A Riddle About Prayer and Praise

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. My head feels like it's going to explode. I have a horrific headache right now, like it it is so bad. I don't even know if I should be broadcasting. I mean it hurts. I mean I don't even have words for it right Like even light is hurting my eyes right now. So I probably shouldn't be broadcasting. But I have a question for you. What should I do? What should I do for this like horrible headache? Oh, someone said that they will pray for me? All right, well, thank you very much. Now how does that exactly work?

0:55 You're gonna pray to God to help my head and you believe God can actually intervene and help my headache. Have you ever thought of a possible difficulty or possible possible contradiction or maybe kind of a riddle about that very thing? If I tell you I have a headache, you're going to pray to God to lessen my headache? Do you not see a possible kind of like a difficulty with that concept? Maybe kind of a riddle? Can you think of one? Okay? Okay, if you can't. That's okay because we're going to be talking about that very thing. But just remember just remember my headache.

1:36 Okay, just remember my headache because I'm using it as an illustration, but it's very real. It's very very real right now, but I want you to just remember it. Many of you know I have obviously neurological issues because what happened to me in the military, and also a seizure disorder with it, and the headaches are just you know, I always make the joke I have had a migraine since two thousand and three, and that's not really an exaggeration. It never goes away. Ever, It's constant and consistent every day, every hour since two thousand and three, all right, because of what happened. But I'm not going to get into that. Just remember that. Just remember it, okay, just remember it, right? You got that? All right now? With that said, good afternoon everyone. It is Saturday, July the twentieth, twenty twenty four. It is currently two fifty one pm Central time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. A riddle A riddle?

2:44 Do you like riddles? Do you do you like someone to hand you a riddle and you sit there and you spend hours thinking about it, trying to figure it out, trying to come up with a solution. Do you like the process? Or do riddles kind of irritate you? You're like, whatever, I'm not going to spend much time. It doesn't really matter. Some people think like them. I think some people they just kind of irritate them. And some people just kind of look at you like, I don't care about your riddles. Go away, right, I don't know how you feel about them. But for the next ever how long I'm going to broadcast, we're gonna be talking about a very important riddle. Now, before I tell you what the riddle is, let's start with a definition. Does that sound good? Are you ready? A riddle is a type of puzzle or problem that presents a question or statement requiring thought and ingenuity to solve. All right, did you hear that again? Riddle is a type of puzzle or problem that presents a question or statement that requires thought and ingenuity to solve.

3:49 Do you have any ingenuity? Do you have the ability to give some serious thought to a problem that I need you to solve? A problem, a riddle that I need you to unravel. It often involves a play on words or requires lateral thinking to arrive at the correct answer. Riddles can be in the form of a question, a description, or a scenario that contains clues to its solution. Often designed, often designed to be challenging and entertaining.

4:31 Now, in this particular case, I have no desire to be entertaining. I do want it to be challenging, but I want it to be challenging because I want you to be confronted with a reality that, if you are a Christian, you've been living with this reality your whole Christian life. I don't know if you've ever been confronted with this reality or if you've ever noticed it, because when I hear Christians talk, I feel that they've never either been confronted with it and they never give it any thought. But there is this riddle that's just been existing right there in your Christian life, day in and day out, and it usually shows up when and even though it's there, nobody wants to acknowledge it, nobody sees it for someone it's like, I guess it's like it's invisible. I don't know but anytime you hear Christians talk about prayer or Christians talk about praising God, there is a riddle.

5:23 There is a riddle there, and nobody seems to catch on when you If you were to tell me, Hey, I'm gonna pray for your headache, I'm gonna pray for your seizure disorder, I'm gonna pray for your neurological issues that you encountered because of what happened to you in the military. That's very kind of you, that's very generous, that's very loving, that's very compassionate, compassionate, that's very empathy empathetic. However, it does not take away the riddle. The riddle is sitting right there. The riddle is right there. How do you do you not see it? And I've been really struggling with this kind of riddle because, first of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

6:16 After the assassination attempt, a lot of people were like, praise God, We praise God because he spared Donald Trump's life. Oh, we praise God. He stepped in, he intervened, he spared him, he saved him, he protected him, he covered him in his arm arms, he covered him in the armor. All the different phrases and ways I've heard it stated and people have spoken of it, but they praise God because God did something. Then they also say, now for the people who were wounded, let's pray for them, or for the man, for those who actually mentioned the name of the man Corey who died, I mean, for those who actually even remember him or mention him, They'll be like, we need to pray for his family. So God stepped in spared Donald Trump, and we're gonna pray for those who We're gonna praise God for that. We're gonna pray for those who were wounded, and we're gonna pray for the family of the man who was killed, of Corey who was killed. All Right, nobody sees a riddle there, Nobody. Nobody is a little like, wait a minute, this seems kind of odd. So that's one reason I've been thinking about So I've been thinking about it since the assassination attempt. Right, I've been thinking and we've been talking about things that are that philological issues that have arisen from that discussion about the assassination attempt, primarily and mainly God's providence and God's eternal decrees, but let's continue. A four alarm fire Friday evening caused

7:56 significant damage and roof collapse to the historic sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. Now, I don't know for those who don't live in Texas, First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas probably means nothing to you, but it's very has great historical significance, and it is very well known. That church is very well known because they moved from their the historic sanctuary to this new what they call campus that cost millions upon millions upon millions of dollars to build. You can look up the actual figure. It's insane, how much did it cost to build the new sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. When when the numbers first came out, it was a big talk all around. I was going to say the state of Texas, which would be incorrect. SAE am having horrible headache today. The great country of Texas.

8:50 Everyone in this country of Texas was talking about it and discussing it because we were like, that's insane for that much money, they I mean a million things they could have done. But we can have that discussion at a different time. But the issue is a foe alarmed. Fire happened and the historic part of the sanctuary. Nothing new, the historic it's it collapsed, okay, so and as far as I can tell, it's probably for the most part, it's gone all right now. This church, First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, is an influential Southern Baptist mega church with connections to many prominent Christian leaders. We can now, and this is a quote, We continue to praise God for his hand of protection on our church. We are grateful that no one was injured today and are thankful for the first responders who helped contain the fire to our historic sanctuary. They continue working, but the primary fire has been extinguished or one way or another. We intend to meet for church this Sunday. More details to follow. We hope to see you there and Rescue Cruz responded to a call and it goes you know, can give you some of the information. The red brick building, known as the church's Old Sanctuary, was built in eighteen ninety was the church's home for a long time before it involved. It moved to its new worship center about twelve years ago. First Baptist Dallas has been led by pastor Robert Jeffris, a Fox News contributor and host of the daily radio program Pathway to Victory,

10:22 which has aired on hundreds of stations nationwide. On social media, Jeffris urged prayer for the church. So we have two situations. One obviously extremely tragic, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and those who are wounded and the man who actually die obviously a tragic, tragic, tragic, tragic, tragic situation here is kind of a catastrophic situation in the sense that a historic church sanctuary is gone and all the month, you know, the damage that is done, you know, all the money may cost, and all the things that will go into the church. But two very I think you know, one is kind of a catastrophic as far as material possession being destroyed, and it obviously it can probably bother at people greatly that they're you know, part of their church burned down. But so that's obviously difficult. The assassination attempt is obviously extremely tragic and extremely horrible. Both situations, though depending on your involvement in it, will impact you in different ways, but we can all see them as very negative, difficult, painful, tragic, catastrophic financially significant situations, however you want to label them all negative. And in both cases we talk about praising God and praying to God. And I could go on and on and on with situations and circumstances, because every time there's a difficulty,

11:54 there's pain, there's sickness, there's death, there's tragedy, no matter no matter how negative it may be, Christians will say something about praying to God, and when the idea of praying to God is that God will intervene. Look when you pray about a situation, andevitably, the way Christians pray, they're praying for intervention. They're praying for God to do something, to intervene, to make it better, to stop it, to fix it, to help to do something. Almost inevitably there's a prayer for intervention and then praising God, as you're always praising God for whatever positive came out of the situation, or that it wasn't as bad as it could be. So prayer and praise is common and difficult circumstances, tragic situations, catastrophic situations, pain, suffering, death, financial loss, whatever the case may be, no matter how significant it may be, no matter how small. It may be it could just be me suffering from a horrible headache, and people will say I will pray, and I understand that. Again, very compassionate, very empathetic, wonderful that people would do that. But all of this leads me to my riddle. Now I kind of put this riddle kind of in a question for him. It's kind of a statement slash question. All right, are you ready? You may want to write this down. Here we go, as Christians we pray to a God and whom we cannot see. As Christians,

13:37 we pray to a God and whom we cannot see, to act in some way to help with circumstances that we can see. Even though so I want this is going is a long statement, all right, so you can you can clean it up and make it more grammatically correct if you so desire. I wanted to just capture how all of these circumstances and watching Christians talk about them online in some of the comment sectioned under some articles, and watching some of the argument and fighting, and seeing how some non Christians are asking some very very difficult questions about these situations. It made me then kind of put this all together. So as Christians we pray to a God and whom we cannot see, to act in some way to help with circumstances we can see. And we do this even though the God whom we cannot see, at the very minimum, knew the circumstances would happen before he created the world, and he allowed those circumstances to happen, and he did absolutely nothing to stop them. Now, this is just the first part of it, right, So I want you to think about that. Really, hear what I'm saying. As a Christian, you pray to a God in whom you cannot see, and you ask that God to act in some way to help with

15:09 circumstances. And you can see those circumstances, and you're asking that God to intervene to help, to comfort, to do something about this particular circumstance, to to you know, help heal the people who were shot, or to fix this, or to help here or comfort here, or do it. You're asking God to intervene in some way, shape or form involved in these circumstances which you can see, and you're praying to the very God who, at the very minimum knew that all of those circumstances were going to happen, and he knew that before he even created the world, and at the very minimum, not only did he know, he did nothing to stop said circumstance.

16:00 So you're praying to the God, let's say one of the people who was shot during the Trump assassination attempt. So you're praying for God to what intervene, help that person, kill that person, strengthen that person, help that you're asking God to intervene in a specific way, but you're asking him to intervene in the very circumstance that he knew was going to happen before he created the world, and he did absolutely nothing to stop the shooting from happening. Happening, and he did absolutely nothing to stop that individual you're praying for from being shot. And you're going to go to the very God who knew it, who did nothing to change it, to stop it or prevent it.

16:40 Now you're asking that God to intervene in the very circumstance he did not stop, and he did nothing to interfere with. Now that's at the very very minimum, he knew and did not act. And at the very most, you're now going to pray to the God whom you cannot see to help with circumstances which you can see. And at the very most, that God that you're praying to, not only did he know, not only did he not act, That God decreed the very circumstances. Not only did he decree them, he guided and directed them to happen. I haven't gotten to the question part yet. So I want you to consider all of this again.

17:37 As a Christian. You can write this out in a much more simpler form, but I want you to write this. Look, you may not want to hear this, you may not want to talk about it, but trust me, I've seen this comment. I've seen people on Christian post articles raising these very same questions. I think Bill Maher on his program as a Real Time with Bill Maher HBO, I think, which you know, obviously not coming at it from a Christian perspective, I think he raised the same questions to about Trump supporter, saying, you know, God stepped in and God protected Trump and he and so he asked some of these very same questions. So whether so people are asking the question. Christians don't like to talk about this, Nobody wants to discuss this in church. But it's a riddle that's always been there. Every time you say, well, let's pray about this, we're gonna pray for this, or pray for so and so, and pray for so and so. Well, we're gonna pray to the very God to enter, to intervene, to get involved in a circumstance that at the very least, that very God you're praying to he knew those circumstances were going to happen before the foundations of the world. And not only did he know, he allowed it to happen. He didn't intervene to stop the circumstance.

18:45 He didn't intervene to prevent the circumstance. He allowed it to happen, just the way I played that. Now you're gonna pray to that god to now intervene. Well, if he didn't intervene to stop it, why would he intervene now. And if you're asking him to intervene now to change the to either change the circumstance you're currently involved in, or to fix the situation that was the result of the circumstance, well that seems odds. It's that the God you're praying to is the god who knew it was going to happen and did nothing to stop it from happening. Does that feel a little weird? Oh but wait, depending on your theological background, he did more than just know it. He did more than just not do anything to prevent it.

19:29 He decreate it. Not only did he decree it in his providence, he guided and directed the very circumstance to occur. And now you're going to pray God to get involved in interview? And what changed the circumstance that he decreed to fix the consequence to make the consequence better than the very circumstance that he decreed. So then, ultimately, after I wrote all that, I just wrote this down, what then are you praying for? What are you praying for? Hey? God? Because this is how you would have to have the conversation you like, if you were if we were to try to make this in a more fleshly way. Right, this is by no means to demonstrate any irreverence, but it's to try to put it in a way that you can understand. Right, So, you're facing a circumstance. It's something bad is currently going on, or there's bad consequences of something that's just happening, and you're like, Okay, who do we go to. Well, let's run and knock on the door of the God who knew it was going to happen, didn't stop it. Or we're gonna knock on the door of the God who not only knew it, who didn't do anything to stop it, but he decreed it and he guided and directed it by his providence.

20:42 Now we're gonna run knock on the door and say, hey, God, God, God, sorry to bother you, but you know that circumstance, You know that tragedy. You know that situation that you didn't do anything to stop. You know that situation that you decreed to happen, and you and your providence guided it to happen. Hey, we need you to stop it. We need you to make the circumstance better, stop it, just end it. Oh, we need you to Now, we need you to fix this and this and this and this. Even though those are the circums, those are the consequences of the very circumstance you ordained to occur. What are we praying for and what should we be praying for? How do you handle this riddle in your own Christian life? All right, let's just try to throw out some circums. Let's try to throw out some circumstances. Right, let's try to throw out some circumits, some some scenarios, some illustrations, some examples. All Right, it's it's Saturday. It's fast approaching. You know, it's well Saturday afternoon. It'll be late Saturday afternoon going insert Saturday evening relatively quick, so it won't be too long that many of you will be waking up. You'll get in a car and you'll drive to church.

21:59 And let's say you walk into church and the pastor's like, hey, everyone, come to the sanctuary. We have an announcement, y'all know. We'll just call the person John. Y'all know John, he has a seventeen year old daughter. Well, that seventeen year old daughter was hit by a drunk driver last night and she's in the hospital and she's currently paralyzed. Now, immediately the church said, well, let's pray for her. Now, wait a minute, so let's just make sure we get this right. We're going to pray to the very God who knew she was going to be on an accident on July the twentieth, knew that she was going to be on that accident. And did absolutely nothing to prevent it or stop it from happening.

22:40 And that's the God you're going to pray to to now get involved and intervene. No wait, no, wait, okay, let's say your church has a higher view of God's sovereignty. Right, so, hey, everyone knows John has a seventeen year old daughter. She was hit by a drunk driver last night. She's in the hospital and she paralyzed. All right, so now we're gonna pray wit a minute, We're going to pray to the very God who not only knew it was going to happen, did nothing to prevent it from happening. But we're going to pray to the very God who decreed it to happen and and his divine providence guided and directed it. Does that not seem weird? You would think you would not want to pray to the God who knew it and did nothing to stop it, or pray to the God who ordained it, decreed it, and then his providence guided and directed.

23:37 You would think, no, no, no, no, no no no no no no no no no, you wouldn't want to pray to that God because you would you need someone else to step in who didn't decree it, didn't know it, didn't want it, it had no it would I want to be theological in the way I state this, someone who would be not had nothing to do with it in any way, shape or form. Maybe I can put it that way. We could get into Well, God wanted it to happen, didn't want it to happen. Well, if he didn't want it to happen, then it wouldn't happened. Right. Are you gonna say God wants things and he doesn't get what he wants, Well, then that would mean God is being defeated by what something outside of himself. That leads to some major philological issues with God. How do you reparente?

24:22 So now let me go back to my how I start. Well, that's one set of circumstances we could go with. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here this morning. We just got news yesterday that y'all know. Y'all know Kimberly, Yeah, I know Kimberly. Well, Kimberly has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She has six months to live. Nobody say let's pray. Wait a minute, we're going to pray to the God who knew that Kimberly would get terminal cancer and did nothing to stop it from happening. So now we're going to pray. What are we praying for?

25:03 And if you have a higher view of God's sovereignty, then we're going to pray to the very God who not only knew, who did nothing to prevent the cancer from happening, but decreed and guided and directed it through providence. Are you going to say God does not decree everything that comes to pass, Well, then now you're you're denying God's sovereignty. So what are we going to pray for? For God to now go against what he decreed? For God to now go against what he or ordained, what he directed? What exactly are we praying for? Now? Here? Those are two. I could give a thousand more examples. I think you get the idea, and we can go back to how I started this entire episode. I have an absolutely like I can't even put into words how bad my head is herting right now, God, before the foundations of the world, knew that on July the twentieth I would have this horrible headache. He knows if I'm going to possibly have a seizure in the next couple of hours. He knows that, and he did nothing to prevent the headache. And he did nothing to prevent the very thing that happened to me to cause me to have a seizure disorder, did nothing to prevent it. So now are we going to pray to

26:34 that God to do something now? And it depending on your view of God's sovereignty. God knew before the foundations of the world that I'd have this headache. He knew exactly what would happen to cause me to have a seizure disorder and neurological issues, and he did nothing to prevent it. And if we go a step further, he decreed it and in his providence, guided and directed it to happen to me. So do I pray to God now to intervene to take away from the very circumstance that he decreed. Now I have in front of me. I have in front of me and my notes on my iPad a thing called Prayer and Tragedy. And it's a lengthy trying to discuss how Christians throughout Church history have tried to kind of answer this very riddle.

27:36 Now, I'm not going to talk about it right now, I'm going to possibly talk about it in the first hour at Victory Baptist Church tomorrow morning. Nobody's gonna like it, because I think every theological stream that's tried to answer this question, I think their answers have been ridiculous, circular reasoning, or just literally denying the fact, denying the very reality of the problem. Now, for most Christians, I don't think it bothers you. For most Christians, it's really interesting. I don't think this bothers most Christians. I think most Christians go, well, you know, I don't understand it, but I'm going to pray to God anyway. But you may be praying to God to go against the very circumstance He decreed and his providence is put together and direct. Well, I don't care about it. I'm not going to try to figure all that out. I'm just going to pray to God, Okay. But is it possible that we then could be praying against God's very will because we're praying against the very thing he decreed. Maybe then that should change the way we pray. Now, if you don't know this, in church history, there were very different views on prayer, especially those in the Reform world who held to a high view ower view of God's sovereignty, at least in theory, I'm not saying in practice. In theory, their theology called for a different way of praying, right because they believed everything was ordained, everything God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass, as the London Baptist Confession

29:07 of Faith says, and as the Westminster Confession of Faith says. So they they had a different and very a different way of pray now and practice. I'm not saying they always prayed that way, okay, because I think when things are going bad, you don't know what else to do. You start crying out to God, God do this, God do this, God do that? But how does how does that? How does it supposed to work? Like sometimes you know, I get I get constantly, you know, emails from ministries. You know, please pray for us. Pray that God will provide the finances we need to keep this radio broadcast going. Please that God will provide What if you're having financial difficulties, do we pray for God to fix those financial situations? Since God knew the situation was going to arise, he did nothing to prevent that situation from arising. And even possible.

30:00 He has decreed it to occur, and he has and his provision guided and directed it. I don't how do you work that? I don't know. I mean I could sit here and say, hey, guys, in six days, in six days, I will be charged sixty dollars for broadcasting on the Church one app and the Sermon's two point zero app and the sermonaudio platform. I'm going to be charged sixty dollars in six days. Would anyone like to cover that? Or do I simply say, hey, pray that God will provide? But will God provide? Well, if God's going to provide, it's either been decreed or not decreed, So then do I even mention it? Now? I know this gets into a big discussion of well then and if if God doesn't provide, then do I just take that as well?

30:45 He didn't want the broadcast and end the podcast and just be done. Do I just do? Is that the way I just do it? Just go with that direction? Well, that leads to really disturbing circumstances that we have seen play out in the history of Christianity. That's why some people say going to take any medicine, not going to go to the doctor. If God wants me to be healed, I'll be healed. Well, that usually has people dying of something that was easily fixable. So I'm not obviously advocating that position in any way, shape or form, but you see, like and then and then the weird thing is, well, if you're praying that, even even for those who hold that very strong view that hey, we're not going to do anything, God will intervene, they still will ask for prayer. Well, that just is just as ridiculous. What you're praying to the very God who did not stop the disease from happening, and possibly ordained it and directed it in his providence. So praying for it just seems just as ridiculous as going to the doctor. Then, from that perspective, nobody has any good answers here. I think this is one of the major difficulties and trying to understand. So I think many Christians, like you know, I'm not going to try to figure that all out. And you know what, in some ways, if you cannot try to figure it all out, you're probably better off. I'm just gonna be honest with you, You're probably better off because if you really start digging into this, You're just gonna get into a bunch of I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, and I

32:16 don't know. I don't know, I don't know. I have no clue I do. The reason what I want to know is I do think maybe our prayers, maybe our prayers should be different. See, it's one thing. If I'm going to a god who didn't know that it happened, didn't allow it to happen, and a god who didn't ordain it to happen, decree it to happen, but has the potential and power to intervene to stop it and change it, well, then that's easy to pray to that God. Hey, God, I know you're not aware of what's going on, but we need you to intervene right now. We know you didn't decree it, we know you didn't ordain it. We know you didn't you didn't allow it. You just this just happened apart from you in any way, shape or form. We need you to intervene. Okay, that makes sense.

33:01 But the minute I go to a god, I'm like, well, I know you allowed it, but I need you to change it. Well, then why did he allow it if he's going to now change it? Now, you could argue he allows it so you will be driven to prayer, that he only allowed it to drive you to prayer. But then you know how disturbing that can get. Now you're going to look at people who are suffering great tragedy. Well, God allowed this so that you'll pray more. That's okay. That that can be a little sadistic if you think if you take that too far. Hey, your daughter is in the hospital paralyzed because well, God just wanted you to pray more, Okay, he allowed it so that you'll pray more. Well, I don't see people say well that's a great thing. I don't see that's a great thing. How do you what do you do with this riddle? How do you unravel it? How do you unpack it? Now? I think more important I said, I'm not even really looking for you to answer it. I'm looking for you to do is for you to be confronted with it. And what I'm looking at is to just know how do you handle this riddle in your own life?

34:12 So let me kind of go through it one more time as a Christian, You and I pray to a God and whom we cannot see. We asked that God, whom we cannot see, to act in some way to help with circumstances which we definitely can see and we can definitely feel. And we pray this even though the very God whom we cannot see, the very God and whom we are praying to. At the very minimum, that God whom we are praying to, knew those circumstances would happen before he even created the world, and he allowed those circumstances to happen, and he did absolutely nothing to stop them. At the very most, the very God, the very God you're praying to, he decreed those circumstances to occur before the foundations of the world, and he has guided and directed those circumstances to happen just as they did according to his divine providence. So the question is why are we praying for? Why are we even praying? Now? I can go through the history and tell you the different ways people have approached this question. I don't really know the question. I don't know if any of the approaches are

35:43 really that good. I really I don't know if any of them are truly satisfying. And I know that I know this is this leads for many to open theism a God who does not know what's going to happen, does not decree everything to happen. That that really is a different kind of God than the God that I believe the Bible reveals. But the Bible the God reveals it because it leads us to a kind of a mental logical crisis and trying to understand, well, wait a minute, I just don't I don't know.

36:24 You want me to pray to the very God who knew it was going to happen, allowed it to happen, and that at the very most decreed it to happen, and then guided it through divine providence. And that's the God you want me to pray now for your situation. Now, I wish I had an easy answer here, but I don't. I don't know if we'll find it. See this goes directly to kind of what our focus for all this week has been God's providence, God's eternal decrees. Right, We've been talking about this all week. I've been giving you specific things to look at, specific things to consider. Well, as you've been considering it all week. I don't know if you if this part of this equation has come to your mind. I know I think I've mentioned it numerous times. I've been I've talked about my struggles with prayer, and this is one of the reasons I struggle because I can't wrap my mind around this love. To get your thoughts, you can email me at news I F at yahoo dot com.

37:39 That's news. I F at yahoo dot com. NEWSI F at yahoo dot com. Now my headache has gone from bad horrible to now it's really really bad. But my headache right now serves as a great example. Are you going to pray to the very God who knew it, who allowed it, the very most decreed it guided me at this very moment to have what I'm experiencing right now? What are you going to pray for for it to go away? Would that be against God's will or for it? I don't necessarily have a good answer, and I know that this question makes Christians very nervous and gets them upset. But I'm someone who's a fellow believer, and I'm saying we have to be confronted with this because whether you like it or not, I know many Christians just have the attitude towards lost people. Well, they just don't believe that's their problem because we don't want to. But you know what, I think that sometimes maybe some of them use it in a very sarcastic or snarky way, and you just kind of want to fight with them. But I think in some cases there's some legitimate reasons. Maybe

39:12 there's some deep pain and confusion about things they've experienced. I think before we just blow them off as well they don't believe who cares. I think we may want us try to see their pain and that you know, that's a really that's a really rational thought out question that all of us should be bothered by. So I think it's better for me to say, hey, guys, guys, I'm on your team, quote unquote, but as believers in God, we have to deal with this very kind of difficult thing to wrap our minds around and try to see if what we can come up with. All right, news Yah dot com, News dot com. I'm going to stop broadcasting now, but I am glad see in this case, this was perfect timing. My first opportunity to record corresponded perfectly with a headache that should tell me not to record, but the headache serves as a good illustration for this message, so in some ways this worked out perfectly. Thanks for listening, God bless