Discover the powerful message of Pastor Paul Blair as he encourages believers to follow Jesus Christ in every dimension of their lives. This episode explores how to truly live by faith, dismantling the common notion of faith as a mere profession and transforming it into a proactive lifestyle that prioritizes obedience to God’s commandments. Through scriptural insights and personal anecdotes, Pastor Blair inspires listeners to navigate life with a biblical worldview, making every decision under the guiding principles of Jesus’ teachings, from family commitments to business ethics.
Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It’s a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute supported by listeners just like you. I’m Dr. James Dobson and I’m thrilled that you’ve joined us.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast ministry of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I’m Roger Marsh, and today we’re continuing a powerful presentation from Pastor Paul Blair, recorded right here in Colorado Springs. And by the way, if you missed part one yesterday on the broadcast, You can catch up by using the Family Talk app or by going to drjamesdobson.org forward slash Family Talk. Now, the program you’re about to hear is part of our 2024 Best of Broadcast Collection. And remember, you have a special opportunity now to reserve your copy and to have your ministry gift doubled at the same time. Go to drjamesdobson.org forward slash Family Talk. Any donation you make between now and December 31st will be doubled thanks to some special friends of our ministry who put up a special matching grant. Now, when you make that donation, please be sure to also ask for the 2024 Best of Broadcast CD Collection. It’s yours as our way of thanking you for a gift of any amount in support of our ministry. So make the donation, ask about the Best of Broadcast set, and have your impact doubled. Such a great opportunity. Again, you’ll find more information on that at drjamesdobson.org. Now to today’s program, a continuation of a powerful presentation from Pastor Paul Blair. Pastor Blair’s journey is truly remarkable. Before answering God’s call to ministry, he protected quarterbacks as an offensive tackle for the Chicago Bears and the NFL. But his spiritual foundation was laid much earlier. He’s a pastor’s son who gave his heart to Christ at the tender age of six. Today, he’s following in his father’s footsteps, serving as the senior pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Oklahoma. His passion for revival led him to found two vital organizations, Reclaiming America for Christ and the Liberty Pastors Network, both dedicated to restoring biblical values in our nation. Now, last time, Pastor Blair challenged us to view faith as our ancestors did, not just a Sunday morning ritual, but a force that transforms every aspect of life. Today, Pastor Blair will show us practical ways to live out biblical values in our homes, our workplaces, and our communities. And now, let’s join Pastor Paul Blair for the conclusion of this powerful message on today’s edition of Family Talk.
SPEAKER 02 :
Ladies and gentlemen, God is not impressed with how pretty we look on Sunday mornings. God wants to see the reality of our love for him with our obedience. Remember what Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments, with our obedience and following him 168 hours out of the week. That’s 24-7. Now, it’s what James was emphasizing. You go ahead and talk about your faith here. Let me show you my faith. Now, here’s where our pastor’s have that come to Jesus moment. The Great Commission tells us to go into all the world and make disciples. Doesn’t say make church members. Doesn’t say make professors of faith. Doesn’t say make people repeat the sinner’s prayer. By the way, I grew up Southern Baptist and Independent Baptist. I was weaned. I could give you the Roman road before I could say Jack and Jill. So I’m not decrying the importance of these, but that’s not what we’ve been called to do. We’ve been called to make disciples. And what do we do? How do we make a disciple? We teach that convert to observe all things whatsoever the Lord has commanded us. Now, folks, Ephesians, we will often misappropriate, Christians often misappropriate verses that really weren’t intended for us. We have books of devotionals where God made a promise to David and we take it because it sounds good and it’s encouraging. We’ll put it in a little something and we’ll apply it to us. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it’s really not a correct or exegesis of scripture. But understand that Ephesians is clearly written to the New Testament church. So everything here is directly to us. And my responsibility as a pastor is, one, I’m supposed to be an evangelist. Boy, you better believe it. In fact, I have a little booklet if any of you want it. It’s a wonderful book. We’ve had great success with this in college campuses. Just 24 pages. It’s a heavy track. Heavily influenced. In fact, Frank Turek did the editing for me. Frank Turek, Josh McDowell, but it’s called Not Blind Faith. Verifiable evidence that God exists and rose from the dead. We have found this to be a real plus. Hey, we are huge on evangelism. I required my church members about a month ago to write out their testimonies. I wanted a copy of it. Reason being is I wanted them to consider whether they actually had one. And if they didn’t, then we needed to talk. But evangelism, of course, what does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world but lose his own soul? But notice, we’re also called to pastor. You know what that word means? Shepherd. I want to protect my flock. You know what? I want to have strong, healthy families. I want the men in our church to have good jobs where they can provide for their wives and children. I want them to be free from illness. And then notice the last one, teachers. What is that? To make disciples. That’s what we are called to do as pastors for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now, for those who say, and I’ve heard many people say, what about my pastor? My pastor says, well, I just preached the gospel. Well, I know what he’s referencing. He’s referencing the apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 15, verses one through eight, but let me point out a couple of things here to you. The missionary, the apostle Paul, knew a little bit about preaching the gospel. Consider the subjects that Paul also talked about in discipling these new congregations as he was teaching from what we would call the Old Testament. And he would write epistles or letters answering questions of faith and practice as now you had Jews and Gentiles synagoguing together throughout the known world at the time, worshiping the God of Israel and his Messiah. You know, for a Gentile coming in with a bacon sandwich, well, that was offensive to some of the Jews. And so they didn’t understand because they really hadn’t interacted great. So that’s what they were dealing with at these epistles. But look at everything that Paul dealt with. Obviously, evangelism. Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. But he also talked about proper government. Paul talked about taxes. He talked about proper sexuality. He taught about sexual sin. homosexual sin, marriage, circumcision, church discipline, work and work ethic, integrity as business owners, charity, church organization, care for widows and orphans, handling disputes in the congregation, pride, humility, and forgiveness, gossip, cultural issues such as dress, hairstyles, clean and unclean foods, proper doctrine, eschatology, and all sorts of things. So these pastors need to recognize that Paul wrote a lot more than just 1 Corinthians 15, one through eight. If you say, I wanna be just like the Apostle Paul and preach the gospel, well then, amen, so do I. And that’s what the Apostle Paul was doing as he was preaching the whole counsel of God. Acts 11 tells us that those disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. And that term disciple or Christian of Christ. So a Christian means a disciple of Christ or a follower of Christ. The last time that I was in Israel, if you haven’t been able to tell, I do a lot of study on the Jewish roots of Christianity. You know, Jesus didn’t just show up in a vacuum. You know, these topics that he’s talking about in the Gospels were long debated Jewish debates. So if you don’t know the context, you might not come to the right conclusion of what the Lord was talking about to a bunch of first century Jews in every passage. But We were in Israel and it was the last day. And for those of you that have been, oftentimes you go to the empty tomb on the last day and you’ll be around the Temple Mount. And we were, we were in the old city, the Jewish quarter, and we had stopped for a rest. Some of the tour group going to use the bathroom, grab a bottle of water, whatever. And one of our tour group asked our guide Yitzhak or Isaac a question. They say, he said, why do the Jews dress so differently? Now, First of all, if you’ve never been to Israel, you need to go if there’s ever peace again this side of the rapture. But I would recommend it if you get the chance. But they don’t all dress differently. I mean, visiting Israel is like visiting another American state. They’re very much like we are. You know, you’ve got some that dress up, some that wear jeans. You’ve got some that are very religious, some that aren’t very religious. So it’s much like visiting another state. But what this question was about was the ultra-Orthodox. Primarily… what we call the Hasidic Jews, as they are always dressed in an obvious black suit and white shirt. But many of them dress with distinct differences. Some wear big hats. Some wear small hats. Some wear knicker-type pants and long socks. Some wear long pants all the way down to the shoes. Some wear long coats, some wear short coats. Now, as many times as I’ve been to Israel, as much study I’ve done about the Jewish heritage, I assumed that I knew the answer to this, but I didn’t. And the answer will astound you. Isaac said that they wear their clothes the way their particular rabbi wore. wears his clothes. They wear their hats and try to imitate their rabbi in his choice. They wear their socks the way their rabbi wears his. In other words, their goal was to become like their rabbi in thought, mannerism, and behavior. Now, a Jewish rabbi didn’t hand his students a syllabus on the first day of class. They were commanded to follow me or walk Does that strike any chords from your memory of studying the Synoptic Gospels? In fact, one author likened the maturity of a disciple to be measured by the amount of dust that he accumulated on his clothing from following his rabbi so closely as he watched, imitated, listened, learned, and applied his teachings. Now, the Hebrew word for walk is halak, and it means more than simply taking a stroll. That’s what John was talking about in 1 John 1 when he said, if a person walks in darkness, then he doesn’t know me. But if he is of me, he walks in the light. That’s your overall pattern of life is one that would honor and glorify God. And a rabbi’s interpretation of the Torah is the halakha, or how to walk in accordance to God’s word. Now, if you haven’t heard a thing that I’ve said, listen to this next paragraph. In America, we have redefined what it means to live by faith. We believe that living by faith means that we make an empty profession or recite an empty creed that we don’t actually understand. Then we proceed to live our lives the way we want to live our lives, justifying our behavior in light of the world’s wisdom. And then when we absolutely make a mess out of things, we get on our knees and ask God to fix it. That is not living by faith. That is, in fact, testing God.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Family Talk, and I’m Roger Marsh. We’re continuing with part two of an inspiring presentation from Pastor Paul Blair, a remarkable leader whose journey has taken him from the NFL playing field to the pulpit. Now, this enlightening message was recorded during a special gathering here at Colorado Springs where Pastor Blair shared powerful insights about making Jesus Lord over every area of our lives. from our families and careers to our daily decisions and long-term goals. If you’re just joining us, you’re in for a truly meaningful discussion about bridging the gap between faith and everyday life. So now let’s return for the conclusion of this powerful message from Pastor Paul Blair on today’s edition of Family Talk.
SPEAKER 02 :
Now listen to this sentence because this is most important. Obviously, as a pastor, I am passionate about prayer. Prayer is a privilege that we have as part of God’s family, but we need to quit trying to pray our way out of situations that we have behaved ourselves into. That will sink in on your drive out of Colorado Springs later, and you’ll realize just how impactful that was. We need to do a better job of discipling our church members. Now, the apostle Paul preached a trilogy of messages from Habakkuk 2.5. In Romans, he emphasized the justification by faith. In Hebrews, he emphasized the faith and the faith hall of fame in Hebrews 11. But in Galatians, he emphasized the justified shall live their life in accordance to faith. In Romans 10.17, the same apostle says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So living by faith means that we listen to what our Lord is telling us in his word and we obey it and then we apply it to our lives because God’s ways are far above our ways. His thoughts are above our ways. As the heavens are above the earth, so are his ways above ours and his thoughts above ours. So Christians, our families should look different. Our marriages should be different. Our work ethic among employees should be second to none at your workplace. Our integrity as business owners should be exemplary. Our sexual proclivities should reflect the Lordship of Jesus. How we handle money should reflect the Lordship of Jesus. If pastors only understood, we complain about our tithes and offerings. And yet our congregation is full of people living in houses they can’t afford, driving cars they can’t afford, so they can impress neighbors they don’t even like. What does the Bible tell us? The Bible tells us to work hard. Bible says to budget. Bible says to save. Bible says to invest. Bible also says that the borrower becomes a slave to the lender. but we don’t teach about biblical economics. So I have Bob McEwen, Bob’s a treasurer in our pastor’s camps, introduces this thought concept to pastors. And let me also add our politics should reflect the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Now, another quick exegesis of Ephesians, which was written clearly to us. After a laundry list of sexual sins and other things that were tied to idolatry that they were warned not to participate in, Paul summed it up with this. He said, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. So church, have no part of, or you could actually accurately translate that, don’t be a party of unfruitful works of darkness. And we aren’t even giving the option for just coming out from among them and being separate. We’re supposed to expose them and then stand against them. Now, I want to introduce you to a treasure in my life. This is my grandson Roman in January of 2021. This is my grandson Roman in March of 2021. Now listen to what I’m saying. You may actually be saved, but you’re not following Jesus in your politics. If you are a party to a platform that endorses baby murder to Moloch, Baal, and Ashtoreth, the LGBT trans butchery of our children and the LGBT agenda that promotes theft and covetousness and communism, you aren’t following God in your politics. You may actually be born again, but you’ve never been discipled to where you know to follow God even in this realm of politics. That’s what it means, ladies and gentlemen, to live by faith. We’re to glorify God in all that we do. Too often I hear people try to quote Proverbs 3, 5 as an Old Testament verse for Romans 8, 28. It’s not. Read what it says. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your own wisdom. Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways because he will direct your paths. That’s a biblical worldview. Lord, what are your marching orders for me in this area of life? How should I function as a husband? What is my job as a dad? How should I treat the world as an employee? How should I function as a business owner? Lord, what would you have me to do? 2 Timothy 3, 16, all scriptures given by inspiration is God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. A disciple of Jesus, the one who walks with Jesus day by day, studies his teaching of the truth and applies his instruction to life since he is the Lord of all. Now, here’s where the problem lies. You guys know the guy in the middle, the guy on the right, George Barna in the middle, a well-known statistician for Christian topics. The guy on the left is Richard Land, former head of ERLC, the guy left to him. is Sam Rohr from American Pastors Network in Pennsylvania. Of course, David Barton is the writer of the George. And that is me at almost 300 pounds prior to cancer. It looks like a dad taking his children to the zoo, doesn’t it? But George did some in-depth study of people, Christians and pastors. And he didn’t just ask them, what is your worldview? Are you a secularist or a Bible guy? Well, of course, everybody would answer, I’m a biblical worldview. He actually tested them, gave them a significant number of questions, then based upon their answers, determined what their worldview was. Among America in 2021, only 6% of Americans have a biblical worldview. Now, folks, understand that our Constitution was built only for a moral or Christian and religious people. That the truths that we function under, according to Thomas Jefferson, is the laws of nature and nature’s God. That is basically Protestant biblical understanding of scripture. Only 6% of Americans have a biblical worldview. And here’s why that is. He tested over a thousand pastors. Only one third of pastors have a biblical worldview. Folks, how can a pastor make disciples when he hasn’t even properly been discipled? And that’s why our country looks the way it does. We have accepted and believed in the church this lie of dualism. We have compartmentalized our lives between the secular and the sacred. May actually be truly born again, but we think like Darwinian socialists as that is the doctrine that’s taught in modern public education and modern university. And we haven’t made disciples in our churches. We haven’t taught people, believers, to observe all things whatsoever the Lord has taught us. very quickly. This is what we teach our pastors. Ecclesiastes says there’s nothing new under the sun. And quite frankly, everything we face today has been around for 6,000 years of humanity’s sinfulness. We may have air conditioning and indoor plumbing, but the same old sin issue, the same old bodies. And God has divided responsibility for every issue and assigned it to one of four realms of government. Begins with self-government. Genesis 1, Adam had one command, don’t eat of the tree of the garden, in the middle of the garden. Then we have family government. By the way, self-government, you decide if you should wear a mask or not. By the way, self-government, only you can decide whether you trust Christ or not. Nobody else can make that decision for you. Family government. You know one of the areas that was entrusted to moms and dads? Education. Moms and dads, train up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So why is it that we all as Christians take our children down to the kindergarten at the age of five, drop them off, then we pick them up when they graduate university at 21 and we wonder why they become atheistic postmodernists? Of course they’re going to. That’s what they’ve been taught. Then we’ve got this realm of church government. This, by the way, is where charity falls under. And then we’ve got civil government, proper and improper civil government, civil government responsibility in any passage of Scripture, whether it’s Genesis 9, when Noah got off the boat, to anything that Paul wrote to Timothy or Peter wrote to the dispersed or Paul wrote to the church in Rome. The purpose of civil government is to punish evil and to protect the good that we may live peaceably in all godliness. When a government becomes evil, that is a perversion. Just as a father can become perverted or a mother can become perverted. And we aren’t supposed to have unlimited submission to perversion. The Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1 told the Pharaoh, no. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego told Nebuchadnezzar, no, there are times if civil government is wrong in promoting ungodliness, the response from Governor DeSantis, as it should have been many times these last three years in Florida, was no. Praise the Lord for proper civil government. But I invite you all to visit our website. Everything that we teach these pastors is there, and it’s free. You go to the drop-down menu. You can access all of our video trainings. Bob’s teaching, it’s all there. We have PDF notes. We have study questions. You can use this for small group. All of it’s there. Again, we have transcripts in English and Spanish. By the way, we’re revising this, updating it. And then we deal with tough subjects. Hey, we were talking about the Black Lives Matter riots in the middle of the Black Lives Matter riots. We were talking what black liberation theology is. We talked about this COVID and all this nonsense. We have all this materials right there at your fingertips if you would like it. And with those remarks, God bless you. It’s a privilege to be here.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, being a disciple means following Jesus beyond Sunday mornings and living out our faith in every moment of every day. The choices we make, the words we speak, the love we show others or don’t, all reflect our commitment to Christ’s teaching. Fred, you’re listening to Family Talk and a powerful message from Pastor Paul Blair about standing boldly in our faith in these challenging times. Now, if you missed any part of this special two-day presentation, simply visit drjamesdobson.org forward slash Family Talk to listen on demand and then share this message with others. By the way, you’ll also find a complete archive of all of our radio broadcasts on the Family Talk app as well. Well, you know, some broadcasts are so powerful, they simply can’t be forgotten. They’re the kind of messages that stay with you, that shape your perspective and change how you live your faith. That’s exactly why we’ve created our 2024 Best of Broadcast Collection. These carefully selected programs are gathered onto six CDs and capture the very best programs this year on Family Talk, timeless wisdom and biblical truth that will inspire generations to come. from strengthening marriages to raising godly children, from defending biblical values to understanding God’s design for the family. Each message speaks directly to the challenges facing believers today. Now, we’ll be happy to send you the complete six-CD set or a convenient digital download as our way of thanking you for your gift of any amount today. in support of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute today. So be sure to request your copy when you make a donation online through our secure website at drjamesdobson.org or call us at 877-732-6825. And if you prefer to send your gift through the mail, our ministry mailing address is the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. You can write to jdfi or familytalk.org They’ll know what you mean at the post office. Our post office box is 39,000 Colorado Springs, Colorado. The zip code 80949. And during the month of December, we have a truly extraordinary opportunity for you at Family Talk because some generous ministry partners have stepped forward with an incredible matching grant. It doubles every gift made to Family Talk now through the end of the day on Tuesday, December 31st. Your $50 gift today will become $100. Your $5,000 gift becomes $10. The impact of your generosity doubles instantly. Such an amazing opportunity to maximize your support of Family Talk. Now you can give a gift online, as I mentioned, through our secure website at drjamesdobson.org. You can call us at 877-732-6825 or write to us. at P.O. Box 39000, Colorado Springs, Colorado, the zip code 80949. Well, I’m Roger Marsh, and on behalf of Dr. Dobson and the entire staff here at the JDFI, may God continue to richly bless you and your family as you grow stronger and deeper in your relationship with Him. And be sure to join us again next time right here for another edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
