Living Faithfully in Babylon

Living Faithfully in Babylon

July 10, 2025

Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Co-host: Pastor Matt Recker

Guest: Bryan Osborne

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 7/10/25. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Sam Rohrer:

Hello and welcome to this Thursday edition of Stand In the Gap Today, and it’s also our monthly focus on creation, biblical worldview and apologetics. And my returning guest today is Bryan Osborne. He’s an author, is a conference speaker and a Christian AP apologist for answers in Genesis. They have a website@answersingenesis.org and I’ll give that again during the bounce of the program. But as I and my guests have been stating on this program for a long time, the days in which we live are increasingly keyword, increasingly uncertain, and for most people confusing and stressful, the warnings of Jesus regarding signs of the beginning of the seven year tribulation period, particularly in Matthew 24, we see them in full swing deception, wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, and volcanoes as the earth groans in anticipation of God’s judgment. That’s what scripture says. Destructive weather, events, sickness and pandemics and threats of those things and arise in persecution against Christians and Jews are all happening.

And I’m going to submit right on schedule. And as Jesus said when those alive at that time that he was talking about, that is us today. We know that because Israel’s now back in the land and that clock has begun to tick when these people alive us today witness these global signs when we see them converge in increase in intensity and frequency, we should note that these things will not stop, but will only increase as does a pregnant woman’s body when she’s about to give birth right now. That was the example that Jesus used in that passage. And like pregnancy, we know it begins quietly, it moves along unobserved for a period of time, but then it begins to move to that time of Braxton Hicks that pregnant mom begins to feel and then into active labor at some point. And at that point when active labor begins, there is no turning back and the picture of birth and delivery is God’s divine illustration.

And because of that, we should, as Christ said, note these things with anticipation and alertness and not be perplexed as he said, don’t be perplexed because these things must come to pass. Now that being said, a driving accompanying development within these days is of course the rise of a one world political, economic and religious system. We refer to here regularly as the beast system. It’s prepared by the world’s political and business leaders as we see described in Psalm chapter two. But ultimately it’s going to be usurped and headed up by the antichrist himself. This is a scenario that describes the world system led Satan that characterizes itself by lifting itself against Christ in his coming government. And today on this program, Bryan Osborne and my co-host for the day, Pastor Matt Recker, he’s pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Manhattan, New York City, are going to discuss the practical aspect of this world’s system and how we can indeed though evil, live faithful to God in these historic days. The title I’ve chosen to frame today’s program is simply this Living Faithfully in Babylon. Okay, Bryan Osborne, thank you for being back with Pastor Matt and I. It’s great to have you back.

Bryan Osborne:

It is always your privilege. Thanks for having me.

Sam Rohrer:

Let’s get into it right now. Bryan, you recently spoke about living faithfully in this world system in which we live and you referred to it as Babylon. I think that’s a great one. We know that Babylon describes a literal Babylonian kingdom during the days of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, but the scripture also speaks in many places of an economic Babylon, a religious Babylon as a description of the world and the world’s system that lifts itself against God. So here’s my question to you to get us going. How would you define and compare contrast the world’s system to which the apostle Paul in Romans 12 says, we are not to be conformed to this world system and the word Babylon as we’re using it today and is described in many ways throughout scripture?

Bryan Osborne:

Yeah, I would say Sam, a couple of different things. Number one, like you mentioned, Babylon is a real place and real history. There’s a connection there and of course we’ll make connections to that. Now, Daniel lived in that Babylon faithfully and how we can make some good analogies, how we can live faithfully and our Babylon today of course. And you think about Tower of Babylon seems to be connected to Babylon as well. And what was taking place at the Tower of Babel? Well, mankind, about 100 years after the flood was already rebelling against God said, no, we’re not going to spread out. We’re going to stay in one place. We’re going to build a tower to the heavens, we’re going to make a name for ourselves. Basically we will be our own God. And that really is the spirit of Babylon, that we can be our own authority, that we can be our own God.

And in the Bible you see Babylon as a metaphor that it’s the metaphor for the spirit of the age as outlined like in Ephesians chapter two, a culture that’s following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the era, a work that sounds of disobedience, a culture that is just focused on following its desires and its fleshly thoughts rather than following after God that we can be our wrong God or Sam, as you well know, Romans chapter one, same sort of thing, the spirit of this age where people don’t see fit to acknowledge God. So what does he do? He gives them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. And as a result they’re filled with all envy, murder strife. They’re haters of God, they’re proud, they’re inventors of evil, they’re merciful as they rebel against God.

And though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who do them. And so a culture that’s really identified by those markers focused on self, we can be our own God that’s proud and insolent and really idolizing the self-that’s captured by the spirit of this age. A culture like that is to be like Babylon, to be living in Babylon. So I put forth that the culture we live in today fits that description. And so in a sense we live in our own Babylon today and catch by the spirit of this age.

Matt Recker:

Yeah, thank you Bryan. Great to have you with us here today and we are living in Babylon. That is for certain. And how would you connect then the Babylon of Daniel’s Day to the emerging system, emerging world system, and what are the commonalities would you say, between the tower baby and the Babylon of let’s say, Daniel’s Day to the coming Babylon of the days of the Antichrist even and also with our day?

Bryan Osborne:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it’s interesting. You look at the Babylon of Daniel’s day in which he lived, they worshiped false gods, false idols and they worshiped probably real stone statues, the real idols rules, tangible things in front of them. And we tend to think today, oh well we in our culture, we don’t have typically those stone statues in front of us that we’re burning incidents to or offering sacrifices to. So we’re not like that. Actually we are because in a sense it’s the same idea that we will worship something other than the one true and living God. And in doing so, we become our own authority. We determine truth for ourself. We become our own God. Really the spirit is the same from either ancient Babylon or Babylon. Today. The spirit is God, you’re not God. You don’t define truth, we don’t have to worship you. We can define truth for ourselves. We can worship as we like. We can be our own Gods Lord that Daniels Babylon, the tower of baby or the spirit of the sage. It’s the same ideology that rejects God, which goes back to Jesus chapter three where the devil says You can be your God.

Sam Rohrer:

Bryan. Perfect. Your ladies joining us today, ladies and gentlemen, living faithfully in Babylon, the world’s system, the Babylon of today. When we put anything above God, we’re in that time. We come back, we’re going to begin to explain about being in this world, not of the world, and then we’ll get into how to live faithfully in this world. If you’re just joining us today, thanks so much for being aboard and part of our family here today. Our theme, if you didn’t catch the first segment, there is this living faithfully in Babylon and my special guest, Bryan Osborne, has been with me a number, number of times and some of you may have heard him perhaps in your own church. He gets out and visits and speaks. He’s an author, he is a conference speaker and Christian apologist for answers in Genesis and they have their website@answersingenesis.org.

But we’re talking about living faithfully, which we all should be concerned about and we’re using that word Babylon to describe the world and the world system about which we just had a bit of a discussion in the last segment, but moving further into this because by the end of the program we’re going to give four basic principles that will actually help all who want to live godly in this present age that’s we’re supposed to. And I say that carefully because not everybody wants to but all who want to. There are four things that can be done so as to faithfully live in an evil world and that’s clearly where we live. Now, a couple of foundational verses here in Romans chapter 12 verses one and two, and I referred to that earlier and so did Bryan, it says this, here’s the verse, as you’ll all recognize, I’m sure the apostle Paul says, I beseech you, therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that you present, your body’s a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, he said, which is your reasonable service.

And then this verse and be not conformed to this world by definition world system, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Then there’s another verse where the Lord Jesus himself speaks in John chapter 17 where Jesus actually praying to his father and he prays for his disciples. That includes us too. If you know him as Savior Jesus said this, I pray for them disciples, those part of them. Now God’s family, I pray for them Father who you have given to me out of this world and I pray not that you will take them out of this world, but thou you should keep them from evil in this world for they are not of the world, the world’s system even as I am not of this world. And then he says this next, sanctify them through the truth.

Thy word is truth. Okay Bryan, in order to live faithfully in this evil world system and you’ve identified those four things and we’ll get into them in the next couple of segments, I thought that it might be good to expand a little bit here because in a practical sense, unless a person understands that a true believer as Jesus described is not of this world though in this world he’ll not know why it is important to not be conformed to this world. And I’m going to submit that they’ll see no need to apply the four prescriptions for living faithfully in Babylon that we’re going to talk about next. So here’s my question. What is required for a person to understand Jesus’s prayer that they are of this world, even as I’m not of this world, and to act upon Paul’s command to not be conformed to this world system?

Bryan Osborne:

Yeah, that’s a great question and it’s really I think answered in the verses that you gave just now that we have to renew our minds so we’re not conformed. How do we renew our minds through the word of God? And even the second verse, he pray it would be sanctified by the truth that God’s truth, his word would sanctify us modus into names of Christ and gives us a biblical worldview then that will establish how we live and interact with the world around us in which we live. So we’ve got to have that biblical foundation rooted in God’s word in a real sense, we are told by God’s word to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. And then as we do that we’re molded into this image. You can live faithfully in the culture we live in today. I think part of the biblical worldview too is understanding the world in which we live.

It really goes back to Genesis that is originally God made a perfect creation. So the world was perfect. There was no death, no suffering, there was no disease, no corruption, there was no Babylon, there was a perfect creation. Then after that he had the fall of man, which brought corruption into God’s perfect creation. And so today we can be in this world that has remnants of God’s beauty, we see remnants of that and there are echoes of Eden, if you will, throughout God’s creation. But also this creation has been corrupted by sin. And it’s not just the creation around us, it’s we ourselves. We all have been corrupted by sin. We’re broken by sin. The world is broken by sin. So although the world itself was God’s creation originally, it’s been broken by man’s sin, therefore it’s marred and we’ve been broken by that. So we can see things wrongly, we can have wrong feelings, we can perceive reality wrongly because we’re broken by sin.

So how do we correct that? Well, we go to God’s word and use that as our authority, not our own thoughts, not our own feelings, not the world we see around us. No God’s word gives us the right corrective lenses to correct our spiritual sight problem called sin. And so it is that foundational rock or the truth of scripture that is eternally true, that’s never changing. That is the prescription to give us the right foundation to understand and engage this world rightly. But it’s got to start with God’s word. And I think attached to that is the reality of we see in one Peter two 11 where we are told that we are sojourners, we are exiles in this world. Sam, we’re just passing through. This is Motel six, right? This is not our home. Now we are to be effective salt and light while we’re here for the glory of God, but we know this is not our final destination. How do we know that from the truth of God’s word? So again, being anchored to that gives us the right framework to engage this culture rightly.

Sam Rohrer:

Alright, that’s perfect Bryan, because ladies and gentlemen get the idea that’s a biblical worldview. You cannot understand what was just said and cannot understand what Jesus said, that we’re not of this world, but we’re in this world or being conformed to the world or renewing of the mind unless we think biblically, that means going to the word of God to find out. Makes sense. Right. Alright, now Matt, let me go to you in a practical sense here, even in an application sense because what Bryan said, it was practical, it’s the truth, but in an applicable sense, you as a pastor, you’ve started multiple churches in the New York City area and what a location for the world. The whole world comes in New York City, there’s lots of stuff that goes on there. How have you in a practical sense instructed new believers to understand what it means to be in the world but not of the world and Jesus’s prayer to keep them from the evil of this world? How have you related the concept that we’re talking about right now to the people who are on those busy streets of the largest city in America where there’s lots of evil? Anyway, you got the point. Speak to us about that.

Matt Recker:

Yeah, that’s a great question Sam. And I believe ultimately we have to preach the word, even as Bryan was just saying, it begins with God’s word, but worldliness is often too defined, merely by just what we do in our outward activities. But ultimately it gets to the heart because the scripture says love not the world. And the idea of love there is you live for something that makes sacrifices for that. And so when someone loves the world, they are making sacrifices and investing in this system of lust, of pride. And so a love of this world is really an affection for and a desire and an attachment to some aspect of this present ordered arrangement of things, of lust and of pride and then making those sacrifices for these things that God does not love. Because if we love the world, we cannot love God.

So we absolutely have to love God and love his word. What I would just summarize it in saying it like this as well, and what I challenge our people I think fairly regularly is that we need to experience a revived life by the very presence and power of Jesus Christ and realize this world like Tozer, well said in one of his writings, this world is not a playground but a battleground. This life is war and it’s hard and we’re in a fierce spiritual struggle, Sam. And so like Joseph in that Egyptian prison, I’ve been thinking about Joseph lately, we may feel forgotten and alone and life is not fair and through it all, Satan desires to have us and to sift us, but we need that revived presence by the power of Jesus Christ, the risen Lord that we may know him and the power of his resurrection. And so that’s really how I challenge people to understand we’re in the world but we’re not of it. And to look to Jesus, the power of his risen life, like Paul and Corinth, he wanted to give up but the Lord said, I am with you. And so we need to live in that very presence of God revived by the presence and power of Jesus.

Sam Rohrer:

Alright, so ladies and gentlemen, thank you Matt. We’re about the end of this segment, but you get the idea. If you’re listening to us on this program right now, you at least have a fear of God most listening to this program. I know, I mean I don’t know this for a fact, but I’ve heard from so many across the country you listen to the program because what we speak about here comes off the pages of scripture. It’s not just our opinion, our opinions don’t mean anything. God’s opinion does mean everything. So the application, being able to look at the needs around us from the pages of scripture is what in fact allows us to have that biblical worldview to be able to bring to clarity the confusion of the day, to not be deceived by the deceivers of this world and to be and understand that we though may be in this world, we belong to another world, another kingdom, and as Bryan said, we’re just passing through.

So all of those things, all of that comes with knowing God’s word and that’s our focus today. We come back, we’re going to begin discussing four prescriptions for Living Faithful. Well if you’re just tuning in right now, and some are radio programs are that way, this is an hour program stand in the gap today. And I know because we all are of this nature, some are distracted for a moment. You can’t write some things down and you can’t remember everything. At least I can’t. Maybe you can because we have a brilliant audience. I know, but I can’t. So I want you to know that you can go back and listen to this program again and I advise you to do that for all of the programs because we’re covering headline news at current events of one type or another like today where our theme is not necessarily a headline event per se, but it is a headline reality in this case today we’re talking living faithfully and Babylon.

How many times on this program do we talk about those various things that indicate and prove and give credence to the fact that the world system that looks just like portions of the book of Daniel and Revelation and other portions are coming into being just as we speak. And as we have heard, if you go to church regularly, you have heard much preaching about those as true believers should live wholly in this world. We should not be conformed to this world, but we should be renewed by the renewing of our mind as Jesus said. And we’ve talked about already as he prayed to his father, protect these people, true believers, protect them from the evil world and help them to understand that they are yet in this world but they’re going to another kingdom and all those things, right? Alright, now that’s how it all fits together.

So it’s very relevant what we’re talking about, but you can find all of these programs, if you listen regularly, you will find a theme that runs through every program that we do, which always emphasizes a biblical worldview perspective of whatever it is in that God’s word is authoritative. And when we fear God and we keep His commandments and we do that, then God’s blessing will come and he’ll walk with us. He will never leave us. And in the face of an evil world our theme today, we still can live faithfully. And Bryan, that’s where we want to go. Now let’s begin here. Now you’ve identified, I’m going to call them living Faithfully principles and there’s four of them that you’ve picked out. They’re all good. Right off the page of the scripture, let’s just try to go down through them now and build them out in the balance of the program. What would you identify as principle number one for a person who says, yes, I don’t want to be conformed to this world. Yes, I want to live holy in this world. And then what should they do?

Bryan Osborne:

Yeah, the first one I have, Sam, is to be ready. Now I’m from answers and Genesis so everybody knows I would start there to be ready to give an answer for our faith, like first Peter three 15 tells us be to do so and really to be able to give an answer for our faith to defend the faith effectively. Sam, we got to understand the culture in which we live today and the nature of the, that we’re engaged in. Got to understand that first. And we can look to actually the book of Daniel and the Babylon he lived in to get an idea of what’s happening in our culture today. You go to Daniel chapter one, it says, one of the king of Babylon, EZR brought them from Israel to Babylon. He brought them to what in verse four, to teach them these Israelites, the literature and the language of the Chaldean.

In other words, to teach them the Babylonian worldview, to indoctrinate these new Israelites into their thinking based on their authority so they could be good tools for the Babylonian kingdom. And so he wanted to build our thinking on a different foundation, pulling Daniel and his friends from where they were at in a culture that was rooted in biblical thinking, rooted in God’s word and of course had its own problems, but ultimately rooted in God’s word, pulling them away from that, the new culture and build of thinking on a different foundation. And Sam, in a real sense, I know people in America might say, well, I don’t live in Babylon, I don’t live in a foreign country, but I’ll suggest our culture has changed so much. The dynamics have changed so much. The ideology that dominates our cultural landscape is so secular in thinking in a real sense.

We are living in a foreign nation, at least a nation has foreign ideas that are opposed to biblical thinking. And it wants to indoctrinate us in that secular worldview that says, man is his own authority. And so first of all, we can understand that the nature of this battle is a battle over foundational authorities for your worldview, either God’s words, your authority or man’s word is. And so just like Daniel and his day and his friends with live in Babylon, they had set their sights to be rooted in the word of God as their authority. And we as Christians must set our sights there as well and understand that the attacks of our culture are really the attack on biblical authority. That’s the nature of the battles of foundational one. That’s the first thing we’ve got to understand. Then as we stand faithfully on God’s word, we can give an answer.

And of course part of that too, Sam, is that there is no neutral. Many Christians fall for the lie that, well, let’s just be neutral about social issues. Let just be neutral about origin. Let’s be neutral about abortion. But there is no neutrality either. God’s word is your authority or man’s word is. And if you agree with the secularists that you can be neutral, you’re actually agreeing with them, that man can determine truth apart from God, which is their foundational worldview. And so you’re actually not being neutral and so don’t, there’s no neutrality. We hold fast to God’s word and then Sam, we can give defense in the culture in which we live.

Matt Recker:

Yeah, thank you Bryan. This is certainly a timeless subject to faithfulness, living faithfully. And so that’s a great first principle to be ready. And faithfulness is required of us, isn’t it? It is required of a servant that he be found faithful. For God is faithful, great is his faithfulness. So that first principle being ready, what is the second faithful principle that we need to apply then in our lives?

Bryan Osborne:

Yeah, the next one I go with, thanks Matt, is to be bold and courageous. And so we have to be willing to engage. Now you might have truth, you might have a biblical world. You’re very willing to be bold and courageous to engage the culture with those biblical truths. And man, as you look at Daniel and his friends in the book of Daniel, they are definitely bold and courageous. We don’t have time right now of course, but multiple times when they’re engaging a pagan king or engaging their pagan culture, they are boldly standing for truth. Now, please note they do it with respect, but they are boldly proclaiming God’s truth. We won’t bow the need to you. I won’t follow your ways. I’m not going to worship your pan idol. So I’m going to stand for truth. Oh dear king, God can deliver us and he will, but if he doesn’t, we still won’t bow to your idol.

And so they were bold, it was still very respectful in how they did it, but they’re a bold in their steadfast heart being rooted in God’s word. And here’s the deal, I know people might think, well bold and courageous aren’t those kind of syn nail. Why do you do both words for this principle? Here’s why I do that. Because I think for a lot of us, especially even as Christians, we see the word bold, be bold like Daniel and we think, oh, well that means be bold. That’s for Christians who have no fear. The super Christians, the Chuck Norris of Christians, the ones who have all the answers, they’ve done all the training, they’re apologists, they do street witnessing. They’re not scared of anything. Those are the people that be bold. No, we are all as Christians called to be a witness. We’re all called to give an answer for our faith.

We’re all called to be bold. And that’s why I did courageous in this because courageous things of courage, what is courage? It’s doing what is right. Even in light of fear. You might feel so, you may be afraid of something, you may be afraid of the consequences of standing up or proclaiming truth, but yet you do it anyway. That is courage. And we are called to be bold and courageous. And I would submit that if we could really see Daniel’s heart and his friends’ hearts and Babylon and these amazing passages in the book of Daniel that showed their boldness, if we actually could see the background to how they thought through the decisions they prayed through them, how they were getting ready to make these bold decorations, to take this bold stand, they knew by doing this it could cost them their life. It could cost them their livelihood, their status. They knew it could cost them everything and I would bet they felt fear. But you know what, pastor Matt, they did it anyway. And that’s what we’re called to do as well. That no matter what the cost is, that we will boldly stand and defend and proclaim with courage rooted in God’s word. If we’re standing on biblical authority, we have answers so we can defend the faith and let God move through it as CC fit to his glory.

Sam Rohrer:

Matt, good question. And Bryan, I want to come back with you on that because I think some may be listening and saying, well, on the emphasis on being bold, you use the word stand, you use the word bold. And I think some may be thinking, alright, well is it my duty? Because sometimes we hear the word, we must engage the culture. Alright? And I don’t dispute that. I mean the Lord put me as a believer in elected office for 20 years. So in that position I did regularly. But I’m wondering, Bryan, your comment on this more often than actually pulling together a group of people and saying, we’re going to march against the King Daniel. We’re going to gather our little group of three or four, five people and we’re going to charge into the presence of the king and say you are wrong. That’s one way to engage the culture. It’s not a good way, I don’t think, not effective way. But what really comes from them is that when the world’s system commanded a believer, them us to do something that is contrary to God’s word, we like Shadrach, Micha and Abednego say, no, we can’t. And we don’t bow the knee, just not bowing the knee. Lets us be salt and light. Some comments on that thought as we just talk about this briefly.

Bryan Osborne:

Oh absolutely. I’d say amen to all of that. And I would add just to go right along with that, and that is to be bold in our culture today, doesn’t mean you have to have some amazing detailed, articulate argument against secular ideas. Just stand for biblical truth. I mean instead just say that marriage is one man, one woman for life. Whether to a family member who disagrees or to a school council or to the public at large, just say to someone that there are only two genders and that’s being bold today, amazingly so that’s all it takes. Just say there’s only one way to salvation that’s found in Christ alone that is being bold, just stating on biblical truth. That’s being bold.

Sam Rohrer:

Alright? And ladies and gentlemen, you get that. I just want to emphasize this to help us all understand that it is easy to be light and salt in this world. If we know what God’s word says, we know what God says to do and we are committed to fearing him and keeping and obeying his command. We don’t have to go out in March and get a bugle and start saying, Hey, look at me, I’m different than you. No, no, no. Just live holy and don’t do what God says and don’t do what the world says to do. They will identify you, believe me. And it takes boldness for that. So we have to be prepared to defend, need to be bold and courageous. If we come back, we’ll look at living faithful principle number three and four. Alright, as we go into our final program, again, my guest today is Bryan Osborne.

He is an author, he is a conference speaker. You may have heard him. He travels a lot around the country. Christian apologist, he’s with Andris and Genesis and they have their website, answers in genesis.org, a lot of information there. And generally not exclusively, but most months I will have someone on the area and will deal with the matter of apologetics and a biblical worldview. And for a number of years now, I’ve had Bryan, my guest today, or one of the other individuals, very competent that they have there available with me here to start with creation because you cannot talk about God’s words. You cannot talk about authority, you cannot talk about, as we’re talking today, how to live faithfully in this Babylon government world system unless you start in Genesis. So it all fits. And we try to take themes like today that are dominant ongoing themes.

Christians living in a hostile world, this Babylon beast system. We’ve taught about it so long this world that the apostle Paul says, don’t be conformed to it, that Jesus says this world you’re just passing through, don’t get your feet anchored here because this is not home. So ladies and gentlemen, that’s a challenge to all of us. I ask myself this kind question, am I going through this life thinking that this is my home? Or am I looking yes down the road, down that heavenly road in anticipation that my home is down the road, it’s with the Lord Jesus himself. Am I thinking that because my citizenship is in heaven, am I thinking really that I am here as an ambassador on a mission with purpose to represent that kingdom? Not this one. Okay, that’s the practical application. So there are four principles, Bryan, that you have identified and you’ve presented before. One is be ready and then be bold and courageous. Talked about them in the last segment. And there are two more though. Let’s go to I’m saying living faithfully. Principle number three, what is it? And apply it, please.

Bryan Osborne:

Yeah, this one can be a bit hard to swallow at times. Says be humble and loving and so necessary. And I would suggest, Sam, this is so hard because we live in a culture saturated with pride. Our culture says you be you, you’re awesome. It’s all about you. Disney tells you to follow your heart. You got whole movements like the L-G-B-T-Q community who march on the banner of pride. And so pride, SATs or culture. And so the idea of being humble is so anti-culture. It’s anti natural to the world we live in. And so they can be hard because of that because we were raised up in this. But we are called to be humble actually one Peter three 15, the verse, we love the quote here, the Ministry for Giving and Defense. You keep reading to the end of the verse. It says, be ready to give a defense to all who ask you for reason, for the hope that you have yet do this with gentleness and respect.

And so yes, we are called to be bold. We are called to present truth. We’re called to live lives authentic to the glory of God based on his truth. But we’re called to do this with humility, with gentleness and respect because we want to glorify God not just with what we do but how we do it. And you see this with Daniel man, there’s so many examples just one very quickly. When Daniel was given the interpretation to the dream that no other wise man had and he’s brought before the king to give his interpretation, Daniel could have said, Hey King, I’ve got your interpretation right here because I’m awesome. I’m just built different. You’re welcome. Here you go. He could have really lifted himself up, but Daniel doesn’t do that. Daniel says to the king, no one could do what you asked, but there is a God in heaven.

And he has revealed to me this mystery so that he can be glorified basically is what’s being played out there. And Daniel gives all the glory, all the focus to God, not himself. And that’s part of humility that as we give answers, as we engage the cultures, we love people with the love of Christ, we do understand this all comes from Christ. One Corinthians four, seven, what do you have that you did not receive? So everything that we can share with someone is a gift from our God. So we’re to do this humbly to the world around us. And so a big thing in giving an answer to be faithful and Babylon is to do what we’re called to do with humility. And also that we do it with love. Now, not the secular definition of what love is, but the biblical definition of love.

And that is do what’s best for someone even if it costs you something. And guys, what’s most important to people is God, salvation and the truth of God. That is what’s best for people. And so by giving truth, that is a kindness that brings clarity. And the most loving thing we can do is to present truth to people, of course, in a loving way that God might use that to change their hearts and change their eternal destiny. So we boldly engage with humility and love and God can work through that in an amazing way to draw people to himself.

Matt Recker:

Thank you, Bryan. And today we’re looking at living faithfully principles and the first one was to be ready. The second one was to be bold and courageous. The third that you just have spoken to us about, Bryan, be humble and loving. I’m looking forward to the last one in just a moment, but I want to read one scripture related to this, what Jesus said in John 17, where he said right after in his great prayer that we are not to be of the world while we’re in the world. Then he said, I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou should it keep them from the evil. So Jesus in prayer to the Father, prayed that the father would guard us and protect us and watch over us in this life so that we could live faithfully for him. And so we looked at the first three principles. Now Bryan, could you share this fourth principle of living faithfully before God?

Bryan Osborne:

Yeah, this one gets me really excited. They all do. But just the last one is be hopeful. Be hopeful. When I say be hopeful, I don’t mean I hope I get the job or I hope the girl says yes to the date request. Something like that. No, we’re talking about an expectant hope, a biblical hope. It’s the type of hope where a kid who’s waiting for Christmas and they’re hoping for Christmas to get there, they know Christmas is coming. They’re just waiting on it to get here. That is our hope. As Christians, we are to be hopeful people. And man, this can be such a contagious thing because our culture is dying for hope. It is so hopeless as it abandons God and we have real hope. And so as we engage this culture, we’re not to be defeated. We’re not to think there is no hope, no, we are hopeful because God is at work.

God is sovereign. There’s not a maverick molecule in the universe. He’s working all things for his glory and our good. He turns the hearts of the kings and leaves wherever he wants them to go. God is working all things and he will win. He already won on the cross and he will win for eternity that someday he’s coming back and Jesus will be here. There’ll be an earthly kingdom, he’ll be here and we’ll see his face. And every knee will bow. Every time we’ll confess that Jesus Christ is Lord friends, God wins. Christ wins and we win in Christ game over. And so we don’t have to worry about if we’re going to win or not or how this is going to turn out. We know we know. So we can boldly and lovingly and humbly engage people the truth of God’s word, rooted on the foundational hope of Christ and his perfect eternal victory and kingdom.

Sam Rohrer:

Bryan, that is excellent. So ladies and gentlemen, I mean, I think all of these things that have been mentioned, we would all be well served if we were to ask ourselves the question. And that is this, to what extent am I ready to give an answer for the hope that is within me? That’s the apologetic aspect. That’s the purpose of knowing God’s word. Secondly, being bold and courageous. Again, as we talked about before, you don’t have to look for opportunities to confront the enemy in the world. It is in our face. We must be concerned about knowing what God’s word says and trusting him and saying, no, I will not bow the knee because, alright, and then thirdly, being humble and loving and everything we do that should be obvious and that should be present. God resists the proud. We don’t want to be proud when we’re humble.

We’re grateful we thanking God for all that he’s done, even in the midst of difficulty. And then be hopeful if we really believe what God says and he’s coming back for us. Well, that’s what Paul said to Thessalonians, comfort one another with these words, look forward for his soon return. That scripture makes a difference in how we’d live. Anyway, thank you so much for being with us today, ladies and gentlemen. Bryan Osborne from Answers and genesis. Answers and genesis.org. Always a blessing to have you on board and Pastor Matt Recker from Manhattan, New York City, thank you for being a part of today’s program as well.