April 10, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Brave, the Bible teaching ministry of doctor Jeff Schwarzentraw,
Senior Pastor of Brave Church in Denver, Colorado. Today I'm Brave.
Pastor Jeff concludes his message God's plan for progress Choose
Well today from the series Family Fortify and shows you
(00:21):
that worship isn't just about singing at church, It's about
what we prioritize. Before we get started with today's teaching, though,
we invite you to check out Pastorjeff dot com to
find more resources to help you grow in your walk.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Now, let's hear from Pastor.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Jeff as he brings us today's teaching from God's word.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We were once dead, and we were once hostile to Jesus, Sue,
and he saved us, and he's willing to save you,
and so we love you to whom to everybody? What
about people that don't deserve it? Exactly? That's why when
the describe the attorney comes to Jesus, well, where's the
limits of this love? Who's my neighbor? Jess tells him
(01:03):
the story of the Good Samaritan to tell him everywhere
you go, with everybody you see, you love them, and
you demonstrate that you belong to me, because that's exactly
what I'm doing, which means you have ample opportunity every
day to demonstrate love to people that are unworthy of love,
because that's exactly what Christ did. Jesus did not pick
you because you're good. Just do not pick you because
you're better than other people. Just do not pick you
(01:24):
because brave we're better than other churches. Jesus only picked
you because of his incredible love, even though you were
so undeserving, you didn't deserve anything. But he came and
died for you, rose for you, and invited you into
the family through no work of your own, but everything
He's done for you. That's love. And then we get
(01:44):
to forgive too. We love the forgiveness of God. I
love the fact that God does not hold my sin
against me. I love that he separates it as far
as the east is from the west. Love that he
drops it into the deepest Ocian. I love that he
never brings it up anymore. I mean, we'll say things
like this, When God forgives, he forgets, and what we
mean when he forgets, he's omniscient. He hasn't forgotten anything.
But what we mean when we say that is, he's
(02:05):
not going to bring it up again. I'm forgiving you.
I'm releasing you. I'm letting it go. It's not coming up.
I'm aware of what you've done, but I'm not holding
it against you. I'm not keeping it in the bank
until you mess up again, and then I'm bringing all
of this stuff out. I'm forgiving you. The Book of Ephesians,
chapter four and verse thirty two. The ends that chapter,
(02:28):
he says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other,
just as God in Christ also has forgiven you some
of you. And the reason you haven't moved on in
the grace of God and you're not feeling the freedom
you need in God is because whether it's your mom
or your dad, or a boyfriend or a girlfriend, or
(02:48):
your wife or your husband, or your child or your parent,
you have unforgiveness. Oh, you love them, and you'll love
them more when they change. But I'm not forgiving that,
because how could I ever forgive that? Here's how. Let
me tell you how, Because God in Christ forgave you,
and the debt that He forgave in your life is
(03:09):
greater than any debt another human being has against you.
I know that for fact, you were dead and rebellious
against the God of the universe. What has that person done.
We like to say things like that, I could never
forgive that. You're right, you couldn't apart from Christ. But
with the Holy Spirit inside of you, you must forgive them.
You must. And even we pray the Lord's prayers. Now
(03:31):
we pray, Lord, forgive me my debts and my sins
in the same way you see me forgive other people's sins.
That's the prayer. I'm asking God to forgive me with
the same lavish forgiveness, in the same way he sees
me lavishly forgive others. And you're a great place to
start is your marriage, your family, with your kids, and
(03:51):
with your mom and with your dad. Do you know why,
because all of us are sinners. Take a look to
the right and to the left of you this morning.
Here's what I'll tell you. That person's blown it huge.
Now look at me. I've blown it huge. Every single
one of us has. Sometimes when I've done marriage counsel
in the past, it's the wife, Well, he did this
(04:13):
and she did this. Here's what I know is going
on when I hear that there's no forgiveness. Yeah he did, Yes,
she did. Now what are you gonna do? Here's what
you get to do. You get to forgive them, pray
for them, and love them. Yeah, but they might do
it again exactly, and then you can love them and
forgive me even more. Because that's what Christ does for you.
(04:34):
He does not run out of love and forgiveness for you,
so you can't run out of love and forgiveness for others.
And as you walk that way, I guess what happens.
You get around people that love you and forgive you enough.
That'll change you. That'll change you want change your marriage,
just love and forgive more. You said you want to
be more like Jesus. You said you wanted more of
(04:56):
Christ than your marriage. Then you get to do that.
You get to do it with your children and children,
you get to do it with your parents and wives.
You get to do it towards your husbands and husbands,
you get to do it towards your wife. And it's
not to keep records like okay, I forgive you. Here
we go again, time number four hundred and thirty two
this week I forgive you. I mean that's not what
it means. It means I'm not bringing it up. I'm
(05:18):
releasing you because I don't want to stay mad at you.
It doesn't mean I can't tell you what you did
was wrong, doesn't mean I can't say it would mean
a lot to me if But even if you don't change,
I'm still gonna love you, because even if I don't change,
Jesus Christ still loves me. Amen. Now, we love it
when we talk about what Jesus is willing to do
for us, but we just don't like talking about how
he wants to do it through us. But make a
(05:39):
choice today to love and forgive one another, because you
know why his love never fails. His love never fails.
You cannot go wrong by loving and forgiving too much.
You can't go wrong by loving and forgiving too much.
Let me give you a fourth one. A fourth choice
(06:00):
you can make is obey the truth wholeheartedly. Obey the
truth wholeheartedly. It means will you go all in with Jesus?
I mean Joshua was asking this question. You know, fear
the Lord that worship him and serve him. But know
it's what else he says. He says, do it in
sincerity and truth. It means obey the truth wholeheartedly. Will
you go all in with Jesus even when the truth
(06:21):
is uncomfortable? That's the hard part. I mean, we all
say it, brave, we love this book. I love this
book and see an errant inspired word of God. Everything
in here is authoritative and true. Until it's that area
of my life that God's showing me that's so uncomfortable.
Doesn't seem fair, it doesn't seem right. Why should I
have to do? How come nobody else says? Will you
obey his word that way? Right? Because that's when you're
(06:44):
going to see God's favor and blessing in your life. Singles,
let me just talk to you. You can't be praying
for your spouse living a morally. You think you're escaping
your parents, and you think you're getting around it and
all this, but all you're doing is digging yourself a rut.
And all you're doing is saying God, I'm gonna go
do it this way, and I'm gonna rebel against you.
But I'm expecting someday it's gonna go good for me.
(07:06):
It'll never go good for you. There's no great return
on investment for immorality, for lying, for deception, for cheating,
for sleeping around, like will you obey his word? Joe
thirty one one says, I've made a covenant with my
eyes not to look lustfull upon another woman, which means
this all pornography is wrong one hundred percent of the time.
(07:27):
So cause you were wondering, is it okay? No, it's
not okay. You look lustfully upon a woman you committed
alter in your heart, it's not okay. So will you
obey that? Or will you say? I struggle with that.
We have all sorts of groups that are sin management
groups just to get people together to cathartically tell all
their sin when they have no desire to see any
of it change. It was just as quiet and first service,
(07:48):
just so you know, because we play games with God
and we expect God to move, and we're so tired
that we didn't see him do it in our time,
in our way, that we skirt the corner and we
cheat and we do these different things, and then we wonder,
why is God not helping me? And it's not just singles,
it's married too. I mean friends. You look around, just
(08:09):
because somebody has their arm around each other, they're holding hands,
doesn't mean they have a ten out of ten in
their marriage. And by the way, nobody always has a
ten out of ten in their marriage. Takes work because
you got two sinners and two genders that see the
world two different ways, living under the same roof. And
the only way it works is with the spirit of God,
glorifying God and dying to yourself to serve another. That
takes effort. That takes work. Amen, But will you be
(08:34):
obedient to what the Lord says in his word when
it comes to marriage? In case you are wondering, and
Jus has a higher view of marriage than any of
us do in this room. His view of marriage is
one man and one woman until death do you part permanence.
That's his view of marriage. He doesn't know of anything
other than that. So if you're married, stay married. Yeah,
(08:58):
but I don't feel okay, I hear you. He's really difficult.
Stay married. Yeah, but you don't know my wife. I
know she's hard. I might not want to be married
to her either. Stay married. Do you understand what I'm saying.
Kim and I have been married about twenty years. We
would both tell you it's eighteen best years we've ever
had in our life. First few years were killers before
(09:25):
I would get up to speak. There were times I'm
calling her on the phone trying to work stuff out
before I even stand up, and I was wondering, how
can I even be up talking because we don't get
along at all, and all the fun we had when
we date it kind of went out the window and
it was not fun. And if there would have been
anybody in our life that would have consulted us for divorce,
both of us would have taken the option, not because
(09:45):
we didn't love each other, but because we were both
making each other miserable and didn't know why. And yet
we have people in our life that would say, it
doesn't matter how you feel, like what do you mean?
Doesn't matter how we feel it's horrible. Now Here's what
matters is that you do what God wants. And by
God's grace, he got both of us individually to start
seeking him. And I started praying, Okay, God, if I'm
(10:07):
the problem, how to become a good husband? And she
was praying at the same time, God, how to become
the wife you want me to be, And by God's grace,
kind of melded that whole thing back together. And that's
why Kim and I would say, if we can make it,
anybody can make it.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
You're listening to Brave and today Pastor Jeff is sharing
his message God's plan for progress, Choose well today from
the series Family Fortified, showing you that worship isn't just
about singing at church, It's about what we prioritize. We'll
get back to Pastor Jeff in just a moment, but first,
generous friends like you make programs like this one possible.
(10:41):
And when you give a gift in support of Pastor
Jeff ministries today, you're helping spread biblical truth to a
world in need. Simply visit us at Pastorjeff dot com
to give once again. That website is Pastorjeff dot com.
Now let's get back to today's message to listen to the
conclusion of this teaching from God's word.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
If you're married, stay married. Yeah, but I got divorced
and now I'm remarried, so then stay married. Now, but
this is my third marriage. Okay, well you're married, repent
of the first ones and stay married. Right, that's what
he would say. Can we do? I mean, we love
God's standard until it impacts us in a negative way.
(11:26):
But here's what I would also say, Because I'm talking
to a group of sinners, I'm one of them. None
of us have perfectly kept God's standard. And here's what
I would tell you. What Jesus Christ did at the
Cross is so amazing. It's so great, it's so good.
It's bigger than anything that you know. There's no standard
(11:47):
that's been broken. There's nothing you've done that God would say, well,
I'll forgive that, but you're stuck. His grace is greater
than all our sin. I'm not talking about cheap grace.
I'm not saying, well, I got divorced and I'm just
gonna get remarried and bah blah blah and God's God.
I'm not talking about cheap grace. I'm talking about I'm divorced,
(12:07):
and I'll do whatever God wants, and I will submit
to him, and I want what he has and I
need all his forgiveness and I need a fresh start,
and I want to do it his way. From this
moment on, God will meet you right there and he
will give you all the grace you need. Because I
see nowhere in the Bible where you're being called by
your former identity after you're walking in the grace of God.
(12:29):
You are loved, you are cherished, you are holy, you
are honored, You're forgiven. It's who you are. So that's
what God says. Will you obey my word? One of
the ways that you know that you love God is
if you keep his word. And you keep his word,
especially when it hurts. I remember when I started tiding,
I didn't feel like it. I remember when I was
(12:50):
throwing immorality out of my life, I didn't feel like it.
There's never come a time where I've walked out of
sin into holiness where I quote felt like it. If
you're waiting for the feeling, you're never gonna get there.
You do it because you fear the Lord, and you
know you're going to stand before him and give an
accounting for every thought, word indeed you've ever done. And
so you tell the Lord Lord, help me, because I
(13:10):
can't get there by myself. Will you choose today to
live obediently to his word? I mean, you pray, we
pray that you would hear God's word and you would
live obediently to it. Are you willing to do that
or is that just lip service? It's good until it
affects your business. It's good until it affects your marriage.
It's good until it affects your kids. It's good. Yeah,
I don't like that part. No, you need to like
all of it because God's growing us in his grace.
(13:33):
And here's what we know. Like when you walk in
identity with the Lord, he tells us in Psalm eighty
four eleven, no good thing will he withhold from those
who walk up rightly. It's the enemy that always tells you.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
If you live moral, you're never going to marry the
right one. If you live moral, your wife's going to
take advantage of you. If you do the right thing,
your husband's never going to see. I mean, he's always
lying you do the right thing. And here's what you have.
You have Almighty God, the universe, backing everything.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
You do for him. Amen, obey his truth wholeheartedly, go
all in with Jesus. I don't know anything of this
cheap grace like just fire insurance. Jesus, I don't know it.
I don't see it anywhere in the Bible. I mean
when Jesus said, if you want to be my follower,
you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.
There nor be a follower Jus, you die to you
to serve him. You get married, you die to yourself
(14:22):
to serve your spouse. I mean, the Christian life is
all about death to me and glory to Jesus until
he takes me home. Now, if we get those first
four choices, let me give you this fifth one. I
think this could be the most important for our body
of people. And here's what I want you to choose today.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
I want you to choose honesty and authenticity over shame.
I want you to choose honesty and authenticity over shame.
Now here's what the people answered. They answered like most
church people answer.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
When he said, choose for this day who you're going
to serve as for me at my house, we'll serve
the Lord. And all the people are like, okay, we'll
do the same. It's very motivating. People answered and said,
far be it from us that we should forsake the
Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord, our God
is who brought us up with our fathers. And they
go through all of this history of everything that God's done.
And Joshua said to the people, your witnesses against yourselves
(15:11):
verse twenty two, that you have chosen for yourselves the
Lord and to serve him. And they said, we're his witnesses.
He goes on to tell him, He's like, you can't
do this by yourself. Let me tell you, you can't reach
the standard that God has by yourself. You need God
inside of you to do it. You can't go work
on being a good husband by yourself. If you could
do that, Christ died for nothing. You can't be a
(15:34):
wife that submits to your husband and all things without
the Holy Spirit in your life, it's impossible. You can't
be a single and live a moral life. It's impossible
apart from the spirit of God in you. But with
the spirit of God in you, all things are possible.
But you know what they were saying, like, no, no, no,
we're good. We're gonna we're gonna work at this pastor,
Jeff Joshua, We're gonna get this thing that we're gonna
(15:54):
do it. He's like, your witnesses against yourself. And notice
what he tells him in verse twenty three. It's a
damning verse. He says to them, Now, therefore, put away
the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline
your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. Here
they are saying, No, we're for God. Oh, We're totally
for the Lord. We're gonna serve him wholeheartedly. We're gonna
(16:15):
do everything. Josh was like your witnesses against yourself. Totally.
We're witnesses to the Lord. Then put away all your
gods that you have in your hands right now, the
gods in your tents, the gods that you're serving, the
gods that you're thinking about while you're hearing this sermon.
If you're really going to serve the Lord, forsake all
the other gods and serve the Lord. That's the gospel.
(16:36):
Jesus is not an additional god to all the other
gods you serve. Jesus Christ is the only one worthy
of your allegiance to the exception of every other one.
Kick them all to the curb, and serve the Lord only. Amen.
That's what he says. But here's what happens in church.
You remember when God created the world in six days,
and he rested on the seventh, and he created male
(16:58):
and female. They had the first wedding. They were both naked,
and they felt no shame. We preached on all this.
What happens in Genesis chapter three. Satan says, did God
really say that doubted God's word? They doubted God's word,
They doubted God's authority, They doubted God's goodness. They ate
off the forbidden fruit and send it into the world,
and dying, they begin to die. The reason we die
(17:19):
today is because of sin. But that wasn't all that
happened on that day. You remember what happened in Genesis too.
At the end, they're both naked and there's no shame.
Their differences, no problem. I mean, we like it. This
is great. God made it. It's good. Now what do
they do once sin in? Or do they cover up
all their differences? And not only they cover themselves? What
do they do next? They hide? And what sin causes
(17:43):
people to do when they see God's standard and they're
unwilling to keep it, what do you do? You cover
yourself and then you hide? You know what that's called shame.
I'm embarrassed that as a single I haven't lived the
way God wanted, and if I were truly exposed, I
would feel such shame in my life. So I'm gonna
cover it up. I'm gonna speak Christianese when I walk
into the church. I'm gonna act Christian, but I'm gonna
(18:05):
hide from everywhere. Here's how you know you're hiding. When
people ask you to serve in the church, you're like, no,
I'm busy right now. I'm doing this because you know
that if you ever served alongside people that ask you
genuine questions, you couldn't be authentic. You don't join to
Codre for fear people will actually ask you genuine questions,
and you're the one in the group that when people
say what's really going on, you make up stuff like, well,
(18:28):
just pray for me that I read my Bible more
this week, because I can't tell you about the fact
that what's really going on in my heart is my
marriage is imploding. It's because I don't know what to
do and I jacked it up three years ago and
I still can't recover from it. But I can't tell
anybody about that because they look down on me. Shame.
There are a bunch of you here that aren't serving
(18:49):
the Lord because you're cloaked in shame. There's a bunch
of you here that feel like I could never serve
the Lord because you're cloaked in shame. I could never
be a pastor. I'm telling you years ago, I'm the
University of Illinois, and I'm starting to feel tugged by
the Lord. I'm like, not me. I can never do shame.
I can never tell people where I've been. I can
(19:10):
never tell people who all shame. Shame. And when you're
cloaked in shame and you're hiding, the voice of the
enemy is really really really really really really loud, and
he tells you it's not gonna work for you. It's
not gonna work for you. You're only gonna be average. You're
only gonna be this. You can never be authentic, you
can never be real. And he can lie like that,
(19:30):
but not a brave be authentic. You can be authentic
here because anytime there's genuine contrition, not just like, Oh
I feel bad I shouldn't have done that. No, I'm
broken because I don't know what to do, and God,
I need your help. And God, I need you to
show up in my marriage because I don't know how
to do it. I need you to show up on
my singleness because I don't know how to date morally.
(19:51):
And I need you to do this because I've never
had anybody model this for me, and I'm so broken
that I didn't do it right. God's grace is greater
than all you're sin He will wash you, cleanse you,
make you new, and give you the power, the same
power that raised Jesus from the dead to work in
and through you. The only group of people we have
here at Brave are dead, broken sinners who've been made
(20:13):
alive by Christ. Why are you hiding? It's true of me,
it's true of you. And so what I've been praying
about all week as we end this family series, is
that you get over your shame. The only way to
get over your shames with honesty. It's only honesty. I
(20:34):
mean you remember the woman that was caught in adulty,
that was dragged in front of those that were gonna stoner.
Remember the woman that was caught in the bleeding condition
that It's like if I just touched the him of
his garment, I can't let anybody know because I'm living
in such shame. I'm just gonna crawl around the ground
and try to grab him, and then I'll sneak away.
Remember that, Remember King David. Yeah, I'll just hide the
(20:56):
fact that I had your Riah killed. I'll hide the
fact that I slept with the best sheeb and got
her pregnant. I'll just cover it all up because it's
so shameful. Remember that, and what happened when Jeas met
that woman? He said, woman, where are your accusers? They're
not perfect in keeping the law. Whoever's perfect in keeping
(21:16):
the law, you go ahead and cast the first stone.
Drop drop, drop, drop drop woman caught in the bleeding condition.
He's on his way to heal Jarris's daughter and he
stops because he felt power go out, and he says,
my daughter, you're healed. And then what does David say?
David doesn't hide it for very long because when Nathan
(21:38):
exposes his sin, he doesn't back up. He doesn't double down.
He doesn't he doesn't say I didn't have sexual relations
with that woman. He already says. He says, against you,
and only you got Have I sinned and done what's
evil in your sight? All day long it was like
a weight on me. It was so heavy. It was
like I couldn't even do anything. But when I called
out to you and told you I had done wrong,
I felt the refreshment come through my life. That's why
(22:01):
we meet, That's why we glorify God. That's what the
gospels about, so that you can be set free. And
anyone who the Son sets free is free indeed. And
if you're living in shame and hiding your embarrassment and say,
I could never let anybody know that, you're not living
the freedom that Jesus Christ has, and that's when the
(22:21):
enemy lies to you and says, well, no wonder you
don't like Christianity. It's really boring, isn't It's no good.
It's because of shame. And I just feel like the
Lord wants to remove a cloak of shame off a
brave church. Today. We're going to always harald the standard
of God. We're not going to back down. We're not
going to make excuses for his standard. But we're also
(22:42):
going to harald the gospel of Jesus Christ that wherever
you come short, if you're genuinely contrite, God will meet
you where you're at, and he will make up the
difference and set you on a new plane, because that's
what our God does. If your marriage is at the
brink of divorce, I have good news for you. God's
grace is greater than that. If you've been divorced and
you're like, I'm so lonely, and if I had to
(23:03):
do it all over again, there's no way. And by
the way, I've never met one person and thousands of
people that have gotten divorced for myriads of reasons and all,
I've never met anybody that said, I had a very
amicable one and it's great and we get along even better,
and my kids are awesome and it's been a lot
of fun. I've never met one person say that. But
here's what I would say, you've been through them. God's
(23:23):
greatest is greater than that. You're a single and you
want a spouse, but you haven't lived morally. God's grace
is greater than all your pass And for the women
that are out there and say, well, I already slept
with him, and now I'm going to keep being good
to him because I want to at least marry him,
because that's better than the nothing that I would have
if I didn't keep. His grace is bigger than that.
You don't have to be stuck in your shame and
(23:44):
your embarrassment and hide it and cover it and pretend
that everything's good. You come to the cross, you receive
his blood, you openly confess your sin before Him and
you get free. Choose that today. Choose that every day.
The world has enough Pharisees. The world has enough people
(24:05):
that are walking around naming Jesus with their lips when
their hearts are far from them, and not enough people
that can honestly say I know the truth and the
Truth has set me free.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Thanks for listening to Brave. That was Pastor Jeff with
his message God's plan for progress. Choose well today from
the series Family Fortified show you that worship isn't just
about singing at church.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
It's about what we.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Prioritize before we say goodbye. We want to remind you
that when you give a gift to keep teachings like
this one going out to you and others, you're helping
spread biblical truth to a world in need. Simply visit
us at Pastorjeff dot com to give. That's Pastorjeff dot com,
and while you're there, be sure to sign up for
email updates from Brave to be among the first to
(24:51):
hear about new resources to equip you in your walk.
Thanks again for joining us today,
Welcome to Brave, the Bible teaching ministry of doctor Jeff Schwarzentraw,
Senior Pastor of Brave Church in Denver, Colorado. Today I'm Brave.
Pastor Jeff concludes his message God's plan for progress Choose
Well today from the series Family Fortify and shows you
(00:21):
that worship isn't just about singing at church, It's about
what we prioritize. Before we get started with today's teaching, though,
we invite you to check out Pastorjeff dot com to
find more resources to help you grow in your walk.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Now, let's hear from Pastor.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Jeff as he brings us today's teaching from God's word.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We were once dead, and we were once hostile to Jesus, Sue,
and he saved us, and he's willing to save you,
and so we love you to whom to everybody? What
about people that don't deserve it? Exactly? That's why when
the describe the attorney comes to Jesus, well, where's the
limits of this love? Who's my neighbor? Jess tells him
(01:03):
the story of the Good Samaritan to tell him everywhere
you go, with everybody you see, you love them, and
you demonstrate that you belong to me, because that's exactly
what I'm doing, which means you have ample opportunity every
day to demonstrate love to people that are unworthy of love,
because that's exactly what Christ did. Jesus did not pick
you because you're good. Just do not pick you because
you're better than other people. Just do not pick you
(01:24):
because brave we're better than other churches. Jesus only picked
you because of his incredible love, even though you were
so undeserving, you didn't deserve anything. But he came and
died for you, rose for you, and invited you into
the family through no work of your own, but everything
He's done for you. That's love. And then we get
(01:44):
to forgive too. We love the forgiveness of God. I
love the fact that God does not hold my sin
against me. I love that he separates it as far
as the east is from the west. Love that he
drops it into the deepest Ocian. I love that he
never brings it up anymore. I mean, we'll say things
like this, When God forgives, he forgets, and what we
mean when he forgets, he's omniscient. He hasn't forgotten anything.
But what we mean when we say that is, he's
(02:05):
not going to bring it up again. I'm forgiving you.
I'm releasing you. I'm letting it go. It's not coming up.
I'm aware of what you've done, but I'm not holding
it against you. I'm not keeping it in the bank
until you mess up again, and then I'm bringing all
of this stuff out. I'm forgiving you. The Book of Ephesians,
chapter four and verse thirty two. The ends that chapter,
(02:28):
he says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other,
just as God in Christ also has forgiven you some
of you. And the reason you haven't moved on in
the grace of God and you're not feeling the freedom
you need in God is because whether it's your mom
or your dad, or a boyfriend or a girlfriend, or
(02:48):
your wife or your husband, or your child or your parent,
you have unforgiveness. Oh, you love them, and you'll love
them more when they change. But I'm not forgiving that,
because how could I ever forgive that? Here's how. Let
me tell you how, Because God in Christ forgave you,
and the debt that He forgave in your life is
(03:09):
greater than any debt another human being has against you.
I know that for fact, you were dead and rebellious
against the God of the universe. What has that person done.
We like to say things like that, I could never
forgive that. You're right, you couldn't apart from Christ. But
with the Holy Spirit inside of you, you must forgive them.
You must. And even we pray the Lord's prayers. Now
(03:31):
we pray, Lord, forgive me my debts and my sins
in the same way you see me forgive other people's sins.
That's the prayer. I'm asking God to forgive me with
the same lavish forgiveness, in the same way he sees
me lavishly forgive others. And you're a great place to
start is your marriage, your family, with your kids, and
(03:51):
with your mom and with your dad. Do you know why,
because all of us are sinners. Take a look to
the right and to the left of you this morning.
Here's what I'll tell you. That person's blown it huge.
Now look at me. I've blown it huge. Every single
one of us has. Sometimes when I've done marriage counsel
in the past, it's the wife, Well, he did this
(04:13):
and she did this. Here's what I know is going
on when I hear that there's no forgiveness. Yeah he did, Yes,
she did. Now what are you gonna do? Here's what
you get to do. You get to forgive them, pray
for them, and love them. Yeah, but they might do
it again exactly, and then you can love them and
forgive me even more. Because that's what Christ does for you.
(04:34):
He does not run out of love and forgiveness for you,
so you can't run out of love and forgiveness for others.
And as you walk that way, I guess what happens.
You get around people that love you and forgive you enough.
That'll change you. That'll change you want change your marriage,
just love and forgive more. You said you want to
be more like Jesus. You said you wanted more of
(04:56):
Christ than your marriage. Then you get to do that.
You get to do it with your children and children,
you get to do it with your parents and wives.
You get to do it towards your husbands and husbands,
you get to do it towards your wife. And it's
not to keep records like okay, I forgive you. Here
we go again, time number four hundred and thirty two
this week I forgive you. I mean that's not what
it means. It means I'm not bringing it up. I'm
(05:18):
releasing you because I don't want to stay mad at you.
It doesn't mean I can't tell you what you did
was wrong, doesn't mean I can't say it would mean
a lot to me if But even if you don't change,
I'm still gonna love you, because even if I don't change,
Jesus Christ still loves me. Amen. Now, we love it
when we talk about what Jesus is willing to do
for us, but we just don't like talking about how
he wants to do it through us. But make a
(05:39):
choice today to love and forgive one another, because you
know why his love never fails. His love never fails.
You cannot go wrong by loving and forgiving too much.
You can't go wrong by loving and forgiving too much.
Let me give you a fourth one. A fourth choice
(06:00):
you can make is obey the truth wholeheartedly. Obey the
truth wholeheartedly. It means will you go all in with Jesus?
I mean Joshua was asking this question. You know, fear
the Lord that worship him and serve him. But know
it's what else he says. He says, do it in
sincerity and truth. It means obey the truth wholeheartedly. Will
you go all in with Jesus even when the truth
(06:21):
is uncomfortable? That's the hard part. I mean, we all
say it, brave, we love this book. I love this
book and see an errant inspired word of God. Everything
in here is authoritative and true. Until it's that area
of my life that God's showing me that's so uncomfortable.
Doesn't seem fair, it doesn't seem right. Why should I
have to do? How come nobody else says? Will you
obey his word that way? Right? Because that's when you're
(06:44):
going to see God's favor and blessing in your life. Singles,
let me just talk to you. You can't be praying
for your spouse living a morally. You think you're escaping
your parents, and you think you're getting around it and
all this, but all you're doing is digging yourself a rut.
And all you're doing is saying God, I'm gonna go
do it this way, and I'm gonna rebel against you.
But I'm expecting someday it's gonna go good for me.
(07:06):
It'll never go good for you. There's no great return
on investment for immorality, for lying, for deception, for cheating,
for sleeping around, like will you obey his word? Joe
thirty one one says, I've made a covenant with my
eyes not to look lustfull upon another woman, which means
this all pornography is wrong one hundred percent of the time.
(07:27):
So cause you were wondering, is it okay? No, it's
not okay. You look lustfully upon a woman you committed
alter in your heart, it's not okay. So will you
obey that? Or will you say? I struggle with that.
We have all sorts of groups that are sin management
groups just to get people together to cathartically tell all
their sin when they have no desire to see any
of it change. It was just as quiet and first service,
(07:48):
just so you know, because we play games with God
and we expect God to move, and we're so tired
that we didn't see him do it in our time,
in our way, that we skirt the corner and we
cheat and we do these different things, and then we wonder,
why is God not helping me? And it's not just singles,
it's married too. I mean friends. You look around, just
(08:09):
because somebody has their arm around each other, they're holding hands,
doesn't mean they have a ten out of ten in
their marriage. And by the way, nobody always has a
ten out of ten in their marriage. Takes work because
you got two sinners and two genders that see the
world two different ways, living under the same roof. And
the only way it works is with the spirit of God,
glorifying God and dying to yourself to serve another. That
takes effort. That takes work. Amen, But will you be
(08:34):
obedient to what the Lord says in his word when
it comes to marriage? In case you are wondering, and
Jus has a higher view of marriage than any of
us do in this room. His view of marriage is
one man and one woman until death do you part permanence.
That's his view of marriage. He doesn't know of anything
other than that. So if you're married, stay married. Yeah,
(08:58):
but I don't feel okay, I hear you. He's really difficult.
Stay married. Yeah, but you don't know my wife. I
know she's hard. I might not want to be married
to her either. Stay married. Do you understand what I'm saying.
Kim and I have been married about twenty years. We
would both tell you it's eighteen best years we've ever
had in our life. First few years were killers before
(09:25):
I would get up to speak. There were times I'm
calling her on the phone trying to work stuff out
before I even stand up, and I was wondering, how
can I even be up talking because we don't get
along at all, and all the fun we had when
we date it kind of went out the window and
it was not fun. And if there would have been
anybody in our life that would have consulted us for divorce,
both of us would have taken the option, not because
(09:45):
we didn't love each other, but because we were both
making each other miserable and didn't know why. And yet
we have people in our life that would say, it
doesn't matter how you feel, like what do you mean?
Doesn't matter how we feel it's horrible. Now Here's what
matters is that you do what God wants. And by
God's grace, he got both of us individually to start
seeking him. And I started praying, Okay, God, if I'm
(10:07):
the problem, how to become a good husband? And she
was praying at the same time, God, how to become
the wife you want me to be, And by God's grace,
kind of melded that whole thing back together. And that's
why Kim and I would say, if we can make it,
anybody can make it.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
You're listening to Brave and today Pastor Jeff is sharing
his message God's plan for progress, Choose well today from
the series Family Fortified, showing you that worship isn't just
about singing at church, It's about what we prioritize. We'll
get back to Pastor Jeff in just a moment, but first,
generous friends like you make programs like this one possible.
(10:41):
And when you give a gift in support of Pastor
Jeff ministries today, you're helping spread biblical truth to a
world in need. Simply visit us at Pastorjeff dot com
to give once again. That website is Pastorjeff dot com.
Now let's get back to today's message to listen to the
conclusion of this teaching from God's word.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
If you're married, stay married. Yeah, but I got divorced
and now I'm remarried, so then stay married. Now, but
this is my third marriage. Okay, well you're married, repent
of the first ones and stay married. Right, that's what
he would say. Can we do? I mean, we love
God's standard until it impacts us in a negative way.
(11:26):
But here's what I would also say, Because I'm talking
to a group of sinners, I'm one of them. None
of us have perfectly kept God's standard. And here's what
I would tell you. What Jesus Christ did at the
Cross is so amazing. It's so great, it's so good.
It's bigger than anything that you know. There's no standard
(11:47):
that's been broken. There's nothing you've done that God would say, well,
I'll forgive that, but you're stuck. His grace is greater
than all our sin. I'm not talking about cheap grace.
I'm not saying, well, I got divorced and I'm just
gonna get remarried and bah blah blah and God's God.
I'm not talking about cheap grace. I'm talking about I'm divorced,
(12:07):
and I'll do whatever God wants, and I will submit
to him, and I want what he has and I
need all his forgiveness and I need a fresh start,
and I want to do it his way. From this
moment on, God will meet you right there and he
will give you all the grace you need. Because I
see nowhere in the Bible where you're being called by
your former identity after you're walking in the grace of God.
(12:29):
You are loved, you are cherished, you are holy, you
are honored, You're forgiven. It's who you are. So that's
what God says. Will you obey my word? One of
the ways that you know that you love God is
if you keep his word. And you keep his word,
especially when it hurts. I remember when I started tiding,
I didn't feel like it. I remember when I was
(12:50):
throwing immorality out of my life, I didn't feel like it.
There's never come a time where I've walked out of
sin into holiness where I quote felt like it. If
you're waiting for the feeling, you're never gonna get there.
You do it because you fear the Lord, and you
know you're going to stand before him and give an
accounting for every thought, word indeed you've ever done. And
so you tell the Lord Lord, help me, because I
(13:10):
can't get there by myself. Will you choose today to
live obediently to his word? I mean, you pray, we
pray that you would hear God's word and you would
live obediently to it. Are you willing to do that
or is that just lip service? It's good until it
affects your business. It's good until it affects your marriage.
It's good until it affects your kids. It's good. Yeah,
I don't like that part. No, you need to like
all of it because God's growing us in his grace.
(13:33):
And here's what we know. Like when you walk in
identity with the Lord, he tells us in Psalm eighty
four eleven, no good thing will he withhold from those
who walk up rightly. It's the enemy that always tells you.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
If you live moral, you're never going to marry the
right one. If you live moral, your wife's going to
take advantage of you. If you do the right thing,
your husband's never going to see. I mean, he's always
lying you do the right thing. And here's what you have.
You have Almighty God, the universe, backing everything.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
You do for him. Amen, obey his truth wholeheartedly, go
all in with Jesus. I don't know anything of this
cheap grace like just fire insurance. Jesus, I don't know it.
I don't see it anywhere in the Bible. I mean
when Jesus said, if you want to be my follower,
you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.
There nor be a follower Jus, you die to you
to serve him. You get married, you die to yourself
(14:22):
to serve your spouse. I mean, the Christian life is
all about death to me and glory to Jesus until
he takes me home. Now, if we get those first
four choices, let me give you this fifth one. I
think this could be the most important for our body
of people. And here's what I want you to choose today.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
I want you to choose honesty and authenticity over shame.
I want you to choose honesty and authenticity over shame.
Now here's what the people answered. They answered like most
church people answer.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
When he said, choose for this day who you're going
to serve as for me at my house, we'll serve
the Lord. And all the people are like, okay, we'll
do the same. It's very motivating. People answered and said,
far be it from us that we should forsake the
Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord, our God
is who brought us up with our fathers. And they
go through all of this history of everything that God's done.
And Joshua said to the people, your witnesses against yourselves
(15:11):
verse twenty two, that you have chosen for yourselves the
Lord and to serve him. And they said, we're his witnesses.
He goes on to tell him, He's like, you can't
do this by yourself. Let me tell you, you can't reach
the standard that God has by yourself. You need God
inside of you to do it. You can't go work
on being a good husband by yourself. If you could
do that, Christ died for nothing. You can't be a
(15:34):
wife that submits to your husband and all things without
the Holy Spirit in your life, it's impossible. You can't
be a single and live a moral life. It's impossible
apart from the spirit of God in you. But with
the spirit of God in you, all things are possible.
But you know what they were saying, like, no, no, no,
we're good. We're gonna we're gonna work at this pastor,
Jeff Joshua, We're gonna get this thing that we're gonna
(15:54):
do it. He's like, your witnesses against yourself. And notice
what he tells him in verse twenty three. It's a
damning verse. He says to them, Now, therefore, put away
the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline
your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. Here
they are saying, No, we're for God. Oh, We're totally
for the Lord. We're gonna serve him wholeheartedly. We're gonna
(16:15):
do everything. Josh was like your witnesses against yourself. Totally.
We're witnesses to the Lord. Then put away all your
gods that you have in your hands right now, the
gods in your tents, the gods that you're serving, the
gods that you're thinking about while you're hearing this sermon.
If you're really going to serve the Lord, forsake all
the other gods and serve the Lord. That's the gospel.
(16:36):
Jesus is not an additional god to all the other
gods you serve. Jesus Christ is the only one worthy
of your allegiance to the exception of every other one.
Kick them all to the curb, and serve the Lord only. Amen.
That's what he says. But here's what happens in church.
You remember when God created the world in six days,
and he rested on the seventh, and he created male
(16:58):
and female. They had the first wedding. They were both naked,
and they felt no shame. We preached on all this.
What happens in Genesis chapter three. Satan says, did God
really say that doubted God's word? They doubted God's word,
They doubted God's authority, They doubted God's goodness. They ate
off the forbidden fruit and send it into the world,
and dying, they begin to die. The reason we die
(17:19):
today is because of sin. But that wasn't all that
happened on that day. You remember what happened in Genesis too.
At the end, they're both naked and there's no shame.
Their differences, no problem. I mean, we like it. This
is great. God made it. It's good. Now what do
they do once sin in? Or do they cover up
all their differences? And not only they cover themselves? What
do they do next? They hide? And what sin causes
(17:43):
people to do when they see God's standard and they're
unwilling to keep it, what do you do? You cover
yourself and then you hide? You know what that's called shame.
I'm embarrassed that as a single I haven't lived the
way God wanted, and if I were truly exposed, I
would feel such shame in my life. So I'm gonna
cover it up. I'm gonna speak Christianese when I walk
into the church. I'm gonna act Christian, but I'm gonna
(18:05):
hide from everywhere. Here's how you know you're hiding. When
people ask you to serve in the church, you're like, no,
I'm busy right now. I'm doing this because you know
that if you ever served alongside people that ask you
genuine questions, you couldn't be authentic. You don't join to
Codre for fear people will actually ask you genuine questions,
and you're the one in the group that when people
say what's really going on, you make up stuff like, well,
(18:28):
just pray for me that I read my Bible more
this week, because I can't tell you about the fact
that what's really going on in my heart is my
marriage is imploding. It's because I don't know what to
do and I jacked it up three years ago and
I still can't recover from it. But I can't tell
anybody about that because they look down on me. Shame.
There are a bunch of you here that aren't serving
(18:49):
the Lord because you're cloaked in shame. There's a bunch
of you here that feel like I could never serve
the Lord because you're cloaked in shame. I could never
be a pastor. I'm telling you years ago, I'm the
University of Illinois, and I'm starting to feel tugged by
the Lord. I'm like, not me. I can never do shame.
I can never tell people where I've been. I can
(19:10):
never tell people who all shame. Shame. And when you're
cloaked in shame and you're hiding, the voice of the
enemy is really really really really really really loud, and
he tells you it's not gonna work for you. It's
not gonna work for you. You're only gonna be average. You're
only gonna be this. You can never be authentic, you
can never be real. And he can lie like that,
(19:30):
but not a brave be authentic. You can be authentic
here because anytime there's genuine contrition, not just like, Oh
I feel bad I shouldn't have done that. No, I'm
broken because I don't know what to do, and God,
I need your help. And God, I need you to
show up in my marriage because I don't know how
to do it. I need you to show up on
my singleness because I don't know how to date morally.
(19:51):
And I need you to do this because I've never
had anybody model this for me, and I'm so broken
that I didn't do it right. God's grace is greater
than all you're sin He will wash you, cleanse you,
make you new, and give you the power, the same
power that raised Jesus from the dead to work in
and through you. The only group of people we have
here at Brave are dead, broken sinners who've been made
(20:13):
alive by Christ. Why are you hiding? It's true of me,
it's true of you. And so what I've been praying
about all week as we end this family series, is
that you get over your shame. The only way to
get over your shames with honesty. It's only honesty. I
(20:34):
mean you remember the woman that was caught in adulty,
that was dragged in front of those that were gonna stoner.
Remember the woman that was caught in the bleeding condition
that It's like if I just touched the him of
his garment, I can't let anybody know because I'm living
in such shame. I'm just gonna crawl around the ground
and try to grab him, and then I'll sneak away.
Remember that, Remember King David. Yeah, I'll just hide the
(20:56):
fact that I had your Riah killed. I'll hide the
fact that I slept with the best sheeb and got
her pregnant. I'll just cover it all up because it's
so shameful. Remember that, and what happened when Jeas met
that woman? He said, woman, where are your accusers? They're
not perfect in keeping the law. Whoever's perfect in keeping
(21:16):
the law, you go ahead and cast the first stone.
Drop drop, drop, drop drop woman caught in the bleeding condition.
He's on his way to heal Jarris's daughter and he
stops because he felt power go out, and he says,
my daughter, you're healed. And then what does David say?
David doesn't hide it for very long because when Nathan
(21:38):
exposes his sin, he doesn't back up. He doesn't double down.
He doesn't he doesn't say I didn't have sexual relations
with that woman. He already says. He says, against you,
and only you got Have I sinned and done what's
evil in your sight? All day long it was like
a weight on me. It was so heavy. It was
like I couldn't even do anything. But when I called
out to you and told you I had done wrong,
I felt the refreshment come through my life. That's why
(22:01):
we meet, That's why we glorify God. That's what the
gospels about, so that you can be set free. And
anyone who the Son sets free is free indeed. And
if you're living in shame and hiding your embarrassment and say,
I could never let anybody know that, you're not living
the freedom that Jesus Christ has, and that's when the
(22:21):
enemy lies to you and says, well, no wonder you
don't like Christianity. It's really boring, isn't It's no good.
It's because of shame. And I just feel like the
Lord wants to remove a cloak of shame off a
brave church. Today. We're going to always harald the standard
of God. We're not going to back down. We're not
going to make excuses for his standard. But we're also
(22:42):
going to harald the gospel of Jesus Christ that wherever
you come short, if you're genuinely contrite, God will meet
you where you're at, and he will make up the
difference and set you on a new plane, because that's
what our God does. If your marriage is at the
brink of divorce, I have good news for you. God's
grace is greater than that. If you've been divorced and
you're like, I'm so lonely, and if I had to
(23:03):
do it all over again, there's no way. And by
the way, I've never met one person and thousands of
people that have gotten divorced for myriads of reasons and all,
I've never met anybody that said, I had a very
amicable one and it's great and we get along even better,
and my kids are awesome and it's been a lot
of fun. I've never met one person say that. But
here's what I would say, you've been through them. God's
(23:23):
greatest is greater than that. You're a single and you
want a spouse, but you haven't lived morally. God's grace
is greater than all your pass And for the women
that are out there and say, well, I already slept
with him, and now I'm going to keep being good
to him because I want to at least marry him,
because that's better than the nothing that I would have
if I didn't keep. His grace is bigger than that.
You don't have to be stuck in your shame and
(23:44):
your embarrassment and hide it and cover it and pretend
that everything's good. You come to the cross, you receive
his blood, you openly confess your sin before Him and
you get free. Choose that today. Choose that every day.
The world has enough Pharisees. The world has enough people
(24:05):
that are walking around naming Jesus with their lips when
their hearts are far from them, and not enough people
that can honestly say I know the truth and the
Truth has set me free.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Thanks for listening to Brave. That was Pastor Jeff with
his message God's plan for progress. Choose well today from
the series Family Fortified show you that worship isn't just
about singing at church.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
It's about what we.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Prioritize before we say goodbye. We want to remind you
that when you give a gift to keep teachings like
this one going out to you and others, you're helping
spread biblical truth to a world in need. Simply visit
us at Pastorjeff dot com to give. That's Pastorjeff dot com,
and while you're there, be sure to sign up for
email updates from Brave to be among the first to
(24:51):
hear about new resources to equip you in your walk.
Thanks again for joining us today,
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.