Have you seen the video of the CEO and HR Chief having an affair at the Coldplay concert? It's something to see sin, which they thought was in the darkness, exposed to the light so quickly. May this be a lesson for everyone: God is greater than a kiss cam.

Welcome to Politics by Faith, thank you for being here. Have you seen the video going around of what happened at the Coldplay concert? So someone was taking a video from somewhere in the stadium in Boston while the Kiss Cam was going around. Because it was a Kiss Cam. So the camera at the concert was going around and putting it on the big screen, people in

the audience. And the band was commenting on it and the camera focuses on a happy couple and the man is in the back they're both standing and the man is in the back and he's holding this woman in his arms they're both facing the stage and they're looking around they're having a grand time laughing big smiles euphoria euphoria and then when they both at the exact same time realize that they're on the big screen,

she covers her face and turns around and the man falls down to the ground.

Oh, look at these two.

All right, come on, you're okay.

Uh-oh, what?

Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy.

He was right on the first one. It was an affair. Now, very embarrassing, pretty funny seeing him get caught. But, if I may, I haven't heard anyone talk about their families. Now I don't know their situations exactly, but they were apparently both married. Oh, by the way, that's the CEO of a company,

some like tech startup company. That's the CEO and apparently that's the HR director. Apparently they were both married. I haven't heard anyone talk about the pain, as we laugh, but the pain that's being felt by their spouses.

And we have kids as well, and I don't know, again, the exact details, but that's all really sad. Now here is the apology that was written by the CEO. Listen to this. He said, I want to by the CEO. Listen to this. He said, I want to acknowledge the moment. This is so passive and not repentant.

I want to acknowledge the moment that's been circulating online and the disappointment it's caused. What was supposed to be a night of music and joy. No, it was supposed to be a night of you cheating on your wife. Was turned into a deeply personal mistake. Nope. The mistake happened way, way, way before the concert playing

out on a very public stage. It's the kiss cams fault. I want to sincerely apologize to my wife, my family, and the team at the company works for you deserve better for me as a partner, a father, and a leader, this is not who I want to be or how I want to represent the company. Again, he's really conflating the company and his family as one.

I'm taking time to reflect, to take accountability, and to figure out the next steps personally and professionally. I ask for privacy as I navigate that process. I also want to express how troubling it is that what should have been a private moment became public without my consent. Oh, no more kiss cams for anyone now?

Private moment. It wasn't a private moment. You were literally in public with someone who's not your wife. It was definitely not a private moment. And without your consent, when you you buy those tickets there's fine print on the back of those tickets that says you can be on you can be photographed i respect artists and

entertainers but i hope we can all think more deeply about the impact of turning someone else's life into a spectacle doesn't no one the camera guy didn't know you were cheating on your wife he's like oh there's a happy couple. Let's all like, right. As a friend once sang, lights will guide you home and ignite your bones and I will try to fix you. He quoted Coldplay in the,

like the lamest lyrics ever too. All right, so that's pathetic. I wanna give a moment to their spouses and kids. I Don't care about these two people's embarrassment they deserve the shame But I also want to steal a point from Daryl Harrison He wrote notice how happy they are in their sin because it's like three seconds before they realize they're on the camera

Notice how happy they are in their sin all it's like three seconds before they realize they're on the camera. Notice how happy they are in their sin, all smiles and hugs until they realize their sin has been exposed. They knew inherently that they were wrong. No one needed to tell them their own conscience having already convicted them. Hence why they instinctively and immediately attempted to hide themselves in shame. He's quoting Romans 2 15 in the front end there. Romans 2 15 says, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day. When according to

my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, our conscience, it's written on our hearts. It's fascinating how we have a conscience and those two knew that what they were doing was wrong and sinful. Well, who are you to say they were saying, look how they reacted. They knew it was wrong.

We all do when it's exposed. I'll give an example from the other day, my shame. My patience is low with the kids. It was near the end of the day. And I spoke rudely, quickly, rudely to I think Jack and as soon as I did, you know, I was like, I don't know, Jack, it's inside somewhere, man.

You know, something like that. And as soon as I said it, I turned around and my neighbor was right next door, like three feet away from me, gardening at their house. Super embarrassing. And I should have acted like other people were watching, but that's not even it. I should have acted like God is always watching because he is, but we think we can hide.

Adam and Eve in the garden, of course, it's how ridiculous when they sinned and they first experienced shame, they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees in the garden. You can't hide from God. Achan, a famous one, right? He took some plunder from a victory and then hid it in his tent thinking he could get away

with it. God sees everything. And God would have seen their adultery their affair even if there was no kiss scam. You see how belief in God can kind of keep people in line too? We've lost that in our culture. That's why this guy blames the kiss scam not himself. John 3 19 Jesus says and this is the judgment the light has come

into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. These people loved the darkness. They loved the darkness of inside that stadium, away from their family, away from their spouses and kids. They thought it was a dark place,

but then the light shone on them. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. This is all in the Bible. Luke 12, 2 says, nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not

be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light and what you've whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. What are you hiding? Stop trying to hide. It's exhausting.

And it doesn't work anyway. This one's maybe the most on the nose. This is Job 24. The murderer rises before his light. The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, no eye will see me.

Let's wait for the Coldilight saying no I will see me

let's wait for the Coldplay concert no one will see us there earlier in the chapter it says those there are those who rebel against the light who are not acquainted with its ways and do not stay in its paths. It's our job to not rebel against the light you can't win. Stay in its path. Don't write anything you wouldn't publish on Facebook for everyone to see. Don't do anything you wouldn't want your neighbors and friends to see that you wouldn't shout from the rooftops.

But more importantly, again, than other people and their shame, God is omniscient. No sin is hidden from him. I could end on that note, which is true, but I just want to add a note of good news too, although I think that's all good as well, but no sin is too great. That Jesus's death did not pay the price for it. Colossians 2 13 says, and you who were dead in your trespasses, God made alive together

with him. You were dead. Now you're made alive together with him. Having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. The Greek word here for all means each, every, any, the whole, everything, all things.

Jesus has you covered. But you have to repent first and bring it all to the light. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. I could end with a Coldplay line right here, but that would be lame. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website.

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Pastor John MacArthur passed away at the age of 86. There is much to learn from the life of John, but one biblical truth stands out.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here.

We're talking about heaven lately. I've been thinking a lot about heaven lately. It started with the Texas flooding last week. So I've just been thinking about it a lot. Heaven sounds awesome. Going to hell sounds terrible.

But going to heaven sounds amazing. Start off with that because John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, passed away yesterday. He was 86. We, of course, everyone, you listening here, we can all have discrements on theology and a couple of issues here and there, but what I most admire about pastor MacArthur was his and there. But what I most admire about Pastor MacArthur

was his boldness. He never let the world get to him in his life or his preaching. He got up and spoke boldly and presented the gospel and dedicated his life to saving souls and speaking the truth, God's word.

Grace to you, which is like a ministry wrote, our hearts are heavy yet rejoicing as we share the news that our beloved pastor and teacher John MacArthur has entered into the presence of the savior. This evening, his faith became sight. He faithfully endured until his race was run. I mean, like that that's perfect. I love that. I love thinking of it that way, the biblical way. And then they said 2 Timothy 4, 1 through 8. I feel like we should read it. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead,

and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Remember we did a segment once on exhort. It's a funny word. Exhort means to encourage, to embolden, to cheer, to advise, to incite by words or advice, to animate or urge by arguments to a good deed or to a laudable conduct or course of action. Acts 27, 22 says, I exhort you to be of good cheer.

All right, back to second activity. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of the evangelist,

fulfill your ministry. For I am ready, being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I've kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award on me reward to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have loved his

appearing." How great is that paragraph? Also John MacArthur should be remembered as a preacher, a leader of a church who stood up for the church during COVID in Los Angeles of all places and refused to shut down, never shut down. If I remember the story correctly, people stayed away for like a week or two and then he never told anyone to stay away,

and people just kept showing up to the actual church building, and he never turned anyone away because you can't turn people away from church, and they got sued by the county, and then they won the lawsuit that the church did,

or they settled, I think they won, and the county had to pay their legal fees, which is a great example testimony of stand up for the truth. So many people were cowards throughout that time. And oh no, the county is coming.

MacArthur's like, whatever. God told me that we have to have church on Sunday. So we're having church on Sunday. That's the end of that question. Bigger picture outside of COVID too, there's also something about being in LA,

his church, the cultural center of America, usually for worse these days, but to have a church in the belly of the beast is important. It allowed him to go on Larry King Live. He was on a panel with a young Gavin Newsom decades ago, and just to speak the truth on national TV

and still never watered down anything. One sermon that stood out to me that I think is very relevant to today is he gave a sermon on the LA riots, May 3rd, 1992. And the reason I want to share this part of the sermon is because I was thinking of what I learned the most from John MacArthur. I mentioned speaking boldly. He opened my eyes to a lot of the problems with the

mega churches today about how it's all about fun and not the gospel. But if I had to pick one theological concept that I learned most from him, it is sin. So this sermon was about the LA riots in 92. He says, what I want to talk about today. So he talks about about the LA riots in 92. He says what I want to talk about today, so he talks about all these things that he could talk about. So in the midst of these riots in LA he's like oh we could talk about this, we could talk about poverty, we could talk about crime, we could talk about police, we

could talk about all these different things. But he says what I want to talk about today is the root of all these problems. And it's a very simple word with three letters called sin. And that's the perspective that I think is most needed for us. Perhaps the most devastating description of humanity is given in Romans chapter 3. And I want you to open your Bible to Romans 3 and I want to read you God's own description of man. There are people who continue to tell us that man is basically good. This

person who deep down inside is noble and honorable. And that of course is the absolute opposite of the truth. In Romans chapter three, verse 10, we read concerning man, a series of quotes out of the old Testament that Paul puts together here. They run like this, speaking of man and humanity in general, there is none righteous, not even one. I share this because this is the most important theological thing that I learned from John MacArthur.

There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There's not even one.

Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep deceiving. Their poison of asps or snakes is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." I wish we could just lay that on the desk of every psychologist. That is the clearest, most

concise, and direct description of man given in the Bible. Man is corrupt. Man is depraved. His heart, said the Prophet Jeremiah, is deceitful and desperately wicked. Isaiah said that the best that he has is filthy rags. There's something deep within man that is so corrupt and so wicked and so wretchful, so evil, so brutal, so devastating that if left unchecked or if given an opportunity to express itself it will bring about devastation.

The problem in our city is not lack of jobs. The problem in our city is not lack of opportunity or lack of education. The problem in our city is not lack of opportunity or lack of education. The problem in our city is not too much possessions, materialism. These are only symptoms of a problem. The problem in our city is the problem of the wretchedness of the human heart. And nobody escapes that. It knows no race, it knows no color, it knows no location.

It is pervasive. Sin is the degenerative and damning power in the human stream that pollutes every man and every woman and every woman in every part of life. This is why it's so important, this is me talking now, this is why it is so important

that we reintroduce the Bible and biblical truth to the world and to our society and culture because things go wrong in our world today and everyone's frantically looking for answers. Why did this school shooting happen? Why did this terrible thing happen?

Why did that bad thing happen? What is this? What is the blah, blah, blah, blah, sin. They have no answers. No one has any answers. And then when they kind of come up with something,

they're like, let's pass a bill. It's like, no, you're missing it entirely. So I Henry David Thoreau said there are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to everyone who strikes the root. The Bible strikes the root. We look today at the problems in the world. Like, oh, it's caused by poverty or the school to prison pipeline,

or, you know, this policy. No, no, it's sin. Now there are two God ordained institutions to deal with the sin of the human heart. You have the family. The family is here to raise children properly. And then the government, which is there to protect people and punish crime.

And then the church exists to work as well on a social level, but the church is here to be a part of changing hearts, like the real problem. If the problem is the human heart, well, how do we fix the human heart? God told the story, you can drive all through LA, all different parts, rich parts,

the poorest parts, doesn't matter. And there's churches all over that have little or no impact in the community. And why do they have little or no impact in the community? Because they're not helping transform people's hearts. He said, my grief is for the lost people

who have no hope of changing their insides any more than the leopard can change its spots. And my grief is for the churches that have prostituted themselves away from a saving message to some other kind of social orientation that can't do anything in the long run. I wanted to share that point here because that for

me and people listen to John MacArthur for a while I went to his church and everyone's was church of course but I'm sure there's other he moved other people in other ways but for me that's the legacy of John MacArthur that early in my Christian walk he made it very clear, the Bible, what the Bible says about sin and depravity, the depth of depravity. How man is like snake venom, sores, oozing, pus and gangrene and dogs vomit and scum and filthiness of a boiling pot and the fallen man is a maggot that feeds

on filth and dead bodies and David said that he was a worm. It's all in there, but no one wants to make it clear because it's not nice. Who wants to hear that? I just said the word pus and vomit and menstrual cloth. I think I even skipped over that one because I didn't even like here I am talking about boldness and I didn't even want to mention Isaiah 322.

Jonathan Edwards says, they are they people are like a filthy worm that never feeds so sweetly as when feeding on a carcass, or never has its nature so suited as when crawling in the most abominable filth. Do you have a pretty clear picture on sin? No, we don't, we're not even close.

We're still not even close. These are just words. These are just words. We need to truly, deeply know how fallen we are. No modern ear wants to hear it. And even if you made it 11 minutes into this podcast,

I'm grateful you have. Even we don't want to fully accept it. And here I've been talking for 11 minutes and I don't even fully believe it to the way that it needs to be believed. But this is all good.

We need to hear this. Because if we don't hear it, I think this is one of the biggest lies of the devil. If we don't need this, if we don't hear it, and if we don't think we need to be saved, then we won't need a savior.

But if you know how deeply depraved you are, then you realize you need a savior. I'm lost. I need saving. I need a savior. I have a savior. Thank you, Jesus. My humble ode to John MacArthur. Be bold in preaching the truth. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com.

It's been one year since the president was shot in the head in Butler, Pennsylvania. What will it take to get people to believe that God is in control of everything?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Donald Trump getting shot in the head in Butler, Pennsylvania. Incredible moment. I haven't seen this video in a couple months, but it's worth reliving.

A little bit old, that chart. That chart's a couple of months old. And if you want to really see something that's said, take a look at what happened. Move, move, move.

You ready? We're good. Shooters down. Are we good to move? We're clear. Let's move.

Let's move.

We're clear.

Let me get my shoes.

Let me get my shoes. I got you, sir. I got you, sir.

I got you, sir.

I got you, sir. Let me get my shoes.

Let me get my shoes.

Let me get my shoes.

Hold on, your head is in the body.

So we gotta move to the front.

Let me get my shoes.

Okay, my shoes down.

My shoes.

Watch out.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Says, wait, wait, wait. Puts his fist in the air, says, fight, fight, fight. Come on. What is that? I don't have any more insight than what I shared a year ago when this happened that in a moment like that, it's just your instinct, it's who you are.

It reveals who you are in moments like that. You can't rehearse it. It's just remarkable, the whole thing. And incredibly surreal. And you know, it turned his head at just the precise instant at just the precise angle,

otherwise that bullet was going right through his head at just the precise instant at just the precise angle. Otherwise that bullet was going right through his head. So my only conclusion, and I know this not politically, I know this because of the Bible is that God is in control of everything. And Trump has come to that conclusion too. This was him last year.

Honestly, it's a very, it changed. It changed something in me. I feel I feel even stronger. I believed in God, but I feel I feel much more strongly about it. Something happens.

So thank you.

This is him today at a White House prayer event.

Well, I believe that and I do. I believe it, that my life was saved by God to really make America great again. I really believe that. I think I have a son. He's a great shooter, like a championship shooter.

Don and Eric was a great shooter, both of them. But they said that at that distance with that gun, you didn't have a chance. And we turned the head at the right time, didn't we? We turned the head at the right time. So I don't know, some people say it was lucky and some people say something else. I say something else.

I think God helped us.

We told the story on Sirius XM this morning about George Washington. He was fighting in the French and Indian War. He was only 23 years old and he was shot four times. His life could have ended right there. George Washington was 23 and if he died then we wouldn't have known who it was. I say he was shot four times.

Four bullets went through his coat. He had two horses shot out from under him, but he was never hit. If he died there, we never would have known who he was. Maybe we never would have been a country. He wrote back home, and I believe this is true about Trump today. George Washington wrote, by the allful dispensations of providence.'"

I love the word dispensations here. Let's get an original Webster's 1828 definition. One of these moments when I only realize when I'm halfway through this that it's a podcast and I can press pause and just look it up and pretend like I knew it all along.

Webster's dictionary, 1828.com, it's a fantastic website. Here we go, dispensation. A dispensation is the dealing of God to his creatures, the distribution of good and evil, natural and moral in the divine government. So the acts of God.

By the all powerful dispensations of providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation. For I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt. Although death was leveling my companions on every side of me." And they were targeting George Washington as well. One of the, this was the French and Indian War, so one of the Indian chiefs later met George Washington. This was in 1755, so in 1770 George was back near where the battle was and this Indian chief traveled to go see him. And the story

goes, he said, I have traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of the great battle. I've come to pay homage to the man who is the particular favorite of heaven and who can never die in battle. On Trump's point about God saved us because we have stuff to do, we have a country to save.

It reminded me of this from Horace. Horace wrote in his Odes 3.3, he said, the just man resolute in his purpose is not shaken from his firm resolve by the frenzy of citizens demanding wrong, nor by the threatening face of a tyrant or an assassin, nor by the south wind, stormy leader of the restless Adriatic, nor by the mighty hand of thundering Jove. If the shattered world should collapse upon him, its ruins would strike him unafraid. So if you're a just person who's unwavering in their good purpose, firm in their good purpose, nothing will make you cave. Nothing should make you cave. No amount

of people yelling at you, not even the king himself or an assassin, nothing in nature, nothing. Even if the whole world collapses on you, if the whole world is in ruins around you, then the just man, firm in purpose will stand fearless along the ruins. Let's go to the Bible. Elijah. Gosh, I mean, how many stories can we give about God's providence in the Bible? I mean, like, but this one stands out because the kids next week are headed off to vacation Bible school.

It's a couple hours every night. And the study is Elijah. And I love the story of Elijah so much. I thought about, we thought seriously about naming our firstborn Elijah. Fun slight of fact. The name Elijah means Yahweh is my God.

So imagine living in a land where Baal is worshiped and your name is Yahweh is my God. So God says to Elijah, it's not gonna rain for a long time, do exactly what I say, go to this brook and a raven, an unclean animal will feed you.

And he did. And then years went by. It's one of my favorite insights about the Bible is that it takes years. This story is only a few paragraphs, but it's over years, years ago by three and a half, three and a half years. And the brook finally dried up. So don't overlook the fact that for three and a half years, Elijah stayed in this place and a

bird came and fed him, kept him alive. Then verse eight, then the word of the Lord came to him saying, arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon and dwell there. He said, well, what? This is the land where Jezebel, most wicked woman ever was from. This is the land where Baal was deeply embedded in the culture. This was enemy

territory to the core. And God says, Hey, Elijah, go there. Why in the world? I've commanded a widow there to provide for you." So he goes and he sees this poor widow right where she was gonna be and then he makes his big ask and God provided with the flour and the oil just as he said he would. And it's a credible story, but what stands out here among other things is the timing of it all. And God was orchestrating everything

always. Never didn't have it under control. It's always under his control. He knew exactly where the widow would be and where Elijah would be and when they would meet up and all the miracles he would do he knew it all Elijah didn't know the widow the widow didn't know Elijah but God knows everything God was not surprised when Donald Trump got shot in the head God is all-seeing all-knowing nothing is, nothing is out of control. Matthew 10 29 says,

not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from your father's will. Isn't that amazing? That's true. It's in the Bible. Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from your father's will. Yet it has been become popular, and I believe a majority of people in our country believe, that God has no control. If he exists at all, there is no God. And if there is, he doesn't care, doesn't know, and things are crazy. And it's like, forget God's sovereignty entirely. Romans 8, 28, we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. God works all things for his glory, for the good of those involved, even when we don't understand what's

happening, even when things are shocking to us. How comforting is that? That was the point of this podcast originally, was to decrease anxiety, a lot of anxiety when you watch the news. So I said, let's go to the Bible so we can lower it. And I just wanna make that point again, in the midst of all the chaos of the news

and everything that's going on, how comforting is it to know and to know deeply that God is in control of everything. Take that comfort and that truth with you in whatever you take in with you. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

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