What Should I do When Church and Sports Compete?

In the Bible. Romans 816 the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. But what is that actually look like in today's world that's just one of the questions will be answering on today's edition of core Christianity this is Bill Meyer along with pastor Pedro Sanchez and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us with your question right now at 833 the core that's 1-833-843-2673 and you can email us with your question at questions at core, Christianity.com would like to start off each show with a positive story from the news and we found this good news story about a heroic man from Afghanistan who just celebrated his very first Fourth of July as a US citizen.

His name is Johnny's shin Lori and his journey to the US started on the battlefield in his native country. Mr. Samari served nine years as a translator for US forces in Afghanistan, knowing that he was risking his life and endangering his family during that time he saved the lives of several US soldiers including the one who helped bring him and his family to the US acting homeland.

Deputy Sec. Ken Cuccinelli administer the oath of allegiance to Samari and his wife last week in Fairfax, Virginia Cuccinelli honor. Shin Lori for service and for saving the lives of five American soldiers about you Israel but I just love hearing stories like that yes I do. I mean I wish all the best for shin were his family.

As soon as they're out here now.

I hope that they can make a beautiful life together when I see these images of people taking the you know the oath of allegiance to the United States becoming US citizens, and how excited they are. My dad did that well. He came over to this country when he was 22 as an immigrant and went through the whole process in becoming a citizen that was a proud day for him as well. So where was your dad from he was from Germany and he came here after the war when Germany was really struggling in the depression and he felt he could come to the US to make a better life for himself and so he was the only member of his family to ever emigrate US and lower. Yeah, it's pretty amazing story. We get about what so if you do, our first question of the day and this one comes from Vanessa who posted on our Instagram account and she says I'm a Christian who goes to church every Sunday, but I want to start gymnastics and most of the competitions are on Sunday mornings.

I don't want to miss church and I'm wondering if it's okay if I missed a day of church even though I don't want to. Hey, thank you so much for your question Vanessa.

It does seem like with sports, youth sports nowadays a lot of the games are on Sunday set a no, for it was always that way. I played football growing up as a kid and I think our games were on Saturdays, but I know that there are a lot of families who don't get to go to church or don't go to church every Sunday because they have kids that are signed up for soccer, football or gymnastics or whatever it might be and it is a sacrifice.

Vanessa being in church on a Sunday morning.

There are so many other things that we could be doing.

I guess the first question I would want to ask you is, is there intensely.

Another program gymnastics program that offers meets her or competitions on a day other than Sunday that maybe you could look into.

I know. Like I said it would be a sacrifice, but I think prioritizing worship with God's people is so important for us. I mean, it's rooted in in the fourth commandment to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy week we worship the Lord on the Lord's day, Sunday the first day of the week remembering that Jesus rose from the dead coming before him, with the offering of Thanksgiving, giving thanks to him for his goodness in our lives and this is so important that the author, the Hebrew setting in Hebrews chapter 10 beginning in verse 19 therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as these the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. We need Vanessa the Christian encouragement that we receive on a Sunday morning through the preaching of the word through the fellowship that we have with brothers and sisters.

This is something I don't think that we can just get anywhere we can get it by podcasting or listening to the radio or even a Bible study on a Wednesday night there something unique that happens on a Sunday morning where we gather together with the people of God before the throne of God to receive the gifts of God and others that that story. I'm not sure if you're familiar with him Eric Lindell. He was that Olympic gold medalist who made headline news years ago because he refused to compete on Sunday in the Olympics. Here's a guy who is on the biggest competitive stage and he says worship is more important now think about that for second we talk about being countercultural. We talk about this is, as believers, like what is it look like for us as Christians to be countercultural you want to know one of the ways we can be countercultural in a world in a society that completely neglects the Lord's day. It doesn't care about worship. One of the ways we shine as a light in this world is by committing to worship together with the people of God by saying you know what I'm in a set aside my my worldly affairs and I'm focused on resting in Jesus worshiping Jesus with the people of God want to be countercultural go to church love the Lord. Worship the Lord and that is a witness in this society. So my encouragement to Vanessa would be the first. It would be just maybe look into is there another program that would work. It wouldn't keep you from gathering with God's people on a Sunday morning and I do again recognize that there is a sacrifice involved there but at sacrifice is itself a witness to the world that worship is important. Thanks for your question. Thanks much for your question Vanessa, we really do appreciate it and we pray that you will find option that will work for you and allow you to attend church on Sundays.

You're listening to core Christianity and if you have a question for Sears.

The phone number is 833 the core that's 1-833-843-2673 Colorado I every day that I can about four and five. I believe he would collect name Of God in Denying Lessee and That Passage Perplexes Me Think You Will You Not Alone, Linda. That Passage Perplexes A Lot Of People. I Remember Years Ago Going to Some Christian Conference Were They Were Talking about One of the Things He Talked about Was the Nestle Them and the Interpretation Was Put Forward That Their Space Aliens That You Know These Were a Mixture of Human and Angel Offspring and That That's Where Space Aliens Today Come from Never Mistaking Okay This Is Strange Coming Out Of Christian Conference and There Are A Lot Of Strange Interpretations of Genesis 4 and Five, and the Fact Is It It Is One of Those Perplexing Text of Scripture. But Let Me Just Give You.

I Think the Primary Interpretations That Are out There and Then What I Think Is Is the Main Point of the Text. Here in Genesis 4 and Five. So One Right There Is the Idea That the Sons of God That These People Described in Genesis Chapter 6 Verse Two Others Actually Read Verses One through Five, Because I Think That'll Give Us Some Context As When Man Began to Multiply on the Face of the Land and Daughters Were Born to Them, the Sons of God Saw That the Daughters of Man Were Attractive and They Took As Their Wives Any They Chose and the Lord Said, My Spirit Shall Not Abide in Man Forever, for He Is Flesh Is Day Shall Be 120 Years the Net Full Them Were on the Earth in Those Days, and Also Afterward, When the Sons of God Came into the Daughters of Man and They Bore Children to Them.

These Were the Mighty Men Who Were of Old, the Man of Renown in the Lord Saw That the Wickedness of Man Was Great in the Earth and That Every Intention of the Thoughts of His Heart Was Only Evil Continually. So the Question Is Who.

Who Are the Sons of God, and Who Are the Net Full Them Here Will One Interpretation Is That the Sons of God Are Angels, and Sometimes in the Bible. The Old Testament of Angels Referred to As the Sons of God's Truth and Job Chapter 2 Verse One or Chapter 38 Verse Seven. You Also See It in Psalms and Psalm 29 One, Psalm 89 Verse Seven.

Sometimes the Sons of God Is a Reference to Angels, See a People Who Say That You Have These Angels That Are Having Relations with the Daughters of Man and Bearing These Giant Offspring out There Are, As I Say, People, and in the History of the Church Will Held That the Only One of the Challenges I Think with That View Is Just the Idea of Angels near the Don't Have DNA Cohabiting and You Know Having Relations with Human Beings and an Offspring. It Just You Don't Really Have That Clearly Taught Anywhere Else in Scripture. Even As a Possibility. Another View, and This Is Been One of the Most Popular Interpretations of This Text.

Throughout the History of the Church Is That It's Referring to the Seth I Line the Good Line Marrying with the Line of Cain, so You Have This Intermingling. This Corruption of the Good Seed If You Will, in the History of Redemption and in the Context of the Book of Genesis Actually Kinda like That Interpretation Because One of the Focuses of the Book of Genesis Is the Seed of the Woman Was Going to Crush the Head of the Serpent. You Have All These Genealogies You Have This Focus on the Offspring That Is Coming in. So the Corruption the Intermingling of the Seed If You Will, Would Have Been Something That Sort of Fits in the Context of Genesis and and It Being Called out Here As a Crutch. You Have Also Another Interpretation That the Sons of God or a Reference to Kings. This Divine Kingship Rulers and Judges Are Referred to As Elohim. Even David in That the Davidic Covenant Second Sample Chapter 7 Verse 14.

He's Told You're Going to Be Called the Son of God and so You Have These Rulers That Are Acting Wickedly. Those Who I Think the Three Primary Interpretations of in Their Variations of Each One. But Here's What I Think the Main Point of the Text Is Whatever's Going on Here. It's Leading to This Expanse of Wickedness, Evil, That's Why Verse Five Says What It Says.

Again, the Lord Saw That the Wickedness of Man Was Great in the Earth and That Every Intention of the Thoughts of His Heart Was Only Evil Continually Was Interesting Is the Word Naphthalene Actually Comes from, or Is Related to the Hebrew Word to Fall. This Is Just a Picture of the Fall of Humanity.

If You Will. Engaging in Sin and in Corruption and As a Result, You Have the Flood of Noah's Picture of Re-Creation, so Whatever Is Going on There. In Genesis 5 and Six with an Excellent One Thing Is Absolutely Clear. It's Pointing out the Corruption of Humanity. Our Own Propensity toward Sin and to Engage in These Heinous Sinful Acts It's Pointing to the Reality That We Need Redemption. We Need to Be Washed.

We Need the Flood Waters of Baptism and and and That's Ultimately What God Gives As As He Says the Flood on the Earth.

The Flood of Noah.

And so I Think Those Three Interpretations Read That Those Are That the Safest, but I Think That We Don't Want to Miss the Point That What What's Really Being Highlighted Here Is Human Sinfulness and the Need for Redemption.

Thanks Linda for Your Question. Thank You Linda.

We Appreciate Hearing from You and I'm so Glad It Wasn't Aliens Federal Because the Are at the Beginning. I Know You Had a Couple Close Encounters. Area 51 It's a Long Story Once They Are Listing the Core Christianity on Bill Meyer with Pastor Israel Sanchez and We Have a Great Offer That Would like to Share with You Today. Yet beyond I'm Really Excited about This When We Want to Let People Know for a Limited Time and While Supplies Last.

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So Get in Touch with Us during the Next Few Days and Submit Your Question or Questions. Here's One That Joya Posted on Her Instagram Account. She Says, Romans 816 Says the Spirit Himself Bears Witness with Our Spirit That We Are Children of God. I'm Now Coming to Understand That Her Ultimate Grounds for Assurance Is What Christ Has Objectively Done for Us. How Are We to Look at This Verse in Light of Our Present Reality.

What an Excellent Question.

Joy in Light of Our Present Reality and I Take That to Mean You Know the Fact That We Live in a World Where There Is Suffering and Where We Even Have Questions at Times about God. Do You Really Love Me.

Am I Really Even Saved Assurance Is Such an Important Thing in This Is One of the Places Where Were Told in Scripture That We Can Derive Assurances from This Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit the Spirit Bearing Witness with Our Spirit, so I Want to Read This Text and Then Let's Let's Get into It. Romans Chapter 8 Beginning in Verse 12.

So Then, Brothers, We Are Debtors, Not to the Flesh, to Live According to the Flesh.

For If You Live According to the Flesh, You Will Die. But If by the Spirit You Put to Death the Deeds of the Body, You Will Live for All Who Are Led by the Spirit of God Are Sons of God, You Did Not Receive the Spirit of Slavery to Fall Back into Fear You Have Received the Spirit of Adoption As Sons by Whom We Cry, Abba, Father the Spirit Himself Bears Witness with Our Spirit That We Are the Children of God, and If Children, Then Heirs, Heirs of God and Fellow Heirs with Christ, Provided We Suffer with Him in Order That We May Also Be Glorified with Him. I Was Just Talking This Last Week with a Dear Sister in the Lord Who Is Nearing Death Has That an Incurable Disease That She Thought That She Was Actually Going to Die Cheap. She Reached out and We Began Talking and She Shared with Me.

You Know She's Been Reflection Walking with the Lord for so Long. God Is Been so Good to Her and She Knows Jesus She Loves Jesus She Said a Note Here at This Point in My Life. Looking Back, I Have Questions. Why Did I Do This. Why Did I Do That Why Didn't I Love the Lord More in This Area or in That Area and Very Honest Question to the Type of Thing That I Think All of Us Ask at Times, and Certainly As As We Get near to Being in the Presence of the Lord.

We Reflect upon Our Lives. Those Those Are the Kinds of Questions That I Think We Ask and We Talked about Assurance and Where We Can Get Assurance from and in of the Fact That Primarily and You Mention This Joy Assurance Comes from the Gospel from Knowing Objectively What Jesus Christ Has Done for Us and Laying Hold of That, Knowing That That Message the Free Forgiveness of Sins Is Just for Some People out There, but It's for You and It's As Sure As the Air That You Breathe Receive It by Faith Is the Primary Place We Get Assurance but Here Paul Also Says That the Spirit Bears Witness with Our Spirit That We Are the Children of God. Now Here's What You Need to Understand As the Children of God Our Present Circumstances Are Present Reality As You Call It Joy, Sometimes, Will Be Very Difficult. In Fact, in the Context of Romans Chapter 8 in Just A Few Verses, Paul Is Going to Talk about Christians Experiencing Tribulation, Distress, Persecution, Famine, or Nakedness or Danger. And so, Lord Death, and yet He Says through All of That Were Still God's Children. Nothing Separates Us from God's Love and the Spirit Still Can Bear Witness with Our Spirit That We Are God's Children and That's Why We Cry out Abba Father. Because the Spirit of Christ Lives in Us and What's so Interesting Is That Phrase Abba Father.

You Know It Comes from Mark Chapter 14 Verse 36 You Who Prayed That Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane As He's Crushed and Feeling Crushed by What He's about to Endure on the Cross Bearing Our Sins, He Cries out and Says Abba Father.

When Were Crushed by the Sufferings of This Life We Can Cry out like Jesus Cried out, and I Think That There Is This This Work of the Spirit in Us Whereby He Bears Witness to Us That God Is Our Father That You Might Not Always Feel That and That's Why like I Said It so Important Joy for You to Cling to the Object of Promise of the Gospel That Is True Regardless of How You Feel. I Found in My Life That There Are Times I Really Had the Sense to Strong Internal Says My God Is My Father There Other Times Were Okay. I Meant Has God Abandoned Me While He Hasn't.

He Hasn't Abandoned You. His Promise Is As Sure As the Gospel Is True and It Is True. Jesus Rose Again from the Dead, so That We Might Have Life so That You Might Have Life and That Is the Ultimate Source of Assurance Joy, Thanks for Your Question.

This Is Core Christianity and Would Love to Hear from You.

If You Have a Question Here's the Number It's 833 the Core That's 833-843-2673, and Johnny Called Us from Tennessee Talking about Apostles and Prophets, and My Question Is How Can They Be Saying That There Are No Profits or Apostles for Today If They Agree That God Gave Them from before the Foundation of the Earth, We Were Predestined before the Foundation of the Governor. He Said That Gave the Apostles and Prophets of Vendor Pictures You Can't Have One and Not the Other.

You Have Have All Five Preceptors Can Answer My Question Hey Johnny, Yeah, Great Question You're Talking in Particular about Ephesians Chapter 4 Is Talking about the Gifts That God Gave for the Building up of the Church.

Verse 11, He Gave the Apostles, the Prophets, the Evangelists, the Shepherds and Teachers, to Equip the Saints for the Work of Ministry, for the Building up of the Body of Christ Was Just a Little Bit Earlier in the Book of Ephesians Ephesians Chapter 2 Verse 20 We Read That the Church Is Built on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself Being the Cornerstone so I Took That to Mean Johnny That the Apostles and Prophets Are Foundational in Nature to the Structure the Edifice of the Church That's Being Built That God Called the Apostles and Their Functioning Action. One Senses These Prophets in the New Testament Sent by the Lord to Testify to Speak His Word. That's What We Have. The Holy Scriptures Recorded for Us the Inerrant Word of God, and Those Apostles What They Do. They Planted Churches and in Those Churches.

They Established Pastors, Elders, Deacons, and It's Really Those Offices.

Did the Pastor, Teacher, Elders, Deacons That Better Endure in the Life of the Church in First Timothy Three and Titus Chapter 1, You Have the Qualifications for Elders and Deacons. You Don't Have Qualifications for Prophets and Apostles Who Need to Be Established in the Local Church. I Think One of the Reasons for That Is Because These Apostles Themselves Knew That God Is Not Raising up New Apostles, and Get It. Part of It Is Really Understanding What the Function of the Apostles Were in the First Century Church.

They Are Called by Jesus, the 12 As a New Israel. If You Will That We Have 12 Apostles 12 Tribes of Israel. This Is the the Reconstitution of the People of God, and They Operate As Witnesses of the Resurrection. Having Seen the Risen Christ Going out and Proclaiming the Word Planting Churches Well We Don't Witness the Resurrection in the Same Way That They Did Not Fight.

We're Not Apostles but Here's What We Have We Have the Apostolic Message See When Summary Says I'm an Apostle. I Am Dubious I Am Suspicious of the Claim Because I Want to Ask You, Have You Seen the Risen Lord. But We Do Have Is the Apostolic Message Jesus Christ Came Live Perfect Life in My Place, Died on the Cross for My Sins and Rose Again from the Dead. That's What We Have and That's We Need to Proclaim to the Whole.

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