or I was using a figure of speech. And so we get that in language. So I'm gonna read it literally, grammatically, meaning I'm gonna also factor in the languages. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Why? That's important because sometimes you all heard the statement before and it's true. Sometimes there's something that might be lost in translation. The full effect might not be felt, the brunt of it, which is why Paul tells Timothy to commit this pastorate, this leading to faithful men, those that are gonna study the scriptures and to be able to rightly divide it, to equip the people. And so sometimes, guys, this is what the word is saying, but you also should be to the point where if someone says something, I don't care how razzling and dazzling it sounds, but you also go back and verify and check like the people in Berea did with Paul. And then historical, I'm looking at the historical lens of what's unfolding. That's what we have called progressive revelation. What God said in Genesis 3.15 was not known how it was gonna fold out to all three of the people there, to Adam, Eve, nor Satan. Even if all we had was just Genesis, we had no idea what God is gonna do. Even if we're just reading up to Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 20, Exodus 20, we don't know what God is gonna do, but because we have, actually, for us we have hindsight, we've got the actual end of the book at our disposal. They didn't, but God is revealing himself as he goes and we see how things are kind of unfolding. And so that's why for that reason, I would tell people that if you wanna read the Bible and you wanna get a good understanding, don't start with the Gospels, especially if you're already a believer. Start in the beginning. There's a reason why the beginning is in the beginning. There's a reason why we have Genesis. God is laying out one who he is. We need to see how he is, how he conducts himself and how he interacts with his creation. And we also see that God is not a God who is one that we're gonna play with that we're not going to believe when God says something, he means it. And there's punishment for disobeying and there's blessings for obeying. But then we're also gonna see how human beings react and respond that we are not trustworthy. Are you with me? So that being stated, when you have bad hermeneutics, faulty hermeneutics, you are subject to go this way or that way. There are even people who have not the best or consistent hermeneutics that still end up in the right place because they just so happen to have trusted a sound teacher to tell them. But when they read it like, this doesn't make a sense, but they're listening and they trust a pastor. God bless them for having a good pastor, a good teacher, but you should learn it for yourself. That's why a pastor should be, as one of the qualifications says, he must be able to teach. Why? He's not teaching just so people can just hear it and know he's teaching them so they can learn it for themselves. That's the point of teaching. Are you with me? And so the hardest problem was having to teach people who, especially in those days, could you imagine being an apostle to the Jews? Hard-headed people who were stiff-necked and immersed in their tradition, specifically the law, that was difficult. And then even having to be an apostle or teach the Gentiles who are coming from all sorts of pagan beliefs, at least with the Jews, they had a unified way of thinking. But that being the case, one of the biggest problems that we see, we see a lot of problems coming from, I'm sorry guys, that bothers you, but in many cases from Pentecostal charismatic group. They are brothers and sisters in the Lord, just like those who are not Pentecostal and charismatic are brothers and sisters in the Lord. And there's a lot of us who have varying beliefs and so forth. But one thing that we know, I know this for a fact because I was in it, is that doctrine, hermeneutics, these words, they don't get baddened about a lot there. Exegesis and so forth, we don't hear that a lot there. And I wanna play a clip, this is him, this is MacArthur speaking about, about a man by the name of Gordon Phee. I don't know if any of you all have heard of Gordon Phee before. He is Pentecostal himself. But listen to what Gordon Phee himself says about Pentecostals. Big said that, let me hasten to say this. Pentecostals and charismatics do not operate on sound hermeneutics. They do not. Poor principles of hermeneutics show up in this movement everywhere as they do in other movements. Let me quote from a very astute writer by the name of Gordon Phee. Gordon Phee is a seminary professor with a terminal degree. He's a very brilliant man. And interestingly enough, Gordon Phee is a Pentecostal. And listen to what he says about the Pentecostals and charismatics with regard to Bible interpretation. I quote, Pentecostals in spite of some of their excesses are frequently praised for recapturing for the church her joyful radiance, missionary enthusiasm and life in the spirit. And that I give them credit for. You have, let's be clear guys. There are some people who are so antithetical to the Pentecostal and charismatic brethren of ours that they go so far that it's like there is no, there's so much rigidity in them. They are almost cold, almost lifeless. We can't sing a song if it isn't from the 1700s hymns. We can't, we've got to, the choir must have robes. There's gotta be a pipe organ because obviously that's what they had in heaven. Obviously when the first church was founded they had a pipe organ, no drums, no guitar. So rigid, but at least we'll say they are at least wanting to experience God. Now, the way you do it needs to be in line with the scriptures. Let me also answer this question someone says, so what exactly is being exposed here in this video? What's being exposed is the biggest problem in the church. The biggest problem in the church is how we read the Bible. If we have a bad hermeneutics then guess what, we are subject to all sorts of problem. That's the issue with the church. We don't read the Bible like we should. We spiritualize, we allegorize, we do all these different things except read it for what it's supposed to take. And not just charismatic and Pentecostal folks, we get to those who are non charismatic, those who are non Pentecostal, how they read the Bible sometimes and it can also be a little bit of a problem but let's go back to him reading from Gordon Fee. But they are at the same time noted for bad hermeneutics. First, their attitude toward scripture regularly has included a general disregard for scientific exegesis and carefully thought out hermeneutics. In fact, hermeneutics has simply not been a Pentecostal thing. Scripture is the Word of God and is to be obeyed. In place of scientific hermeneutics, they're developed a kind of pragmatic hermeneutics. Obey what is taken literally because it's obvious, spiritualize, allegorize or devotionalize the rest. And then he says, secondly, it is probably fair and important to note that in general, the Pentecostal's experience has preceded their hermeneutics. In a sense, the Pentecostal tends to exegete his experience. Now thinking about that, and I listen, being one formally, you do tend to exegete your experience. What does he mean by that? Exegesis means to draw out or exes is out of and we're drawing out of the text or drawing out what was saying, pulling out what was saying, but what they tend to do is, and I've done it myself, pull out of my own experience, I know what I felt. I know, are you trying to tell me what I've experienced? And then what ends up happening is because we wanna justify our experiences and even though it might not be in the Bible, tell me have you heard this before? When we confront someone or you confront someone or someone that's confronted for saying something, acting in a way or believing in a way that's not in the book because the book is our guide. When you confront someone, what do they say? We can't put God in a box. We shouldn't put God in a box. You've heard them before, right? People have made decisions, do you know how many? And when you talk to a pragmatist about methodologies like this, when you say to the pragmatist, hold on. Let's open our Bibles and try to determine whether or not this fits within the context and confines of what God says about evangelism. The response is usually, why are you trying to put God in a box? As though God, we can't limit God, that part we know, but God can limit himself, meaning that God can say, I'm not gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. If God says that I'm not going to do this, then what won't God do? This, the very thing that he said he won't do. If God says I'm going to do this, then what is God gonna do? The this, the very thing that he said he's going to do. We don't limit God, but God can limit himself. God can determine what he wants to do, how he wants to do it. And if he's determined it, and then here's the important part, if he's made it known what he has determined to do, well, then we can bank on that. If God has said, this is gonna happen, there ain't a devil in hell, or a pragmatist, or an unbiblical exegete that can determine or cause us or cause God to go in the opposite direction. We're reaching people. Are you actually arguing against our methodologies that are reaching people? Now, how many of you heard that? That there are people, I get it all the time. You mean to tell me that you're saying this against that particular person's ministry or what this person said? Yet, people are coming to Christ. People are, there's miracles. There's deliverance happening. First of all, we don't know that. We simply don't know that. Now, what I do know is this, that God doesn't need you or any of us to reinvent how he wants things to be done. How many of you all had parents? You all had parents. We don't get here without parents. Now, I don't know if you respected your parents or you had good parents, but my parents, both of them, or I should say the way I said it, both of them would have F. Both of them told me to do stuff. My father would tell me to do it and expect me to remember it. My mother would write it down. Can I ask you guys a question? When your mother told you to do something. I just wanna know, maybe it's just me morning, so I thank you for the sticker. When my mother or when your mother, especially your mother, mothers do this more than fathers. But when your mother told you to do something, let's say, because this is back in the day. Some of you guys in your 20s and 30s, you don't know this, but it used to be back in the day, I was five years old, I could walk to the store. My mother used to smoke. I could walk to the store and get her some cigarettes. I could walk to, you can't do that now. You're not sending your five year old to the store on their own, but I could walk to the store. We came home from school and my older brother was the one in charge, even though he was a knucklehead. I couldn't say that, he's my brother. But when we came home, mama told us she had some stuff for us to do. Well, can I ask you all a question? Did your mama leave some instructions for you when you got home? And if so, where did she leave those instructions? I'm just wondering, is it just me? But I wanna know, did your mother leave the instructions for you in the same place that she left it for me? Now for me, one place without fail that she knew that we were gonna look. The fridge. The fridge. She put it, she put it on the refrigerator and you know what you couldn't say? You know what you couldn't say? You could not come back and say, I didn't see it. I didn't know. All right, I'll tell you what. When this belt hits your behind, you'll know now, mama forgot. You'll remember next time. And so what I could not do is if she told me, or if my, especially my father told me to do it this way. And I came back and said, I thought, I think, okay, you won't think again. We do that with God. God doesn't need you to tell him the best way to bring people to him. No, as a matter of fact, we've got a gentleman in the Bible. His name was Simon. He was a sorcerer. He was so enamored with the move of the spirit that he wanted it. He wanted to buy it. He wanted to buy it. Now he looked like a Christian. No, Peter tells him, now listen, get yourself right. And as I can even pray that God will forgive you. What you need to do is stop trying to think for God. God doesn't need some new fangled way for you to, God didn't, we're not gonna put God in the box. We don't need you to tell God to come out of the box. We don't need anyone telling God what to do, how to save, or how he's gonna move. God has told us what he's gonna do and he'll do the fitting around here, not us. Do you know how many people have made decisions? Do you know how many people have been baptized? And you're arguing against our methodology? And oftentimes because these methodologies are so successful. And if you're listening right now and not watching me, there's air quotes. People tend to top their success, even in religions or groups that we know are not biblical. They top their success in Islam, the nation of Islam, Hebrew Israelites, Jehovah's Witnesses can top some success in terms of numbers. Mormons can do the same thing. You name the cult that can't top success in terms of number. And they'll come back and say, well, people have been delivered and set free. Okay, but does it look like the way God said so? Is that pattern laid out in the Bible? And so your success might not be success. It may look like it, but again, we'll find out. And oftentimes they're far more successful than other more conventional methods. And so here's one rebuttal that I've heard. Well, I'll tell you what. I'll take our way of reaching people with more than one hundred thousand people and I'll take over your way of not reaching people every day. Oftentimes there- There is an assumption that if their numbers are greater than theirs is better. I want you all to let that sink in because you hear this often. I wanna play this again, but I want you all to think about this. Are more successful than other more conventional methods. And so here's one rebuttal that I've heard. Over your way of not reaching people every day. And the comparison of the thought is that because you see people jumping and screaming and shouting and running around and falling out that every last one of those people are saved, that every last one of those people have a relation with Christ, that every last one of those people are someone that's added to the kingdom and grown to the kingdom. And let's say at a, because it's gonna be this way, that at a church with sound doctrine, you're gonna have less people without question. Even on YouTube, a channel with sound doctrine is gonna have far less people than a church, than a channel with unsound doctrine. That's the way it is. That's the way it is. That's the way it's gonna be. But then I promise you, you compare the lives of the people with sound doctrine. A lot steadier. Now, is this anecdotal? Sure it is. But I'm speaking because I know a lot of people who are charismatic Pentecostal and the folks who are not. And just to go around and see them. Again, let me just, let me give you something that we all can agree with. And I wish one of them would approach me to make the point, the counterpoint. Again, those of us, and by show of hands, by show of hands, I just, I need to know. How many of you all can appreciate sound doctrine? I can. And how many of you all who appreciate sound doctrine enjoy, as Paul says, the pure milk of the word. That's enough. How many of you all feel that way? That the word of God is enough. That's all I need. If I don't get anything else, I got him in his word. I see hands going up. We don't even have hands. I got emoji hands. I got ones. I got people pointing this way and that way and all kind of self clapping and so forth. Amen. Now, let me tell you what I wouldn't want. And even the people who frequent these other ministries. Now I got to air quotes these ministries. Let me tell you that they would even agree with me on this. We've got something over here that they don't have. We have something that they would admire that they are dealing with, even if it's a lie. They either are dealing with this either in real life or it's all in their mind. We are not demonically attacked and oppressed like they are. I don't know if their demons are real or not. They think they are. And so their life is even more so. Imagine being defeated and you really hadn't been defeated. Imagine someone telling you that your team lost, your team actually didn't win. Over there, they are demonically oppressed. Over here, we're not. They'll say, well that's because people like Corey don't believe in it. I do believe in demonic influence. I really do. But let's fine. Let's say I don't. That's because pastors and preachers don't preach that. Okay, fine. That's just the leaders. That's just the speakers. That's just the teachers. But what about the human beings at those churches? You don't think that the people that go to those churches know they have a demonic influence in their house? If, well, if they did, they're not telling anybody and they're not walking that way and they're not living that way. But over there, everybody that comes in contact with you as a demon. Everybody that comes in contact with you, they're looking, listen, they're looking underneath their sheets, underneath their beds. They're looking behind their fridges. They're opening their doors cautiously. I hope a demon's not here today. Lord, I sure hope there's no demonic influence today. I just wanna come in and watch TV, but I can't turn on the TV. Cause if I turn on the TV, a demon's gonna jump out and get me or, or I got a funeral coming up next week. And we've already been told that when we go to the cemetery, demons leave our loved ones and come to us. My question also on that matter, if one person died, grandma died, and 30 people are at the funeral at the grave site, will all of us get the same demon or will there be 30 demons for all of us? Did grandma have 30? I don't know. But again, over there, they seem to need to be set free over and over here with our sound doctrine, not loving the Lord like they do, not experiencing the Lord and so forth. We seem to be more free. Now do we have problems? Yeah, we got bills to pay. We got folks bothering us. We got to drive in traffic with folks who don't know how to drive or maybe we're the ones that can't drive. We got all kinds of issues, but we seem to handle a little bit better. We seem to be, and guess what? When we have problems, we seem to turn to the right source. That's what sound doctrine does. The problem with the church was plaguing the church is this unsound doctrine. And we don't talk about it enough. When we do talk about it, those who speak about it are the ones who get cascaded. Those are the ones who get ostracized. They get attacked. Well, guess what? It ain't enough for you to attack me to make me feel bad about the Word of God. There's, it ain't enough of you. And I'm not shooting at you guys gonna shoot at. I don't have to worry about that. I'm gonna just give the word and be comfortable in that. And so, yeah, voting was right. They think that we're not saved. Yeah, we are. Matter of fact, there is no scripture to talk about people who are like us in a negative sense. There are no passages that talk about people with sound doctrine who focus on the word in a negative sense. There are passages that talk about people who have this spiritualized view. Matter of fact, can I go ahead and go to a couple of passages? By the way, I said this before, I'm gonna say it again. The genesis for all of this is in Genesis, Genesis three. When the serpent goes to eat, and he asks her, Indeed, has God said, verse one, has God said you shall not eat of or from any tree of the garden? Are you sure that's what the Bible says? Are you sure that's what the word of God really says? She says, yeah, she repeats it. But no, I don't think you're reading that right. I don't think you understand that right, Eve. Sweetheart, you got that all wrong. God knows if you eat it, you'll be like him. I wanna tickle your ears a little bit. Tell you something that you wanna hear. Matter of fact, Eve, the truth that I'm telling you is really any truth, but what I'm telling you is so good. I'm gonna establish a whole new religion on this. Yep, prosperity and health and wellness and get what you want. This is gonna be called the itching ears getting tickled church. That's what this is. And you're my first member because the Bible says that she saw the fruit. It was desirable. And why not? Why not? And she went after it. And so what do we have today? Does the Bible really say that? And if it does, but does it really mean that? And so we've got people who are going to just be falling away from sound doctrine. I told you what 1 Timothy 4 is about. It's not about people losing their salvation. It's about people falling away from, but what it says, fall away from the faith. And the word is taste, pisteos. Taste it, which is the faith. People are gonna break away from the faith. And that's the one we'll disagree with. Well then tell me, when do people break away from the faith? Or do you think that's not a thing? Look what he goes on to say though. Let's drop down to verse six. He says, in pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus constantly nourished on the words of faith on the logos of faith, the words of faith and sound doctrine which you have been following. Thank you so much for saying that, Paul. Makes me feel good. Let me say it again. Those of us that want to exploit, I'm sorry, expose those that are exploiting bad doctrine, look what he says. For anyone that feels like it's, maybe we should ought to be a little quiet. Let's not call out bad doctrine. Look what he says in pointing these things out to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ. You do so, you should be doing so. You will be counted as a good servant. He says constantly, we are constantly nourished on what? The words of faith. We're not constantly nourished on the acts, the movement. Where does the Bible say that we'll grow in these acts that we see? In these signs and wonders. We'll grow in the grace, what he's done, and in the knowledge of the world, of the word. Sound doctrine, he says, and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. Sound doctrine, sound doctrine, sound doctrine, sound doctrine. I ought to make a sound out of this. You know what, I ought to have found somebody to put a little some music to it and kind of halfway rap on it. It'll make a million dollars because since rapping it anyway, holding up a story. But look what his point is. Sound doctrine matters. Sound, now the rest of these folks out here don't get, this is why they go back and forth, vacillating back and forth. I get delivered this Sunday. In two more Sundays, I'm gonna go back and get delivered again. Why? He says, verse 14 of Ephesians 4, he says, as a result, we are no longer to be children. In other words, mature, we're supposed to mature, not immature, we're not children, tossed here and there back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. By the way, let me just say this real quick. Wind, this word wind is, it's the actual flowing wind. It's the literal wind and it just moves you back and forth. You're over here one day, then you're over here the next day, not to be moved back and forth by every wind of doctrine. Look he says, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. That's where it comes from. That's where it comes from. Now, I like the quote, and I wanna play this quote from John MacArthur. Cause again, there's some things that I might disagree with John MacArthur on. There's some things that I disagree with Vodibachem on. Do I think that they are sound sure? And so we have at least a baseline understanding of what our hermeneutic is, we can talk. Mr. Bachem, this is why I think that you're wrong right here. And I do think that he's wrong on something, especially when it comes to eschatology. As a matter of fact, John MacArthur's kind of done a little rebuke of Vodibachem and folks like him in their eschatology because their hermeneutics is not consistent. And if you notice though, it's not to the point where they're not friends because if you notice, where is Vodibachem preaching from? He's literally preaching from John MacArthur's church. He's at his church in his pulpit speaking that. But even with our eschatology, just to be fair, this is not an issue of just the Charismatic and Pentecostal because even folks who are reformed, who are dispensational or who are our many whomever, we all can suffer this. But I think this is where we have to be consistent. Responsible to God to get your eschatology right. It's not enough to punt. You can't do that. You've gotta go in there and figure it out. And when you come out, you gotta know where you stand. I think the key to getting the eschatology right is the key to getting the beginning of the story right. If your hermeneutics are the same in Genesis, you're gonna be a six-day creationist. If their hermeneutics, if your hermeneutics are the same in Revelation, you're gonna end up with a church age, a time of tribulation, the return of Christ, the establishment of the kingdom and the new heaven and the new earth and it's just that simple. Yeah, and I agree with him on that. I think that, yeah, Vodibachem is sound for the most part. He is. And a lot of folks that have that same sort of theological bent that he does. But the word Israel always means Israel. We're not the new Israel. A thousand years when God gives numbers, he literally always means the exact number that he gives. And so for that reason, you've got to be consistent. Unless the world was not or creation was not done in six days. It was out there abouts. No, Jesus died and rose again around the third of the day, maybe the fourth to fifth. Who cares? No, we care because his word is his bond, literally speaking. So I think that's important. So I don't want you all to think that I'm just on one particular group, but however, it's just that thinking that can get us off even if you go off a little bit but someone goes off a whole lot more when they took the exact same road by not having a consistent hermeneuty and not by allegorizing and spiritualizing some texts. Now, I want to give you example of someone who I just think that this guy, he is quickly becoming one of my favorite heretics. He really is. This guy, he's all over the place. And you're going to hear him, you're going to hear him spiritualize a text, allegorize a text. He's not going to be consistent. His hermeneuty, I don't think he has one. I don't think he has one, but you be the judge. When I speak in tongues, my mind is unfruitful. It means it's like gibberish. I don't know where to start. When I speak in tongues, my mind is unfruitful. Well, guess what Paul says? Paul says regarding that, that he wants you to know. Paul says, I don't want you to be ignorant. You say, you should be ignorant. You should be unfruitful. No, because Paul has a solution for being ignorant or being, or your mind being unfruitful. He says, from now on, I'll pray with understanding. But then he admits what we've always said. Yeah, he might, yeah, Joshua, he might take over from David Taylor's mind. David Taylor is by far the world's greatest heretic. Listen, he's the Michael Jordan of heretics. He's the best that ever did it, undefeated. But I think though, I think that Lovie is making a play or Lovie is making a play, I don't know. But then he admits what I think and that is gibberish. He, don't get mad at me, Lovie calls it gibberish. And I want you to see how he explains this. It is gibberish because God likes the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Is that what the Bible says? He does say that, but does he mean that in terms of tongues? What happens is if you have a bad hermeneutic, you'll start taking this and this and this and put it in to make it fit what you want to say. It may seem like, what is coming out of my lips? But your duty is to focus on Jesus. When people heard the Apostle, they said this had drunk many, it means that he was, have you ever seen drunk people talking? It makes zero sense. But again, if we go to Acts two, who said that they sound like they were drunk? The people that said that weren't the folks we listened to. The people that said that are called mockers. And the Bible speaks of mockers coming. We don't listen to them. They said they're at the, what are mockers doing? They're out there making fun of them. Blah, look at these people over there laughing. What's coming out there now? What are they saying? But Lovie just said they didn't know what they were saying. But as a matter of fact, let's just do this. Let's just, because I don't want you to think that I'm just making up, let's be guilty of actually pulling up the text ourselves. And let's just see what, let's see if they knew what they were saying. I'm gonna go out on a limb, not too far on a limb, and say that what they were saying, they knew. Let's go to it. It says now, verse five of chapter two, they were living in Jerusalem, devout man from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and they were bewildered. So now, these people come together and they hear them speaking in these different languages. Now, let's go down to verse 13, but others were mocking and saying they are full of sweet wine or full of wine. Okay, so the mockers come, folks couldn't make fun of them, laughing at them, trying to score them. But now, he says they didn't know what they were saying. Let's see what the Bible says and see that they did know what they were saying. Peter, verse 14, taking his stand, let me make this a little bit bigger for you guys to see, Peter taking his stand with the 11, raised his voice and declared to them, men of Judea and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words, for these men are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only the third hour, but this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel. Now, he goes on to speak of what Joel says, and then what does he do? He says, men of Israel, listen to these words. And so what does he do? He tells them what they were doing. He tells what they were doing and what they were saying. So, no lovy, they did have understanding of what they were doing, what they were saying. But these men were on fire for God like crazy. Tongues is your heritage. You cannot be in Christ and this is not with you. It is your heritage. I just took a sip of water. I just took a sip of water and I should not have because I literally almost spit it out. He says, tongues are our heritage. I want you all at your mind just flow a little bit. Before I get to what he's gonna say, how he says that tongues are our heritage. First of all, do all speak in tongues? Well, the scriptures say no. He says yes, and the reason why he says yes, one because he likes to, we didn't read the scriptures, but two, he says they are our heritage. How are they our heritage? Let's listen to him say how it's, because a heritage is where we come from. Maybe what we grew up on, he's speaking, listen, he's gonna try to say that this is what we've all done. It is the secret language you have with God. And I'm sorry to keep stopping this, but I want someone to keep telling us, show me the secret language, show me anywhere in the Bible where we have this. Again, the scriptures are not their friend on this. Mattress will come into your lips. It may even start like ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma. It may come like, remember when a baby starts, they don't start saying ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma. It starts slowly. That's our heritage. Because we started off ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, da, da, da, da, da. That's what, I would say you can't make this stuff up, but he is. And again, how does he get that? Well, this is the danger of a church, not having hermeneutics, not just with him, but the people that are listening to him. How many people do you think are gonna give me a bad comment because I'm calling out, putting what he said to the test of the text. I'm taking what he says and comparing it to the text, but I'm the bad guy. I'm the, I don't know the Lord. I don't have the Holy Spirit, but I'm using the very thing the Holy Spirit gave us, which was the word and comparing the Holy Spirit, I mean the word to what he just said, but I'm wrong. Don't try just to be record, it comes. The more you develop, the tongues also grow, utterance increases. It may just be ya, ya, ya, ka, ka, ka, pa, ta, ta, ta. It's developing. Your duty is to stick with it focus there, I'm telling you, something will break in your spirit, you'll be shocked. You will notice that it even flows for the first time, the rivers of living, what will actually flow from your spirit. So he takes John 4 with the woman of the world, these rivers of living water, that's what Jesus meant with her. That's what he means, speaking in tongues. And he says, just, just, just, now don't get ahead of yourself and don't, don't, you can't do it like me. You gotta develop it, you gotta grow it. Where is that at? Where is that if you do have this gift that you gotta grow it again? So we compare this to the scriptures and it doesn't measure up. But now what we can do is this. What we can, matter of fact, let me do this. I like this with John McCarthy said, I think I want to steal this. I think I'm going to steal this from John. I'm gonna make it my own. The importance of careful Biblical interpretation couldn't be overstated. It's impossible to overstate it. Misinterpreting the Bible, listen, is essentially no better than not believing it, okay? Misinterpreting it is essentially no better than not believing it. Because if you believe something it doesn't say, you have missed what it does say. So while believing what it doesn't say, you don't believe what it does say. I love that. I got to memorize it, but I love what he just said. I love that. I want to play that part again at the very end of lovey, of lovey, I don't want to play that again. When I speak in tongues, my mind is also grow, utterance increases. It may just be, yeah, yeah, yeah, ka, ka, ka, ka, pa, ta, ta, ta. It's developing. What I'm saying, what the point I'm trying to make is that there is no point to be made. That's all it is. There ain't no point, quick. Yeah, Richard Pryor said it better. There ain't no point to it. Just, you might as well listen to Richard Pryor and at least get a laugh out of it. At least laugh on your way to hell. Versus listening to a lie, buying a lie, and still ending up in the same place. Yeah, I would love to copy right there. I would love to copy right there. Yeah, it wasn't much more. Look at Cheshire. Yeah, but just foolishness. Just say whatever you wanna say, let it come out, but that's not biblical. And so, now he's a pastor. Titus 1.9 says, I'm sorry, yeah, Titus 1.1, you know what I'm saying, verse 7, for the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-will, not quick temper, not addictive to wine, not pugnacious, not found of sort of gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible just about control. Look what he says, holding fast the faithful word, which is in accordance with teaching. Why? So that he will be able to both to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. And so, if you are in leadership, you should be able to teach people, to exhort folks in sound doctrine and also refute the likes of him. Paul also says, interestingly, a lot of these are coming from him teaching or speaking to Timothy and Titus, people who are going into the password, who is developing and teaching them how to also grow and develop the church and its church leaders. But he says in Titus 2.1, he says, but as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Teach what accords with sound doctrine. That's it. We don't see Paul saying, make sure that you let the spirit flow. Let the Holy Ghost just flow and all. The things that we see, we don't see Paul telling or teaching Timothy or Titus or anyone else to do the same thing. We don't see that. And so, I think it's very important that we understand this is, at least in my opinion, the greatest threat. The Bible keeps constantly speaking about how important his word is and to understanding. All you're getting, get understanding. Not to make this spooky and mysterious and try to look through the, I wonder what he meant by this passage. I wonder, now there are some passages that might be difficult. There are. But the overwhelming majority of what he says is plain. And we don't have to, I wonder what he meant. I tell you what. I tell you what, get pulled over by the wrong cop and he tells you to put your hands up and you ask yourself, I wonder what he meant by put your hands up. Let me, you know what? Let me reach for my cell phone and Google this. Okay, you bet. Sometimes what is said is plainly understood and then require you to go deep diving for it. God doesn't expect that from us. He says it in a way that even these people, many of them had not been to school, been to seminary, been to college or high school. They understood it. They got it. But oftentimes it's the people who just, there are some people in teaching. The hard part is when you're teaching, coming across two people, one, the person who cannot simply get it, well, the world can't get it. They can see it, but they won't get it. They understand what the words mean, but it's not what I'm after. And there are those who just don't want to get it. Don't want to get it because as Paul says, they have itching ears. They will not endure sound doctor, they have itching ears. And so because of that, they won't listen. And there comes a point in time. There comes a point in time where you just simply say, you know what, this isn't for you. There's a bunch of people I said, you know what? Feel free to never frequent this channel again. I'm not gonna change the word. I'm not gonna change the interpretation of the word. I'm not gonna change my view of the word. I place the word in higher value than your experience or mine. Oh, that's just a question. And thanks for the super chat. She says, what is, you know what I said she, I'm not sure BJ can be a boy or a girl, I don't know, or male or female, I'm sorry. What is your interpretation of God owns a cattle on a thousand hills? Is it literally a thousand hills? Well, no, because there's more than a thousand hills. That means that he owns the cattle on this thousand hills. What about the hills that don't have cattle? His point is, as he says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness there in bed is dwelling. So everything he owns, they're his, it's idiomatic meaning that he's using figures and speech, he'll use metaphors, he'll use similes. And so he didn't mean a literal 1,000 cattle or a thousand hills. There are more than a thousand hills. It's like just these are his, no, all of us is, which is why he also emphasized that the entire earth is his. And so anyway, I'm sorry. Okay, all right, BJ, he says, I'm a dude. Thank you. I'm sorry, BJ, I couldn't tell. I saw, I tried to lean in and see your face. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. No, no, no disrespect, man. But that being the case, his word, as he says, he puts his word pretty high up there. He puts it pretty high up there. And because of that, I think, I think it's important that we focus on that. There'll be some people who says, you know what, Corey, I think you're wrong. You spend too much time on trying to be intellectual. They had knowledge in this and that. I honestly don't know what to say about that, except for maybe this just is not necessarily the channel for you. That's fine, but I do want you to understand something that I'm going to preach his word. And I think that intellect is not a dirty word. I think that our mind usually in having understanding, that's not a bad thing. I think we should grow as the Bible says, grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord. Amen? Because everybody knows, if you really want to love God, you got to be ignorant. The United Negro College Fund is a motto. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Modern American Christianity has a different take on that. We just believe a mind is a terrible thing.