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Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim

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truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. When COVID hit, there were

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handful of churches that stayed open and those churches that stayed open,

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robber, people flocked to those churches. The sheep went looking for food. When

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the churches that stayed closed for say a year or whatever it was, when they

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reopen and I'm curious what happened at Texas, when they reopen in California,

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they reopened, whoa, they reopened to the LLF, and they reopened

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absolutely apologetic. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to

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JackHibbs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages

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you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of

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those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that

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rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word

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has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. We have with us today in a sense a founding

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father. Oh my, I'm old. No, no, not not by age, but by helping us with this

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vision. As soon as we started talking about getting away from the cancel

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culture, and how can we continue to promote the gospel without fear? Robert

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Jeffress was one of those very, very foundational guys, thus the founding father,

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where we had to have him on. And there's a handful of people. And I mean a

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handful that this program is dedicated to safe, biblically sound teaching without

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drama. And Robert Jeffress is an icon in the Christian Church, a prolific

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author. I am not going to name the news program as you have been on, but you've

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been on all of them. And you are a frontline warrior. I want to welcome you to

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today's program. And congratulations on real life now. We're excited to be

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a pastor. We are blessed. And so one of the things right out of the gate, let's

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try to get your book sales up and over the charts here. And that is tell us

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about your most recent book that you've written. Yeah, it's called What Every

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Christian Should Know. And it's subtitled Ten Court Believes for Standing

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Strong in a Shifting World. And this is really an update of a book called Basic

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Christianity that John Stott wrote. What I've done, Jack, is go back and look at

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the Ten Court foundational truths of his sport Christianity. And why we should

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embrace those truths in a changing world. You know, I'm sure you've heard all of

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the polls. You read them regularly about how many Christians are falling away

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from basic truth. 50% of Christians say that Jesus was not sinless. 60% of

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evangelical say there's more than one way to heaven other than faith in Christ.

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And I have to ask myself, why is that? It's because they're not hearing these

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truths. They're hearing them in New Church, but they're not hearing them in most

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churches. So this book is a call back to those ten basic beliefs about God,

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salvation, the Holy Spirit, and so forth. Well, he was an amazing thing about what

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you're saying is somebody who might think that they are a mature, rooted

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grounded Christian will hear a book title like yours and even the comments that

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you just made. And they're going to think, I don't need that. And yet I'm

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reminded that Peter said, it's really important to me that I write to you guys

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again. And when people make the assumption, oh, Pastor Robert, I've got that

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noun or I've got that down. Well, we've discovered certainly since COVID, people

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could say something. They could say that they believed in something. Whatever that

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is. If you were to ask them, what is being born again mean? We encountered

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people who didn't work Christian, but couldn't even tell you what being born

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again meant. They didn't understand, what's the function of the Holy Spirit? What

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is the value? What do I need to read my Bible often? I think that it's been the

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pulpits that have created. What did Spurgeon say that we in his day that we have

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we have preachers preaching sermonettes for Christianettes? Yeah. And I think

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I think when I say we, I don't mean you and I, but we as pastors have created a

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flock that is undersurning. They don't have boldness. They doubt the word of God.

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They're wondering why they read the book of Acts and all these powerful

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things are happening, but it's not happening to them. And some people want to

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blame God for being sleepy. Yeah. And it's exact opposite. And if we don't know

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the truth, we can't pass it on to our children. I mean, like somebody said, every

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civilization is only one generation away from barbarism. Why'd changes say we're

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only one generation away from atheism. I mean, right now 50% of Americans say

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they're not sure there is a God. 50%. Why is that? Because they threw COVID a lot of

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it. They got disconnected to the church. You know, you take a piece of cold. It

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remains on fire when it's in the fireplace. You separated. It grows cold very

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quickly. And so I think there's a need for good biblical doctrinal preaching. And

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I would say to people watching right now, if you don't know how to explain the

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Holy Spirit to your children, who he is and what he does, if you don't know why

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we can know that the Bible is the Word of God. Here's a book for you that you

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can pass this truth on to your children. This is an off-the-wall question, but

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maybe not. Does the book stand alone, Robert, or do you see any need for maybe a

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children's version? I think we will do a children's version of it. We're in

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talks about that. There's a study guide that goes along with the book. It's great

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for small group model studies, Sunday school class, curriculums, and books. So I

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just want to encourage everybody to go to, in fact, I didn't ask you, where would

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people find all of your books and all of your teachings? Amazon.com. Amazon.com for

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the books. Tell us a little bit about the remarkable story of you being the

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senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. I love it. First

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Baptist Dallas has been in downtown Dallas, six blocks of downtown Dallas for

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155 years. Many people don't know Billy Graham, which is a member of our church

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for 54 years. Even though he lived in North Carolina, he wanted to be at First

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Baptist Dallas because of our history of biblical teaching and the biblical

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foundation. But anyway, I grew up in the church. The church had two pastors in

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a hundred years, 50 years each. George W. Truett and W. A. Chris Wall, two

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pastors in a hundred year. So there's a strong foundation there and I grew up

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in the church and 16 years ago got to come back and be the pastor of that great

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church. And to God be the glory, but under your leadership, what has that

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church grown into today? Well, it was interesting. The church was in a period of

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decline and downtown church, all the churches had gone to the suburbs, but God

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wasn't finished with First Baptist Dallas. We ended up doing the largest

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building program in modern church history in the midst of the recession in

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2008. Our people gave $135 million, completely debt-threatening. We blew up

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all of the buildings. I watched it happen again. Yeah, Fox and France carried

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that same bloat. But anyway, I give the glory to God for what he did. We have a

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new campus. God is blessing the church with all kind of new members. We have

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been just truly blessed by God. So I'm curious if you saw this as I did. In our

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area of Southern California, when COVID hit, you've got to remember we were under

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the heel of Caesar, either Lord Newsom or Caesar Gavin, whatever, but he just

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refused to recognize. He had this essential, non-essential, and immediately,

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I mean, within the first week we were asking his office, where do you place the

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churches in California? Where do you place the churches? He wouldn't answer.

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Yeah, this fellow wouldn't answer. We have since learned that that's his

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tactic. If he's approached on an issue, he backs away. It's interesting. He

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won't speak. So I sent him a video and for it was about 12 minutes long and I

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told him with all due respect and with honor to the office of Governor in

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California, I've been a native Californian, but a citizen of heaven, we're

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opening up our church. We can't. We've been doing this media thing for a moment

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that's not working. We need to help the community. Well, our mayor in the city

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council went nuts. They loved us. And then our county board of supervisors, they

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said, any heat you get, send any letters to us. They took care of us. Well,

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frankly, Newsom didn't do a thing about it, which we're grateful for, but the

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point is this, that the church in California is ignored. I'm going to tell you

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why it's ignored. A lot of people don't realize this. There are some really powerful

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ministries in California. It's not recognized because you know how how

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media will black you out or cancel you out. So you've got ministries like

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Dr. David Jeremiah. For forever, we had Dr. Charles Swindall with us before he

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went to Texas. We had Greg Laurie, Chuck Smith, on and on. It goes. But what

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happened was when COVID hit, there were a handful of churches that stayed open.

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And those churches that stayed open, Robert, is an interesting thing that happened.

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People flocked to those churches. The sheep went looking for food. When the

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churches that stayed closed for say a year or whatever it was, when they reopen,

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and I'm curious what happened in Texas, when they reopen in California, they

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reopened woke. They reopened BLM. They reopened absolutely

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apologetic. And they wound up imploding. And some of those founders since

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left handed it over to new people. But the churches that did stay open, they

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got super blessed. We saw exactly the same thing. Super blessed churches that

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stayed closed a year. They could never figure out how to reopen again and so

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forth. They lost their members. He stumbled. And you know, you would at least hope

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pastors thought their church was essential. Well, but if they didn't, then boy,

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I don't want to be mean about this. But let's just be two pastors talking to

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one another here. If if a pastor doesn't see, when somebody comes out and

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announces that I'm not going to mention his name, when he comes out and says

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right from the get go, we're not going to open our church until next Easter.

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Well, that's like a year and a half away. Yeah. First of all, what made him say

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that second of all? It's what about your flock? What about those that are

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hurting? And look, Jack, I mean, it's one thing if everybody is closing and

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being a good neighbor, but when they are persecuting the church and

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simply not the church, we have to do exactly what you did and you set the

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standard for a lot of churches. You and I watched the news, not that the news

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drives us, but we we were looking at what was happening. And you got to

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remember, people may let people forget that when this initial thing, I think

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Trump said, give us 15 days. Give us 15 days. We thought the news coming out of

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China, we thought people would be dead on the streets. We were seeing videos of

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people in various parts of China laying in the streets. Well, then we were asked

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15 days, the flat in the curve. After that, we began to see experts, they

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could not agree. And then it's like, okay, we've got to do what God's called us to

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do, but to see what's happened since I I personally believe it's my

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opinion that the COVID event God used it. I'm not saying God sent it. I'm not

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saying I'm not what that's his business, but I will say that God used it. And what

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we saw in California was that it was like a winnowing. Yeah. The wheat from the

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chaff because since that time, the churches in California, there's a steel

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spine in those churches that stayed open. Yeah. It's really awesome and

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encouraging to say the truth. And by the way, that's one of the things we

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talk about in the book. It's one of the chapters. There's whatever Christians

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should know about the church. What most people forget is the local church is not

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man's idea. It was God's idea. God created the church. It is essential. You

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can't grow as a Christian apart from involvement in a local church. And I we saw

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the same thing in our church. The machine metal is gone. They're gone. They're

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not coming back. And we're not going to miss that. You know, they know what you're

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at. They know what you preach and teach. They can come back when they want, but

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you're not going to go change your messaging. You're not going to alter the

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word of God to bring them back. And I'll just tell you some of the good that

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comes in and you've seen it as well. Our internet ministry, I campus

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exploded on Easter Sunday that first COVID. When President Trump announced he

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was going to watch our service. Yes. We had a million and a half viewers. We had

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30,000 who were saved. And they haven't gone away. I mean, they stayed with us.

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And so it's been a blessing. I would never have dreamed it up or planned it. But

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God used it for you. And look, you and I agree that there was some, there was

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some. Now we, by the way, we heard it this week from the CDC that that 6% 6% of

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the COVID deaths reported were actually COVID deaths reported 6%. The other

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percentage was those being reported as COVID death, but they had co morbidity

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issues. Having said that, you know, we're sorry for any death. But the bottom

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line is I love the fact that you are so committed. You will not waver. You are

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inspiration to me and millions of other people. And it's an honor to be with you.

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Before we wrap this up, just give a barrage. Let have Robert Jeffers barrage us with

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again the book. If you can, as memory provides, go through highlights of the

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chapters that would help us promote your book beyond the walls of this conference.

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Well, it's called whatever Christians should know. Ten court beliefs for

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standing strong in a shifting world. You know, the truth is, Jack, cultures change,

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opinions change, God's word never changes. And the first chapter is the

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foundational chapter. Most people were surprised. I didn't start with Jesus

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Christ. What every Christian should know about Jesus Christ. That's a second

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chapter. The first chapter is what every Christian should know about the Bible.

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The truth is, apart from the Bible, we would know a lot about Jesus. Yeah, there's

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some external evidence he existed. We wouldn't know he rose from the dead. We

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wouldn't know about the miracles. We wouldn't know about his bleeding death on

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the cross on our behalf. That's all from the Bible that we know that. So every

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doubt that a person has begins the same way it began in Genesis 3 when Satan

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slithered up to the woman and said, has God really said. And my own life, the

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Christ's time as a college student, was when I listened to professors at a

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Christian college talk about the contradictions in the Bible, the errors in the

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Bible. And I came to the point I said, if this Bible is filled with errors, why do

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I want to spend the rest of my life teaching it? And I almost walked away from

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Christianity as well as the ministry because I didn't have a firm foundation in

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the Bible. Unfortunately, some people showed me why you don't have to commit

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intellectual suicide to become a Christian and believe the Bible. So I would say

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of all the chapters, this chapter is the most important. And by the way, your

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kids are gonna ask you, your grandkids, mom, dad, grandpa, why do you believe the

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Bible? How can I know it's true? So I would get the book, whatever Christian

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should know just for that first chapter. Everything else, Jesus, the Holy

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Spirit, sin, salvation, the church, it's all built on that foundational

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first. So before we wrap this up, you know this, a big, big part of now today's

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books is audio books. Will it be available on audio?

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Yes, on Amazon.com. On Amazon.com. Listen, everybody, we have with us Pastor

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Robert Jeffress, pastor, long time pastor, a first Baptist church in Dallas,

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Texas. If you're ever in the Dallas area, you gotta go. I was there late one

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night at about 11 o'clock and I walked around six city blocks just to pray and

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to thank God for the ministry of Robert Jeffress. His ministry online, on air, on

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TV is pathway to victory. And we love it. And in fact, coming down from my

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hotel room down to this meeting here, he was on air. And so listen, we are

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grateful. Robert Jeffress, we love you brother. Thanks for all you do. Thank you,

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brother. Take care. Bye-bye.

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This Jack Kibb's podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are

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