Matt Funk

[Alisa Childers @alisa_childers]

Some random thoughts about the whole sermon ladder situation. (Please read before commenting. There's a lot here.)

First of all, you'd be hard pressed to come up with a biblical reason to avoid sermon illustrations or object lessons. God gave us creative minds to come up with ways to communicate in ways that help people understand truth about who he is. We do this with music, art, and all sorts of creative endeavors.

I think the key question that people are wrestling with is this: is the illustration serving the biblical point or is the biblical point serving the illustration, thus turning it into a gimmick?

If a sermon object or prop is used to communicate a solid biblical point, and helps the congregation understand and retain that biblical truth, (and as long as it's not sinful or promoting materialism or the excesses of affluence) there's no biblical reason to avoid it.

However, I suspect that some people who are reacting against such props are doing so out of entertainment fatigue with church. We have, in many ways infantilized ourselves to the point that many pastors think that they have to give a kindergarten-level sermon if they want to keep the attention of the adult congregation. Meanwhile, many of our young people are drawn toward Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholicism because they are craving depth, reverence, and intellectual rigor.

Another thing I suspect people are reacting against is the consumerist culture of sermon mills. When this many pastors are all using the same ladder prop, it is natural to question why, where they are all getting it, and how it affects their personal Bible study. These are all questions that would be specific to each pastor.

Is it wrong to use a ladder in a sermon? If the sermon itself is good and biblically solid, there's no reason to condemn someone for using it. Each of the people below (if they are all real and not ai!) would have to be evaluated on an individual basis. It's a style choice and it's not for everyone, and that's okay. It's okay to like it and it's okay to be turned off by it.

What do you all think?

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

@EdYoung If you consider it creative to have a car on stage just to say “who is driving your life,” then you are, in fact, not creative.

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

@TheBabylonBee @JohnServer8 This pic might literally be from the Five Iron show we attended two months ago hahaha

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

@MrBeast 7,200,000

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

@jwsherrod “Lion on his side was it the lying or the pride which brought him down.”

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

This is literally insane

Colorado resident says their Democrat Governor Jared Polis is lying when he says their taxes are low, she says the real taxation comes from their “fees”

She paid her vehicle registration

Amount: $331.59 per year but then come the fees:

- Age of vehicle add-on: $14
- Registration base fee: $43
- Bridge safety surcharge: $46
- Clerk hire fee: $4
- County road and bridge: $1.88
- Emission area area error account: $3
- Emission clean screen: $25
- Emergency medical services: $4
- Emissions program area county: $1.40
- Emission statewide air account: $1
- Insurance fee: $1
- Motorist insurance database fee: $0.20
- Peace officer standardized training fee: $2
- Road safety surcharge: $56
- Material fee for the tab (the little sticker): $0.33

Total of these 15 fees: $202.81 annually

Total cost with tax and fees for her vehicle is $534.40 just for the registration

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

This is a great debate. Allie is, as always, gracious but unyielding. French shows himself to be subservient to the god of kindness above all, not realizing that neglecting truth is promoting falsehood. He presents an emasculated “conservatism” that only concedes to the left.

[Allie Beth Stuckey @conservmillen]

Watch our full debate: https://t.co/zsMyPAGRX0

[Dustin Benge @DustinBenge]

The Father planned it,
The prophets foretold it,
The disciples doubted it,
The soldiers denied it,
The empty tomb proved it,
The angels proclaimed it,

JESUS IS RISEN!

[Tim Urban @waitbutwhy]

My favorite part is the robot also bending over after the kick

[CSNTM @CSNTM]

Merry Christmas from all of us at CSNTM!

Today, we celebrate the birth of Christ and give thanks for the faithful men and women who have preserved God’s Word through the centuries. Because of their dedication, we can read the account of Christ’s birth today!

See this preserved fragment of the nativity in Matthew 1 and be reminded that Scripture has truly stood the test of time. In a world filled with skepticism, confusion, and doubt, God’s Word can be trusted—and that is something to celebrate this Christmas!

Image: Papyrus 1 (𝔓1), one of the earliest witnesses to the nativity account.

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

@GovofCO @grok how much has the cost of living gone up in Colorado during Governor Polis’ term?

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

@CTmagazine This is so absolutely tone-deaf that you can’t even hide behind incompetence. It’s deliberately malicious.

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

@oldpathsjournal So you can’t be a Christian if you don’t speak English?

[Allie Beth Stuckey @conservmillen]

Islam sacrifices the weak in pursuit of power. Christianity sacrifices power in defense of the weak.

Islam says: “Let the little children go to their death.” Jesus says: “Let the little children come to Me.”

Islam’s god says: “You must die for me.” Jesus says: “I died for you.”

Christianity’s self-sacrificial component has a civilizing effect on every society it enters. Islam’s inherent violence brings every nation it dominates into barbarism.

The two belief systems and the cultures they create are ultimately incompatible. Islamists understand this fact in a way most Christians don’t.

[J. Chase Davis @jchasedavis]

My testimony against HB25-1312. @fight1312

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

@williamwolfe @BaptistLeaders https://t.co/zhNAkuDhLW

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

Some thought regarding 1 Peter 2:13 and the recent laws passed here in Colorado: https://t.co/4p0G86vtnw via @YouTube

[Matt Funk @MattWFunk]

Some thought regarding 1 Peter 2:13 and the recent laws passed here in Colorado: https://t.co/4p0G86vtnw via @YouTube

[Megan Basham @megbasham]

If Hitler and Epstein had confessed with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and believed in their hearts that God raised him from the dead, yes, they would have been saved.

That is the scandal of the cross. And it is marvelous in our eyes.

[MrBeast @MrBeast]

BEAST GAME EPISODE 3 IS OUT NOW!

To celebrate, I'm giving away $100,000 total to 10 random people who like and retweet this post!

Go watch it here: https://t.co/Yntf9E7FTN

[Mike Winger @MikeWingerii]

My Christian commitments are why I believe the Democratic Party is profoundly evil.

There are major problems in the Republican Party as well, but it isn’t even close.

Republicans align with my biblical views sometimes. Democrats, on the other hand, reliably represent the opposite of biblical values as applied to governments. What’s more dramatic is that even when Republicans don’t align with my views, they are regularly closer to my views on those issues than Democrats, making the comparison stark.

Since I have a vote and a voice, as an American, I participate in government and am morally obligated (seeing this as a stewardship from God) to use that power to steer our government away from the worst possible options we are presented with. To push toward what’s good.

I’d like better options. But standing on the sidelines seems counterproductive to that. Nor does silence in the face of a clear moral choice seem wise or helpful.

I know many of my brothers and sisters in Christ will not agree, and will think I’m backwards, misinformed, failing to grasp the complexity of the issues, or otherwise missing the heart of Christ as it pertains to government. I’ve heard many of the reasons people give for thinking that. In the end, I find myself strongly convinced of the opposite.

I won’t despise believers who disagree, but I’ll continue to stand on this because I see it as true and a way to faithfully follow Jesus.

Trump isn’t “good enough.” Not by a long shot. But he is so much “better than” that this choice seems very clear.

To this end, I voted against him in every primary and for him in every general election.

I feel a natural hesitation to say all this out loud, probably because I worry about the resulting division, being associated with a man or a group I disagree with on so much, and disappointing people I respect, who will think that silence on this is better for the health of the Body of Christ. Yet, I worry even more that being silent is a greater failure that will end up resulting in even greater harms.

Can we stand up and vote, loudly, while maintaining that we do so for our own Christian convictions, and not merely be co-opted into a Party that, while being far better than the alternative, is cast adrift by winds of the world instead of that of the Spirit of God? Can we stand, while others drift? Can we draw a straight line in a crooked Party? I hope so. I don’t see a better option.

If at least some Christian leaders won’t chart a Christian course for believers to steward their role in government then what course are Christians to follow? Random celebrity influencers who don’t share true Christian commitments but only pander as it suits their cause. Won’t the end result of that also be a divided people? Not only that, but a people who get their political ideology from sub-biblical influencers while their own Christian leaders stay silent and offer no clear alternative. Won’t it result in a people who drift instead of stand?