Let's talk about holidays and culture traditions. A lot of these things are landmines. You don't know you're stepping on it until it blew up. You want to think through some of these things. That's why there's a bunch of questions here to get things stimulated. How does the call to be holy balance with being free in Christ and what biblical principles guide us in both being holy and free? That's a general principle because you're going to be looking at that with all these things. Am I going to be involved with it? Am I not going to be involved with it? I have freedom in Christ and yet I'm called to be holy. There's going to be a balance here someplace. we have freedom in Christ, but the thing is you also have to consider our other brothers that could be affected by the decision that we make. And there's a lot of them, right? So Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 8, 10 and Romans 14, the example of meat offered to idols, but it's an example. But that falls into a whole lot of places, right? I may have the freedom to do it, I don't believe it's sinful in any way, but others may view the same thing, or be enticed toward it, and it isn't for them. Romans 16, or it's Romans 14 at the last verse in the chapter. Now I can't think how to quote it. 14, 22, go ahead, please. Yeah. Whatever is not from faith is sin. So yes, the very same thing could be sin for one person and not sin for the other. They have the exact same thing because they don't have the faith to do it. So we're going to have to be careful for our brothers and sisters and if that's going to cause them to stumble, meaning it's going to cause them to participate in something that they don't have faith for, that's a temptation, then I'm going to refrain from them. I don't want to put that in front of them. It is not they don't like it, therefore you can't do it with the claim is they're the weaker brother. They're not the weaker brother. They're the stubborn brother who is no way you could entice them to participate. They just want to crush your freedom. So that's not the one we're talking about. But if they're enticed to do it because you're participating, you stop. So that's one aspect of it. All right, what else might be there? So line dance upstairs. Yes. Natives are restless. Yes. Well, what's holiness? being set apart. I'm set apart to Christ, so that should be what drives me in everything. How is this going to benefit the Kingdom of God and righteousness? Even if I had the freedom to do something, if it's not going to benefit that, then I'm not going to do it. Why would I want to do that? That's basic biblical principles. That's going to start being applied to everything. we're going to see this fleshed out a little bit more. What is a Sabbath and when did God establish it? Its purposes? How is it made for man? Genesis 2. Started very early. Its purpose? To give a day of rest. Man would have a day of rest. That's an example. Mosaic law states that. How is it made for man? To give them a day of rest. And we need it, okay? Consistently, these experiments, there was one where, I forgot what country it was, it was gonna do a 10-day week. It didn't work. It would increase the number, the productivity, because you're basically cutting out some of their days of rest. People couldn't handle it. People end up working, non-stop for a length of time, their productivity goes way down. People need a day of rest. They need a break. Even the military, they're supposed to give you R&R, right? They're supposed to. My dad got two weeks of R&R in three years in the war. They took it where they could. He remembers one campaign, he was so tired, if he stood still, he'd fall asleep. That's bad. It got so bad where I'm in full movement marching, and I'm nodding. I'm nodding while I'm marching. Wow. Yeah. That's not good for you. You need a day of rest. And your general should know this. OK. That is why people are pulled from the line, even in the military. All right. What is a Christian's obligation toward the Sabbath and why? We don't have an obligation. Not for the Sabbath, but what about a day of rest? Yes. We do have an obligation for that. It was made for man, and we do recognize that we need it. We need some point where we're not doing the same thing and we can rest, both physically and mentally. That's going to be part of it. How do Christians break the principle of equivocation on this issue? We claim it's freedom when we're not doing this. We really have to do it simply because it allows us to do something that we want. So do we really take the rest we need? But also for the summit, though, it wasn't just for the rest. It was also for a day to focus on It was to focus on worship, but even that was part of your rest. You may even be working physically hard at something, but it's a break from what you were doing, and it's to focus on worshiping God. Do pastors take a day of rest on Sundays? No. Or whenever they get it. Take it off here or there. You grab what you can when you can get it. But we have have to keep that in mind that our day of rest is the one of the first priorities is be able to focus on worship of God. Use that time so I'm not distracted by everything else to be able to focus on growing with God. When Diane worked as a nurse her is rotating schedule so every other week she's working Sundays. So if she was working a Sunday she always made sure one of her days off was the day she was going to go off and she'd take her Bible and spend at least a first half the day in prayer someplace and reading, because she recognized that. And then usually it'd work out that she could attend a Bible study. So it's every other week of either one in order to have Christian fellowship. What is the real issue about whether a person regards a day or not? That's coming out of Romans. He regards the day or he does not regard the day. Paul talk about that. You know, and if you wanna, you know, worship God in the Sabbath, then Him worship in the Sabbath. But I think the point, the focus is what your heart and your mind is. You're gonna worship every day, but make sure, you know, it's your focus in God. Mark had to leave to make sure no one's getting hurt up there. There are adults up there. Well, we make sure the kids aren't hurting the adults. Yeah, it's a matter of the focus. Do I regard or not regard it? And that means that as we're getting to the other questions, it answers the question for us. Is there a particular day that you must worship? What evil does a legalist and a libertine have in common? Yeah, the standard is themselves. The legalist restricts everything. Libertine, his standards, I can do anything I want as I feel like it. So the relationship between Sabbath and Sunday? No, not especially not technically. Are they okay up there? Yeah, they're acting out a skit. Oh, wow. I'm glad we have strong floors. So Sabbath and Sunday. So there are those who would be called Sunday Sabbatarians. Sunday Sabbatarians. Sabbath is the seventh. That's Saturday, all right? So a seventh day, whatever. You don't have just seventh day Adventists, that's a particular thing, but you have Saturday worshipers. They don't worship Saturday, they worship on Saturday because they think that's keeping the Sabbath. But you have a lot of Christianity that uses Sunday the same way as the Jews did on Sabbath. You can't do any work, you can't do this, you can't do that. And they have all these restrictions on it, okay? that would be the legalist. And so they make Sunday an equivalent of the Jewish Sabbath. All right, well, is that a good position? Depends on what you're doing. Are you spending all day fasting and praying? And make sure you never read the newspaper. Most likely not. heal anybody. They're like, oh, that's too much work. Jesus, are you healing people? What is that? I had to work on a Sunday and heal somebody. I grew up in that. And I remember an elderly gentleman really getting on our case, a bunch of teenagers who on a Sunday, We went to the park and we threw the football around and he saw us. And then it got a whole lot worse when the youth leaders thought, hmm, Sunday, Sunday. Well, how about before we go have a youth meeting that night? How about if we go bowling? You went as a, and you took that church bus, and it has the name of the church, and it's in the parking lot of the bowling alley on a Sunday. Whoa, yeah, that was like, whoa, like, okay. No, I'm not necessarily against some rules to try to enable people to not have to work Sunday and be able to worship or whatever day, but that's kind of what I grew up in. some were so strict, you could not read the Sunday paper until Monday. That is the connection that people make. They might as well have been Jewish Pharisees when it came to Sunday, because they treat it the same way. Next question is, why do most Christians, not all Christians, but most Christians assemble together for worship on Sunday? started in what happened with Acts. It's in Acts, right? Well, it was the day of the week for worship and it's to remember the resurrection. Right, exactly. So that's why even on the bulletin stuff I put it's the Lord's day, okay? I think that's a better date than Satan's Sunday, but it's not a Sabbath. It's a day that we gather together in celebration of the Lord's resurrection. And apparently it was, that started early in the church. In Acts, it states specifically, they met on the first day of the week. That's not the Sabbath, that would be Sunday. A little fun with that one. So they met on the first day of the week, and it was at night, and the kid got sleepy and fell from the third story and died. So when did their Sabbath start? Looks like they were following a Jewish custom that started at Sunday. Saturday night, right? Uh-huh. So they started Saturday night. They're following a Jewish custom. I pointed that out to people. It looks like we should be meeting on Saturday night, right? Because isn't that really when the first day of the week begins? Well, wouldn't the Jews be doing it from Friday night to Saturday then? Yeah, that would be their Sabbath. But if you're celebrating the Lord's Day, then if you're following Jewish custom that the day began at sundown, you'd be on Saturday night. So I just pointed that out just to have some fun with some folks. It's all about taking action. Yeah, because they're like, well, could you have a little worship service on Saturday night? It's not Sunday. So I point that out like, on Saturday night? That goes back to Romans 14. Do you regard the day as a day of the Lord or do you not regard it as a day of the Lord? Would it be wrong to have your church normally meet on a Friday night? As long as it's good Friday. Any Friday we meet is good. If you're in Israel, when do the churches meet? Friday evening. A lot of them will meet Friday night or they'll meet Saturday morning. They don't meet on Sunday. Why? That's when people have the day off. The Muslims take Friday off. They meet on Saturday. The Jews and the Christians are usually meeting on Saturday. because usually the family was together on that evening. And then Saturday night was a celebration time because the restrictions were gone once the sun went down. So Saturday was a celebrating time. The Muslims were Friday night, that's when they held their thing. So you always knew which shop was Jewish and which one was Muslim by if it was open or not on Friday or Saturday. All right, how would you respond to a seventh-day Adventist claims? Okay, assuming you know what those claims are. What is their claims? Their claim basically is that we must worship on a Sabbath, the seventh day, hence their Sabbatarianism. I didn't get that. I just thought that's what they decided to do it. We must worship on Sunday. That's just what we do. They've drawn that hard line. If you drive down 95, There's a couple, there's one on 95, there's actually one on 81 as well. There's some Seventh-day Adventists that are near the interstate, and they have big signs up the base that are saying is, if you're worshiping on Sunday, you're a sinner. Oh, really? Yeah. Some other options are pretty close. Yeah, it depends on the Seventh-day Adventist. Some are close and some are way off. Yeah, some are like vegetarians. Some end up with, yeah, they're very legalistic on everything. And then others, the more you talk with them, it's more like, OK, you just prefer Saturday. Yeah, that's about it. But others, it's a hard, fast rule. Worship on Sunday is of the devil. Yeah, you want to say something, Tony? Yeah, it's just so fun. First of all, the big problem is they don't recognize Jesus Christ as Lord, as a God. So that's right there, make them disqualify anyway. But they go all for this legalist things. but they have a complete dis-consideration for other stuff about the drink and everything. We don't celebrate Christmas, but we get drunk. So it's a mess. And that's the problem with cults. The first thing, they diminish Jesus Christ. So it's a cult, and they're trying to put all this legal stuff, but they miss, like in Revelations, they miss the mark. They forget about the first love, so. They do. Now, Walter Martin, in his book, Kingdom of the Cults, that was written back in the late 60s, his analysis, Double Day in Venice, he says it's a real mixed bag. Some are definitely cults, very cultic, like what you've been talking about, Tony, and others, Man, there might be a Baptist church meeting on a Saturday. We actually have a lady here that comes periodically. She calls herself a Sabbatarian Baptist. Seventh-day Baptist. Seventh-day Baptist. She prefers worship on Saturday. There's no problem with that. So how do you respond to Seventh-day Adventist and start saying that, that it must be? Read your Bible. Read your Bible. Come back to what Romans says. Romans is very clear. If you want to honor the day, that's fine. There's no problem with you worshiping. But when you start requiring it and saying that we're evil because we're on Sunday, you've got a problem with Paul. Okay. What general time of day did the church at Trost meet? That was myletus. Wrong place there. Acts 20, 26. Myletus. Significance of that? We just talked about that. What Sabbath principles should Christians apply in their lives? the rest rest a day of rest okay legitimate reasons for missing sunday morning worship illegitimate reasons sickness yeah yeah please do not Don't crack his communion with your sickness. Everybody. Talk about this a couple of weeks ago, right? If your kid's really good at baseball, that's legitimate. With the travel team, he promises to give a lot of money to the team. Family vacation. Like if you're going to go be out of town. Yeah, you might be out of town here and go someplace else. There's a lot of legitimate reasons why you might miss. And there's a lot of illegitimate ones too. Because, well, whatever recreational thing you want to do where you're choosing that over meeting with the body of Christ for worship, congregational worship. Now, if you had something where, like I mentioned earlier, there are people with rotating schedules. They have to work Sunday. They're in first responders. Someone's got to be covering all that stuff. So yeah, medical, fire, police. Someone's got to be on duty. So they may be missing for a legitimate reason, because they do have an obligation. They might want to try to arrange where they don't work those days. For example, Nef, Nathalie, he's currently got a Sunday schedule, but he's trying to work it out where he can get Sundays off, switch with somebody else. And he's not essential. I said he's not essential. Well. You might be able to work it out because he's got a lot of folks that they might be Jewish, they might be Muslim, or they're just secular, they could care less about it. He's trying to switch with them if he can. So a lot of things you could do to try to avoid it, but it's just saying that there's a priority we have that whenever the church is meeting, we try to meet with them. We want to obey the scriptures of not neglecting the assembly together. That's the point there. that comes out in your heart, and yet a lot of people dismiss it for, I just didn't feel like it today. Well, it says what your heart is for the rest of the Christians. We want to be with other Christians, and if we can't, then we're going to find some way to meet with who we can meet with. So if small Bible study or something, we try to figure something out. How should Christians respond to Jewish holidays and why? Jewish. Yeah, we're all Gentiles. We're not Jewish unless we're in school. and then we get the day off. I'm taking Yom Kippur off. But it's not the holiday itself. It's the reason for holiday. It's reason for it. Right. No, there's observable feast of booths. No. Gentile Christians not required to observe any of the Jewish festivals, feasts, or anything else. If you did, is there anything wrong with that? Oh, not really. Some of them are a ball. Purim festival is fun. That's Esther. That's a lot of fun. We had a messianic congregation in Church House, in California. They would hold one, and we'd be invited. Yeah, it was fun. What do they do, just like eating, dancing? Singing? No, they set up these booths. They have different things like, you know, knock over Heyman's face with throwing balls at it or something. And every time someone say Heyman, you have these ratchet things. You make a lot of noise. And then Mordecai, yay! And they have special little treats that are part of it. Yeah, they have games. It's just a lot of fun. and then they're going to have to tell the story of Esther. Yeah, I think Melody did that this year, right? Yeah, I think she did. Last summer or something? Yeah, she did at some point, just to explain what it is, but a lot more fun with the Messianic group, and they get into it. Wow, this is great. If you were Jewish, and it was your ethnic background, your bloodline, what about the holidays? You can do it as long as you don't think that you're doing it for salvation purposes. What about Passover? Well, if I was Jewish, I would do Passover because if you go into Exodus, it's perpetual to remember what God did for my people. So it's my cultural heritage as well, what God did for my lineage. So that's going to be part of it. There's no obligation on Gentiles, but it's not, there's no sin if you do it. Go back to the principle in Romans 14. If you're observing it, you serve with the Lord. If you're not observing, you're not observing the Lord. That's what you make of it. But then you celebrate both Passover and Good Friday? Do I? I'm not Jewish. No, I'm saying if you were Jewish. If I was Jewish? I miss you, Uncle Josh. That's what I'm saying. I'd have to do Good Friday. Yeah, I know. I'm the pastor, I started it. I'm the one who started Good Friday Service here. They didn't have it before I came. I thought we should do something. I think he's referring to if you were a reformed Jew, right? Is that what you mean, Tony? No, if I was Messianic Jewish? Yes, that's what I mean. Yeah, I'd do both. But it's very rare that they hit on the same day. It's only happened a few times in my lifetime. Passover hit on Good Friday. Oh, I thought usually it was the week of. Before, I mean. It can be up to a month off. Oh, wow. The last decade or so has been pretty close. So remind me not to get the calendar confused. But a couple of years ago, Good Friday did fall on Passover. Because unfortunately, the way we calculate Easter has almost nothing to do with Passover. Passover is 14th day in the sun, so because of the way the Jewish calendar works, it kind of creeps around in spring, and then it jumps back because they add an extra month. Because over time, they don't have enough days, so they add an extra month. So it kind of creeps around. So instead of tying it to Passover, and Passover is going to be related to the moons. So here's the technical way you calculate Easter. It is the first Sunday after the first full moon after spring equinox. Gotcha. So the moon phase will have some tie to it, but it can be up to a month away from it. And it does fluctuate. We were super early. in April, I think, or? We had, it can be as early as, I think it's March 28th. Yeah. Now, what is the earliest it can be? No, actually, it could be earlier than that. It could be the first Sunday after the Equinox. It could be the first Sunday after Equinox. So it could be as early, technically, as the 22nd. Yeah. It could be as early as that. It's a formal fell on us on 21st. Yeah. So it'll be the first one. So 22nd, 23rd, and it can, and this year it was as late as ever, almost as late as it could be. It could be the 21st, could be one more day away. So that's why there's a tie close to it, but it's not the same. So the premise here, though, is you make the day as you determine us to the Lord or not to the Lord. And so any of these holidays, he's a Gentile. I mean, if you want to, you can find, remember what it is, learn the heritage that comes from that, because that's understand the Old Testament. If you were Jewish by blood, then that actually is your cultural heritage as well. And that's remembering what God has done for your own people. It seems like now, Pastor, there are people that are not ethnically Jewish or culturally Jewish that are trying to get into that, you know, the Jewish practices. The Hebrew Roots Movement. Exactly. Yeah, they want to be Jews, and they're not Jews, and so while there's nothing wrong with participating for the purpose of them, those that start going that direction usually start adding in all the Jewish dietary laws too. And then the other laws, next thing you know, it's like, I have to question their salvation. Are you earning it? Or is it something you actually see by faith in Christ and Christ alone, and now you're trying to do all this other stuff? Yeah, Ed's had to deal with that with his son-in-law's parents are in that. Did you go to the wedding? No. The wedding definitely demonstrated it's a cult. Yeah. There's no question about it. It's a cult. I don't believe that his son-in-law is. He's extensively talked with him, but the parents, it's a cult and they want to think of themselves as Jewish. They're Gentiles. They're not Jewish. Okay. What about other holidays? Kind of depends on the holiday, huh? Are you looking forward to Juneteenth? The newest holiday. It has nothing to do with anything. Oh, you didn't get the news. Oh, we're going to have a national holiday for celebrating that you didn't get the news. All right. In a little place in Texas. It's not a bad job making that a holiday. It's horrible. I don't even I don't even know that it is for a lot of people. It's like, it's almost, honestly, it's almost like if you're black and you want to observe it, you can, but it's like, it's not a national holiday from what I understand. It is a federal holiday. It's a federal holiday. So how would I respond to it? You folks are stupid. You don't know history and you try to make something that's a little region that got the news late and make it something national. So if you were smart and you wanted a civil rights day, why don't you just call for one and get rid of the stupidity of things that have nothing to do with anything. All right, so you may or may not respond to it, but again, it's going back to, what do you want to make today? Is this to the Lord or not to the Lord? All right, how would you respond to a culture tradition that requires you to disobey God? You obey God first. All right, that was simple. Wow, look at that, a one-word answer. Or two-word, I wouldn't. How did Paul respond to different cultures he was in and why? 1 Corinthians 9, that verse 19 and forward, it gets debated a lot. Did Paul disobey anything in scripture when he was under the law, when he was with the Jews? And when he's not, when he was with the Gentiles, he was not under the law, but did he disobey anything that God required of him? No, never. So being not under the law means he would not be necessarily observing all the Jewish rites, but it did not mean he was going to participate in the pagan rites. That would be syncretism, and I would push it directly into sin. So he's not going to jump in and practice their pagan worship. That would be sin. He's not going to follow their sexual practices. That would be sin. He may or may not. follow their dress style, depending whether it's modest or not. Dietary stuff, it's going to be a little more open to eating things like Gentiles you might not eat as a Jew. Responding to different cultures is something we still have to deal with ourselves, with our own nation. We have a lot of different cultures here. How do we respond to those things? Sometimes that's not quite so easy. because we're not quite sure what's behind it. We got to figure that out. And then does this fit the parameters by which I believe I have the freedom to participate or not? Here's one that got thrown at me when I was in Ukraine. They have a national dish that basically is a coagulated blood sausage. And they were really concerned, can we still do that considering Acts 15's restriction was don't eat the blood. It took me a while to figure out what they were talking about. And I'm like, would you eat that? But that's just me. So we had to think through the principles in this. Okay, what was the purpose then? What were they trying to do? Not offending the Jews and all that. So you have to think through this stuff. If you were in Nigeria and gonna attend the worship service on Sunday, you're gonna wear a suit and tie. No, you'd wear their very nice shirts. and which is what they have. For one thing, you'd be stifled in a suit and tie. It's hot, humid. So you can adjust a lot of things, but you can't break basic biblical standards. And that's what Paul did. He would identify with them to the degree that he could, that he was not violating any biblical law. Not Jewish tradition or law, but a biblical moral law. That make sense? Can things once used for pagan worship be used to worship God? Why or why not? We have examples in Scripture of things that have been pagan, even in one of the Psalms is patterned directly off a pagan worship song, but it flips it on its head that all the lyrics are, God is this and your God is not. So yes, it can be. But you also want to be careful that it doesn't sound so much or is so close to the other one you don't know that you're actually worshiping the true God. So it's going to be, it can be under certain circumstances as long as there's a clear distinction. Is it okay to celebrate Jesus' birth on December 25th? Why or why not? Yes. Was Jesus born on December 25th? No. So then why is it okay to celebrate his birthday on a day he wasn't born? It's the day we observe. That's the day we observe. And that's why. It really comes down to that. Okay. When was he born? Nobody knows. Not for sure. Well, there's actually a very interesting calculation they get to come with that date, but seemed very convenient to merge it with the Feast of Saturnalia. the winter solstice celebrations. It seemed very convenient. There's some good evidence using the same kind of calculations to put it in spring or in fall. Some say, well, the shepherds were out in the fields. Well, it's actually a little warmer out in in that area. It can get cold, but you would still be out keeping an eye on your sheep. It's not Minnesota where you have to pull the sheep into the barn to keep them warm and not frozen out there. Let's start touching the apple of people's eyes. What is the origin of Santa Claus, and what are the major concerns Christians have about him? Santa Claus is his origin, Nicholas, a bishop in Asia Minor. Yeah, great guy. Some of the early practices were following him with giving gifts and charitable stuff. What about the rest of it? Bigger and bigger and bigger. Let's see, Santa Claus, what attributes of God is Santa Claus taken on? All-knowing. He became omniscient. Let's see. He's a good or bad. He's a shape-shifter, too. Locked doors are not a problem for him. Apparently, he's not under the time-space continuum. He can get into every single house. That's right. Just like that. omnipresent more and more keeps getting added in right loving or something oh very good so suddenly there becomes some problems right so we have major concerns yeah so is santa claus f mythology is that necessarily evil No, because if you view it as mythology, you're fine. As you're making sure it is. So what about what you tell your kids? So if you want them to believe in Santa Claus, now what problems are you running into? Yeah, that's a problem. And then you're facilitating that line. Like with my kids, it was to, you understand where it's coming from because not everybody believes the same, so if you're interacting with other kids at school and stuff like that, it's really not you're trying to tell everybody he's not real, but you just. And they argue with you. Yes, he is. Because I'm going to get all those presents under the tree. And if I don't believe in him, I don't get them. You make me eat my cookies. Like, no, you make me eat my cookies. Dad's going to eat them. It can be a real problem. So we have some cultural landmines that are there. So most my age in Christian communities, they grew up with Santa Claus was fine. Trick-or-treat was fine, too. Things have changed. The mythology on Santa Claus has grown a lot since then. An awful lot. I think you try to fly in line by doing that, too, because you're also trying to have your kids believe in Jesus, and they don't see. So we did not do that with our children. So now it's like, what do they believe? If you're telling me Santa's true, now you're telling me it's not true. That becomes a problem. With our kids, we taught them about St. Nicholas. And so even David, what is he, four? And my mom took him over to see Santa Claus. We were talking about it later. So he gets up on his lap, like, you're not the real Santa Claus. And then he starts to give him a history lesson on St. Nicholas. Nice. What's his name again? David. OK. We had to tell them, look, don't upset your cousins, OK? So just hold your tongue. Don't upset your cousins. So yeah, there's some cultural landmines here. And yet, at the same time, our advocation has to be is don't fall for it. Teach it. If they want to have fun with the mythology of it, OK. Our kids saw most of those. playmation things and movies and stuff and they laugh like crazy and but it's just you know uh imagination but other things related to it too there can be landmines here and different people take different stands okay origin the following christmas trees wreaths holly carols and cards and can a christian use them and if so how christmas trees where they come from Germany. Came from Germany. Okay. It actually traces to a fellow named Boniface, early missionary to Germany, who went and cut down the sacred tree. So there's a bit of mix right there. There's a trace of that, there's a trace of the mythology of the sacred tree. Okay. Is it You bring green things in with the hope of spring coming, sort of an evergreen. There's a lot of stuff that goes around with it. A lot's going to depend on what you make out of it. And that's important, even like how you decorate it. It's purpose. The biggest question I've always had in getting people to think through this is, why do you do what you do? Because that's going back to the Romans 14 principle here. Why do you do what you do? If you're just doing it because everybody else does it, that's not a good reason. If you're doing it because I'm just fitting in with everybody else, or do you have an understanding of what you're doing and why you're doing it? I can tell you why we have a Christmas tree. It's a memorial tree. Every year we have ornaments that came from that year and it's a good way for us to remember everything God has done. And a tree is what Jesus hung on. So we're going to point that he had to hang on a tree. So the birth and death then get merged together with this is who Christ is. So we can say that. What about wreaths? A couple of different ideas on that one too. There were increasing strength of life overcoming the forces of good. Yeah. So again, it can be tied into the coming of, you know, a hope for spring coming. But it can be what you make, and it depends on what kind of wreath you make too, right? Of what is the meaning in the wreath that you made and why are you hanging it. Holly, Holly is an evergreen, was very common, but how did he get a Christian purpose? of the crown of thorns. Crown of thorns and the berries. The red berries is the blood. So it can have meaning if it's added to it. Carols and cards originally were Christmas celebrations by Christians of singing about Christ and his first advent, and the cards were greetings. It quickly got taken over by commercial interests. They make a lot of money on it. So can you do these things? You can if you're wise about it. Should you send out Christmas cards with Santa Claus in the front? Probably not the best way to proclaim your Christianity, unless it's the one of Santa Claus bowing before Christ. That one's pretty good. They're like, here's the real meaning. He's bowing, that one is Santa Claus kneeling before the manger. There's a couple different artists have done that. So a lot of these things can be used, but we do have to think through them. One of the things I've noticed about most people is they don't know why they do what they do. They grew up in it, and I just, this is how I grew up. Actually, those coming from Catholic families, I used that for them. I just asked, why do we do this? See if you can find out. Most of the time we're going to find out they don't know, in which case you can bring a candy cane, which was started by a Christian candy maker specifically to proclaim Christ. Some case studies here. Youth in your church often get together on Sunday afternoon, sometimes play sports or games. An older man in your church has become aware of it, has come to you to complain that you should be taught to respect Sunday as the Lord's Sabbath." How will you respond? They are respecting it. They're getting together and they're assembling and fellowshiping. Yeah, the assembly of the saints. That's right. A little rough out there, isn't it? Well, so it's like that is just because it's a physical thing that is like moving towards their relaxation as well. As long as that it's not the whole day. I mean, if you're if you're going to church first and then now you're after Sunday afternoon. Yeah, it shouldn't be no problem. Church is over. Yeah. So this one's not always easy, because you have an older man and you want to try and show him respect at the same time. You're going to have to bring him back to, well, this is the passage we're working off of. Because you may be dealing with someone who is just his tradition, and now you're violating my tradition, and this just does not seem respectful. Or you may be dealing with someone who's really a Sabbatarian, and he's He's earning his way to heaven by making sure he keeps all his Sabbatarian laws. You're gonna have to figure that out, but it gives you an opportunity to go back to scripture and gently put us like, and that it's not necessarily you're defending the kids, but you're trying to teach him a principle. And you may want to talk to the kids too. It's like, well, this is the best, is this the best use of your time? Okay. There's other things you could do, or it could be is how about you do this someplace where you're not offending this guy? So don't do it on the church lawn. You see what I'm talking about there? I'm trying to be gracious and get people to think through why they're doing what they're doing. Both this guy needs to be corrected, and he might not have to talk to you. Are they being respectful? That's an issue too. So they may have the freedom to do it, but is it a wise thing to do? You want them to think through it, or what they do, where they do it. Going back to that story before about bowling, probably was not the greatest idea to take the church bus there. That just is advertising something you don't want to advertise. Okay, so a little discretion would be good. First respond to your church, who is a new Christian, has come to you for advice on how to deal with having to work a rotating shift that requires him to miss every other Sunday. He knows his work is necessary for the safety of the community, wants to fulfill his professional obligations, but he knows from Hebrews 10.25 he should not forsake the assembly to gather the saints. What additional questions would you ask him and what advice would you give him? Just like how we talked about like with Nath, you know, are you able to change your schedule? Are you able to switch with someone? Is there other days in the week where if you can't, that you could still meet like a Bible study or a group or something like that? I think that would be helpful to ask questions like that. also reiterate the fact that his job is important. That's not forsaking the assembly. He's kind of doing what's required. Yes, but he sees the necessity that he needs to try to meet. So you're going to be advising, how can you do so? Right. I think another thing too, is also to help encourage, uh, them because they may have a desire. I remember when I was working at the super max in Colorado and I would, it was every other week and I would load it, but it was required of me at that time. And it was a battle that I had to understand that it's not that I'm slacking off or I'm trying to do something fun and not be a part of, but they're trying to also provide for their family. This is their requirement. This is what they're doing. So it's okay. And we're praying for you. We're not thinking that you're doing something right. Yeah, make sure you're encouraging the guy. give enough a call here and there and saying, so how are you doing? Missed you. Looking forward to seeing you when you can get here. What are you doing in the meantime? They don't care because part of the forsaking, do not forsake the assembly together to do what? King James, you might spur one another on towards love and good deeds. So if you're not meeting together, are you getting that? So the rest of the body should take notice and see if we can encourage the fellow. Good point. Remember your church has become intrigued with the Jewish holidays and festivals, beginning to wonder if he should participate in them. Questions to ask him, what advice you give him? Ask him why he wants to do that. Ask him why. They're saying that we need to do it so that we can make sure that we're more holy or something, right? Right. You're going to have to ask questions to make sure he's not going down the path of the Hebrew Roots Movement, which is cultic and moves you away from a true faith in Christ and adds in the legalism that Paul speaks against in Galatians. At the same time, you might ask, well, what is he learning about this stuff that's helping him in his Christian walk? How does that give him a greater understanding that helps him understand Christ better, or the Christian life better? Ask good questions, get him to think through it. The advice, be very careful, because you're going to have to warn him about Hebrew Roots Movement and where that goes. So I haven't read Galatians several times. I'll make sure he's well prepared. You foolish Galatians. He wants to be with you. Yes, I will be with you. So Galatians is a good one for that. I have a question for you. Yes, ma'am. Hi everyone, but I was going to say about this. Sam and I were talking about this last week because we just started talking and I had to deal with a family that is very strong in the Hebrew roots and they were trying to convince us and it caused a big divide and then I see it creeping into the local churches. There's even a Calvary Chapel where my friend attends that is having, you know, the Hut and then they're doing all of the Jewish things now and it's it's kind of crept in and so my question for you as a leader if you have someone that has Hid that right, but if you're if you're discerning you can kind of pick up on things as they start to lean that way So let's say you picked up on it, but they haven't been vocal to the congregation about it and you confront them and they have They have admitted that they feel that that is important for us to still follow, and you've told them about the Hebrew roots and all of that stuff. What do you do with that then if they still want to hold on to that belief, they're quiet about it, but you can see it sneaking out in little ways, for example, like bringing matzah on, you know, a fellowship day because they don't have unleavened, you know, little things like that, that a discerning person can pick up on, but the congregation as a whole can't? What would you say? I would continue to give them strong warnings, including that if they spread this to other people, they are subject to discipline. And I would follow it because it is very dangerous. And that would be going to Galatians of how dangerous it is. Foolish going back to these things and thinking somehow this is going to make you more spiritual doing these things. I don't see any problem with doing it from a historical perspective. But when you start seeing as a Gentile that this is my history, you've missed the point. It's a historical thing that is for Jewish people. I can go, I can observe, but I'm not Jewish. It's not my heritage. It's their heritage and I can rejoice with them. It's really, I mean, this is America. How many different cultures do we celebrate their stuff? If it comes to bars, anything that can sell a drink, they're going to do it. Green beer or put some salsa in the beer, I guess, on Cinco de Mayo. I don't know what they do. Oh, they switch to the Mexican brews. So I'm just using an example. It's one thing to join in to celebrate with them, but it's not my celebration. And that's what's dangerous about the Hebrew Roots Movement. It tries to move the Gentiles of thinking that is their celebration. It is not. It's not. And that becomes very dangerous from the whole Galatian heresy. That's why you have to be strong with it. So again, it's asking, why are you doing what you're doing? What is your purpose? Do you think you're Jewish? You're not Jewish. It'd be nice if you were. But you're not. So, I mean, what Diane did a DNA test and it was like up to 4%. And she was going to claim all 4%. But she's actually used that as a good caveat and talk to Jewish people. It's like, you are so blessed to be one of God's chosen people. And then she tells the story. It's like, that would be so wonderful. I'm not, but I wish I was. And then they look at you like, What? You got to be kidding. Why would anybody want to be Jewish? Persecution, we've suffered, et cetera, et cetera. And they'll go through that. But it gives her an opportunity to open the door. But if you're a Gentile, you're a Gentile. I can celebrate with them, but it's not mine to celebrate. So that's, like I said, the Purim festival. I had a ball. It was great. But it wasn't my people that were saved. Not so much I was good. Hmm? I don't know. That's it. Yeah. And if they're bringing matzah, as long as it's matzah ball soup and it's got a lot of garlic in it, it's probably okay. You know, it's funny because those little things I can pick up because I've had the conversation with a person, another woman, it's another woman, about what I noticed her starting to do. Like the head covering, which in itself is not bad. And I asked her, cause I'm pretty straightforward. I'm like, what's the deal? Are you a part of this Hebrew roots? You know, like, are you starting to believe that that's what we should do and then so she revealed to me but she's keeping it under wraps and so it's just um it's very interesting yeah yeah head covering is that because first corinthians 11 or it's because of jewish custom it's all because because of the jewish custom yeah that's what everything's leaning towards which is sad so we encourage her to be diligent in reading the new testament and seeing how throughout paul's letters he's very clear there's a great advantage being Jewish but don't look at that heritage as uh your means of salvation because it's not so yeah keep warning her and you know saying this are you oh they have some term you're you're appropriating their ethnic heritage that's No. If she is trying to be a missionary to the Jews, then yeah, you might want to take on some of those things so that you're not offending them, and you can work with them better. But I don't think that's what she's doing. All right, a mission's trip is being planned to going to a tropical nation that's very different cultural standards of dress, food, behavior than what is normal in your church. Discussion breaks out on how to apply the principles of 1 Corinthians 9, 19 through 23 on this trip. What are the principles in the passage and what general advice would you give to set boundaries of what would be acceptable or unacceptable? you can go write down a list. Okay, what's acceptable, not acceptable for dress? Modesty is the issue. Okay, regardless what the natives are doing, you still need to be modest. If it's an African nation, it might be those that don't wear clothes. And others do, but you wouldn't know it. So modesty is still going to be the issue. What about food? I would say be careful. If the other missionaries there that have been there a long time tell you not to eat it, don't eat it. Okay. That's not a pragmatic thing, but your body may not be able to handle what they're used to. Okay. David got in trouble. He went to so identified with the Africans he was working with, he ate stuff that the other missionaries said, don't eat that. And that's how he got severe dysentery. There was some question if he was going to make it for a while. He was extremely sick. When we went to the airport to pick him up, Diane did not recognize him. He lost that much weight from it. So there was a pragmatic aspect. of it, so be careful. Disrecognize you may not be able to handle what they can handle. That doesn't mean you block everything off, but just be careful. So foods may be it. What about behavior? Yeah, there's behavior that you should, I mean, I follow God's... You should be pleasing to God. Yeah, exactly. Judge all behavior by the standards God has set, not the standard the culture has set, okay? At whatever that behavior is, okay? And that varies a lot. It could be how touchy they are. The guys shouldn't be touching the girls. Okay, even if the local folk do, don't do that. It's like the dancing that we talked about last week. The dancing could be a problem. It's too sensual in nature or whatever. Okay, don't just join in to join in. Think through what you're doing and why. That doesn't mean that you can't participate. It means you got to think through what you're going to participate in. Other behaviors. I guess personally, just because they like it at 200 decibels doesn't mean that you have to stay there. Jets are only 120. I am exaggerating a bit here. If it's over 92 decibels, you don't have to stay, even if they think that's great. Either that or at least bring some hearing protectors. At least some plugs, that's a little more discreet. Or you can get those sound canceling ear buds, iPhones, the ones that go with your iPhone. They're sound canceling. Yeah, that would make it look cool and it blocks it too. You just be careful with it. So set some boundaries. And that's something whoever's leading the trip should talk about before they go. not something you talk about after you get there. Make them aware of these are the things, these are the dangers that are there. You may find it's a culture that's very sexually active and you may find your guys can be seduced. or your women can be taken advantage of. So you're going to be very careful there too. So you have to think through what's in the culture, what they're doing, why they're doing it, and set some parameters before you get there. Discussion breaks out in your parenting class about the various cultural traditions surrounding Christmas, with a particular concern about Santa Claus, whether children should be taught to believe he brings them presents. How will you help the group think through the biblical principles that apply to both Santa Claus and other cultural Christmas traditions? You could teach the group about Santa Claus and origins, but not to replace Jesus as the reason why we're celebrating. That would be crucial. What about Santa Claus giving them presents? And that's what you're going to have to focus on is, do you really want to teach your children to lie and to believe a lie? Because for you to carry this out, you have to lie. Right. You're going to have to hold that line. Yeah. So those are things that most people don't think through because, well, I got it as a kid, so it didn't hurt me. Oh, I don't know. You know, thinking back, it's like, yeah, my parents were lying to me. Why? What was the purpose in that? And I definitely do not want my children to be ending up getting older in life and finding out I was lying, because now it's going to be, well, what else are you lying to me about? So there's some serious issues that apparently in class would be a good place to discuss it. So those are cultural traditions and things. There's, of course, a lot of things of the culture, things that pop up. But those principles from Scripture are applied to all adults. Romans 14 is especially important. I'm going to judge things by what I'm going to make out of them, how I value them. At the same time, I'll be careful with the warnings earlier in Romans 14 that I'm not advising somebody into doing something that for them will be sin. I don't want to do that. I don't want to violate my brother's conscience. Paul's thing of being all things to all people. I want to think through things that I try to identify as much as I can with those I'm trying to witness to. And if it's acceptable to God, then it should be acceptable to me. If it's not acceptable to God, then I have to hold the line there. This is not appropriate for the God that I worship, and that's why I tell people. I'm not condemning them. I'm just saying that's not acceptable to God I'm worshiping. I just want to tell you about this God who actually died for your sins, loved you that much. So it can give you inroads to be able to talk to people. If you just acquiesce and join in with all of it, well, what's different between you and anybody else? So there has to be care and concern. with what we're doing. Think through the issues. Why do you do what you do? And is it accomplishing that? OK. All right. Any other ideas, thoughts? OK. Next week is church discipline, baby dedications. Yeah, baby dead, because that gets into the whole thing about paedo-baptism and all that stuff. If there's other things you would like us to talk about, we can meet the week following. Just let me know. Or I can even just do a Q&A, whatever you want, throw anything out, because I think this has been good. It's getting you to think through issues, and that's what we want to do. And elders have to be able to do that, because this is the rubber meets the road stuff. It's one thing, yeah, I know my Bible. know my theology, but can I help people with applying that in their lives and all these issues? And am I going to get blindsided by something that pops up I've never thought about? And if I am, how am I going to think through it and get past those issues? I have to be able to refute those who contradict and encourage and sound doctrine. So this is part of refuting those who contradict and then being able to direct them, well, how does Scripture actually direct us to deal with these issues? And obviously, the more you know the scriptures, and you know how theology takes all these principles from scripture, then the better able I am to apply anything. OK? Pastor, I just have a quick question. With Resurrection Day that just passed, I did hear a lot of people in church or other churches, where rather than Resurrection Day, they say Easter. But Easter, from the research that I've done, was named from a goddess or something. That's there. Yeah. Yes. How did that get into Christian vocabulary? Most Christians who use the term Easter are referring to it because it got into the King James Bible. Mm-hmm. Oh. It's in Acts. I think it's Acts 20. Paul is returning from his, I think it's the second missionary journey. And he makes a comment that in the Greek is he wants to get to Jerusalem by Paschal, Passover. Passover occurs in the spring. English translators recognize this was a reference to a time period. And so time period in England was the celebration of his spring goddess, goddess fertility, Astar, so Easter. And so it's all coming with spring. That's why you get all these fertility things that are related by the little chicks and little bunnies. How a bunny got, I don't remember. I remember we had some, how did a bunny start delivering eggs? I don't know, but tie them together. But it was all about worship of that. That was translated in the King James in 1611 as Easter instead of Passover, because it was a reference to a time period. And they were wrong. But because it was in the King James, it spread and it became, well, Resurrection Sunday is Easter Sunday. And that's how it got in there. And most Christians have no idea. Yeah. So for them, it's happy Easter. That's what they're referring to, but that's not, that's where it came from. I mean, we'd say resurrection day because it brings it to the true significance of the day, but I just. I'd be saying it. So I was saying it because at Friday before that Sunday, so they were like, Oh, happy. Sounds like happy resurrection. They were just looking at me. So, you know, I try to use these things to witness, you know, and I'm not trying to just correct them, but, you know, you saying it to me, well, I'm saying it back now that that door is open. Yeah, we can use the standard. old ancient Christian greeting is they say Happy Easter and say is, he is risen. He's risen indeed. That's the greeting for this day. Either way they're still looking at you, huh? So you get to explain some stuff, but that's the tie. There's actually a lot of things that of similar nature that get popped into what we do and why we do it. Somewhere it got into the culture and it just stays that way and doesn't necessarily mean it's true. Hence Christmas itself. Why do we pick that? Well, it's tradition. And okay, I pick whatever day, and by tradition, it's like, okay, this is the day that's usually recognized to celebrate it, unless you're Eastern Orthodox, in which case it's January 6th. Thank you. You're welcome. All right, let's stop. Let me pray, and then we'll stop the recording. Thank you, Father, for your blessings in your word that direct us on how to deal with all these many different issues. The principles and precepts of it give us confidence that we can be pursuing walking with you, and yet be gracious to other people, and pointing them always to the truth. In Jesus' name, amen.