December 2, 2024 • 43 mins
In this episode, we dive into the heart of the gospel — the great exchange of imputed righteousness. It's not about what we can do, but about what Jesus already accomplished on the cross. Through faith, repentance, and belief, we embrace His gift of salvation.
We also explore practical advice for dating as a teenager, focusing on honoring God in relationships. Tyler, a young leader, seeks wisdom on navigating dating the right way — aligning with faith, waiting for the right time, and saving oneself for marriage.
Join the conversation as we discuss life-changing truths, relatable stories, and timeless wisdom from the gospel message.
Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments and if you got a question email podcast@grangersmith.com !
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast. I got you
with me today. Oh yeah, I got my daughter in London.
She's back. This is your second time. Everyone loved you.
They were like crazy about you. They were like, this
is She's the best question answer I've ever heard. So
we brought you. Yes, we brought you back again.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The comments not.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Allowed to look at comments, I think mommy letchen.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So what we do is we answer your questions. You
email podcast at grangersmith dot com and we'll put him
in the queue. An man. Well, we'll get him ready
for us, and we're gonna start right here. The subject
is this is a lot. Okay, you ready for this?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
How are you doing? By the way, before we get
into this, good thirteen years old? Like thirteen years and
almost two months? Yeah, just rocking it. Yeah, looking at fourteen,
you're ready for fourteen?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Not yet?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Okay, Okay, you're just gonna enjoy thirteen as much as
you can. Have a school going good? Yeah, are you
been manipulated by the state?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
What?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
That's what? Probably? Now you're in a private school, so
that's kind of impossible. You like school?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Not really?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
What's your best subject? What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
It's English language art. So it's like reading and writing.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And stuff you like to read and write. Imagine that
you know, Mama has a new book that she finished
comes out. Do you know when it comes out? Summer
of next year? Yeah, probably, or like end of next year.
I think, Yeah, I read it on the plane the
(02:03):
other day. Her original manuscript. Has she accid it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Bill, I want to read it when it's all done.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Okay, it's probably good. First question comes from Riley. Hello,
mister Smith. My name is Riley. I'm sixteen year old.
I'm a boy from Cabot, Pennsylvania. Throughout the past few months,
I've been trying to get closer to God. I was
really doing good with reading my Bible going to church
every Sunday. I get busy at work in school and
(02:31):
had no motivation to go to church or read my Bible.
Now I've been feeling a lot of sadness and regret
for doing so, and I'm not sure how to find
the motivation. Recently, I've had a lot of problems with
my stepfather. We have arguments every time we talk, and
it's been very bad recently. It's been like this the
past few years. I get along great with my father
(02:52):
and my stepmom. But it's hard with my step father.
I have prayed a lot for my stepdad, but it
never seemed to change. Is it possible for someone to
be so far gone that they can't be saved? I
know this is a lot. Thank you for your time.
Please come back to Butler. Pa. Do you kind of
(03:13):
got Riley's story here? Yeah, it's a tough situation. Do
you have friends that are in split families like this?
It's always tough, isn't it to see it? And it
seems like so many times there is a step one
of the step mom or stepdad that there's the problem, right. Yeah,
(03:35):
in this case Riley's case, it's the step dad. So
do you have any thoughts for Riley? Before? Before I
jump into his question, I'll let you.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I'll you go and then I'll go out.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Okay, I'll start at the beginning. He said he's been
trying to get closer to God. He was doing really well.
He was reading his Bible, going to church every Sunday,
and then he got busy at work in school, and
now he has no motivation to go to church or
read his Bible. And he's been feeling a lot of
sadness and regret for doing this. So well, that's like
(04:09):
the first part of this question. Then the step the
stepdad's the second part. So what usually happens, and this
is very normal, Riley. You're going through seasons and there
are times when we feel very close to God, and
there's times we feel further away. Sometimes the closest not always,
(04:34):
but sometimes the closeness with God is through trials are suffering.
People look back at the time you lost a loved one,
say you lose a grandparent, and you look back on
that season and you say, I was really sad that I
was going through a lot, but I was really close
to God. My prayers were really intimate, and I was
(04:54):
constantly thinking about God and constantly crying out to Him.
And so we see that in the Bible too, that
people are closer to God and suffering. They're also closer
in like times like I did a couple weeks ago
when I went out to the desert and spent five
days out there, fasting, reading, praying. No one was around,
so I was intentional about it. So I felt really
(05:15):
close to God there too. But here's the key feel.
I felt close to God. I felt close and suffering.
I felt close in the desert. That's how I feel.
You think God moves closer or further away from his people, No,
(05:37):
he doesn't.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, we meet, we moved closer further away.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, well, our perception of it. We don't really move.
It's our perception. God's like the island and we're on
a canoe around the island. I think I've said that
on this podcast. And so we kind of float around
the island, and he's the island. He doesn't go anywhere.
He's always right there, and sometimes we can't see him
because there's fog, But does that make him not there
(06:01):
or further away? And sometimes it's a sunny day and
we're just laying on the beach right there on the island,
and we feel closer than ever, But that doesn't make
him any further away when we're in the fog. So
a lot of times it's just it's about how we feel.
And that's what's going on with Riley, except for here's
(06:24):
and then he adds another thing. He's also not reading
his Bible and going to church every Sunday. So that's
another thing. Reading your Bible and going to church every
Sunday doesn't bring God in closer to you. It's the island, remember,
but it does create fog if you're not there, because
you're not around His people. And so many times we
(06:45):
see God and we feel his presence, and through the
gifts of his people, he's acting with human agency. That
means God uses people many times to give his blessings,
or to give his wisdom, or to give his warnings
or his encouragement. He uses people. Hey, I don't think
(07:06):
I don't think you should be doing that. That could
be Godly wisdom coming through one of his people to you.
Happens all the time in the Bible. Or I just
want to tell you what a joy it is to
be around you. You're so encouraging to me. That could
be a godly wisdom coming, Godly encouragement coming from one
of his people to you. And if you're away from
His people, specifically the church, the gathering of people. By
(07:29):
the way, that's what that word church means. Ecclesia, that
means the gathering. The word church and so many times
I say it on this podcast doesn't mean a building.
Do you know at a maus where we go to church.
You know what they say at the beginning when we
get there, they say, welcome to this gathering of a
(07:51):
mais church. Yeah, so it's not welcome to the church,
thanks for walking into the church. It's welcome to this,
to today's gathering of us, our body, the body of Christ.
(08:11):
So when you're away from that, you're like a little
sheep out on a hillside, away from the flock and
away from the shepherd, and you're hungry, you're lonely, you
could be sick, you could be in trouble, and the
flock doesn't know, and the shepherd's not there. The shepherd
meaning pastor, that's what that word means. Pastor means shepherd, right,
(08:36):
So you don't have a shepherd, a pastor. I'm talking
about lowercase B, not our lowercase s. Lowercase shepherd, not
the shepherd. But you're the human pastor. That's part of
your gathering in the flock. When you're away from that,
you are you're lost sheep. And then he says he's
(08:59):
also not been reading his Bible. The Bible is a
word of God, that is God speaking. When you disconnect
that once again, the island doesn't move away. But now
the fog is thick. You can't hear him. You don't
know what he's saying. And so that's exactly why he
feels sad. He feels like he's further away talking about
(09:22):
Riley here. So this is interesting to think about, what
why why is Riley not finding motivation? He knows that
I'm going to say this on the podcast. He knows
that I would say, Riley, you got to be reading
your Bible. You've got to be gathering with the body,
(09:45):
which is the Church. You need to be with him
on Sunday, you need to be with him during the
week too. He knows I'm going to say that, But
yet he says, I don't have motivation. Why does he
not have motivation?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I've heard some people say that, like sometimes going to
church feels more like a chore than something that like
you want to do. And and also, since he knows
that this is going to be on the podcast, a
lot of people, if he's talked to other people about it,
will probably have told him, like, just go read your Bible,
(10:17):
It'll be good for you, like all that stuff. But
I know going to school is good for me, but
I don't want to do it.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Well, there's a key there's a key sentence that he
said right here, and you kind of hinted at it.
He says, I got busy at work in school and
had no motivation to go to church or read my Bible.
So there's a cause and an effect. The cause is
I got busy at work in school. The effect now
I'm not motivated to go to church or read my Bible.
(10:46):
So that was the cause. The cause is getting busy
with the world. And so what's happening. And the reason
he has no motivation is because he's now he's in
a crowd of people, and this is this is speaking
to everyone. He's in a crowd and everyone is shouting.
Imagine you and I we go to a train station, Nah,
(11:07):
there's not one in Austin an airport. We go to
an airport and it's time to fly, and you there
is a There is hundreds of hundreds of people in
this terminal, and you don't know where I am, and
I don't know where you are. Let's let's let's say
that again. You don't know where I am, but I
know where you are. Let's put it in the perspective
(11:29):
of God. I know where you are, you don't know
where I am, and I call it to you. I
say London, and everyone's talking, everyone's talking, talking, talk, and
here you don't know, you can't here. It's distracting. I say, London,
you can't hear. That's this is where Riley is right now.
There are too many voices in the world speaking, and
sometimes you have to shut the voices off. And when
(11:51):
you get to a place where you say, I have
no motivation, I am saddened by this. I don't want
to go to church. I don't want to read my Bible.
You should go. Why I what do I have right
now in the world. That's an extra voice that I
need to stop. I need to stop. And I promise
you it's not work in school. There's more. There's more
(12:13):
stuff if it's not just work in school, because everyone
needs to work and every kid needs to go to school.
So we're not saying rather you should skip school or
you should not work. We're saying everyone, me included. Everyone
has a job and they work and they find time.
(12:34):
So there's other voices coming in. It's the in between stuff.
It's the shows he's watching, the songs he's listening to.
It's the text that he's sending, it's the things he's
looking up. These are these extra voices. So now let's
get to the second part of the question. And he's
having trouble now. He said, life is coming at him hard.
(12:54):
He's on the island in a canoe. The waves are crashing,
and he's it's completely foggy, you can't see the island.
And when that's going on, now he's has this stepfather problem.
And the stepfather comes in and and and Riley's thinking,
is it possible for someone? He says, is it possible
(13:17):
for someone to be too far gone to be saved?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
How do you answer Riley on that too far gone
to be saved?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Or could any human be too far gone to be saved? No?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
But because that would just mean if you put it
like how you're saying the island, that would just mean
you're boat's drifting away, but you can drive it back.
Like okay, if Paul he was soul before and he
was killing Christians and that's a terrible thing. And then
(13:55):
God came to him and he was like, how many
books in the wild did he write?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Thirteen? About three fourths of the New Testament. So I
don't know if it is thirteen. I don't I'm not
exactly sure. Maybe you know that.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I think it is so I don't think anyone can
be too far.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Pause, pause what you said? Go back to the story.
You said, Saul was killing Christians. Okay, then then start.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Again, Saul was killing Christians.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
What do you mean, repeat what you said earlier? I
want to I want to make you repeat what you
said earlier.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Saul was killing Christians and then God came to him.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And you see what happened? What Saul was doing that?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And then what God came to him?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yes, yes, what did what did Saul do in that scenario? Nothing?
God came to him. So the answer is no, no
one could be too far gone. No one could be
too far gone. So it doesn't matter if you're if
(15:01):
you're a murderer, a blasphemer, whatever you've done in your life,
no one could be too far gone. Now, it's it's
a human responsibility to avoid hardening of the heart, because
because not believing always comes from as a result of
hardening of the heart. And so you can go further
(15:22):
and further, and God gives you up to your passions.
The Book of Roman says, who's another Paul letter? God
gives you up to your passions. So we want to
avoid at all costs being given up to our passions.
So we stop, we repent. We believe in Gospel. We
believe that Jesus died for sins, and we trust Him
(15:43):
for the total forgiveness of our sins, and we're saved
by grace through faith. This is not anything that we've
done right, and so we don't want to be hardened
in that way. But at the end of the day,
God is sovereign, and like you said, said, God came
to him, so no, no one could be too far gone.
(16:04):
I think that's it. I think that's a pretty good
I think that's it for Riley Go. Another one said
another one subject heartbreak, Hey Granger, how do you prepare
for a heartbreak? A person just gave me a sign
(16:27):
that could be bad, also could be nothing. I'm not
trying to expect bad, but trying to prepare, asking myself
how could I say what the person meant to me
without breaking down? How I'd leave on happy terms. I've
been praying every day to God, over fully trusting in
(16:47):
his plan, giving him full control, and knowing everything is
for the greater good. I've been diving into the word
in my community. I'm struggling. I'm in the cab of
a truck. Give it to me straight. I appreciate all
you do. This comes from d Oregon, twenty three years old.
You understand the question I think I do. I think
(17:11):
I do. I think too.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I just don't know what they said, so it's kind
of hard.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
It's a girl, right, yeah, Okay, what's the name D.
It's just like a nickname. Oh, I honestly don't know.
Let's just say it's a girl just for the sake
of conversation. Okay, So it's a girl, and I believe
(17:39):
she is preparing for a heartbreak because her boyfriend gave
a sign something, maybe said something, did something, didn't do something,
and D is overthinking it and thinking this could be
really bad or it could be nothing. But then that
(17:59):
makes D kind of look at herself and think maybe
I should prepare for the worst. And I don't think
I could think about this person without breaking down. I'd loved.
I don't know how i'd leave on happy terms. And
then I'm praying to God that I would be fully
trusting in his plan. It sounds like he's a worrier
(18:21):
a little bit, and it sounds like the way that
this is worded. I don't know a lot about it.
So we're in the cab of the truck. I need
to ask more questions. But I think this boyfriend has
started to become an idol to D. There's a worship
element here. I don't know how I could talk about
(18:41):
this person without breaking down. I don't know how I
could be happy. Really, it's what D's saying, I don't
know how it could be happy away from this person.
And then the very next sentence, I've been praying every
day to God over fully, trusting in his plan, giving
him full control. First of all, the God already has
full control. That's an interesting thing to think about. It's like,
(19:02):
I want to give God full control. God's like, oh,
did you think you had any Did you think you
had You thought you had controlled that you were going
to give to me. I am God. We could read
this in the Book of Job. Read the back half
of the Book of Job. If anyone's wondering about this.
God is certainly in full control and doesn't need us
(19:25):
to give him any We don't have any and and
so it's his world we're living in it. He's got
the whole world in his hands. And he is not
in our hands at all. D. A. Carson has written
a lot about this. J. I. Packer has written a
book called Knowing God that's just fantastic, but understanding who
(19:49):
God is. God doesn't need any more control. He already
has it all. So what what you mean? And I
think D what you what you're saying is you're wanting
to submit to his full control. Surrender maybe is the
word to his full control. So what does D do?
(20:13):
We think the boyfriend's an idol struggling with trusting God?
What does D do?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Does it in the Bible say you can't have two idols? Yeah,
maybe talk to the boyfriend.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I think that's a great idea.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Just like just sort of ask them what's going on
or if they meant what they said, and just tell
them how you feel. And if they don't, if they
don't like understand or if they don't yeah, I guess understand, then.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I think that's a really good idea. Honesty, vulnerability, just
open up, just say hey, I think I got a
bad sign. It could be nothing, but did you mean this?
And is this where this is going? And if the
boyfriends may give them a chance to say, yeah, that
was and then okay, well then I'm gonna I'm gonna
move on. The's asking how do you prepare for a heartbreak?
(21:15):
You prepare for a heartbreak outside of marriage by not
fully giving your heart, protecting your heart, protect your heart,
d protect your heart at all costs. Protect it. How
do you protect it? By not going too far? And
so many different things emotionally, spiritually, physically, don't go too far,
(21:37):
guard your heart, have tough conversations. So you know, I
really like you, but this is I'm going to guard
my heart in this situation. Don't go ahead.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Sorry, I was thinking. This is actually happened to me
before with a friend. And you don't have to give
them one hundred percent, and you don't have to make
them your number one because they'll take advantage of it.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
First of all, because you can't give they can't be
number one. Yeah, that's God. And second of all, you
can't give them one hundred percent because you're not married.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
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(22:28):
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It was difficult because there was always something wrong with it,
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(22:50):
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(23:11):
at shopify dot com slash granger all lowercase. Go to
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shopify dot com slash Granger. Next question is very simple.
It's Riley, but this is a different Riley. This is
our y L e Y Riley from Montana sixteen years old,
(23:33):
and Riley says, my question is how do I commit
to Christ? Because I can't seem to do it? Also,
how do I cut all the things that I find
important that truly aren't important in the grand scheme of things?
I appreciate it? Riley, that's a good, honest question for
Riley from Montana. Where was the other Riley from do
(23:56):
you remember Oregon? No? That was d do I don't know.
This is the second Riley on the podcast. So do
you have an answer? How do you commit to Christ?
Because I'm trying so hard and I can't do it?
You start, Okay, Yeah, let me start with the back
(24:22):
half of the question. How do I cut all out
all the things that I find important that truly aren't important.
I think I think what you're saying, Riley is I've
got a lot of stuff going on. I've got a
lot of distractions. I got a lot of shiny things
that I'm chasing, and I want to and I want
to embrace the truth of the Gospel fully fully surrendered
(24:43):
to Christ. I think that's what you're saying. And we
have to be careful sometimes to get rid of the
idea that it's up to us to give a certain
percentage of ourselves to Christ. When Jesus says I want
all of you, and we can't let it become a
work that we work to give him all of us,
(25:08):
because it's a surrender as it's the opposite of working,
it's releasing. Right. So instead of how can I do
more things? How can I read my Bible enough times
or show up show up at church enough times to
be fully committed, I want to be all in. Instead,
(25:29):
the Holy Spirit works through us when we release everything,
and then the Holy Spirit fills us with the desire
to read the Bible, fills us with the desire to
have a meaningful relationship with the Church. It fills us
(25:49):
with the desire to repent or turn away from our sin.
And this is a lot for sixteen years old, but
you're thirteen and so we could talk about it in
this asp. Typically, when I see something like this, how
do I commit to Christ? But I can't do it?
I say, you can't do it. That's why Jesus did it.
(26:13):
Christianity is not about doing. It's about It's not about
what we do, it's about what Christ did. So once
we once we understand once we have a right understanding
of God incarnate, the son of God incarnate, God became flesh,
(26:35):
the outward working of his word. When when God speaks
creation into existence, he speaks with a word. And in
John One, John says, in the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, and the word was God.
The word became flesh. John says, So Jesus is the
(27:00):
outward working of God himself, the triune God. Yahweh's the
it's the outward working of God. Is Jesus came to
earth as a baby. That idea we're closing in on
Christmas time right now. I will never fully unpack God incarnate,
(27:24):
God Emmanuel with us. God entered his own creation. And
how did he do it? As a king as we
know kings, no a baby and a manger, son of
a carpenter, earthly son. He spoke a God that speaks
(27:49):
life into existence, spoke with a a northern accent, Northern
Judean accent. That just doesn't It's like would be like
it would be like a world leader with a Georgia accent.
(28:10):
It's like hard to it's hard for anyone to take
that seriously. And they were like from Nazareth. I hear
the way you guys talk, Man, you are from Nazareth.
That would be like, where are you all from Georgia?
Or it's hard to take you seriously. So everything that
happened in the incarnation, meaning God became flesh was it
came in it in a form of humility, like it's
(28:32):
not about what you think it's about. So God comes
in the flesh, and he lives a perfect life, sinless,
sinless life. He goes to the cross and dies on
the cross, taking on sins of the world, taking on
the sins on his own body. And here's the This
is called the Great Exchange. He takes your sin on
(28:55):
his body on the cross, and you get you take
his righteousness, you guys exchange. God in the Sun, in
the person of the Sun, gives you, gives you his righteousness,
and you give him your sin. And he takes your sin,
and he says, I will remember it no more. He
(29:17):
becomes the sacrifice, that the sacrificial lamb, the perfect, spotless
lamb for all time. He takes it on himself and
he says, I give you my righteousness. So now when
God sees you, you're already you were imperfect. You're flawed
in every way, sinful, rebellious. And now God looks at
(29:40):
you and goes, I see perfect righteousness, not because you
did it, not because you're trying to commit it to it,
but because He did it on the cross and gave
it to you. That is unbelievable. That's the gospel. And
to embrace that. We believe with faith that that's what
(30:02):
He did for us, and we trust that our sins
are forgiven. And then the last part we repent, we
turn away from Why would we live in a sin?
Why would we live in any kind of sin knowing
that Jesus took it on his own body. Why would
we do that? We wouldn't. We said, I don't want
that anymore. I don't want the sin that that was
(30:23):
taken onto the body of my Lord. I don't want
I don't want to be you know, I don't want
any part of that anymore. That's the great exchange. It's
called imputed righteousness. Now that's a big word. Have you
heard that word imputed? His righteousness was imputed to you.
This is this is the breakthrough that Martin Luther had.
You know, Martin Luther, you studied Martin Luther. This is
(30:44):
the breakthrough he had. He understood it was by faith.
It was it was a gift through faith. It was
not his righteousness. He couldn't do it. He couldn't be
good enough for God, he couldn't be good enough for Heaven. Instead,
it was a gift from Jesus on the cross for
those who believe. So, Riley, if that takes root in
(31:07):
your heart, if that gospel message takes a hold of you,
and you could be like the thief on the cross
next to Jesus and say, will you remember me when
you go into your kingdom? And Jesus looked and said,
today you will be with me in Paradise. It's like
the old thing where that Alister Begg said, one of
(31:30):
my favorite pastors, he did this thing and went viral.
But he said he did this thing about the man
on the middle cross. Have you heard that the man
on the middle Cross. It's basically, you get to heaven
and imagine this hypothetical situation and there's the Angel at
the gates of heaven and you show up and he says,
why should I let you in? And you say, it
(31:55):
wasn't anything I've done, and the Angel says, do you
know the doctrine of atonement, No, sir. Do you know
the doctrine of election? No, sir. Do you know the
doctrine of whatever could be anything? No? Sir? Then why
are you here talking to the thief on the cross,
(32:17):
the man on the middle cross that I could come?
That's it. That's the gospel. The man on the middle
cross so that I can come. He invited me, and
the Angel says, come into paradise. That's faith, belief, repentance,
(32:43):
all of it put into one. And Riley, that's you.
How do I commit to Christ because I can't see
him to do it? Stop doing it? Jesus already did it.
Tyler has the next one. Tyler Cape says, Hey, mister Granger,
(33:04):
I love your podcast. I'm sixteen years old. What is
the deal? Oh my goodness, just because you're here, that's crazy.
I didn't plan this. I love your podcast. I'm sixteen
years old. I'm trying to figure out how to date
the right way. Could you talk about this on one
of your podcasts please? I am a leader at my
school high school FCA, and we absolutely would love it
(33:27):
if you come speak at one of our devotions. I
understand you're very busy, but I just thought i'd ask,
thanks so much. Tyler Cape trying to figure out how
to date the right way? Can you help him? How
do you date the right way?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I have no idea because I have no experience, but
I would say give God one hundred percent first, like you,
like we were saying, find a godly woman, and.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, that's a good start. It's a good start. I
think how they're finding finding a girl that loves Jesus.
First of all, I think sixteen is too young to date.
So we'll just say that likes nothing to do. You
have nothing, no business dating at sixteen, there's nothing good
to do. I didn't say. I didn't say you can't
(34:25):
like a girl. It's like for you, I'm not going
to say you can't like a boy. How that's impossible.
That's like saying you can't breathe air until you're eighteen.
Don't breathe air, London. It is impossible. You might, I
don't know. Hopefully it'd be a while, but you might
one day start liking a boy and I would never
tell you can't like him. But dating is different. Dating
(34:47):
is the is action. It's planning it's it's going, it's
going steady exclusively. It's all that stuff that's that's unnecessary.
It seems to necessary, but it's not. And the more
you do it, the more it is necessary, because you
start to get attached. At the very beginning, it's like,
(35:10):
I don't I don't think we're going to date yet.
I really like you, but I'm not going to take
that next step into dating until you do that. Whenever
you actually start dating, then you get addicted to it,
and then you need it, and then one day it
leads to two and three and ten fifty, and then
months go by and you you need it. But right
now you just say, hey, I'm gonna I'm not going
(35:33):
to date. And then if you're saying how do I
date the right way, eventually you're going to find a
girl that loves Jesus and you're going to date with
the intention to marry. Not casual dating, not sport dating,
not dating because you're trying to learn about yourself or
about the other person. You're dating with the intention to marry.
If you're not ready to marry, don't start dating.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Not dating just to say you're.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Dating, especially that right you know that, Yeah, So there are.
It's pretty distinct. You say, you know, I'm in a
position to get married. Like Brianna was pretty young, your friend,
my friend, and they're families, dear friends of ours, both
(36:18):
sides of the family, both you know, husband and wife.
They got married. She's super young, eighteen now super young.
But they were they were dating with the intention to marry.
They weren't like, hey, let's just see how this goes
for a while.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
They always talked about getting married.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yeah, with dating with the intention to marry. So I think, Tyler,
I would think, if you can get those things right, wait,
find a girl that loves Jesus and dated with the
intention to marry her. That would be the right way.
And you save yourself physically completely until marriage. That's the
(36:55):
right way. I had another one. Okay, this is interesting.
The subject says no desire for marriage, dear granger. When
I was in college, my parents got divorced and it
was not a clean breakup. It took years and it
(37:19):
made me and my three siblings miserable. My last relationship
was when I was in college, and it was terrible
to me, emotionally abusive and controlling. I've developed a misindependent
lifestyle I take myself on dates, I go to church alone.
I enjoy doing what I can when I want. Between
(37:39):
a negative example of a marriage and being single for
almost ten years now, how could I have any desire
to get married. I'm also twenty nine, and so my
time is running out, thanks Courtney. First of all, Courtney,
twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Is not two times not running.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Your time's not running out. So there's that. But there's
this idea that you know, all your friends are now
married and you got little baby, they all have babies,
and because they got married at twenty five, twenty six
and you're twenty nine, you're like, this is way too late.
So it's not the the negative example of marriage and
(38:20):
your family. You're gonna have to beat that. That's there's
no there's no other way to say it. Besides, you're
gonna have to break that generational curse. You're gonna have
to say that happened to me, but it's not happening
to me currently, and I will break that curse and
that's not gonna happen to me. I'm gonna date to
to I'm gonna date to marry, and I'm gonna marry
(38:42):
for life and until death do us part and sickness
and health. That's that's the way that the old Anglican
Prayer Book said, and that's the way I'm gonna do
it till till death do us part and make that decision.
And today in this world, we don't make decisions like that.
(39:04):
We base our we base marriage, like anything else, on
what makes us happy. I'm going to marry until it
doesn't make me happy anymore. Then I'm gonna get out.
And no one says that in a vow.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
No one says un till I don't feel like it anymore.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Doing this part, Yeah, till I don't feel like it anymore,
till you stop making me happy anymore, and then we
might get a divorce. No one says that in the
wedding vow. But that's what they do. That's how people
live their lives. They live their lives with what makes
them happy, and marriage is no different. And so misindependent Courtney,
(39:42):
you're gonna have to understand that that when it comes
to dating to marry, and when you finally do get married,
and I think you probably will, then it's for life
and you're not gonna You're not get a divorce like
your parents did. How do you do that. You make
a decision that even through tough times, through rough arguments,
(40:04):
through financial problems, through sickness, through any amount of problems,
you're going to stick it out and you're going to
find somebody that agrees and goes, yeah, we're gonna stick
it out together. It's not always going to be easy.
Sometimes its gonna be tough. Sometimes I'm going to be
really mad at you, but we're going to stick it out.
Because marriage is for life. That's the way God intended,
(40:28):
and marriage is sacred. That's what God intended. And marriage
is a government covenant under God. That's what he intended.
That's a sacred covenant. So we don't break it. So
you make that kind of decision, Courtney, that's something. If
you figure that out, now, that's great. You don't meet,
you don't meet somebody, and then later decide that's maybe
something that you want to do. You go, I'm not
(40:49):
going to even date at twenty nine until I find
somebody where I go I would make this kind of
commitment to them for life. And then you also decide
that maybe if I don't find that someone, I just
won't get married. I don't think that's gonna happen, But
you go, I would be fine if I don't get
married instead of getting in something without making a full commitment.
(41:13):
Now take what I just said lightly, because, like I said,
I think you will, and I think there's something at
some level you need to step into the world and
find a husband. Thin You got to make yourself available.
I'm not saying go hide in the corner and disappear.
(41:33):
So what do you say to miss independent?
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Miss independent?
Speaker 1 (41:38):
She goes to church alone, she takes herself on dates.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
I think that's good, and I think that you just
need to wait and be patient because God has a
plan in his His plan is perfect for you and
just how he intended it to be, and he's going
to bring that guy along. He's going to bring that
(42:03):
lucky guy along, and y'all will get married in his time.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Perfect well said. And I think Courtney, to wrap this up,
you say, you say, basically you're saying I don't have
a desire to get married. That's basically what you're saying
at the end, I don't have a desire to get married.
And I say, why would you. You haven't met him yet,
But when you meet him, you'll go, oh, that's funny.
(42:31):
I suddenly have a desire to get married because you
met the one that you desire to marry. I think
it's as easy as that. So to not have a
desire before you've met him. I think that's totally normal.
Your history being single for ten years change the generational curse.
And if you find a guy for the right reasons
(42:53):
and make that commitment, that desire will create itself and
you will desire to get married. Thank you for being here. Yeah,
we're gonna go. Of course, we're gonna go eat dinner,
which I'm excited about. We'll see you next Monday. Ye.
Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate
all of you guys. You could help me out by
(43:14):
rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe
to this channel, hit that little like button and notification
spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
YII
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast. I got you
with me today. Oh yeah, I got my daughter in London.
She's back. This is your second time. Everyone loved you.
They were like crazy about you. They were like, this
is She's the best question answer I've ever heard. So
we brought you. Yes, we brought you back again.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The comments not.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Allowed to look at comments, I think mommy letchen.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So what we do is we answer your questions. You
email podcast at grangersmith dot com and we'll put him
in the queue. An man. Well, we'll get him ready
for us, and we're gonna start right here. The subject
is this is a lot. Okay, you ready for this?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
How are you doing? By the way, before we get
into this, good thirteen years old? Like thirteen years and
almost two months? Yeah, just rocking it. Yeah, looking at fourteen,
you're ready for fourteen?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Not yet?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Okay, Okay, you're just gonna enjoy thirteen as much as
you can. Have a school going good? Yeah, are you
been manipulated by the state?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
What?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
That's what? Probably? Now you're in a private school, so
that's kind of impossible. You like school?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Not really?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
What's your best subject? What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
It's English language art. So it's like reading and writing.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And stuff you like to read and write. Imagine that
you know, Mama has a new book that she finished
comes out. Do you know when it comes out? Summer
of next year? Yeah, probably, or like end of next year.
I think, Yeah, I read it on the plane the
(02:03):
other day. Her original manuscript. Has she accid it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Bill, I want to read it when it's all done.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Okay, it's probably good. First question comes from Riley. Hello,
mister Smith. My name is Riley. I'm sixteen year old.
I'm a boy from Cabot, Pennsylvania. Throughout the past few months,
I've been trying to get closer to God. I was
really doing good with reading my Bible going to church
every Sunday. I get busy at work in school and
(02:31):
had no motivation to go to church or read my Bible.
Now I've been feeling a lot of sadness and regret
for doing so, and I'm not sure how to find
the motivation. Recently, I've had a lot of problems with
my stepfather. We have arguments every time we talk, and
it's been very bad recently. It's been like this the
past few years. I get along great with my father
(02:52):
and my stepmom. But it's hard with my step father.
I have prayed a lot for my stepdad, but it
never seemed to change. Is it possible for someone to
be so far gone that they can't be saved? I
know this is a lot. Thank you for your time.
Please come back to Butler. Pa. Do you kind of
(03:13):
got Riley's story here? Yeah, it's a tough situation. Do
you have friends that are in split families like this?
It's always tough, isn't it to see it? And it
seems like so many times there is a step one
of the step mom or stepdad that there's the problem, right. Yeah,
(03:35):
in this case Riley's case, it's the step dad. So
do you have any thoughts for Riley? Before? Before I
jump into his question, I'll let you.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I'll you go and then I'll go out.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Okay, I'll start at the beginning. He said he's been
trying to get closer to God. He was doing really well.
He was reading his Bible, going to church every Sunday,
and then he got busy at work in school, and
now he has no motivation to go to church or
read his Bible. And he's been feeling a lot of
sadness and regret for doing this. So well, that's like
(04:09):
the first part of this question. Then the step the
stepdad's the second part. So what usually happens, and this
is very normal, Riley. You're going through seasons and there
are times when we feel very close to God, and
there's times we feel further away. Sometimes the closest not always,
(04:34):
but sometimes the closeness with God is through trials are suffering.
People look back at the time you lost a loved one,
say you lose a grandparent, and you look back on
that season and you say, I was really sad that I
was going through a lot, but I was really close
to God. My prayers were really intimate, and I was
(04:54):
constantly thinking about God and constantly crying out to Him.
And so we see that in the Bible too, that
people are closer to God and suffering. They're also closer
in like times like I did a couple weeks ago
when I went out to the desert and spent five
days out there, fasting, reading, praying. No one was around,
so I was intentional about it. So I felt really
(05:15):
close to God there too. But here's the key feel.
I felt close to God. I felt close and suffering.
I felt close in the desert. That's how I feel.
You think God moves closer or further away from his people, No,
(05:37):
he doesn't.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, we meet, we moved closer further away.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, well, our perception of it. We don't really move.
It's our perception. God's like the island and we're on
a canoe around the island. I think I've said that
on this podcast. And so we kind of float around
the island, and he's the island. He doesn't go anywhere.
He's always right there, and sometimes we can't see him
because there's fog, But does that make him not there
(06:01):
or further away? And sometimes it's a sunny day and
we're just laying on the beach right there on the island,
and we feel closer than ever, But that doesn't make
him any further away when we're in the fog. So
a lot of times it's just it's about how we feel.
And that's what's going on with Riley, except for here's
(06:24):
and then he adds another thing. He's also not reading
his Bible and going to church every Sunday. So that's
another thing. Reading your Bible and going to church every
Sunday doesn't bring God in closer to you. It's the island, remember,
but it does create fog if you're not there, because
you're not around His people. And so many times we
(06:45):
see God and we feel his presence, and through the
gifts of his people, he's acting with human agency. That
means God uses people many times to give his blessings,
or to give his wisdom, or to give his warnings
or his encouragement. He uses people. Hey, I don't think
(07:06):
I don't think you should be doing that. That could
be Godly wisdom coming through one of his people to you.
Happens all the time in the Bible. Or I just
want to tell you what a joy it is to
be around you. You're so encouraging to me. That could
be a godly wisdom coming, Godly encouragement coming from one
of his people to you. And if you're away from
His people, specifically the church, the gathering of people. By
(07:29):
the way, that's what that word church means. Ecclesia, that
means the gathering. The word church and so many times
I say it on this podcast doesn't mean a building.
Do you know at a maus where we go to church.
You know what they say at the beginning when we
get there, they say, welcome to this gathering of a
(07:51):
mais church. Yeah, so it's not welcome to the church,
thanks for walking into the church. It's welcome to this,
to today's gathering of us, our body, the body of Christ.
(08:11):
So when you're away from that, you're like a little
sheep out on a hillside, away from the flock and
away from the shepherd, and you're hungry, you're lonely, you
could be sick, you could be in trouble, and the
flock doesn't know, and the shepherd's not there. The shepherd
meaning pastor, that's what that word means. Pastor means shepherd, right,
(08:36):
So you don't have a shepherd, a pastor. I'm talking
about lowercase B, not our lowercase s. Lowercase shepherd, not
the shepherd. But you're the human pastor. That's part of
your gathering in the flock. When you're away from that,
you are you're lost sheep. And then he says he's
(08:59):
also not been reading his Bible. The Bible is a
word of God, that is God speaking. When you disconnect
that once again, the island doesn't move away. But now
the fog is thick. You can't hear him. You don't
know what he's saying. And so that's exactly why he
feels sad. He feels like he's further away talking about
(09:22):
Riley here. So this is interesting to think about, what
why why is Riley not finding motivation? He knows that
I'm going to say this on the podcast. He knows
that I would say, Riley, you got to be reading
your Bible. You've got to be gathering with the body,
(09:45):
which is the Church. You need to be with him
on Sunday, you need to be with him during the
week too. He knows I'm going to say that, But
yet he says, I don't have motivation. Why does he
not have motivation?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I've heard some people say that, like sometimes going to
church feels more like a chore than something that like
you want to do. And and also, since he knows
that this is going to be on the podcast, a
lot of people, if he's talked to other people about it,
will probably have told him, like, just go read your Bible,
(10:17):
It'll be good for you, like all that stuff. But
I know going to school is good for me, but
I don't want to do it.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Well, there's a key there's a key sentence that he
said right here, and you kind of hinted at it.
He says, I got busy at work in school and
had no motivation to go to church or read my Bible.
So there's a cause and an effect. The cause is
I got busy at work in school. The effect now
I'm not motivated to go to church or read my Bible.
(10:46):
So that was the cause. The cause is getting busy
with the world. And so what's happening. And the reason
he has no motivation is because he's now he's in
a crowd of people, and this is this is speaking
to everyone. He's in a crowd and everyone is shouting.
Imagine you and I we go to a train station, Nah,
(11:07):
there's not one in Austin an airport. We go to
an airport and it's time to fly, and you there
is a There is hundreds of hundreds of people in
this terminal, and you don't know where I am, and
I don't know where you are. Let's let's let's say
that again. You don't know where I am, but I
know where you are. Let's put it in the perspective
(11:29):
of God. I know where you are, you don't know
where I am, and I call it to you. I
say London, and everyone's talking, everyone's talking, talking, talk, and
here you don't know, you can't here. It's distracting. I say, London,
you can't hear. That's this is where Riley is right now.
There are too many voices in the world speaking, and
sometimes you have to shut the voices off. And when
(11:51):
you get to a place where you say, I have
no motivation, I am saddened by this. I don't want
to go to church. I don't want to read my Bible.
You should go. Why I what do I have right
now in the world. That's an extra voice that I
need to stop. I need to stop. And I promise
you it's not work in school. There's more. There's more
(12:13):
stuff if it's not just work in school, because everyone
needs to work and every kid needs to go to school.
So we're not saying rather you should skip school or
you should not work. We're saying everyone, me included. Everyone
has a job and they work and they find time.
(12:34):
So there's other voices coming in. It's the in between stuff.
It's the shows he's watching, the songs he's listening to.
It's the text that he's sending, it's the things he's
looking up. These are these extra voices. So now let's
get to the second part of the question. And he's
having trouble now. He said, life is coming at him hard.
(12:54):
He's on the island in a canoe. The waves are crashing,
and he's it's completely foggy, you can't see the island.
And when that's going on, now he's has this stepfather problem.
And the stepfather comes in and and and Riley's thinking,
is it possible for someone? He says, is it possible
(13:17):
for someone to be too far gone to be saved?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
How do you answer Riley on that too far gone
to be saved?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Or could any human be too far gone to be saved? No?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
But because that would just mean if you put it
like how you're saying the island, that would just mean
you're boat's drifting away, but you can drive it back.
Like okay, if Paul he was soul before and he
was killing Christians and that's a terrible thing. And then
(13:55):
God came to him and he was like, how many
books in the wild did he write?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Thirteen? About three fourths of the New Testament. So I
don't know if it is thirteen. I don't I'm not
exactly sure. Maybe you know that.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I think it is so I don't think anyone can
be too far.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Pause, pause what you said? Go back to the story.
You said, Saul was killing Christians. Okay, then then start.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Again, Saul was killing Christians.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
What do you mean, repeat what you said earlier? I
want to I want to make you repeat what you
said earlier.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Saul was killing Christians and then God came to him.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And you see what happened? What Saul was doing that?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And then what God came to him?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yes, yes, what did what did Saul do in that scenario? Nothing?
God came to him. So the answer is no, no
one could be too far gone. No one could be
too far gone. So it doesn't matter if you're if
(15:01):
you're a murderer, a blasphemer, whatever you've done in your life,
no one could be too far gone. Now, it's it's
a human responsibility to avoid hardening of the heart, because
because not believing always comes from as a result of
hardening of the heart. And so you can go further
(15:22):
and further, and God gives you up to your passions.
The Book of Roman says, who's another Paul letter? God
gives you up to your passions. So we want to
avoid at all costs being given up to our passions.
So we stop, we repent. We believe in Gospel. We
believe that Jesus died for sins, and we trust Him
(15:43):
for the total forgiveness of our sins, and we're saved
by grace through faith. This is not anything that we've
done right, and so we don't want to be hardened
in that way. But at the end of the day,
God is sovereign, and like you said, said, God came
to him, so no, no one could be too far gone.
(16:04):
I think that's it. I think that's a pretty good
I think that's it for Riley Go. Another one said
another one subject heartbreak, Hey Granger, how do you prepare
for a heartbreak? A person just gave me a sign
(16:27):
that could be bad, also could be nothing. I'm not
trying to expect bad, but trying to prepare, asking myself
how could I say what the person meant to me
without breaking down? How I'd leave on happy terms. I've
been praying every day to God, over fully trusting in
(16:47):
his plan, giving him full control, and knowing everything is
for the greater good. I've been diving into the word
in my community. I'm struggling. I'm in the cab of
a truck. Give it to me straight. I appreciate all
you do. This comes from d Oregon, twenty three years old.
You understand the question I think I do. I think
(17:11):
I do. I think too.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I just don't know what they said, so it's kind
of hard.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
It's a girl, right, yeah, Okay, what's the name D.
It's just like a nickname. Oh, I honestly don't know.
Let's just say it's a girl just for the sake
of conversation. Okay, So it's a girl, and I believe
(17:39):
she is preparing for a heartbreak because her boyfriend gave
a sign something, maybe said something, did something, didn't do something,
and D is overthinking it and thinking this could be
really bad or it could be nothing. But then that
(17:59):
makes D kind of look at herself and think maybe
I should prepare for the worst. And I don't think
I could think about this person without breaking down. I'd loved.
I don't know how i'd leave on happy terms. And
then I'm praying to God that I would be fully
trusting in his plan. It sounds like he's a worrier
(18:21):
a little bit, and it sounds like the way that
this is worded. I don't know a lot about it.
So we're in the cab of the truck. I need
to ask more questions. But I think this boyfriend has
started to become an idol to D. There's a worship
element here. I don't know how I could talk about
(18:41):
this person without breaking down. I don't know how I
could be happy. Really, it's what D's saying, I don't
know how it could be happy away from this person.
And then the very next sentence, I've been praying every
day to God over fully, trusting in his plan, giving
him full control. First of all, the God already has
full control. That's an interesting thing to think about. It's like,
(19:02):
I want to give God full control. God's like, oh,
did you think you had any Did you think you
had You thought you had controlled that you were going
to give to me. I am God. We could read
this in the Book of Job. Read the back half
of the Book of Job. If anyone's wondering about this.
God is certainly in full control and doesn't need us
(19:25):
to give him any We don't have any and and
so it's his world we're living in it. He's got
the whole world in his hands. And he is not
in our hands at all. D. A. Carson has written
a lot about this. J. I. Packer has written a
book called Knowing God that's just fantastic, but understanding who
(19:49):
God is. God doesn't need any more control. He already
has it all. So what what you mean? And I
think D what you what you're saying is you're wanting
to submit to his full control. Surrender maybe is the
word to his full control. So what does D do?
(20:13):
We think the boyfriend's an idol struggling with trusting God?
What does D do?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Does it in the Bible say you can't have two idols? Yeah,
maybe talk to the boyfriend.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I think that's a great idea.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Just like just sort of ask them what's going on
or if they meant what they said, and just tell
them how you feel. And if they don't, if they
don't like understand or if they don't yeah, I guess understand, then.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I think that's a really good idea. Honesty, vulnerability, just
open up, just say hey, I think I got a
bad sign. It could be nothing, but did you mean this?
And is this where this is going? And if the
boyfriends may give them a chance to say, yeah, that
was and then okay, well then I'm gonna I'm gonna
move on. The's asking how do you prepare for a heartbreak?
(21:15):
You prepare for a heartbreak outside of marriage by not
fully giving your heart, protecting your heart, protect your heart,
d protect your heart at all costs. Protect it. How
do you protect it? By not going too far? And
so many different things emotionally, spiritually, physically, don't go too far,
(21:37):
guard your heart, have tough conversations. So you know, I
really like you, but this is I'm going to guard
my heart in this situation. Don't go ahead.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Sorry, I was thinking. This is actually happened to me
before with a friend. And you don't have to give
them one hundred percent, and you don't have to make
them your number one because they'll take advantage of it.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
First of all, because you can't give they can't be
number one. Yeah, that's God. And second of all, you
can't give them one hundred percent because you're not married.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
A lot of times people approach me wanting to start
their own business and they ask about EE Apparel, and
they ask about the e commerce side of things and
the website and how we do that, and I usually
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and my brothers said, eee, there was a time when
we had to build all that stuff ourselves with web
(22:28):
designers so that you could go in and enter your
credit card number and have a checkout place and add
to KRT and all that stuff. We build it from scratch.
It was difficult because there was always something wrong with it,
or someone would have a problem, or their shopping cart
wasn't working, or it didn't take their credit card or
their address right, and we had to focus on that
(22:50):
instead of the creative side. Now that doesn't happen anymore.
We get to focus all on the creative side because
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Sign up for your one dollar per month trial period
(23:11):
at shopify dot com slash granger all lowercase. Go to
shopify dot com slash granger to upgrade your selling today
shopify dot com slash Granger. Next question is very simple.
It's Riley, but this is a different Riley. This is
our y L e Y Riley from Montana sixteen years old,
(23:33):
and Riley says, my question is how do I commit
to Christ? Because I can't seem to do it? Also,
how do I cut all the things that I find
important that truly aren't important in the grand scheme of things?
I appreciate it? Riley, that's a good, honest question for
Riley from Montana. Where was the other Riley from do
(23:56):
you remember Oregon? No? That was d do I don't know.
This is the second Riley on the podcast. So do
you have an answer? How do you commit to Christ?
Because I'm trying so hard and I can't do it?
You start, Okay, Yeah, let me start with the back
(24:22):
half of the question. How do I cut all out
all the things that I find important that truly aren't important.
I think I think what you're saying, Riley is I've
got a lot of stuff going on. I've got a
lot of distractions. I got a lot of shiny things
that I'm chasing, and I want to and I want
to embrace the truth of the Gospel fully fully surrendered
(24:43):
to Christ. I think that's what you're saying. And we
have to be careful sometimes to get rid of the
idea that it's up to us to give a certain
percentage of ourselves to Christ. When Jesus says I want
all of you, and we can't let it become a
work that we work to give him all of us,
(25:08):
because it's a surrender as it's the opposite of working,
it's releasing. Right. So instead of how can I do
more things? How can I read my Bible enough times
or show up show up at church enough times to
be fully committed, I want to be all in. Instead,
(25:29):
the Holy Spirit works through us when we release everything,
and then the Holy Spirit fills us with the desire
to read the Bible, fills us with the desire to
have a meaningful relationship with the Church. It fills us
(25:49):
with the desire to repent or turn away from our sin.
And this is a lot for sixteen years old, but
you're thirteen and so we could talk about it in
this asp. Typically, when I see something like this, how
do I commit to Christ? But I can't do it?
I say, you can't do it. That's why Jesus did it.
(26:13):
Christianity is not about doing. It's about It's not about
what we do, it's about what Christ did. So once
we once we understand once we have a right understanding
of God incarnate, the son of God incarnate, God became flesh,
(26:35):
the outward working of his word. When when God speaks
creation into existence, he speaks with a word. And in
John One, John says, in the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, and the word was God.
The word became flesh. John says, So Jesus is the
(27:00):
outward working of God himself, the triune God. Yahweh's the
it's the outward working of God. Is Jesus came to
earth as a baby. That idea we're closing in on
Christmas time right now. I will never fully unpack God incarnate,
(27:24):
God Emmanuel with us. God entered his own creation. And
how did he do it? As a king as we
know kings, no a baby and a manger, son of
a carpenter, earthly son. He spoke a God that speaks
(27:49):
life into existence, spoke with a a northern accent, Northern
Judean accent. That just doesn't It's like would be like
it would be like a world leader with a Georgia accent.
(28:10):
It's like hard to it's hard for anyone to take
that seriously. And they were like from Nazareth. I hear
the way you guys talk, Man, you are from Nazareth.
That would be like, where are you all from Georgia?
Or it's hard to take you seriously. So everything that
happened in the incarnation, meaning God became flesh was it
came in it in a form of humility, like it's
(28:32):
not about what you think it's about. So God comes
in the flesh, and he lives a perfect life, sinless,
sinless life. He goes to the cross and dies on
the cross, taking on sins of the world, taking on
the sins on his own body. And here's the This
is called the Great Exchange. He takes your sin on
(28:55):
his body on the cross, and you get you take
his righteousness, you guys exchange. God in the Sun, in
the person of the Sun, gives you, gives you his righteousness,
and you give him your sin. And he takes your sin,
and he says, I will remember it no more. He
(29:17):
becomes the sacrifice, that the sacrificial lamb, the perfect, spotless
lamb for all time. He takes it on himself and
he says, I give you my righteousness. So now when
God sees you, you're already you were imperfect. You're flawed
in every way, sinful, rebellious. And now God looks at
(29:40):
you and goes, I see perfect righteousness, not because you
did it, not because you're trying to commit it to it,
but because He did it on the cross and gave
it to you. That is unbelievable. That's the gospel. And
to embrace that. We believe with faith that that's what
(30:02):
He did for us, and we trust that our sins
are forgiven. And then the last part we repent, we
turn away from Why would we live in a sin?
Why would we live in any kind of sin knowing
that Jesus took it on his own body. Why would
we do that? We wouldn't. We said, I don't want
that anymore. I don't want the sin that that was
(30:23):
taken onto the body of my Lord. I don't want
I don't want to be you know, I don't want
any part of that anymore. That's the great exchange. It's
called imputed righteousness. Now that's a big word. Have you
heard that word imputed? His righteousness was imputed to you.
This is this is the breakthrough that Martin Luther had.
You know, Martin Luther, you studied Martin Luther. This is
(30:44):
the breakthrough he had. He understood it was by faith.
It was it was a gift through faith. It was
not his righteousness. He couldn't do it. He couldn't be
good enough for God, he couldn't be good enough for Heaven. Instead,
it was a gift from Jesus on the cross for
those who believe. So, Riley, if that takes root in
(31:07):
your heart, if that gospel message takes a hold of you,
and you could be like the thief on the cross
next to Jesus and say, will you remember me when
you go into your kingdom? And Jesus looked and said,
today you will be with me in Paradise. It's like
the old thing where that Alister Begg said, one of
(31:30):
my favorite pastors, he did this thing and went viral.
But he said he did this thing about the man
on the middle cross. Have you heard that the man
on the middle Cross. It's basically, you get to heaven
and imagine this hypothetical situation and there's the Angel at
the gates of heaven and you show up and he says,
why should I let you in? And you say, it
(31:55):
wasn't anything I've done, and the Angel says, do you
know the doctrine of atonement, No, sir. Do you know
the doctrine of election? No, sir. Do you know the
doctrine of whatever could be anything? No? Sir? Then why
are you here talking to the thief on the cross,
(32:17):
the man on the middle cross that I could come?
That's it. That's the gospel. The man on the middle
cross so that I can come. He invited me, and
the Angel says, come into paradise. That's faith, belief, repentance,
(32:43):
all of it put into one. And Riley, that's you.
How do I commit to Christ because I can't see
him to do it? Stop doing it? Jesus already did it.
Tyler has the next one. Tyler Cape says, Hey, mister Granger,
(33:04):
I love your podcast. I'm sixteen years old. What is
the deal? Oh my goodness, just because you're here, that's crazy.
I didn't plan this. I love your podcast. I'm sixteen
years old. I'm trying to figure out how to date
the right way. Could you talk about this on one
of your podcasts please? I am a leader at my
school high school FCA, and we absolutely would love it
(33:27):
if you come speak at one of our devotions. I
understand you're very busy, but I just thought i'd ask,
thanks so much. Tyler Cape trying to figure out how
to date the right way? Can you help him? How
do you date the right way?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I have no idea because I have no experience, but
I would say give God one hundred percent first, like you,
like we were saying, find a godly woman, and.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, that's a good start. It's a good start. I
think how they're finding finding a girl that loves Jesus.
First of all, I think sixteen is too young to date.
So we'll just say that likes nothing to do. You
have nothing, no business dating at sixteen, there's nothing good
to do. I didn't say. I didn't say you can't
(34:25):
like a girl. It's like for you, I'm not going
to say you can't like a boy. How that's impossible.
That's like saying you can't breathe air until you're eighteen.
Don't breathe air, London. It is impossible. You might, I
don't know. Hopefully it'd be a while, but you might
one day start liking a boy and I would never
tell you can't like him. But dating is different. Dating
(34:47):
is the is action. It's planning it's it's going, it's
going steady exclusively. It's all that stuff that's that's unnecessary.
It seems to necessary, but it's not. And the more
you do it, the more it is necessary, because you
start to get attached. At the very beginning, it's like,
(35:10):
I don't I don't think we're going to date yet.
I really like you, but I'm not going to take
that next step into dating until you do that. Whenever
you actually start dating, then you get addicted to it,
and then you need it, and then one day it
leads to two and three and ten fifty, and then
months go by and you you need it. But right
now you just say, hey, I'm gonna I'm not going
(35:33):
to date. And then if you're saying how do I
date the right way, eventually you're going to find a
girl that loves Jesus and you're going to date with
the intention to marry. Not casual dating, not sport dating,
not dating because you're trying to learn about yourself or
about the other person. You're dating with the intention to marry.
If you're not ready to marry, don't start dating.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Not dating just to say you're.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Dating, especially that right you know that, Yeah, So there are.
It's pretty distinct. You say, you know, I'm in a
position to get married. Like Brianna was pretty young, your friend,
my friend, and they're families, dear friends of ours, both
(36:18):
sides of the family, both you know, husband and wife.
They got married. She's super young, eighteen now super young.
But they were they were dating with the intention to marry.
They weren't like, hey, let's just see how this goes
for a while.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
They always talked about getting married.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yeah, with dating with the intention to marry. So I think, Tyler,
I would think, if you can get those things right, wait,
find a girl that loves Jesus and dated with the
intention to marry her. That would be the right way.
And you save yourself physically completely until marriage. That's the
(36:55):
right way. I had another one. Okay, this is interesting.
The subject says no desire for marriage, dear granger. When
I was in college, my parents got divorced and it
was not a clean breakup. It took years and it
(37:19):
made me and my three siblings miserable. My last relationship
was when I was in college, and it was terrible
to me, emotionally abusive and controlling. I've developed a misindependent
lifestyle I take myself on dates, I go to church alone.
I enjoy doing what I can when I want. Between
(37:39):
a negative example of a marriage and being single for
almost ten years now, how could I have any desire
to get married. I'm also twenty nine, and so my
time is running out, thanks Courtney. First of all, Courtney,
twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Is not two times not running.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Your time's not running out. So there's that. But there's
this idea that you know, all your friends are now
married and you got little baby, they all have babies,
and because they got married at twenty five, twenty six
and you're twenty nine, you're like, this is way too late.
So it's not the the negative example of marriage and
(38:20):
your family. You're gonna have to beat that. That's there's
no there's no other way to say it. Besides, you're
gonna have to break that generational curse. You're gonna have
to say that happened to me, but it's not happening
to me currently, and I will break that curse and
that's not gonna happen to me. I'm gonna date to
to I'm gonna date to marry, and I'm gonna marry
(38:42):
for life and until death do us part and sickness
and health. That's that's the way that the old Anglican
Prayer Book said, and that's the way I'm gonna do
it till till death do us part and make that decision.
And today in this world, we don't make decisions like that.
(39:04):
We base our we base marriage, like anything else, on
what makes us happy. I'm going to marry until it
doesn't make me happy anymore. Then I'm gonna get out.
And no one says that in a vow.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
No one says un till I don't feel like it anymore.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Doing this part, Yeah, till I don't feel like it anymore,
till you stop making me happy anymore, and then we
might get a divorce. No one says that in the
wedding vow. But that's what they do. That's how people
live their lives. They live their lives with what makes
them happy, and marriage is no different. And so misindependent Courtney,
(39:42):
you're gonna have to understand that that when it comes
to dating to marry, and when you finally do get married,
and I think you probably will, then it's for life
and you're not gonna You're not get a divorce like
your parents did. How do you do that. You make
a decision that even through tough times, through rough arguments,
(40:04):
through financial problems, through sickness, through any amount of problems,
you're going to stick it out and you're going to
find somebody that agrees and goes, yeah, we're gonna stick
it out together. It's not always going to be easy.
Sometimes its gonna be tough. Sometimes I'm going to be
really mad at you, but we're going to stick it out.
Because marriage is for life. That's the way God intended,
(40:28):
and marriage is sacred. That's what God intended. And marriage
is a government covenant under God. That's what he intended.
That's a sacred covenant. So we don't break it. So
you make that kind of decision, Courtney, that's something. If
you figure that out, now, that's great. You don't meet,
you don't meet somebody, and then later decide that's maybe
something that you want to do. You go, I'm not
(40:49):
going to even date at twenty nine until I find
somebody where I go I would make this kind of
commitment to them for life. And then you also decide
that maybe if I don't find that someone, I just
won't get married. I don't think that's gonna happen, But
you go, I would be fine if I don't get
married instead of getting in something without making a full commitment.
(41:13):
Now take what I just said lightly, because, like I said,
I think you will, and I think there's something at
some level you need to step into the world and
find a husband. Thin You got to make yourself available.
I'm not saying go hide in the corner and disappear.
(41:33):
So what do you say to miss independent?
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Miss independent?
Speaker 1 (41:38):
She goes to church alone, she takes herself on dates.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
I think that's good, and I think that you just
need to wait and be patient because God has a
plan in his His plan is perfect for you and
just how he intended it to be, and he's going
to bring that guy along. He's going to bring that
(42:03):
lucky guy along, and y'all will get married in his time.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Perfect well said. And I think Courtney, to wrap this up,
you say, you say, basically you're saying I don't have
a desire to get married. That's basically what you're saying
at the end, I don't have a desire to get married.
And I say, why would you. You haven't met him yet,
But when you meet him, you'll go, oh, that's funny.
(42:31):
I suddenly have a desire to get married because you
met the one that you desire to marry. I think
it's as easy as that. So to not have a
desire before you've met him. I think that's totally normal.
Your history being single for ten years change the generational curse.
And if you find a guy for the right reasons
(42:53):
and make that commitment, that desire will create itself and
you will desire to get married. Thank you for being here. Yeah,
we're gonna go. Of course, we're gonna go eat dinner,
which I'm excited about. We'll see you next Monday. Ye.
Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate
all of you guys. You could help me out by
(43:14):
rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe
to this channel, hit that little like button and notification
spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
YII