Episode 174

The He Gets Us campaign took the evangelical internet by storm in the last year. It has garnered a wide range of responses, from praise to harsh criticism and mockery. What is this campaign, who is behind it, what are they trying to accomplish, and why are the reactions to it so strong? On this episode of the Removing Barriers podcast, hosts McG and Jay do a bit of digging to answer these questions and then try to understand the world’s reaction to the campaign. Are Christians who object to He Get Us just being snobby theological prudes when it comes to the messaging of these ads or is there actually a sinister plot behind the shiny productions to undermine the power of the gospel of Christ? We answer these questions thoroughly, so join us as we tackle this barrier so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

[Jay]

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay.

[MCG]

And I’m MCG.

[Jay]

And we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear. View of the cross.

[MCG]

This is episode one of General 74 of the Removing Barriers podcasts, and in this episode. We will be discussing the viral he gets US campaign from a biblical perspective.

[Jay]

Hi, this is Jay. MCG and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removingbarriers.net and subscribing to receive all things, removing barriers. If you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on, consider donating at removingbarriers.net/donate, removing barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

Alright, Jay, let’s start with the background of this campaign. Tell us the background, maybe a description of a campaign for those who may not have seen it.

[Jay]

The he gets US campaign is a series of videos and blog posts on the he gets us.com website that aims to introduce Jesus to a postmodern X-17 culture that America is today. It was launched initially in 2022 by the Servant Foundation. Also known as the signatory, and the signatories of nonprofit organization run by the Green Family, which is the Hobby Lobby family. Or the family that owns Hobby Lobby. I think the aim of that nonprofit organization is to connect organizations and churches that seek to promote the gospel, but it’s done in a more business nonprofit organization fashioned. What I mean by that is that it’s not like it’s churches. Coming together in order to facilitate the propagation of the gospel, they’re treating the gospel like it’s a business and how to get the marketing name out there and how to reach more people more from a marketing or business perspective, right? Now, as of earlier this year, 2024, it’s the initiative of come near ink and they’re the ones that brought it to mainstream light by a series of Super Bowl commercials that proved to be quite controversial. Come near Ink is a new nonprofit organization literally set up this year. This is from their website, led by a team with experience and. Marketing innovation and these are nonprofit leaders committed to the sharing of the life and the love of Jesus in thought, provoking new ways. The CEO is Ken Caldwell. He’s a former marketer for companies like Domino’s and Wendy’s. So these really big companies that have massive marketing campaigns for companies that have worldwide. Name recognition. So he’s no small fish. He knows what he’s doing here, right? Marsha said. He’s no small fry. He knows what he. Doing here, this CEO Kim Caldwell, according to a Wall Street Journal article, he says that Jesus has billions of followers. This is a quote. Jesus has billions of followers, but what he needed was a top of the funnel marketing campaign. So top of the funnel marketing campaign just means that the name or the. And. The brand awareness, like awareness of what the product. Is is increased, so it’s just getting the name out there, getting the brand out there, getting people to realize who this Jesus is. Of course he’s speaking in marketing terms. He took over that. He gets us from the signature that that’s the Hobby Lobby families organization he took over earlier this year as I said. And then he got those. Super Bowl ads to run in 2023. I think it was. I think it was last year’s Super Bowl.

[MCG]

They also ran this.

[Jay]

Year and they also ran this year, so it received a lot of controversy and backlash because of the content. And so for those who are for that, he gets US campaign, they’re saying hey, this is great people who otherwise wouldn’t know who Jesus is or what he’s like or even would have even considered him are getting fresh exposure to him in a new and exciting way. And those that are against are saying, hey, you’re not presenting Christ properly. Here’s how it should be done. That’s the whole situation in a nutshell.

[MCG]

Yeah, as you said, I first heard of it through Super Bowl advertisement. I don’t watch the Super Bowl, but because. Of the backlash and all the stuff that happened because of that particular advertisement I heard of it, I would say that the message is subtle at best, or ecumenical or unbiblical at worst. And according to one guy, and I think I have a different name than what you have for leadership, but I’m sure the leadership may have. More than one person in the rank. He said the goal is what is called pre-evangelism. I’m probably gonna get into that a little bit later. What that means when he explained in his word what pre-evangelism is or what they’re doing, but basically the ultimate goal seems like they want to get people to sign up for Bible reading plan. So as you said, they’re trying to get the name of Jesus out there and maybe. Create some sort of curiosity, so you’re treating Jesus as a product to be advertised and get people say who is this person they’re talking about? And I think he said from one clip I watched, he said that I remember if it was Candace Owens or some famous conservative may have criticized the ad and it led to like a million views. And then Charlie Kirk also had some negative said about it and led to another million. You use a wonderful case, maybe. And of course, we know millions of people watching Super Bowl, so they got the. Out there and I think you can mention a little bit who’s behind of it, you know, at least when it’s behind of it, who’s funding it. And of course, the Hobby Lobby folks are behind of it, the Christianity.

[Jay]

They were. They’re not anymore.

[MCG]

Well, they probably put several million.

[Jay]

But they certainly. I’m sure they did. Yeah, for sure. Mm-hmm.

[MCG]

Behind of it. Maybe nothing leadership, but I know financially probably the Christianity Today, the National Association of Evangelicals, seems to be all involved and the mark confirmed that I have has been behind of it is a market firm called Haven. You think you mentioned a different marketing firm just now?

[Jay]

M. Yeah.

[MCG]

So and which way the case? It may be a lot of things are kind of blurred. There’s not a lot of information about who they are on their website. They self. At least I would like to find.

[Jay]

Yeah, the website itself is pretty bare bones. I didn’t know about the marketing firms. I don’t know who’s behind it, but the CEO of the nonprofit that owns the he gets US brand is who I was referring to. They’re probably using a different marketing firm to get all their advertisements out there.

[MCG]

Well, they certainly have a lot of money because, you know, sure, Super Bowl ads are not.

[Jay]

Are not cheap, right? That’s prime real estate when it comes to advertisement. Is everyone in the country is watching the Super Bowl? Even people who aren’t into football watch.

[MCG]

So.

[Jay]

People for the ads, because the ads are typically very funny and legendary, and also for the halftime show. So if you can get an ad during the Super Bowl, you really got a.

[MCG]

Lot of eyes on your product. Yeah, well, let’s get in. What is the objective? Because they seem OK. They have a lot of money. They have some big quote UN quote Christian organization behind of them. They seem to. Have somewhat of. Or, you know, controversial message or goal. Some people love it, some people hate it. Well, what are the objective overall? What would?

[Jay]

You say I think that I would let me preface this by saying I’m going to be very charitable because I don’t think that they set out to do anything controversial. It simply turned out that way. It seems that their goal is to introduce Jesus. To a people and a culture that no longer knows who this person is, there was a time in this country’s history where everyone at least had a baseline understanding of who Jesus is. Or. You want to say who Jesus was, even if they merely regarded him as a historical figure. There was a biblical literacy that was common among the people in the country all the way up until I’d say the 1950s, sixties, but recently. As recently as the 60s, I should say for the last 60-70 years there’s been a constant loss of biblical literacy among the people to where people today they know the name of Jesus as a curse word, or they know of him as an object of. Fun humiliation mocking in the media and in movies and things of that sort. He don’t know who he is, and certainly charlatans that you find on CBN and CBN and all of the other Christian so-called networks out there certainly don’t do much to help people understand who he is. Because they are obviously profiting for monetary gain, parading his name around as though he were some lucky rabbits foot but not who he is. God in the flesh. And so I suppose their objective is to introduce Christ to people today who don’t know who he is, who don’t understand his loves and who he actually was when he walked on the face of the earth. And I would say it’s very similar to the. The very, very popular TV series, not TV series, but it’s a series on the life of Jesus called the Chosen, the director Dallas Jenkins mentioned that he had that same objective to portray Christ to a post modern Act 17 culture so that people can get to know the true Christ. The problem when you’re doing that, however, is that. Typically you’re not presenting Christ in his. Old self. What I mean by that is they like to present the loving side of Christ, the humanity, the good that he did. But it’s almost always at the cost of the message of the gospel or the repudiation of sin, or things that might make people uncomfortable. So I think their objective. Was well-intentioned, just didn’t come across as doctrinally sound for many, many Christians, which is where the controversy comes in.

[MCG]

Yeah. I would say though, I don’t think I’m going to be as charitable as you, but and that’s because usually I’m the truth about one. But I would say that the objective, if you listen to, you know, the leadership, explain what the objective is. Of course I mentioned the term pre evangelism before.

[Jay]

Mm-hmm.

[MCG]

But if you listen to what they’re saying, they’re saying something actually similar to. To what we say on the Removing Virus podcast, so this is our charitable part. They have looked out into the culture, they have looked out in our society in America. And so the fact that we are moving just OK away from extra two and for most part the cities.

[Jay]

Hmm.

[MCG]

In America, along the east and West Coast, I would say are now fully acts Chapter 17 culture. You can make an argument in the middle of the country and certain States and even the rural area of.

[Jay]

MHM.

[MCG]

States are still probably acts Chapter 2, but when it comes to the cities where most majority of the people live in the United States of America, they are attracted to. That’s my opinion. I think they looked at in a culture they see the rise of LGBT the in the rise of chanting rhythm and they say, hey, how do we reach these people? How do we remove those barriers and show. Them to cross. But I also agree with you, and I think this is where they present Christ, or they try to reach people who have no concept of Christianity. But for me, it’s whether or not this is effective or not because it. Think not, even if it’s effective, but most importantly, is it biblical?

[Jay]

Is it effective in terms of getting Jesus’s name out there or evangelizing because those are two different things? I don’t know if they’re even trying. I don’t know if they’re even trying to do. I don’t think they’re trying to evangelize.

[MCG]

Boat boat actually. Well, they say they doing pre evangelism, so both getting Jesus out there and even evangelism pre evangelism what they call.

[Jay]

It OK when they say pre evangelism, they’re talking like preparing the sod as it were, preparing people to hear, OK.

[MCG]

I believe so, but I’m gonna get to that. I don’t want to jump ahead. I’m gonna get to that. I think I have a clip someplace where one of the leader we’re talking about that.

[Jay]

OK. Yeah.

[MCG]

So, well, I think that you know what it is, pre vandalism or whatever the case may be. The question is it effective and more importantly, is it on biblical, you know, if you go to the website, I think it’s he gets a.orgor.com or whatever the case may be. Just Google it, you’ll find it. Mm-hmm. You know, they have a number of ads and everything they do is kind of, you know, all the visual and it’s heavily.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

Withdraw. So if you go to the website and go to an article to read the article, they actually have a video description of the article as well. What it is you know in a cartoon doodle format or whatever the case may be. But they do have something. So it’s well produced, well managed. But the problem is what it is.

[Jay]

Hmm.

[MCG]

Their vagina privatism. They don’t mention sin. They don’t mention punishment or judgement of sin. They don’t mention repentance, they don’t mention salvation, they don’t mention God’s righteousness or holiness, or they don’t even mention the cross. Nothing. So basically they humanize Jesus. Yes. And the problem is that you cannot separate his deity from his humanity. Because if you do that in that present in the true Jesus, that’s why I say it’s effectively biblical, because if you present in Jesus, it’s no different than the Mormons present in Jesus as the spiritual brother of Satan. It’s not the Jesus of the Bible, right? No. Is it different from the joval witness present in Jesus who is not God? That’s not the Jesus of the Bible. So the question comes down is are they presenting the Jesus of the Bible because saying he gets us and put in Jesus name in there, but they present in a false Jesus is not effective. It’s empty. You want to. Play that way. Mm-hmm. And I like how voted back and put it because he has an audio that I’m gonna play. And, you know, he said there’s a Jesus whom everyone loves and the Jesus said everyone loves is a Jesus. That’s a figment of our imagination. Yeah. So the Jesus that we make up in our mind that accept us the way we are, leave us the.

[Jay]

Where we are doesn’t expect anything. Of us doesn’t expect us to change, yeah.

[MCG]

Right, basically an idol. Here’s Vodacom.

[Voddie Baucham]

Everybody loves Jesus as long as you don’t define who he is. As long as you don’t get into the nitty gritty of what it means for Jesus to be the son of God, listen. If Jesus is just a good man and a good teacher, even a good prophet, he is completely acceptable. Mormons and Muslims alike love Jesus, Hindus and Buddhists. Are very happy. With Jesus, as long as he’s just a teacher who offers sage wisdom. Then Jesus is fine. But the minute you step across that line. And argue that Jesus is more than prophet more than teacher. That he’s actually. God Incarnate God with us now all of a sudden, those who were more than willing to gather with you scatter.

[MCG]

And that’s the problem I’m having with that he gets this campaign because. Sure. You know Jesus is a product. Who said that? Jakes, who says that jewel esteem these are guys that sells Jesus and Jesus is not for sale and I feel like they he get to campaign is selling Jesus, but again, they’re not selling the real Jesus they’re selling to Jesus that yeah, embrace and everybody and he would. But again the Jesus that will embrace you. Is also the Jesus who will one day judge you. If you stay in your unrepentant sin. Yeah. So I have the name here. Ed stelzer. Is that the name you have as the the boss? If he gets us? Alright so so I have a name here at Stelzer. He was doing an interview and here’s what he said. I think he’s going to explain pre evangelism as well because I’m just gonna say what I think it is. What they’re basically saying is that.

[Jay]

Tim Coldwell.

[MCG]

I don’t know why they call it prison, but the way I got it is that they’re planting seeds. They’re trying to put their name Jesus out there for folks who have never heard and maybe create some level of curiosity and hence an advertisement for Jesus, which doesn’t sound too great for me. But anyway, here is Ed explaining.

[Ed Stetzer Interview]

And when you run ads that are geared towards engaging skeptics using creative ways, CS Lewis talked about. How? Why? He wrote fanciful stories he wanted to steal past the watchful Dragons cause in his day. Everyone sort of knew the gospel story. So what he said is I’m trying to, you would say, sneak. Today. I’m trying to sneak past these watchful Dragons of your familiarity with the story of the Christian story with these fanciful tales that he would tell well, so. In some ways these the the the the campaign is trying to steal past the watchful Dragons of people have sort of rejected Christianity. Say look what Jesus did and it’s pretty shocking things about how he elevated women, how he challenged the religious authorities. I mean we can look at dozens things so that to a skeptic who may have rejected Christianity.

In that frame then say well, I want to learn more, and then they go to the to the website and they learn more the bowling plans. So I think Joe Carter wrote kind of a thing about that. He gets his campaign that that I and I I tend to read the I read the different criticism. I read the different suggestions I read the different things. But in that case he said man if you like pre evangelism you probably. Will get the he gets his campaign more because it’s not like in 30 seconds in 60 seconds the ads in the Super Bowl come coming up. A lot of people listen to us after the. Super Bowl. But the 2024 Super Bowl. It’s 60 seconds at this time. These things changed, which I didn’t know, but it’s 60 seconds, and then a 15 second one. You didn’t. You can’t go from, you know, creation, fall, redemption and restoration. God, us and you know, Christ response. So it’s a conversation starter.

Of course, of course.

[MCG]

So there you have it. You’re trying to start the conversation, but the problem is you’re starting the conversation about a false Jesus, that’s. The thing that jerks at me because that Jesus did present dear is not that Jesus, the Bible true. Maybe in 60 seconds, which you probably should be able to present the full gospel message in a minute or less, given the opportunity and being very creative. Others have done it, others have taken the same idea and present a more biblical. Message similar to the campaign, so it’s not impossible. Of course. Yeah. You can’t go from Genesis to revelation in a minute and get into the weeds and stuff like that. But you don’t have to present a woke Jesus that everybody look at this. OK? Yes. What I’m getting from the he gets a campaign is that Jesus. It’s just like you. So if you’re gay, Jesus is going to be gay with you. If you’re going to have abortion, Jesus is approving of your abortion. Jesus is this. Yes. As I said, you may not be able to present 45 minutes message on salvation, but I’ve seen other ads that that one would guess I should say ad. But people who decide, hey, you get those campaign is wrong.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[MCG]

Let me show you how we should have been done, and they did it in the same amount of minutes or seconds that you had to create something that’s way more biblical, you know. So again, some of the stuff he’s saying sounds good. We do live in a, quite honestly, probably a post Christian society at this point, actually something society and we probably need to look at other ways that may be effective of reaching the laws than just handing them a track. I’m up for that. I’m up for. Looking and say OK, how best can we be effective? But I don’t think this is it, because if you’re gonna present the fault, Jesus is not it. So he explained. Thinks pre evangelism is, but why? To me they preach love and grace, but there’s no truth to it. They want Jesus who’s weak and needy and accepting. Not the Jesus who get angry at sin and Chase folks out of the temple. They want love by whatever means, but not truth. And I’m sure you remember this from past the thought.

[Pastor Todd]6

There was a book that was recently put out called Love wins. And there were Christians that were falling all over themselves, and I don’t remember the name of the author, but it’s not. That old of a book. And he entitled it love wins and I beg to differ. The Bible does not say that love wins. If love wins, then everybody will go to heaven because there’s no love that is supreme to God’s love. And he said in John Chapter 3 and verse #16 for God the father so loved the world that you and I that he gave his only begotten son. There’s never been a greater demonstration of love than the love of the. Well, the father. Or that the father gave in sending his son. But love, my friend, does not win. Think about it. If love wins, then everybody would go to heaven because God sent his greatest gift. Love doesn’t win. Truth wins. And in the end, based upon truth. And the acceptance or the rejection of truth. There will be a determination as to whether or not the person goes to heaven or goes to hell, and so it’s a false statement to make the statement that love wins. It does not. Truth wins and truth prevails, and so sometimes the most loving thing that I can do is to share the truth with that person that doesn’t yet know Christ. So is it? Is it loving for me to go to the doctor? And for the doctor to run tests and to find out that I’m full of cancer and the doctor doesn’t tell me and doesn’t show me the way that I can deal with it, that I can address it or whatever. Ohh, that would be loving if he just let me walk away thinking that everything was fine. No. When the doctor tells me the truth. That’s the best scenario. He could tell me anything he wanted and say. Well, I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to say those things because I love him too much. Well, no. If I have a lost friend and I love them, then I will want to tell them the truth.

[MCG]

So they have it. Love does not win. Truth wins. And that’s the problem with this thing. They’re presenting a lot of love. They’re presenting a Jesus who, Kumbaya, whatever the case may. Be and they figure, hey, you’re going to be a conversation starter. People going to come well, when do you present to them the real Jesus? Let’s say you start the conversation. How do you present to them to real Jesus. Because if you know you go and present them to real Jesus they say OK what about this one over here that accepted me the way I was but no he’s trying to change me. Don’t they see what this work world saying? OK, no one need to change. This is who I am. This is my idea. Identity when you get saved. Christ change your identity. You know his your identity needs now in him you cannot be LGBT and white, black and all these things that America has no place. Everybody in their box and and identities, right. It has to be in Jesus. That’s the mark of a true Bible. Believing Christian. The identities in Jesus. But here they’re saying. We’re going to accept you where they are, but when do we present the real Jesus? You know, there’s no clear presentation of gospel. And as I said, the gospel not even mentioned at all.

[Jay]

That’s the problem with these ads is that they’re presenting Jesus with this postmodern lens. Jesus as a social justice warrior, Jesus, as someone who partakes in the identity politics because one of the most catching ads that the he gets US campaign ran were these AI generated images. Of marginalized, oppressed people. As defined by the culture today, who are having their feet washed by the polar opposite, which in this world in our present day would be the so-called oppressor with the rest of the world watching or continuing on in the background. And it seemed to be quite one sided. The only people that were getting their feet washed were these people. That cross all of the DEI intersectionality requirements in our culture today. So you have a picture of, for example. A black man having his feet washed by a police officer or a transgender or, you know, gender fluid type person having their feet washed by a pastor or a girl going to get an abortion, having her feet washed by a woman who obviously is, you know, enjoying full womanhood. And motherhood or things along those lines. Maybe Native American having their foot washed by a cowboy. Or perhaps one of the oil workers of people who have taken over, say, reservations and things of that nature. And it just seems to be quite one sided, very much along the lines of social justice and intersectionality. See and that’s not the message that Christ proclaimed, like you said, MCG. Christ didn’t come, so that we can wrap our identity around these things. Our identity should be in Christ and Christ alone, and so the he gets US campaign doesn’t get that message across. And as you said, when you go to their website, when you look at any of their ads. Read any of their blog posts. There’s absolutely zero mention of sin, zero mention of the need of salvation. It’s more of a hey, what do you need? What can Jesus do for you? Type of thing. Are you down? Are you sad? Are you marginalized? Do you have an emptiness in your heart and in your life? Here’s how Jesus can fix these things. Here’s how Jesus can love you through these things. And it’s completely different from the. Jesus, you might have heard. From maybe Hellfire and damnation type preachers, or maybe whatever idea they have in their mind of who Jesus might be. But again, it’s that one sided presentation of Jesus that isn’t fair. And this isn’t something new. This is something that comes up and rears its ugly head every single decade. Every single generation has to deal with this. When the Billy Graham crusades. Were the thing there was a lot of pushback in terms of, yeah, you found a way to bring all of these people into these stadiums and listen. There are people who might have genuinely been saved through his crusades, but at the same time, when you followed up with the overwhelming majority of the. People who, you know, professed salvation at that time, the overwhelming majority of them were not following Christ. They were not being discipled. They were not being taught the true Christ. They came into the door full of emotion, seeking for something, seeking for the fulfillment of whatever thing that they felt that they needed. And they got that temporary high. They got that temporary fix. Then there was no subsequent demonstration in their lives of having genuinely followed Christ. Isn’t that the same thing that the Seeker sensitive movement is going on in the churches today where you do all of these different things to bring people into the church doors? All of these extra biblical and in some cases unbiblical, things to bring people into the church doors. Why? Because we want people to feel comfortable. We want them to at least come in to the doors of the church so that we can present a Jesus that isn’t the real Jesus anyway. Or we can go back to Jesus Day. This is something that even he dealt with when he was in the flesh walking among us. Yes. John Chapter 6 describes this because this was when he had performed the miracle with the fish and the loaves of bread, and everyone has eaten and all of their bellies are full and everyone wants to know, hey, Jesus, where you going? So much so that they’re pressing in on him. He has to get into the ship to get away. He performs the miracle of walking on water. Everyone the following day is looking for him. Jesus, where are you? Is where are you? He says to them, the only reason you’re searching for me is because you were fed with bread and water and you were satisfied. And let me Scroll down here so that I can read it. It says it in verse 20. The following that’s the only reason that they were searching for him is because he fulfilled that physical need that they had. They wanted to see miracles, they got miracles. They were hungry. He fed them. And all these different things. But when it came to the hard things that he began to say afterward, things like I am the bread of life. If you don’t eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. When he began to say those things that only he could. They, as the son of God as the Savior people then began to look at him, cross eyed like ohh. I don’t know if we can rock with you now, Lord, because that’s kind of a hard saying. I don’t know if we could really follow you. And here in verse 26 is where he said that you sought me because you did eat the bread and the loaves and were filled. And he tells them the true gospel, not just the physical needs. Hey, labor, not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the son of man will give unto you. For him hath God the father. Shield and they’re asking, hey, what do we have to do to do the works of God? And he said to believe on him who he hath sent. What does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? It means to take him at his word. And to take what he says, take him at his word and apply it to your life. If he says he’s God and you’re a Sinner and you can’t get to heaven except you go through him, you take him at his word. You turn from your sin and you follow him. Continue in your sin. You don’t continue in your identification with whatever DGI or intersectionality nonsense that we’ve got. Don’t. Going on in our culture, you don’t continue in your sin. You don’t hold on to your sin and add Christ on to that. This is in John chapter six, he continues. He says Moses gave you not that bread that was from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God. Is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world, and they said, Lord Evermore, give us this bread, and that’s what he told them. Must you eat my flesh and drink my blood? You have no life in you, and everyone goes away from him. So much so that Jesus was that his disciples and says, are you going to go away too? And Peter says one of the most wonderful verses in the entire scripture, he says. But to who? Where we gonna go? You have the words of life. And So what? They he gets US campaign doesn’t get is that you can’t present A1 sided Jesus and have that be true. It’s not Jesus like zody, Bachan said. It’s a figment of our imagination and I would it is a black maybe I’m being a little too harsh. I think it is. It’s sort of like a blasphemy because like for example, aren’t you? In some ways calling God a liar when you only present the loving happy. You know, willing to fulfill all of your physical needs side of Jesus, but then you negate the spiritual side, the deity. The Holiness of God, the righteousness of God, the wrath of God. You’re presenting a false God. That’s an idol. That’s not true. The Exodus 20 May sound very, very clear. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. And I think what he gets us does, even if it’s I really don’t think it’s intentional. Unless, of course, they’ve bought into the world’s idea of presenting a soft gospel and the devil. Just kind of takes that and manipulates it and uses it against their knowing what they’re doing with that campaign is not only presenting a false Jesus, but also damning people. To believe in a Jesus that can’t save. And that’s absolutely petrifying for me to think about because then our job gets harder. Christians who are actually trying to witness to people knock on doors, present the gospel, we get door shut in our face week in, week out, week in, week out. And they’re being inoculated against the true. Odd because they’ve been exposed to this. Idol this caricature of Jesus that’s just not the full picture.

[MCG]

Yeah, you kind of when you mentioned Billy Graham and even maybe that he gets his campaign, he can even remind me somewhat of the CCM movement.

[Jay]

Oh yeah, that’s another one, yeah.

[MCG]

You know, so most bad. Did some people get saved and genuinely converted at these concerts? They probably did. Mm-hmm. But I think we can look back now and see see. The did more harm than good for the for the Christian community.

[Jay]

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I came from that world, so I agree, I know.

[MCG]

Because it creates empty conversion that Jesus the convenience and that he gets his campaign is right along that line. In my opinion. Jesus of convenience, empty. But we’re gonna break and we’ll come back on the side and continue this discussion. You’re listening to the move embarrassed podcast. We are discussing the viral campaign he gets us.

[Jay]

Yep.

[MCG]

It will be right back.

[Jay]

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[MCG]

All right, Jay, let’s continue with this discussion and let’s talk about the ad. We mentioned it a little bit, but what’s so wrong about the ad would?

[Jay]

You say OK. We’ve mentioned already that it plays into the current ideas of hate inclusion, oppressor versus oppressed, all those different things we talked about that. So the idea. That what’s unspoken is that, OK, you think you know Christians, you think you know Jesus, Christians, that kind of have this full presentation of the gospel. They are rigid, hateful, mean, you know, let’s present you with the Jesus that you don’t know the Jesus that we’re presenting to you. So there’s this we talked about that as well. What I think is wrong with these ads, not only because it plays into current worldly cultural ideas about the state and the nature of people, but it also is approaching the gospel using worldly. Cultural business methods. So there’s this deliberate marketing push to present this Jesus out there. I say this Jesus, because I really don’t think it’s the Jesus of the Bible. So they’re presenting this Jesus, and there’s a whole marketing machine behind it. It’s a whole business operation and we don’t see in Scripture that that’s the way the gospel is propagated. The gospel is propagated, typically under persecution, where the church scatters and the gospel spreads. And it’s people talking to people about Christ, people discipling and engaging with and seeking other people, bringing them into the church for that constant discipleship and that fellowship in the Lord for the salvation of their souls. I want to be careful. I don’t want to conflate going to church with salvation. That’s not what I’m saying here. But it’s people caring about people and sharing with them. Hey, this is what Jesus did in my life. Let me show you what the Bible says about Jesus. Let’s compare what the Scriptures say with what you’re hearing from the world. And let me show you what thus sayeth the Lord. We gather every week to sit under the preaching of the word of God together with believers to be a learning follower of Christ. That’s what discipleship is. These ads and this company, this campaign, has taken the mission of the church and treated it like it’s a business or some sort of, I could say, a business proposition. And they’re treating it like it’s any other brand. And I don’t think. That’s right. I don’t think that we should be doing that. I’m not saying that it’s not important to get the name of Christ out there. It’s important. But when you start dealing with such church with the church’s mission, as though with some sort of business proposition, a business thing, you end up with things like the CM movement, the secret sensitive. Movement. All of these things that we’ve spoken about in the podcast that have done more harm than good in terms of getting people to know who the real Jesus is, and I think. Another problem with these ads, of course, is that people are inoculated against the true Christ. So even if you tried to come and preach Christ to them, they’re more likely to say you’re Jesus. Sounds like he’s judgmental, and this that or the other. I don’t think I want to hear about that. Jesus. I like that he gets us. Jesus better. And so you try to reach them with the gospel and it’s like water off a duck’s back in some cases, which would be absolutely terrible.

[MCG]

Yeah, I went to college with some people from the continent of Africa. You know, of course, it was a very diverse college campus in terms of people from all over the world. And I remember we were at maybe just in the normal, you know, area where students would congregate, and this guy was saying, I think there was a young lady from Africa. I don’t remember what country in Africa I want to say. They were from Kenya and they were saying that, you know, folks will come up and ask them about lions and. You know type. So animals that you can associate with Africa and he found it so funny because he said the first time he saw a lion in the flesh was that when he came to you and went to.

[Jay]

Mm-hmm.

With you, sue.

[MCG]

So I guess what I’m getting at is we all have a stereotypical view of someone. Yeah. You know, I’m from the Caribbean, so people immediately would assume that, you know.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[MCG]

I like partying at the beach or I like wearing what we call island shirt. I think Americans call it Hawaiian shirts or whatever case. We all have theoretical views of someone. And is this. I don’t remember which I think she’s from Kanye too, but she’s a very famous author. I can’t say her name cause I can’t pronounce it properly. But when she came to you as the study, she said that her roommate immediately asked her.

[Jay]

MHM.

[MCG]

Can we listen to some of your favorite musics? And I’m not endorsing what she’s saying, but she said she was very disappointed when she put on Mariah Carey because she was expecting something a little bit more. Africa and if you want to put it that way and she said that as she sat learning about the youth and get kind of involved in youth culture, she now sat hearing about the Mexican that are constantly crossing the border. And she said one day she decided to go. To. Mexico and she went into the cities of Mexico and what she saw was.

[Jay]

MHM.

[MCG]

Totally different from what she here in the US. So I guess we’re getting that stereotypes and then she said a statement and the statement was this the problem with stereotypes is not that is not true. But it is incomplete and I think what’s the problem with the ad? It is incomplete and grossly incomplete to the point that Bible believing Christian rejects it because it is incomplete. They preach a gospel that, say, come as you are, stay as you are, leave as you are. The message that you are enough and no matter who you are, the way you are, Jesus gets you. So basically it’s a weak social justice will gospel that as you say that kind of safe but don’t take my word for it. Here’s an exam.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[MCG]

Sample of one of such article or AD. Remember I said earlier they kind of converted all the article into like a visual presentation of the article with a voice over. So I’m going to play some clips of the voice over and you can judge for yourself. But here’s the first one at least the first minute or so of this. Physical.

[He Gets Us Article]

Have you heard the story of how Jesus Christ, boundaries of race, gender, and status quo?

[MCG]

By the way, I get this. Directly from their website.

[He Gets Us Article]

On the side of the road, it goes something like this. Jesus and his followers were on a bit of a road trip, walking from city to city. The fastest route was through Samaria, but because tensions between Jews and Samaritans were high, most people went around. Jesus went right through after walking for hours. The group was tired and hungry. His friends went into town. To get food. But Jesus stayed back and sat beside. Well, and as he was sitting there, a woman came up to get some water and get this. Jesus asked her for a drink. OK, that might not sound so strange to you, but it would have caught her completely off guard. And there are a few reasons why the 1st is because she was a Samaritan and Jesus was Jewish. Remember how most Jewish people would have gone out of their way to avoid Samaria? The two groups had a long history of bad blood and they were like oil and water.

[MCG]

All right, don’t let this set up fool you. This is just the setup. And for most part what they say there is. Kind of good kosher, but here’s the second clip.

[Jay]

Sure, sure.

[He Gets Us Article]

The second reason is simply that she was a woman and she was alone. A man and a woman chatting it up on their own. It would have looked a little suspect if anyone were to see it from a distance. Most men would barely even acknowledge the woman, in case anyone were to get the wrong idea, but Jesus didn’t seem to care about appearances. And looking at it from a woman’s perspective, a man you don’t know is striking up a conversation with you that would have made me anxious today. And the third reason this woman would have been surprised to interact with Jesus. Is because she would have been surprised to bump into anyone. The story tells us this is happening during the middle of the day. In other words, the hottest part of the day, which explains why an exhausted Jesus sat down by the well in the 1st place. You see the women of the town would usually walk to the well together in the cool of the morning, but this woman went later alone under the unforgiving sun. Why? Well, it isn’t entirely. Clear, but later in the conversation we find out that she had five husbands, which means in all likelihood, a few of them had died.

[MCG]

Now you notice how she kind of stick to the Bible. Then she subtly divert from the Bible, right? So the reason why she was there at midday or the hottest part of the day was because she was embarrassed by her sin on her adulterous life. That’s the reason why she was there. She was avoiding the other ladies. Of the. Community who would have come out probably at the first hour or so to draw the water when it’s more cool in the morning and not in the hotter part of the day. It is most likely that she’s a divorcee and not that the fact that her husband died now. Did the Bible tell us exactly what happened to her husband? No. So I’m speculating just like she speculated. But I think biblical customs and stuff like that is more on my side than to speculate that her husband died. Maybe some of them have died. Who knows? But she definitely the divorcee. Having five husbands anyways, it continues.

[He Gets Us Article]

And we also find out that the man she’s living with isn’t her husband. Whether it was grief or shame or something else that compelled her to go alone, she wouldn’t have expected to see anyone, let alone this Jesus guy, trying to talk to her. It sounds so simple, but by asking for a drink, Jesus is stepping over barriers of gender, race and status quo. The woman even calls it out. She asked him how he could possibly ask her for a drink in modern day. It might sound like you’re not supposed to be talking to me, so why are you? Jesus answered this question by how he approached the rest of the conversation by taking an interest in the woman’s life, her struggles, her shame, her grief, her beliefs, all of her. It’s an incredible conversation and it should be noted that it’s not just great because Jesus is part of it. The woman leans in too. She’s. Serious. She’s enthusiastic and she asked good, hard questions. You should check out the whole conversation. It’s in John Chapter 4, but without getting into the details, the big picture answers the woman’s question. Why are you talking to me? Because you matter. Jesus took the time to listen to a lonely minority woman who was a stranger. He thought very highly of people. His culture did not. What would happen if we tried to do the same?

[MCG]

There you have it. So they set it up and the punch line is Jesus is woke. He have stepped away. Yeah, but note the message is not that this woman was miraculously saved and was on fire for God, but he was how Jesus cross racial, cultural and gender barriers for this woman. What Jesus did was called her sin. She lied to him and he called her sin and showed her a need for. Savior and he, of course. After doing that, she was redeemed, miraculously saved. She came bound for hell. She left bound for heaven. She came a rotten Sinner, and she left a forgiven Sinner by the power and the saving grace of Jesus Christ. What would happen if we do the same? More souls will be one to Christ, not weakness and social justice. So if we go and follow Jesus example and we see people as God sees them, that they are sinners in need of a savior and present the Christ to them, the Christ of the Bible, what would happen, man? This culture will be transformed. And you know what God tell us to go the same thing. Go into all the world and preach the gospel not to go and see gender, race and and all these other identities and ideologies, but to present Jesus. And that’s where this ad missed the point. It sounds good. And if you don’t think about it deeply, you might say ohh, that’s fine. But why? And what happened is that this woman was miraculously. Not that Jesus looked beyond her grace and gender and culture and all these things to reach out to her that he would have reached out to her despite of whatever her gender is, whatever her race is, whatever the case may be, what Jesus saw was a Sinner. In need of a savior.

[Jay]

Yeah, you know what makes a very effective lie is when there’s a little bit of truth rolled up in there. Yep, that’s what makes it very effective. Yes, he did do a lot of things that most people that day wouldn’t have done. Most people probably in that day would not want. To have. Been seen associating with a woman like that. Most men probably wouldn’t be talking to her, and it’s obvious that she was avoiding the other women because she was getting water in the middle of the day and she was alone. And so, yes, all of those things are true. Jesus did do those things that were considered to be controversial for his day. But like you said, MCG, that wasn’t the point. The point was that this wretched center that everyone has counted out and no one wants to associate with came face to face with the God of the universe, and he had mercy on her. He didn’t have to. God doesn’t owe any of us anything. It’s by his mercy and his grace. Thou art. Saved. Each and every one of us deserves hell. That’s the best we can hope for, apart from Christ, because we’re all rotten sinners but Jesus. Spoke to her with compassion, with mercy, with love and with grace. But not just those things. He also spoke to her in. Truth. You know, Pastor Todd preached a series on the Christ coming the word of God being presented to us in the flesh, full of grace and truth, not just grace but also truth. And so when she presents it the way that she did, the lady in the ad, I understand that she’s trying to present it. For people in our day and age to understand. And I want to be as charitable as possible. I can probably see the need to do that since everyone thinks along the lines of identity and intersectionality. But to have that state, what Jesus actually did there, that’s criminal. I think because now the message of the gospel is his. And we’re focused on those things that just don’t matter and that’s that’s unfortunate.

[MCG]

Do you think the problem is the message of the ad or the execution of the ad?

[Jay]

It has to be both. None of it is good. The message of the ad is not good because it’s not the full truth. It’s full of grace. Ain’t no truth there. The execution of the ad is no good because it doesn’t point people to Christ. Now I will say this for the ad. It did tell the listener to go read John Chapter 6. Let’s give them points for that, OK? You pointed someone to go read a scripture in the Bible. OK, that’s great.

[MCG]

Think it’s joined up?

[Jay]

To four, actually. Oh, John, chapter 4. I’m sorry. So. Yes, we’ll give you points for that. But how do you gloss over the message of the gospel in order to just say all of these things about gender? And racial this and gender that, and inclusivity this and controversial that you could have taken that same amount of time to share the gospel with whoever was listening or to at least share the truth of what Jesus said. It’s interesting because they didn’t say anything about what Jesus said to her when it came to her sin. It was all about how he was warm and inviting, in spite of the fact that she was not a woman, that people want to be associated with. And I think because they have that as their mission, this pre evangelism. Idea. The gospel is sacrificed as a result, and as Christians we just can’t do that. I’m not saying that every time you meet someone, you beat them over the head with the gospel. That’s not what I’m saying at all. But if you merely present Christ as this one sided figure that they are at the very.

[Jay]

Least we need to be super careful. Of that, because even if your intentions are there, the enemy will take that and run with it. The devil does not play. Fair the devil does not play fair. He does not want people to know the true Christ. He is perfectly OK with people knowing this one sided, gracious Christ without the truth, without the deity side of Jesus. And I say side. But of course there are no sides to Christ. He is 100% man, 100% God all of the time. And so that’s why it’s even more egregious than just merely. Present his humanity without presenting his deeds. See, but I think as Christians, we really need to not be afraid to stand up and say, thus saith the Lord, the reason for that is because when we’re afraid to do that when we’re afraid that we might come across as harsh or prudish or uncaring, the devil will take that, and he will run with it. And we don’t need to give the devil anymore help. And blinding the eyes of the world. As the world and the flesh are doing that very well, even without him, and he’s in there, of course, mixing the soup as well. And so Christians ought not to be a part of that. We really need to be presenting both sides of Christ, full of grace and.

[MCG]

Yeah, definitely also both as well. The problem as I said, is misleading. Yeah, it’s dangerous. It’s deceptive. You know the problem, right. The problem with the execution is that he present a source, specify Jesus, that Jesus is weak and has no backbone. Jesus confronted that Lady.

[Jay]

Even if they’re not trying to be, yeah.

[MCG]

Yes, Jesus called out her. In.

[Jay]

Lovingly, but still did. Yeah. OK.

[MCG]

Yeah, definitely. Lovingly, but lovingly is not the way that the walk left. Think about love.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

He didn’t mince his words. Yeah, he didn’t try to call it a mistake when his sin, he didn’t say he got in the entanglement. When he fornicated with another man. So he called the saying by the name. You know, there’s there’s celebrities. They cheated on their husband and call it the entanglement. Say no, it’s fornication. He’s adultery. Oh jeez. Yeah.

Call her up for her sentence. So I’m just simply saying, yeah, yeah, the execution is bad. The message is bad because they created Jesus. That don’t have any backbone. They will look at you and don’t call you send out. And Jesus, definitely we see that with Nicodemus. We see that’s what we wanted. The world Jesus had no problem. We see that with the apostles. Yeah, no problem calling out people saying, yeah, again, we’re not gonna go and point the finger and people facing. You preach against sin because you have to realize there are sinners in need of. Savior. Yeah. If they don’t have no need of a savior, they have no need of Jesus. Yeah.

[Jay]

Can I just add two more things? First, the idea of presenting Christ in this one sided fashion gives the impression that the people that you’re trying to reach are not that bad. Like they just need a little bit of exposure. You know, they just need a little bit of love and care and they’ll come flocking to Christ when in reality their flesh is going to be fighting the gospel tooth and nail. And I think. That it’s a repudiation of what the Bible actually says about us, that are we only think evil continually. Sin was so awful that God had to. Come and die in order to pay for it. And it was so awful that God flooded and destroyed the Earth to demonstrate his wrath against it. Sin is so terrible that it completely separates us from God. So when we present this sissified Jesus or this soft Jesus full of grace and no truth there, the problem is that what you’re saying is the person that’s listening. They’re not that bad. They just need the grace. They can’t handle the truth or they don’t need the truth. And somehow, if you present the grace, then somehow they’ll come flocking toward the truth. And that’s absolutely not the case. The Bible is very clear. From that.

[MCG]

And we are all that bad.

[Jay]

Yes, we are all that bad. And so perhaps one charitable thing that we could say is that when we’re looking at these, he gets us ads perhaps. It would help us to remember as Christians not to approach people from a holier than thou perspective and instead reach out to them with a lot of mercy, a lot of grace. But let’s not forget that truth. Perhaps that’s one charitable thing that we can take from this as well. I was going to say one more thing and I completely forgot so. I’ll go ahead and turn it over back to you anyways.

[MCG]

The bubbling bee had a response to this and it kind of reminded me about the pastor I grew up on, the pastor. He had a standard and I was saying you have to make this your standard and nor am I saying this is my standard, but past to be her standard where he will not allow us to sing any chorus in the church where you can take the lyrics verbatim and sing it to your significant other. So songs that don’t mention the name of Jesus or Lord or God. I don’t think this is quite the one or one of the few that he had said no to being sung in the church. But think about song with verses like you alone are my strength. How does it go?

[Jay]

Ashwin, Ohh you were alone on my hearts desire.

[MCG]

My strength and. Something like that. Whoever gets me the lyrics of the song is flipping me, but whatever case, maybe you can take that verbatim and you can sing that to your significant other and think about the many CCM songs where they don’t necessarily mention the Lord, but they’re saying how much they love you.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

Mm-hmm. You’re my stress. You’re my song. You’re my All in all. Or whatever the case may be.

[Jay]

CCM does that to a fault.

[MCG]

But, but he doesn’t mention Jesus, so you can take the songs at the lyric verbatim and sing it to your significant other. Possibly said, hey, no, we’re not gonna sing that. Because who are we thinking about? Who are we singing to?

[Jay]

Yeah.

MHM.

[MCG]

The Bubble and Beast is something that I found very interested, and of course they couldn’t use the same. Images from the he gets a campaign because of course that would be copyright infringement, but what they did was basically kind of do a mirror of the ad, almost an exact copy of it in terms of, but they have different, you know, images and whatever case may be. And at the end when you say Jesus, he gets us they say. Satan. He gets us. Yeah. And it’s interesting because if you really look at it, there was no significant difference. MHM. And when you can take something that you’re supposed to be for Christ and just simply flip the name and it fits perfectly. Really, there’s something wrong, at least in my opinion, there’s something.

[Jay]

Yeah. The Babylon beats took those AI generated images and they showed how people are when they’re given over in their sin. So they had a AI generated image of the glutton and the drug addict. And the I believe there’s one of the homosexual or the sexual deviant and all these different things and how essentially they’re. Saying that he wants you to stay as you are, he doesn’t want you to change. He doesn’t expect anything from you. And so this whole time you’re thinking, you know, it’s Jesus, right? Because that’s exactly how it was presented in the Super Bowl ad. And at the very last image is the stereotypical image of Satan with the, you know, redskin and the horns and fire in the background and everything. And then it says Satan. He gets us now. Some people would say that Babylon’s response was not charitable. OK, sometimes when people present you with something that’s egregious, you just have to confront it head on. They were spot on in terms of what those ads are really conveying. They were just upfront about it. Where that he gets US campaign has this sort of veiled. Jesus loves you sort of approached the Babylon Bee was exposing it for what it is. It was spot on and it highlights how it’s not enough to do these things in your human power. What I mean by that? That is, see, he gets us ads. OK, let’s take the foot washing ads. Which number one? It’s a problem because in the scriptures, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. The people that were following him, the people that were genuinely converted. Of course Judas wasn’t. But he was washing the feet of his disciples. And so when it comes to. This issue of SIM. The need that we have to be saved from our sin, it can’t be done in human power. We can’t do it in and of ourselves, particularly when it comes to, let’s say, evangelism. For example, we can’t even do that. We can’t do that in our power either, because we will be weak where we need to be firm, we will be too firm where we need to be gracious. We can’t do that in our own strength. It has to be done through. Power of the what Pastor Todd likes to say. It’s the Holy Spirit taking the word of God and just driving it into someone’s heart and doing the work that only God can do in the person’s heart. And so when you have a campaign that’s meant to draw people in because it’s all grace and no truth, what you’re saying is that there is no spiritual. Element to evangelism. God is not do. Doing the spiritual work necessary to bring people to him through the means of conviction, which is what he’s always done throughout the scriptures. So God’s way is not good enough. We’ve got to sweeten the pie and bring people in this whole worldly idea of you can draw more with honey than you can with vinegar. I forget the saying, but y’all know what I’m talking about again, the Lord. Came in both grace and in truth he was perfect and not lacking. We can’t do that. We have to be evangelizing his word his way for his glory. It’s his lost sheep that he’s given us the. Privilege to work alongside him, to go and seek. We can’t go out there and do it any kind of way that we want to. God has laid out in the scriptures who he is, what he’s about, who we are, who we are in relation to him and how he is to be glorified and worshipped. And we can’t just go out and think that our Domino’s Pizza and Wendy’s business marketing top funnel plans. Are going to do God’s work. The Bible makes it clear that the things of God are not a. Accomplished by men, but by our innovations or machinations. It’s not something that we can do in the flesh or any other man made approach that we have. One of the best responses the Babylon Bee was. Good but one. Of the best responses I’ve seen to this, he gets us ad is of YouTube video by Jamie Bambrick. I don’t know if we can put the link in the description or something along those lines, but it’s titled the Christian Super Bowl ad the capital should. Have made and it has that same. He gets us feel. With the the the Grayscale background with the yellow and the whole branding. But instead of showing the questionable AI images that the original campaign demonstrated or showed, he showed real pictures of real sinners who were genuinely converted and who are serving and following Christ right now. So they’ll put up pictures of these people and list them as former drug addict or former drag queen. Or former fill in the blank of whatever sin that the world partakes. And now, and all of it is former former former former former, and it drives them. The point that these people were saved by the immeasurable grace of God and how they were saved from their sin to Christ. And it’s a wonderful ad. That’s the ad. I agree with him. That’s the ad they should have run during the Super Bowl. That was a phenomenal response. Because that’s what the gospel is taking a wretched center, redeeming them and give. Giving them all of God’s righteousness, all of the righteousness that we simply spat in the face of when we were nailing Jesus to the cross with our sin, he mercifully wraps us and clothes us in that righteousness so that when God looks at us, he doesn’t see us in our wretched sin. He sees Christ and we are in him and saved by him. That’s the gospel message, and it was beautifully presented in that ad, yeah.

[MCG]

And in the end, instead of Jesus, he gets us. He’s a Jesus. He saves us. So of course, of course, baby. Tell us such were some of you, but your wash.

[Jay]

Yeah. Absolutely love that love that that was a great ad. So MCG, now a lot of people, will look at these ads and say, well, you know, what’s the big deal? The gospel is getting out there and we shouldn’t be judging. This is the problem with Christianity. Philippians 1 verses 15 to 18 talk about that. It says some indeed preach Christ, even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill, the one. Preach Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the. Of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preach, and I therein do rejoice. Yeah, and will rejoice. Do you think those verses apply here? Should we get off of? He gets us back because they’re. The gospel out there, even though it’s not the way that we would prefer it be done, let’s say you.

[MCG]

Well, firstly, we said already is not the gospel and it’s not, but going back to Philippines 1:15 to 18 to get a clear picture of Philippians 1:15 to 18, I think you have to go back to first 12. I would say usually when I’m looking at.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

1st is in a chapter and I’d like to read the entire chapter, but I won’t do it at this point, but I think if you want to get the real clear picture of what verse 15 to 18, you should at least go back to verse 12 where the Bible says. But I would he should understand bredrin that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.

[Jay]

OK.

[MCG]

That’s interesting. Paul is saying here that the things that happened to me, there are a lot of things that happened to Paul, you know, Stone and left for dead. Shipwrecked. Name it. Paul probably have suffered it jug before his. Leaders. Confronted them with the gospel. Remember, if your crossfire in this word Romans, chapter 8, verse 28, who is a famous verse lot of crystal light decoded. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are call according to his purpose and notices. And we know that all things work together for my good. For your God is a for God to tender love. God, I believe if you cross reference that with Philippines one verse 12. But I rather he should understand we’re doing that the things which happen to me have fallen out right into the heart of. The gospel. What good? Came out of Paul’s suffering and Paul Shipwreck and Paul Stone in. I think it’s the third ones of the gospel that was a little bit divergent, but you can do. Verse 12 appears to tell us that that goal that Paul is talking about truth in life is the good of the gospel. But I would have you understand birdwing that the things, of course, are read First 12 the verses continues. So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace. And in all the places, so furtherance of the gospel, the things that happened to me when a good, that bad it happened for the third ones, the gospel, so that my bonds that are in Christ, of course he was in prison. But my bonds that are in Christ are manifested in all the palace and in all places. Verse 14 and many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident mind by bonds, are much more bold. Speak the word without fear. So Paul is talking about here. Of course, the gospel. So he’s talking about believers responding to his bonds or his in. As a man, so some are preaching Christ to add to his bonds and others of love because they care for their passport. So so am I preaching OK? Look at this guy. He’s a prisoner. Whatever case may be some, of course, love their pastor Paul, you know? And he’s basically saying, hey, I’m here for the defense of the gospel. So basically, what are you preaching against my bonds against me, so to speak. But you’re preaching the true gospel. I’m for it. I’ll take the heat for the true gospel. Or if you love me and you’re still preaching the true gospel, I’m for it. I’m going to be indifference of it. So whether it is in contention to add to my bonds or in truth. I’m going to rejoice because Christ is being preached. The problem here is Christ is not being preached, at least the true Christ is not being preached. So does this first apply? No, because if this first apply, we should never call out anyone who mentioned. The. Name of Jesus? Yeah. Because whether or not they’re preaching the truth, Jesus or not, you shouldn’t be mentioning it. But here we already established. Dad, they’re not preaching the truth. Jesus. So that means they’re not preaching the true God. Spell so that Paul didn’t say you know what, it is false gospel or the true gospel. I will rejoice again. As I said, he gets us. He’s preaching a false gospel. So I don’t believe that Pastor Paul would rejoice and we would should not rejoice in the false gospel. Neither they present a weak metrosexual justified. Jesus, that is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Bible shows us that Jesus, that is loving. Kieran and kind and understanding and forgiving, but that is also balanced by the Jesus who get displeased and displeased, means annoyed or angered or vex because the actions of his disciples. So yes, Jesus is loving, he’s caring, he’s kind, he’s understanding, he’s forgiving. But if you only present that without the balance of the fact in Max Chapter 10, verse 13, the Bible says and they brought young children to him that he should touch them, and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, the Bible said he was much this please. Jesus was annoyed. Publicans say he was angered, and said unto them, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them, not for such is the Kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein, and he took them up in his arms, putting hands upon them. And blessed them. So Jesus was displeased. He was angered at his. Type of through his loving, caring stuff was balanced by his anger or displeasure in what his disciples were doing. Also acts Chapter 3, verse one, the Bible says and he entered again into the synagogue and there was a man, deer, which had a withered hand and they watch him. Whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day. That they might accuse him. And he said unto the man which had the widowed hand stand forth, and he said unto them, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil, save life, or to kill? But they held their peace, and when he had looked round about on them with anger. There being grief for the hardness of the heart, he said unto the man, stretch forth thine hand, and he stretched out, and his hand was he stood whole as the other. The Bible said he was angry. He looked around. At. With anger. So Jesus get angry. So what I’m trying to show here, the Bible, you know, just show us a smiley weak certify. Jesus. Jesus got angry at sin and these are the two exams. Tools here. So what about when he drives out the money changers in the temple? In Matthew Chapter 21, verse 12 to 13 and Jesus went into the Temple of God and Castled all damned that soul and bought into the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold, Dove and selling to them. It is written by how shall be called the House of Prayer. But you have made it a den of thief, my friend. In other scriptures Bible say he made a whip and basically run them out. I’m just simply saying some of these were grown man. He must have been an imposing figure to run grown man out of the synagogue.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[MCG]

And I can’t imagine he did it smiling in a soft voice. Man, can you please get out? No, I think he was maybe at the top of his voice and he was angry at their sin and he drove them out. You know, there’s a balance. I’m getting the Bible. Of course. Make it clear and efficient.

[Jay]

Hmm.

[MCG]

Verse 26 be angry and sin not let not the sun go down on your right. Being angry is not sin as long as you’re angry because of sin. You know, and Bibles make really be angry and sin. That plus the Bible said he calls divisions. These are some of the things that gets the campaign is leaving out. He calls the vision. Look at John Chapter 7 verse 27 to 43. And the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood in Christ saying if any man Turse let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth at me, as the scripture has said out of his belly, shall flow. Rivers of living water. But this spake he of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost, was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying said of a truth. This is the prophet. Others said this is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Had not the scripture said? The Christ coming out of the seed of David and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was so there was a great division among the people because of him. My friends, he still calls in division today. He still causing the vision today and it’s up to you. What sign are you going to sign? Are you gonna stand with Christ or what? Look at what he said about the Pharisees. Look good how he described the Pharisees in Matthew 23, verse 27. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for year, like unto the whitest sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outward. But are within full of dead man bones and all and cleanness, even though he also altered, appear righteous on demand. But we didn’t hear full of prophecy and iniquity. He serpents, he generation of Vipers, how can he escape the damnation? Of hell, I just quoted Jesus. Yeah, he called them serpents generation of Vipers, he said. How can you escape the damnation of hell? It wasn’t. Oh, Jesus loves you. And I’m not saying Jesus loves you, doesn’t have a place. I’m glad he loves it because we love him because he loved us first, but also it is the other side of him that will say you cannot escape the damnation of hell unless you repent. The Bible says so.

[MCG]

That he was perfect balance of grace and truth in John chapter one of verse 14, but I’ll end with this clip from body back and because I think he expressed it much better than I would ever do.

[Jay]

He always does.

[Voddie Baucham]

But I I despise the picture that’s painted in our. Nature of this sissified needy Jesus. Hey man. And that’s who he is. He’s a sissified needy Jesus. He’s just yearning for you. He’s longing for you. He wants friendship and relationship with you. He needs you. Oh, you’re breaking his heart. No, he’s going to break you. Newsflash. By definition, God is self-sustaining, self existent and self-sufficient. Therefore, by definition, he needs nothing. God does not need you. And he’s going to prove it one day, cause you’re gonna die and the world’s gonna keep on spinning at the same rate it was before you were here. And somebody’s gonna get all your stuff. He’s waiting for you. All right. Revelation 19 beginning of verse 11. Then I saw heaven open and behold, a White Horse, the one sitting on it called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. He judges and makes. War. My God. Yeah, I got some issues, but that’s alright. His eyes are like a flame of fire on his head, or many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He’s clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God, and the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen. White and pure were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he. Will. Rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine, Press of the fury of the wrath of the God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written king of Kings and Lord of Lords. That’s my Jesus. That’s the God whom I serve, not the sissified Christ that’s preached in pulpits around the United States of America. I serve the great God of the universe, who gets angry and pours out his wrath. I serve the great God of the universe, who demonstrated his wrath when he poured it out on his own son. And it amazes me that we believe this, that God would crush and kill his own son, but let you slide. Not for a minute. The spotless, sinless Lamb of God suffered and bled and died because of the wrath of God. That propitiation, the satisfaction of the righteous wrath of God. That’s what was experienced on the cross. How dare we take that lightly? That’s the one against whom you’ve sinned. Not this sissified Jesus with hair like the brick girl with a lamb across his shoulders. Hands looked like he never worked a day in his life. Uh. When we sin, we sin against the Almighty creator of the universe. The maker of heaven and earth. And then and then here’s the kicker. Though he should have killed me in my sleep. For what I thought said and did on yesterday. Yet by his grace, his allowed me to live another day. Ohh, I think brokenness is very appropriate.

[Jay]

This is the removing barriers podcast. If the podcast or the blog were a blessing to you, leave us a rating and a review on your favorite podcast platform. And don’t forget to share the podcast with your friends, Removing Barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

Thank you for listening. To get ahold of us, to support this podcast or to learn more about removing barriers, go to removingbarriers.net. This has been the removing Barriers podcast we attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.