 Welcome to Hard Questions. This is where we gather pastors together to take on your tough questions and answer them right from the Bible. I'm Tom Hollis, the moderator. And today our panelists include Dr. William R. Glaze, Bethany Baptist Church in Pittsburgh. Pastor Buck Schaefer, Grace Life Church Monroeville and North Hills. Pete Jackaloney, lead pastor, South Hills Assembly Guide Church, Bethel Park. Janneth and DeGilbert pastor of another level in Mount Washington. Pastors, thank you for being with us. These are good guys right here, everybody, all four of them. I enjoy this time getting together, having the chance to talk about the word of God and the things of God. And today on Hard Questions, we're gonna be talking about, you know, some different things, frustration with God. You know, that's the, so let's start there. And Pete, I'd like to get your take on this. Can we be frustrated with God and not sin? Okay, I'm sorry, I did not see that one. I was prepared for what does it mean to find God. All right, so this is a curveball thrown at me. Can we be, I think there's times, yes. I think there, if you look at the life of David, I believe there's times in David's life where when, who was it that reached up and touched the Ark of the Covenant? Yeah, David was angry with God. It flustered David in. And there was other times when things took place where, yes, I believe as a believer, you can be frustrated with God. And in that frustration, it goes back to be angry, but sin not. So don't allow that frustration, just like don't allow your anger to lead you to sin. Yeah, there's, Tom, you've shared with me when you guys lost a baby some years ago. Yeah, it was, you know, it's a terrible situation. It ran out of gas all the way to the hospital while Jean's having a miscarriage. And I started yelling at God about what are you doing? What are you doing? So there was a frustration. And I don't think I was sinning because I kind of think God can handle it. What do you think, Bob? I think so. You know, we all come to these places and like at the end of the road and kind of God, what are you doing? But again, I think that when you see God's nature, that He is good, you always revert back to His goodness, even though you're frustrated and He's come through. And I always meditate on His faithfulness. He's come through this time, this time, this time. So frustration now, as I get a little more mature, it doesn't last that long. Well, that's good. You know, it's funny, you mentioned about Uzzah. And just as you were talking here, the Holy Spirit just kind of dropped this in my mind about how don't allow your frustration to become content. You know, to where, you know, Uzzah thought, oh, I've become familiar with God, so I can touch Him. You know, so a lot of times don't allow your anger to touch His glory, His honor, His name, you know, where you begin to speak out against Him. You know, it's kind of like when the children of Israel came out, you brought us out here to die, didn't you? Like almost like He's evil now because He's allowing you to go through it. And I think that's the line. It's not the fact of being frustrated. Like what are you up to? Or man, that's all fine. It's when all of a sudden He's evil. His motives are bad. He's a bad God. And like you said about His goodness, that's where I think we have to be careful of that. That's where you get into now, not just doubt you're falling into that sin of unbelief. And that's where I think that's where the line needs to be drawn. Yeah, that's a good point. Got anything to add there? Well, you know, we're human beings. And because we're human beings, you know, we're gonna get frustrated with God. I think the key is not staying frustrated, you know, with Him. And I always go back to my illustration and I know I've said it on here before. You know, sometimes, you know, you go back to those Looney Tunes cartoons, right? Where they would slap the guy, you know? And sometimes, you know, I mean, you get frustrated and that's understandable. But if you stay in that state of frustration, you know, sometimes you need a Looney Tunes slap, you know, just to bring you back to reality and say, okay, you know, I got that out. You know, now I'm, you know, I can refocus. So I think that that's the key, not staying frustrated. I'm gonna give you the number to the Looney Tunes slap hotline. Pastor Bill, come over and fix you up. I think that that's so key, guys, because the Psalms, how long, oh, God, you know? Things like that. There's frustration. Will you forsake me forever? Yeah, there's a frustration that can come, but we finally have to have that anchor of who He really is and His character. So let's move on to the second one if we can. What does it mean to find God? Pastor Bill. Well, you know, the one clear verse that I see in the scripture is in Jeremiah chapter 29 where the people of Israel were in Babylonian captivity and, you know, he told them they were gonna be there for 70 years, but he said in the midst of that, he said, and you shall seek me and find me when you search with me with all your heart. So to find God, you know, I think it means three things. First of all, I think it means that you sense His presence, that if you found God, that means that you have sensed His presence in your life, that, you know, you know that He walks with you and He talks with you. I think a second thing is it means that you have seen His character and you have seen His power demonstrated in your life. You know, if you haven't found Him, you know, you're not gonna be able to know His character. You're not gonna be able to know who He is. You're not gonna be able to see His power. And then I believe that to see, to find God is to see Him move in mighty ways in your life. You know, to see prayers being answered, to see mountains being moved, to see great things being done. So, you know, to find God, I think it's just not like hide and seek where you go find somebody and say, okay, I found you, but when you find Him, it opens up a whole new arena of the fullness of God, His presence, His character, His power, and to see Him work in a mighty way. Yeah, amen. Again, if I can show another scripture out, Isaiah chapter 55 verse six, it says, seek the Lord while He may be found. And again, we were the ones who were lost. God was never lost. So, in accepting and finding Christ in our life out of our lostness, I think that's what we need to realize is, we were the lost ones, not God, you know, or I found this and we found new life in Him. He's really found us. I think it was probably the more accurate way to say it. Buck, what do you think of this? You know, I think that he who finds God finds life, this zoe life of God, but you know, you can find Him in the Word. His Word is a lamp under your feet, a light under your path. But if you're even just a rank he, then the Bible says in Romans one, no one will have an excuse because His glory is revealed in the firmament. You can see how things are created. You watch a baby be born. I think God is like that. And I don't believe we'll have an excuse, you know, for not really seeing God and the Holy Spirit's whole job is to reveal to every human being that Jesus is alive. There's a God who loves you and it's painted everywhere. Yeah. Even on the sun sets. Amen, amen to that. I think you guys pretty much said it, you know, to find God. He's got to reveal Himself and He puts in us a seek to find Him. He does it all, but then He just makes Himself manifest to you and that's what's so awesome about it. I think maybe again, it might be a time for us to take a moment and maybe you could speak to someone out there who says they haven't really found God or they feel like they lost God or they don't know where God is. Could you just speak to look at the camera to serve with someone? God loves people and wherever you are, the Bible says that God so loved you. I think this is revealed in the scripture but it's revealed in the earth. God so loved that He gave Himself for you that all He asks as we talked about earlier, whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life and He's passionately in love with you. Doesn't matter what problems you have, what issues you have, He wants to connect with you. While we were yet in sin, Christ died. He's not mad at you. He's not upset with you. He didn't put sickness on you. He is a good God. He's the same yesterday, today and forever and He loves you and He's pursuing you and all you have to do is invite Him, Jesus Christ, come into my life. Be my Lord, be my Savior. Acknowledge that we're sinners and we need help and all of a sudden with this humility, the rush of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ comes into your life and makes you a brand new creature and nothing's impossible when you just believe that and confess it with your mouth that God raised Jesus from the dead and He is the Son of God and you make Him your Lord and Savior. Do it right now. I just ask you, I encourage you, do it right now and watch the change that takes place in your life. That's something that we have all come to. Everyone that's on this panel, everyone that works here, everyone that names the name of Christ, we've come to that place where we laid down our own lordship of our life and said, Lord, we're gonna follow you. We're gonna take that upon ourselves. If you wanna know more about that, you can always call our prayer line. We have a 24-7 prayer line here so the number's there on your screen. You can call the prayer line and you can say, I wanna know more of what it means to follow Jesus. We'll stay tuned. We'll be back in just 60 seconds when we ask, what does it mean to fear God? We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hard Questions. Well, we've talked about frustration. We've talked about finding. Now we're gonna talk about fearing and I wanna go to you first, but what does it mean to fear God? You know, I wanna make sure that we're clear. God hasn't given us a spirit of fear but a power-loving, a sound mind. Fear produces stress, anxiety, worry, chaos in your body and your mind. But this, as the scripture says, fear is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And I would say, with my sons, they don't fear me. They love me and they're kinda concerned if they don't do what I ask them to do. So... You might call that fear. Right, but what I'm saying is, this kind of, it's not connected to anxiety, it's actually connected to reverence. Like this awe, this respect. Like God is, I fear God like, it's a fearful thing to fall into the presence of an angry God. And you know, the reality is, I don't think God's angry. And if you study who he is in the Word, you find out that when you come into his presence, there's this incredible awe and reverence and respect for God that I'm more fearful that I don't do his Word. I'm more fearful and respect that I wanna treat my wife as Christ treats the church and loves it. I wanna fall in line with this. And as the Father loves his sons, he corrects them. That's not a fearful thing. You don't want your child to grow up and be a bastard child. So therefore, who the Father loves, he corrects. That's where that reverence is. You didn't think when you're a kid, you thought your dad, man, he's, but as you got older, you thought, man, he loved me. He really loved me. He corrected me. So there was this, now I look back at my father, you know, when you're mature and you go, man, I really love him for doing that. And so you see the guidelines of God's Word and you go, he loves me. He chaseneth who he loves. So I think that pulls into that respect, that awe, that spirit of love that actually casts out all fear because it's that perfect love. That is really good. And I think we get so confused about this word. What do you say about this? Yeah, instead of using the word fear, I'd say to his point, honor and respect. You know, when you fear God, it's kind of funny though, having a reverential fear to some degree is almost like you have a healthy fear of what he can do too. You know, like for example, like my sons don't fear me but they do know if they get out of line, they have something to be afraid of. Maybe not of me, but of what may happen to them. So I think there's a reverential thing of realizing and when I think about that reverential fear, he honors his word. So like you said, it's not even afraid of like, oh my gosh, if I don't do this, what is he gonna do? But it's also the fact of the matter like, if I do it, he'll honor it. I respect him. So I wanna follow his word because it completely, that word is gonna hold up no matter what. So it's having that ability to know that he is who he says he is, he's gonna uphold what he says he's gonna uphold, he's gonna do what he says he's gonna do, good and bad, up, down and all around. And I think that's really what it means to fear God. And that's why it's, Bob all said, it's the beginning of all wisdom. Right there, Proverbs 1.7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So, and I loved what you said, Jay, just a moment ago, it's reverential fear. That's what God wants from us. And it, again, the other, the flip side of that is to be fearful if we're on the wrong side of God. I don't wanna be on the wrong side of God. I wanna have that healthy reverence that, you know, what's that old song? I stand, I stand in all of you. That reverential fear. Yeah. Well, I'll just piggyback because I was getting ready to say the same thing you just said, that awe is standing in awe of God. And I think of when Jonah was running from God and how that when he was on the boat and he was sleeping downstairs and God sent that storm. And then the sailors call him up and said, man, call on your God. And Jonah said, I'm a Hebrew and you know, he said, throw me overboard. And they said, no, and they rode harder. And then the gentleman finally convinced him to throw him overboard and he threw him overboard. And it said that the mariners, they feared God. Now, here was some heathen, you know, that didn't know God and now they fear him. You know, they stood in awe of God. So I think, you know, the idea of reverential respect, but that heightened element of reverential respect is the awe, you know, where I just kind of, I just kind of like, wow. You know, the whole thing about fear, obviously I've heard it referred to as reverence and that certainly is a good definition. We've talked about that. There was some things like those sailors that where there was a different kind, there was a magnification of the name of God because of what happened. I was doing some research for this. And you know where the seven sons of Sceva tried to cast out and they couldn't do it. And there were, you know, sons of a Jewish rabbi or something they tried to cast out by using the name of Jesus, you know, who Paul preaches, they said. And the demon said to them, I recognize Jesus and I know Paul, but who are you? And they got all beat up by this guy. And it says here, and this became known to all both Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus and fear fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. And that's, you know, that's an awesome name, that name of Christ, powerful. Isn't that the same thing that happened in Ananias and Sapphira? Like they fell dead at the door and it was like there was a fearful awe and a reverence like, don't play. Not many people do that right. Well, that's some good discussion there. Moving on to the next question, important one. Jay, how, when, how do we receive the Holy Spirit? Well, you know, you have a couple of different places that obviously you receive what we would call up here called the indwelling or infilling when you get saved. You can't be born again with how to have in the Holy Spirit within you. But I don't know if they're referring to that. So I'll hit that one real quickly. The moment we get saved, the Holy Spirit comes in, does the work of what we call regeneration and now he's living inside. But then there's that baptism of the Holy Spirit that we get as they got in the day of Pentecost for service to be witnesses. And for me, in my opinion, I think that's one of the, it needs to be preached more now than ever. And the reason why is because that is the only demonstration we have because people can say, I don't believe that. But if you resurrect somebody from the dead, they can say what they wanna say. If somebody gets out of a wheelchair, that power was meant to be a witness. And matter of fact, he even told Peter, he told the church, you go up there and hang out there in the whole, in the upper room because you can't even be my bride or my church until you get it. Peter tried and we saw what happened to him. But once he got filled with the Holy Ghost, something in his life changed. So how do we get it? It's simple, you ask. You ask, but it's a life of consecration. It's not just, well, Lord, give me this, but I wanna keep living the way I want. You wanna be yielded to the Holy Spirit because you're asking him to use you. You're asking him to be a vessel. And in order to do that, there's usually steps and things you need to do in order to position yourself to be able to receive. So it's developing a hunger and a passion and just asking for that. And then he'll fill us if we're willing to be obedient to him. All right, I love that. I was thinking about how much more will he give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? Yeah, but. I agree. He said, if you ask for bread, will I give you a stone? If you ask for a fish, will I give you a scorpion? How much more will a father give good things to them who ask? And I think the important thing people see is in this day and hour we live in, there's that subsequent, like Jay was saying, being born of the Spirit according to John 3 and then being filled with the Spirit to be a witness and the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you and where Jesus said, receive ye the Holy Spirit. And I think in the last days, I think probably the most important thing is that the church knows how to be filled with the Spirit according to Ephesians 5. Don't be drunk with wine when expressed. He says right before that the days are evil, but being filled is the original translation with the Holy Spirit, speaking unto yourself, psalms him, spiritual psalm, making melody in your heart. This infilling, I love what the Moffat's translation said, be being filled. In other words, this is an ongoing call upon God to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but live a life with the evidence of a Holy Spirit filled life as Jay said, laying hands on the sick, praying in other tongues, believing God to walk in all the power that Jesus did and more. Well, that's good. For dominion. One minute left, Pastor Bill, give me your perspective on this. Well, again, I like what these brothers said. How do you receive the Holy Spirit? Well, ask Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior, because Romans 8-9 says, if you have not the Spirit of God, you are none of his. So that says that you are not even saved if you don't have the Holy Spirit. So when you ask Christ to come into your life, the Holy Spirit comes in at that point too. Now, what do you think about that a continuum being filled with the Holy Spirit? How does that, how do you interpret that? Well, I think that as we go through life that there's things that come along that take away our feeling. We may get in the flesh. I may get angry. Maybe my wife and I might have some intense fellowship and that might take away the feeling. So you have to go and say, okay, get the feeling again. But I believe that the feeling is over and over again, whereas the coming of the Holy Spirit is a one-time thing. I believe the feeling is a continual thing. Continually filled, that is so good. We're just gonna take a quick break. And when we come back, we're gonna go to our hotline question of the week. We'll be right with you. I love it when we go to the hotline question. And this week's hotline question, it's a confusing one for our viewer. Let's take a listen. Hi, I'm calling about Second Timothy, chapter two, verse 18. Paul's talking to Timothy about two preachers, I guess. And he says in verse 18, they claim that the resurrection has already taken place and they undermine the faith of some. But if Paul wrote this in like 60-something AD, the resurrection would have taken place. So that's confusing to me. I'm hoping to get clear understanding of what he means by resurrection in verse 18. Thank you so much for your question. I love the clarity that you shared that with and I want to hand this off to Pastor Glaze. What do you think this is talking about here? Well, you know, in the first century, there were all type of strange philosophies going around. There was Gnosticism, Stoicism. You know, so there was all kind of ideas going around. And so one of the things that was going around, and that's why it's so important to study the word. And that's why John gave warnings, Paul gave warnings as to false teachers. Because one of the things that went around was that when you got saved, that that was the resurrection, that your spirit was resurrected. And they didn't believe in a bodily resurrection. So they believed in a spirit resurrection. So when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, that at that moment, my spirit resurrected. And so what they were saying is that, well, the resurrection has already passed. That when you got saved, you were resurrected. So I don't think that what is, I don't believe it's here talking about the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because according, you know, and the lady was correct, you know, that Christ had already resurrected, you know. So it was passed. So, you know, when these guys are talking here, they're talking about a spiritual resurrection when you get saved. Okay, all right. Pete? Well, I have to agree with Doc, but again, the idea of did the resurrection, and of course we're awaiting, this is our hope. We're looking forward to the resurrection, the bodily resurrection and the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead will one day quicker, is quicker in our bodies now, but one day we're gonna have that bodily resurrection, which is, I believe, futuristic and not already. Yeah, right. And so again, to make that distinction, this was a false doctrine, you know, that these guys talk false doctrines. So, yeah. That they're saying the resurrection of the body had already taken place? No, no, the spirit. That when you got saved, your spirit was resurrected. Okay. And so in that sense, the resurrection has already passed. Okay, and it says upset the faith of something, because, yeah. Well, I think, and I wonder, are they also referring to the fact of the resurrection speaking of the rapture as well, that it's already happened? Are they referring to that as well? I've heard that talk about, that's why their faith was a little. That's what I thought this was alluding to. Yeah, and I'm thinking that they're like, oh man, I missed it, you know? Kind of like when you watched The Thief in the Night, when you was a kid. I don't know if y'all watched that. Oh yeah. Yeah, several times. If I call home and they pray, I'll be like, I'm going to hell. You know, I thought that was it, you know? I didn't wanna go through the tribulation at all, man. Not after watching those videos. Well, you know, nothing that she mentioned too, and I thank you, Dr. Glaze, for clearing that up. She had mentioned, she said, if Paul wrote this in 60 something AD, the resurrection would have already taken place. I think she's also thinking the resurrection, the body of Christ, that's what she's thinking. So where's the issue with that? She's trying to figure out why that's there, but as you cleared up, he's talking about a different type of resurrection, not the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ in his ascension. Yeah, because it was a lot of false teaching going on. Well, I agree with you, the false teaching was going on. Some of that is today with questions, but the end of the scripture, they are undermining the faith of some into a dress that he says, but the firm foundation of God stands sure the Lord knows those who are his. So I think those keys to answer these questions that where there's some questioning is, number one, the word of God's a lamp under our feet and a light under our path. And number two, the Bible says that those who are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God. So we need to follow the leading of the spirit of God and not fall for these games that Dr. Glaze was talking about because a lot of people can get deluded by them. Yeah, it's interesting that Paul in first Thessalonians, he says that we should comfort one another with these words that about being caught up in the air with the Lord. And here the exact opposite was happening. They were being all feeling like they had missed something. Well, you know what? If you look at a couple of verses above it, I always say, read verses below. But this time, look at the couple of verses above in verse 16 says, but shun. So Doc, we're there, profane and idol babblings. For they will increase to more ungodliness and their message will spread like cancer. It just eats everything up. So I mean, again, there's a lot to dig into there but it's a great question. Certainly the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened and the resurrection of our bodies and of being with the Lord is going to happen too. And don't let idol babblings, don't let strange doctrines buckaloo to that. Don't let strange ideas upset your faith. Stay the course, follow after Christ. Real quick too. Real quick. 215, study, show yourself approved. Study to show yourself approved. It's right before that. It's right before that. You know, that's the important thing. Well, we hope you enjoyed today's program. Study to show yourself approved and we want to hear from you. Email us your questions at hardquestionsatctvn.org or call into our hotline at 412-349-4326. Have a great day in the Lord.