May 11, 2026 • 50 mins
This week on the 9941 Podcast, Granger, Tyler, and Parker unpack a powerful listener email that perfectly captures the heart behind the podcast: reaching “the one.” After hearing a message about cultural Christianity and realizing his faith was only surface deep, one listener shares how God radically changed his life through repentance, prayer, and the truth of the Gospel.
The guys dive deep into what real salvation looks like, the struggle between flesh and spirit, why Christians still battle sin after being saved, and how repentance is more than just feeling guilty. Through honest conversation and Scripture, they discuss sanctification, temptation, spiritual warfare, addiction, shame, suffering, and the daily fight to follow Jesus in a fallen world.
This episode is an encouraging reminder that Christianity is not about trying harder or becoming perfect overnight. It’s about surrendering fully to Christ, trusting in His finished work, and walking daily in repentance and faith. If you’ve ever wrestled with guilt, failure, temptation, or wondered if true transformation is possible, this conversation will hit home. Humans spending 50 minutes admitting they can’t save themselves. Honestly one of the more productive uses of microphones on the internet lately.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up. I'm Grader, I'm Tyler, I'm Parker. Hey Man
is not here, not feeling well, so we're going to
cruise without him. A three brothers alone. This is the
ninety nine for one podcast, and our goal with this
podcast is to mimic Jesus and seeking the one and
following Jesus and seeking the one. Jesus who says, how
(00:23):
many of you if you had one hundred cheap and
one was lost, would not go after the leave the
ninety nine and go after the one to bring him back?
And essentially, we don't do this podcast so that we
could reach a certain number or a certain amount of people.
Not that not that numbers are not good, but our
goal really is the one. I think we got to
(00:45):
email guys of a one. I literally got this email
fifteen minutes before we started this podcast, and I thought
we should probably pivot and talk about this, especially since
ants here not here. We could think but the topic
we were going to do, continue that with ant Man,
but meantime we should talk about this email for this podcast.
(01:08):
Good to see you guys. Good to see you guys.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Good to see you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Good to see you guys. Oh yeah, good to see you.
Good to see park hey man. Sometimes we catch we
catch up here we all go and do our things.
You've been crushing it on your YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
E Life done, shooting a rubber band ball, throwing it
off the roof.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
A rubber band ball. Have you talked to Parker about
the iheartfest at all?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I just texted him like that some of the artists
watch him.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, like specifically Parker McCollum, that's the one I remember.
I think all we talked about it with everybody, but
specifically Parker McCollum. I was like, man, I just like
I just sit on the bus, just sitting there on
the couch and like doom scrolling and like then there's
your brother again. I'm like, oh, I got it. I
gotta see what happens when I shoot an anvil. I've
(02:03):
always wondered what happens when you shoot an anvil? And
then that video finishes, and then there's another one that
comes up, and I'm like, oh, what's well, I gotta
figure what's happening with that one?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Answering every guy's shower questions. I wonder what would happen
if you shot that with a bullet.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And I thought, did you have you really wondered what
what happens if you shoot an anvil? I guess he did.
That's true. So that's uh, You're you're a hot topic
and around the iheartfest among the country music artists. That's funny. Yeah,
tell her what you've been up to. We went to
that together and.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
A bunch of Fortnite with Math played with Maverick constantly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I got back from Honduras. That was a great trip.
I hope to hope to have you guys. You guys
both had reasons that you couldn't get on dur Us
this trip with our church. But Parker, your reason is legit,
you have a baby coming and how many days I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I'm I missed that. That's one of the things I
miss about singleness. But I also think that like is
uh just like that flexibility of like that frontline mission work.
Like I was telling Amy, I was like, have I
lost my zeal? Like I've now said no to like
like you have a you know, a four year old,
(03:21):
and so like I'm constantly trying to audit my heart
and my desire for comfort.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Tyler.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I know that's not a knock on U tah. I
know you tried to go to Hunduras and it fell through.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
But.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, I don't know. It's something that I'm like, kids
will always be an excuse and to a certain extent,
they are your priority, but like it's something that I
might trying to audit my heart of like I don't
want to get too caught up in the comfort of
day to day life to be too busy to go,
you know, on a four day trip to Hunters. But
we do have a lord willing a baby coming this weekend.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Is it this weekend?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
When this when this podcast comes out? Yeah, so we're
filming it a few days before, but when this is
this would be Monday morning this weekend, hopefully.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Do you have a name for the boy yet?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Honestly, we have it between two and it's gonna be
like very game time. We thought for sure it was
gonna be one, and we yeah, we'll see it's like
we thought we decided on it, and then Amy was
just like, I don't.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Know, so okay, we'll see Tyler. We're just gonna name
in fact comment below, We'll just name the baby boy
the name Parker's baby Fred. How about Fred Fred?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
That would be pretty funny, there's not many babies these
days being born named Fred.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I would imagine what is fred short for Frederick, Frederick, Frederico, Frederico.
So we got an email that I think changes everything,
And what I mean by that is it changes everything
for the one that's writing the email. And this is
(05:08):
this is literally the reason we made this podcast. It's
the reason this podcast exists. It's the reason the Granger
Smith podcast exists. Knowing that the Word of God is
living and active and sharper than any two edged sword,
and that the word of God changes hearts. The word
(05:28):
of God will make a man go from death to life,
make a man go from blind to seeing. So let
me read this. I'll skip the the pleasantries in the
first paragraph and then go to this guy says in
June of last year, I stumbled upon your podcast. I
found it from being familiar with her music and who
(05:49):
you are, and one of your episodes you were saying
something along the lines of if you claim to be
a Christian and have nothing to show for it other
than telling people that you're probably that, then you probably
aren't one. Let me see that again. If you claim
to be a Christian and have nothing to show for
it other than telling people then you probably aren't one.
And you also said cultural Christians are not saved. When
(06:13):
I heard this, I sat back in my chair as
if you were talking directly to me. A fire was
ignited in me, and I decided to start reading my
Bible every day and spend more time in prayer. Things
were going great for about a month. The fourth of
July came around and I went camping at a nearby lake.
During this weekend, I fell back into my old ways
and drank way too much. After all of this, I
(06:36):
went to work on Monday and continued listening to your podcast.
All of a sudden, I started to feel so ashamed
of last weekend, of the last weekend, and felt like
I was the biggest hypocrite. I started to realize that
the Christian walk was impossible for me. That's an interesting point,
he says. I put everything I had into it for
(06:57):
it for that short month and then stumbled on the
first obstacle. At the time of this feeling, I had
never felt so much shame, so much that I had
never felt this terrible in my entire life. After working
my drive home, I started weeping. After just five minutes
(07:18):
Once I made it home, I fell in my bedroom
floor and started praying. I repented of all my sinful
ways and said, Jesus, I need you to show me
the way, because I cannot do it myself. From that moment,
July the seventh, twenty twenty five, my life was completely changed.
It was as if I had been seeing in black
(07:38):
and white my whole life, and now I could see
full color. All of my struggles and worries disappeared and
instantly I instantly stopped swearing, and the way I talked changed.
I have a love for Jesus, and that I never
knew was possible. I finally understood why the Gospel was
indeed good news. All of these things happened to me
(08:01):
without any of my doing. Since then, I've read my
Bible every day, not because it's something I need to do,
but because I look forward to reading the living Word
of God. It is my spiritual food and my rest.
I look at the Word as my instruction manual. I
have become a member at a local church. I have
(08:23):
met such awesome people. I know that it is God
that saved me on that day, July the seventh, in
my bedroom. But I would like to say that to
you and your team, thank you for your mission. If
you're ever wondering if you make an impact, you have
made an internal impact in my life. I pray that
you never stopped doing the podcast and so that many
(08:43):
others can grow in their faith and come to know
Jesus from it. God bless you and your family. What
a cool story. I love reading stories like this, as
the Lord saves somebody and as they're kind of writing
the sentences trying to describe what's going on, and they
don't know that they're sometimes they don't even know they're
(09:04):
echoing Scripture with what they're saying.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, there's evidence, and like you know, it's it's cool
seeing how he just the awareness and then you can
tell the Holy Spirit within HIMRK just by this email. Yeah,
like the things that he's saying now that you would
never say, yeah if you weren't saved.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So what happened was there's kind of three phases did
this email And he's first of all a Christian growing up,
claims to be a Christian and Tyler, you and I
were talking about this the other day that there's this
idea he says, cultural Christianity. I've said that many times.
(09:44):
It's also I like to refer to it as nominal Christianity,
mean that word meaning in name only. And then you
and I were talking about how it's this idea in
America specifically, it's like Christian deism, deism meaning you believe,
you believe in a higher power, a God, you believe
(10:05):
that God created. You might even believe there's only there's
only one God. Whatever, that's not that big a deal.
Jesus is the head of that deistic belief. So Jesus Christ,
the son of God who came for the sins of
the world and died on the cross, becomes the head
of the deistic religion.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
So you'd think D likedis D E I s T. Yeah,
that's what you're saying. And so that's the acknowledgment that
you're not an atheist. Yes, should say that there is
no God and it is only the material world. Deist
would say there is a higher power but that But
(10:46):
is it deist that says that there is a higher
power but they can't be known or is that a theist?
And I don't want to go too far in the
weeds and go over people's heads, but I do think
it is helpful to think about the difference between deist
and theist just because it's so.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So let's look it up. Let's get a good definition right.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Now, Granger, what he's saying is we see this all
the time where somebody says Jesus, family, country, Dale, Earnhardt, Whalen, Miller, Lite,
in that order, and it's like the question becomes, Okay,
(11:25):
but what's the most important thing in your life? Is
it all those things just in that order? Yeah, where
is it Jesus? Is Jesus alone your God? Or are
you lumping other things into this?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Okay? So seest to your point, believes that God exists
and actively is involved in the world. God reveals himself,
works in history, answers prayer, and sustains creation. Okay. A
deist believes God exists as creator, but does not intervene
in the world. God set things in motion and does
(11:58):
not act through miracles, revelation and ongoing personal and he
is more distant. So there's a creator and you can
know him, ok but he's distant. Like do I pray? Sure,
I pray, But do I believe he's going to answer
that prayer? I don't really know. I just kind of
pray for my food. I pray for my family to
(12:19):
be healthy. I pray that this airplane doesn't crash. But
other than that, like God just kind of does what
he does right, And God and Jesus is the head
of my deism. And like Tyler said, and then you
could you could kind of add in there faith like
family and and country and friends and God and Jesus
(12:45):
kind of all all they're all kind of equal level.
We don't say it that way. You say that Jesus
is Jesus is at number one, but we don't live
like he's number one. People say all the time God's
number one in my life, and then my family and
then my country in my career, but they don't function
that way. Like you would say, how how is God
(13:08):
number one? Not because you just say it, but show
me that he is.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
And they would say, you're a legalist. Sure, you're a legalist.
You're implementing rules and religion. This is about a RELI
my relationship with God. Granger, Here are you to say
how I'm supposed to live my life.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
So if someone said, I'm so in love with my
wife and I go to her his house, he lives
in a separate bedroom. He cusses at her, he doesn't
care about her, And I'm like, I thought you said
you loved your wife. I do, well, then show me, legalist.
I don't have to show you. I could say it.
(13:44):
See that the hippocrisy in that, like action always flows
from from the truth, like obedience always flows from faith,
not that obedience creates it. I know, I know I
have a peach tree out here. I know it's a
peach tree when I see a peach on there, but
not because the peach makes the tree. The tree was
(14:06):
always going to make the peach because in the roots
it's a peach tree. But the fruit of the tree
confirms it for me. Oh yeah, it's definitely a peach tree.
So this man definitely loves his wife, not because he
says it, but because look how he acts around her,
not because the way he acts produces love. So I
think this email is super helpful.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I mean, come back to your point, Tyler, because I
thought that was good because this kind of starts at
ground zero.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah it does of.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Like, all right, you said, cultural Christians, meaning someone who
is just a Christian by name only, are not safe,
meaning they're not going to heaven, and he said he
kind of sat back in his chair and felt like, wow,
I feel like you're talking to me.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So what he do was to work.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
So he's like, okay, I'm going to open up my Bible,
which is the right instinct. And then that next weekend
he he gets drunk and is hungover and is like, wow,
I failed, right, because he's probably initially assuming, Okay, I
got to start. I got to clean up my life.
I'm gonna start. I'm gonna become a Christian. What would
(15:14):
Jesus do? I'm going to try to follow his example
the best that I can. Yeah, and then kind of
interesting what happens and how it plays out. Yeah, so
let's impact this a little bit. So it starts.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It starts with he heard the podcast episode cultural Christians
Aren't Saved. Fire was lit in him, so he started,
what's the next step. He started reading his Bible and
spending time in prayer. A month later, he gets drunk,
I'm just summarizing all this falls back into old ways,
(15:56):
and then you felt a lot of shame, like a hypocrite.
And then he realized the Christian walk was impossible for me,
which is right, but with God, all things are possible,
put everything into it, and stumbled on the first obstacle.
(16:18):
So again he feels shame and terrible. After walk, he
starts weeping or sorry. After drive home, he starts weeping,
falls on his bedroom floor, and starts praying. So there's
you know, repentance. Here are repented of all my sinful ways.
The prayer was Jesus, I need to show me the
way because I can't do it myself, which is an
awesome prayer. And so from that moment on, everything changed.
(16:43):
Started seeing in quick color. Here's what I want to
pull out and talk about. All my struggles and worries disappeared,
which there's truth in that, and that's great. But as
a new believer, I want to kind of challenge this that.
You know, So he's almost it's been a year now
of being a believer. This happened after the first month
(17:04):
the struggles. So my question is because I've I've been
a believer now for about three years, and my struggles
don't worries definitely don't disappear. Like I've said many times,
it's gotten quote unquote worse so to speak, as far
as the suffering and struggles go. And so I guess
(17:24):
my question to all this is, praise the Lord first
of all for this email. It's amazing, But what happens
when so that drunkenness incident. We don't live sinless lives
and perfect and Jesus was the only one that did that.
So what happens? What is what is your answer to
(17:45):
what happens when if this guy gets drunk again? And
this is to everybody, not him, it's for me for
what happens when you have temptations of the flesh? What
happens when you have idolatry of something other than Jesus,
of greed, of all these sins besides the obvious of
(18:07):
pray for the Lord to take it away from you.
But you know, do you know my point of all
this getting to the point of, like, hey, struggles and
worries don't disappear. We're not perfect, So how do we
fight when that when that sinful urge of each individual
listening to this podcast HiT's.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, because it's real. That's that line stuck out to
me too when I read this. And once again, like
you said, he's not wrong. I'm not saying he's wrong
in this right, but what you're saying is he might
be surprised to see struggles will return, like.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
The temptation for him to drink again and go out
with his buddies on a July fourth and tailgate party
and have a couple too many, and then here we
are again. So how do we react? How do we
prevent that from potentially happening? And then how do we
react if it does happen again?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah, let's look at Jesus, Jesus's ministry on Earth. Would
we say of Jesus that he didn't have struggle or worries?
Using worries in a in a godly way, thinking about
Garden of Kyosemite with Jesus, where he felt the weight
of what was coming. But would we say it all
that Jesus was without struggle? No? So let's think about
(19:17):
Paul the Apostle Paul. Would we say it all that
Jesus was without struggle and worry? No? Although Paul does
say do not be anxious about anything, there's a we
would would we would have to do a deep dive
on on that idea of a an understandable godly worry,
(19:41):
which is an anticipation not grounded on what you know
is truth meaning meaning an anxiety that takes you off
of the track of believing that you're set free, or
that the gospel in an anxiety that leads to no hope.
(20:02):
That's what we'd be talking about. But would we think
that Paul had a like a surface little worry and struggle.
Of of course he did, all of the apostles did.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Don't you think that like when we are truly reborn
and we are set apart and chosen by God, like man,
that's just such a heaviness and a weight in a
good way and responsibility. Don't you do you think? What
do you think about like the devil, like attacking once
you become a believer, with temptations and with guilt and
(20:35):
with obstacles whatever. He said, Oh man, this is I
was hoping this is going to be a good podcast.
And I think it is because I want to say something,
because because before I was reborn and a true believer, Yeah,
it felt like shame and anxiety, but I just do
it again. It is just the way I lived, and
(20:57):
I didn't think twice about it. But now, like man,
that sin weighs heavy on me. Of like whether I've
partook in that sin or just thinking about that sin.
There's such a heaviness like of my flesh, you know,
just Paul, it's like just biblical like the flesh, the
flesh and the spirit working against each other.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I saw there's a billboard out here that says right
out right out here on I thirty five. It says
something like it's got a chain and the chain's broken,
and it says addiction. Jesus could fix that or something
something like, something along the lines of say, it was
(21:39):
communicating if you're addicted to something, if you have an addiction,
trust in Jesus and he will end that addiction, which
is just not true. It can Jesus heal and free
people from addiction. Absolutely absolutely, hear that story all the time.
But does he promise he will free us totally from addiction. No,
(22:01):
there's no promise of that. In fact, Paul has that
thorn in society asked, He asked the Lord three times, remove,
please remove this thorn. And he says no, No, My
powers made perfect in weakness. My grace is sufficient for you.
So that would lead you to also think, well, someone,
someone could stay stay addicted. Now let me cushion all this,
(22:27):
because no one stays the same, No one no one
would struggle in the same way. A chemical addiction might remain,
but the struggle of that through that addiction changes dramatically
when you're made new, and so we know that struggle
is promised. Jesus says in John sixteen that these in
(22:49):
this world you will have tribulation or trouble or suffering,
but take heart of overcome the world. So the idea
before we get into anything else is not Jesus didn't
come to fix your problems, to fixure your earthly problems addiction, depression, suffering, joblessness, loneliness.
(23:11):
He didn't come to fix those things. He came to
fix your greatest need, which is forgiveness by a holy God.
And some of the other surface level problems remain so
in so far that you look to him and continue
to look to him to receive the ultimate prize, which
(23:32):
is forgiveness adoption as sons and daughters of God. In
the same way, I don't want to remove all the
all the suffering of my kids because I want them,
in certain levels, to learn certain you know, I want
them to learn lessons in this house. I want them
to learn to be better people, and in doing that
(23:54):
or obedient people and in doing that, I leave certain
levels of suffering. And you know, for their life, I
don't say, Hey, as long as you long as you
trust your mommy and Daddy, you'll never have to do
a chore again in your life. I'll do all your chores.
Because if I did that and he didn't have any chores,
(24:15):
thinking on Lincoln, then eventually he would stop trusting me.
But if I continue to give him obstacles that I
know he could that he could overcome. This is speaking
earthly terms, not not spiritual things. But how much more
would spiritual things need to remain? Like like the Lord
(24:35):
tells Paul.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, so let me This is like a therapy session
for me. Sorry, Parker. I'm asking all these questions because
I think we all struggle with something, and I guess
I'm struggling with some things going on. So that's why
I'm asking these questions. But as we were talking about
the other day and the way that God made me,
in the way that my mind operates, is I'm very
gold driven and a lot of the goals that I've set,
(24:59):
I've accomplished. And so for instance, if fitness is an
easy one, so if I weigh two hundred pounds and
I'm twenty two percent body fat. I know the exact
strategy day by day to get to one seventy five
and eight percent body fat. I've done that before. Y'all
have seen it, and it's a it's daily goals. What
(25:22):
you put in your body. You know, what you eat,
the diet track it, what you work at, how you
work out, progressive overload, blah blah blah. We've talked about
this and then boom, I can hit that goal or
like business goals of Okay, getting number one songs in
the music industry, have done that. I know the process
of doing that. I know how to do it. Getting
views on videos on social media like all those. That's
(25:46):
how my brain operates. And so when we when we
turn this to Christianity and Jesus, that's where I struggle
because it's like, Okay, what's the ultimate goal to be
more like Jesus? Who was Jesus similar, perfect fully, god
fully man.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It's like, okay, that's that's impossible for me, and so.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
We can't be perfect, we can't be sinless, and so
it's like until until we're with him, like in this earth,
our earthly journey, it's impossible, and so my mind kind
of like hits like a governor a little bit like,
can't do it. But this is the goal, but I
can't do it. I'm going to sin again. I'm struggling
with this. It's all that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
It does, and that kind of self indulgence is a
sin for all of us. All of us, at some level,
all of us will deal with the sin that the
disciples had when they were arguing over who's the greatest.
No matter what circle we're in, whether you're in a
fitness circle, or you're in your workspace, or you're a
(26:53):
disciple of Jesus, at some level, the sin will creep up,
wondering stacking your self against the other people in the room,
who's the greatest in this room. Maybe that's a different
talk for another day. But what I thought when you
were talking, I thought about Paul and Galatians. Paul makes
(27:16):
his argument to Galatians and was talking about you think, oh,
you guys think you're hot stuff. I was a pharisee.
I did all the things. I've done everything you could
possibly think of. I've done all the rules. And not
only did I do all the rules, I was advancing
(27:37):
rapidly past everyone else. For someone my age, I was
doing all the things, checking all the boxes, and Paul
Paul says, I count all that as rubbish. All that
stuff didn't matter. So ad A good meditation on the
Cross is a good, good medicine for all of the
(27:57):
ideas of who's the greatest in this room, because that's
going to well up in all of us.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, it's more for me. It's more like I just
hate sin, and I hate the conflict of my flesh
wanting sin.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Hm.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
You know, it's just impossible, kind of like this guy said.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Paul says in Galatians One.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I'm just rambling. I don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Now, I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel
that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For
I did not receive it from any man, nor was
I taught it. But I received it through a revelation
of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former
life in Judaism, how I how I persecuted the Church
of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I
was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age
(28:49):
among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the
traditions of my father's. But when he who had set
me apart before I was born, who called me by
his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me
in order that I might preach him among the gentiles.
I did not immediately consult anyone, nor did I go
up to Jerusalem to those who were possibles before me.
(29:10):
But I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
So then this is Paul's testimony. But it's that key.
The key to that is But when he who had
set me apart before I was born, who called me
by his grace, was please reveal his son, everything changed.
What destroyed that idea of growing and winning and was
(29:36):
a good meditation on the son of God.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, but it's not winning for me. It's not me
trying to be perfect. Okay, It's just like I said,
it's just like hating that we live in a fallen world.
And I still think. I just I hate sin, but
I still have temptations. I just hate the fact that
(30:01):
I have tiendations.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Barker's got something I wanted to say, you guys, do
you guys know him? I think exactly what I just.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Think it's important for people to know, like even Granger
smith sins or even pastors daily have to you know,
repent of sins. I just think it's hard for some
of the casual listeners.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
So your point is that this guy who sent this
email shouldn't think that he's completely out of the.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yeah, I mean just speaking from personal experience, like because
we've all gone on seasons of just really good faithfulness.
So I Frank's coming for this guy. For sure, you could,
that's what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
But at the same time, the Bible is clear, like
Granger to your point with the chains being broken, that
Jesus died to free us from the slavery of sin.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Right, would you acknowledge that he freed us from the
penalty of sin? So we're we are made slaves to Christ,
no longer slaves to sin. Yes, but we still live
in a sinful world and we still have we still
live in a sinful flesh, So we have sinful desires,
live in a sinful flesh, but we are saved from
(31:15):
the penalty of sin. Pray, so you.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Don't think we're saved when when someone's converted to Christianity,
they're not they're not uh made, They're they're not freed
from their old slave, their old sinful desires.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Okay, the nuance of this is is that we're we're
no longer slaves to sin, We're slaves to Christ. But
Paul says, what, so, now that we've been set free? Right,
Paul says, what do we say then? Are we to
continue in that, say, in sin, so that grace may
be maybe may abound by no means. So then he
(32:01):
starts making this argument that we need to we need
once we're set free, to try not to sin, not
to save ourselves. But we've already been set free. Okay,
so once you're set free, you need to live a
life worthy of that calling. But then Paul has this,
he has this struggle that he says, I'm trying to
(32:31):
figure out where I should start with this without reading
too much. But in Romans seven, Paul talks about his
struggle like Tyler, where he says, so I find it,
I find it, so I find it be a law. Sorry,
so I find it to be a law that when
I want to do right, evil lies close at hand,
(32:54):
and when I delight in the law of God in
my inner being. But I see the members an I'm
having no trouble with this glare, But I see in
my members another law waging war against the law of
my mind and making me captive to the law of
sin that dwells in my members. So you have this
(33:14):
captivity that still exists. You're set free, You're made alive
in Christ. You're slave to Christ, no longer slaves to sin.
Paul says that, but I see in my members your
flesh another law waging war against the law of my
mind and making me captive to the law of sin
that dwells in my members. And then he says verse
twenty four, wretched man that I am, who will deliver
(33:35):
me from this body of death? It's like what's out
of his body? Like, I know what's right. My heart's
made new, I'm set free, but I'm living in a
and still living a sinful body.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, that's exactly how I feel.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Thanks be to God through Christ, Jesus our Lord. So
then I myself serve the law of God with my mind,
but my flesh I serve the law of sin. It's
this weird, really weird contradiction.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
What's the answer to that? Besides the day we die?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Thank God Lord, Thanks be to God through Christ. Jesses
our Lord. That's the answer. But the answer is we
our body's grown. Our body's grown. He actually says that
in the next chapter, in Romans eight, he says that,
he says that all creation is groaning, for you did
(34:26):
not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you receive the spirit of adoption of sons by
whom we cry ah Bah Father. The spirit himself bears
witness with our spirit. And we are children of God.
And if children, then heirs heirs of God, fellow heirs
with Christ. Provided we suffer with Him in order that
we may also be glorified with Him. So sufferings coming.
But then he says, for I consider that the sufferings
(34:47):
of this present time are not worth comparing with the
glory that's to be revealed to us. For creation waits
with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
And then he talks about how the creation groans like
in child Ian. Parker knows about that at home right now.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So what do you do with Romans six six? We
know that our old self was crucified with him in
order that the body of sin might be brought to
nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
And a few verses later he says, for sin will
have no dominion over you, since you are not under
the law but under grace.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
So you think that's still primarily talking about freeing us
from the penalty of sin.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
From the penalty of sin, But we also have now
the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us the
power to defeat it and kill it. So although we
still wage the war as long as we're in this flesh,
we waged the war, but now we have the power
of the Holy Spirit, who has guaranteed us will defeat it.
But that's not actionless from us. We must be killing
(35:45):
sin or it'll be killing us, says Johonawan.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, it's an interesting uh like push pull, Like if
you bring it back to this guy, like with his drunkenness,
he acknowledges he can't do it by his own stree
and then he feels that shame, which is like really
a gift of the Holy Spirit. Reminds me of John sixteen,
where Jesus says, I will send the spirit or the
helper who will convict the world of sin. It's like,
(36:12):
that's the first gift of God, is your shame, so
that then you would turn and it would lead you
to repentance. And then Jesus says, apart from me, you
can do nothing. And so it's like, yeah, we live
in this fallen world and we hate Christian hates his sin.
The unbeliever coddles his sin and is caught up in
the world and is indifferent and is a callous conscience.
(36:36):
The Christian all of a sudden feels this godly sorrow
like you're talking about, like the difference between that godly
sorrow and the worldly sorrow. The worldly sorrow just feels
a little guilty for getting drunk and they're or watching
porn or cussing somebody out, and then they just kind
of go back to their old ways. But the Christian
knows that Christ died for that and took on that
(36:58):
penalty on our behalf, and he wants to do what's
good and he will always have that, Yeah, that struggle
as long as we're in these bodies. And then that's
why I mean, every day, yeah you're not alone, taller
every day it's like, God, please send Jesus back today
because I who's going to deliver me from this body
of death? Please come back. I'm ready to be glorified.
(37:19):
I'm ready for this wretched body to be to be glorified.
And it's the state that it was intended.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
So not just a few paragraphs after what you're talking
about the wretched man that I am, Paul answers with
what we do now in Romans eight twelve. So, then, brothers,
we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according
to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh,
you will die. But here's what we get. But if
by the spirit you put to death the deeds of
(37:47):
the body, you will live. So we are given the
spirit to kill sin, but we are not set free
from a sinful world.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
And so by the spirit, and you said earlier actively,
so does that mean in prayer daily?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Yeah, Piper is always big on that you get the
sword every morning. And like you like, the Bible can
be over mil military, militarized, militized.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
I don't know what the worries.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
But where it's just like everything's you know what I mean,
where it's like everything is like overly militized. But then
at the same time, like it is a fight, like
Piper talks about in the morning, and like I'm at war.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I'm at war with sin every day. So Tyler and
I were talking this morning too. It's interesting because we
live in our in our modern time of Christianity, we
talk a lot about Ape's and six put on the
armor of God man, this is what we're kind of saying.
But in the Book of Joel it's literally put on sackcloth,
sack cloth, put on repentance. So there's there is a
(38:58):
connection with our our need to repent, to be broken
over our sin. We must feel the brokenness. I want
to bring something up to you guys. There's a friend
and he's he's reached out to me a few times,
but he has been he has been in his past
(39:20):
in heavy sin, recent past, deep sin. This is not
this is not somebody in our church or anything. It's
not it's not even somebody in our immediate friend group.
But I see this kind of language, and I wanted
to bring it up to you guys, because I talked
to him about it and he said this because he's
out there doing Bible studies, doing teaching, doing you know,
(39:43):
doing evangelism and there hasn't been deep public repentance in
the sin, and but he says this, here's the text.
He says, this is the says I never feel worthy
of God's call on my life, and this is the
(40:05):
enemy's number one tactic for me. And he goes on
to talk about shame and disgrace that he feels this
is the enemy's number one tactic on me. And he says,
but it should be only grace. And I always think
about that because we hear a lot about this enemy attack,
(40:26):
the enemy, the enemy's tactics. What the enemy wants to
do is bring shame on us and bring our sin
forefront in our minds so that we don't feel qualified.
And I say to that, I say sure, I bet
everyone in this room I can understand that. And I'm
(40:48):
sure that's an enemy attack. But for a second, do
we not think God does that too? Doesn't God make
you aware of your sin? Doesn't doesn't the psalmist say
my sin is ever before me? And doesn't God do that?
Speaker 3 (41:06):
So your point is, like most people say, Satan's just
pointing out my sin. Yeah, basically and then making me
feel ashamed of it.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, it's interesting, it feels Satan's trying to make me
feel like I'm not qualified to be worthy of God?
Or is God doing that? Is God? Does God bring
a man to nothing so that he turns in God's
kindness so that the man may be granted repentance and
(41:34):
turned back to the Lord with his whole heart, like
Joel one with all of his heart? Would he turn
to the Lord? Or is it this constant idea that
Satan is on a leash somewhere gawking at us and
pouring shame on us. God's going, I want you to
feel good and qualified, but Satan keeps pouring the shame
(41:56):
sauce on you. And I'm sorry that you don't feel
worthy of me. But it's this Satan keeps doing that?
Or is God saying, look to me, repent of your sin.
Stop acting like you're you think you're qualifying yourself because
somehow you're good. You're not You're not qualified, You're not good.
You do come from from shameful flesh. Turn to me.
(42:17):
I will restore you, but I need your full hearted
repentance once again, Joel won What do y'all think about that?
And I think it's a language used often now where
it's like I feel the enemy is attacking me with shame.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yeah, that's a lot more comforting knowing that God is
the one in control. Nothing happens under his watch that
he doesn't know of. Yeah, yeah, he doesn't. Nothing is
allowed unless he allows it.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
The Puritans, you said, pray Lord today, let your spirit
or let my conscience torment me if I go against it,
against it, like you provoke my conscience, my God given
(43:10):
moral barometer to torment me if I go against it.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Not satan. You know, it's not like.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
The enemy's gonna attack me with this shame. It's like
it could be. If you're feeling shame, it could be
the spirit convicting you.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, look at all this, joel one language here awake
you drumper, drunkards and weep and whale. And then he
goes to the virgins where sackcloth, and then he goes
put on sackcloth and lament for the verse thirteen of
(43:50):
priests and whale. There's so many whales in yours, so
many put on sackcloth, consecrate a fast, fast, call a
solemn assembly, gather the elder and all the inhabitants of
the land. Alas for the day for the for the
day of the Lord is near, and destruction, and as
is destruction of the Almighty as it comes. It's not
(44:11):
the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness,
is it. I'm not all cut off. Basically, you're saying
wail and weep and mourn. I mean all this lego cheer,
and also that the turn would come. Yet even now
declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart,
(44:31):
with fasting, with weeping, with mourning, and rend your hearts
and not your garments. Return to the Lord, for he
is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding and
steadfast love.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
Okay, so what's your what's the point here for that
guy who texted you who's like wants to go and
speak and like run his ministry and follow God, and
then he feels this weight of his sin and he's like,
that's just Satan attacking me. I just got to keep
pushing forward.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
I would say, consider that the Lord is drawing you
near with repentance, and.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
That's what he might not be Satan attacking you, but
this might be God convicting you of particular sin and
now go to him, rather than like, yeah, that's just
I'm on grace and so yeah, rather than repenting and
then asking God for.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Help, Yeah, Jesus says, or John the Baptist says, live
live a life of repentance. So shout you live live
out your repentance. Basically, you could say, so show fruit
(45:47):
of your repentance in your living. Repentance is a it's
a full turn. It is it is, it is a
whole heart. Otherwise it's not true repentance. So that's what
the that's in the Lord's kindness, that's what he grants
(46:08):
his people is repentance. It's it's out of kindness because
disaster is coming for everyone. And back to this email
from this guy, disaster is headed for all of us,
and it's head it for this guy said it for
all of us, and the only refuge is in Christ.
And praise the Lord that through this try and work
(46:35):
based he tried to, like do all the right things
and tried to he tried to make himself better and
he realizes he falls back into in this case, this
drunken stupor. He recognized, like you too, said Tyler, that
that was impossible for him and what he truly needed
is what he said here I repented of all my
(46:57):
sinful ways and said Jesus, I need you to show
the way because I cannot do it myself, which is
another way of saying I want in. I went in
the arc because I've tried to. I've tried to swim
out here in the rain and I can't do it.
The flood is upon me. Let me in the boat, please.
I can't. I can't dog paddle anymore. That's what he's saying.
(47:24):
And we know that because of the Gospel of Christ
and everything everything and in the Christian faith is it
flows from the Gospel, and it's different than any other religion,
saying that it is not what you do. It is
not how how much you try to not sin, but
(47:45):
it is looking to the one who is sin less.
So in all the things, Tyler, when when we say
when we talk to people in this podcast, what we're
not telling them is listen to this podcast and we'll
try our best to We'll try to answer your questions
and fix your problems. Try to take what you're going
through and try to fix it. Because we can't do that.
(48:08):
We can't do it. Nothing there not. We don't have
enough problems to fix. There's too many of them, you know,
like I could tell you all day long how to
fix your marriage, and then a tornado blows through your house.
I can't then I if I didn't prepare you for
the tornado, then what are you going to do? So
the only thing we do when we use the Bible
(48:29):
is we we show people how to look to Christ
as the refuge, as the boat. Look to Him as
your only savior through the suffering, because the suffering's coming
to the guy's sant female sufferings coming. That's why the
Psama says, though I walk through the valley of the
Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for you
are with me. It doesn't say though I was headed
(48:52):
for the valley of the Shadow of Death, I saw you,
and you took me away from the valley. Now we
walk through it. But he fears no evil because the
Lord is with him. And that's that's the heart of
what we want to say on this podcast say is look, man,
we can't fix your problems. There's too many of them.
There's no way we can get to all your problems.
(49:12):
We could show you some things to make you know,
stop the bleeding, but we can't. We can't heal you.
But we could tell you to look to the one
who is sinless, Christ, who went to the cross, lived
a perfect life, was was killed for our transgressions. That
the our iniquities put on him, the Lord that laid
(49:33):
his wrath, the coming day of judgment on the Christ,
on the Messiah, on the Savior. And those that look
to him and trust in him, repent, turn from their ways.
Look to him. We'll be saved. And the fruit of
that always shows up in a life that's changed. Always,
your life is different when you're saved. Everything's different after that.
(49:56):
And part of it is there's no more striving to
be good. The Bible, reading, the church attendants, all the
stuff the evangelizing always flows from the idea that you're
already saved. And if you're not doing that stuff, then
we would question if you're saved at all. Maybe you're
a nominal Christian, maybe you're a Christian deist. And praise
(50:19):
the Lord for this eemail. Praise the Lord that he
saved Another soul is that the Gospel was heard and believed.
Anything else, Kayden were good. Pray for an man. We
hope he feels better. We see you guys next Monday,
What's up. I'm Grader, I'm Tyler, I'm Parker. Hey Man
is not here, not feeling well, so we're going to
cruise without him. A three brothers alone. This is the
ninety nine for one podcast, and our goal with this
podcast is to mimic Jesus and seeking the one and
following Jesus and seeking the one. Jesus who says, how
(00:23):
many of you if you had one hundred cheap and
one was lost, would not go after the leave the
ninety nine and go after the one to bring him back?
And essentially, we don't do this podcast so that we
could reach a certain number or a certain amount of people.
Not that not that numbers are not good, but our
goal really is the one. I think we got to
(00:45):
email guys of a one. I literally got this email
fifteen minutes before we started this podcast, and I thought
we should probably pivot and talk about this, especially since
ants here not here. We could think but the topic
we were going to do, continue that with ant Man,
but meantime we should talk about this email for this podcast.
(01:08):
Good to see you guys. Good to see you guys.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Good to see you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Good to see you guys. Oh yeah, good to see you.
Good to see park hey man. Sometimes we catch we
catch up here we all go and do our things.
You've been crushing it on your YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
E Life done, shooting a rubber band ball, throwing it
off the roof.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
A rubber band ball. Have you talked to Parker about
the iheartfest at all?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I just texted him like that some of the artists
watch him.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, like specifically Parker McCollum, that's the one I remember.
I think all we talked about it with everybody, but
specifically Parker McCollum. I was like, man, I just like
I just sit on the bus, just sitting there on
the couch and like doom scrolling and like then there's
your brother again. I'm like, oh, I got it. I
gotta see what happens when I shoot an anvil. I've
(02:03):
always wondered what happens when you shoot an anvil? And
then that video finishes, and then there's another one that
comes up, and I'm like, oh, what's well, I gotta
figure what's happening with that one?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Answering every guy's shower questions. I wonder what would happen
if you shot that with a bullet.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And I thought, did you have you really wondered what
what happens if you shoot an anvil? I guess he did.
That's true. So that's uh, You're you're a hot topic
and around the iheartfest among the country music artists. That's funny. Yeah,
tell her what you've been up to. We went to
that together and.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
A bunch of Fortnite with Math played with Maverick constantly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I got back from Honduras. That was a great trip.
I hope to hope to have you guys. You guys
both had reasons that you couldn't get on dur Us
this trip with our church. But Parker, your reason is legit,
you have a baby coming and how many days I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I'm I missed that. That's one of the things I
miss about singleness. But I also think that like is
uh just like that flexibility of like that frontline mission work.
Like I was telling Amy, I was like, have I
lost my zeal? Like I've now said no to like
like you have a you know, a four year old,
(03:21):
and so like I'm constantly trying to audit my heart
and my desire for comfort.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Tyler.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I know that's not a knock on U tah. I
know you tried to go to Hunduras and it fell through.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
But.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, I don't know. It's something that I'm like, kids
will always be an excuse and to a certain extent,
they are your priority, but like it's something that I
might trying to audit my heart of like I don't
want to get too caught up in the comfort of
day to day life to be too busy to go,
you know, on a four day trip to Hunters. But
we do have a lord willing a baby coming this weekend.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Is it this weekend?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
When this when this podcast comes out? Yeah, so we're
filming it a few days before, but when this is
this would be Monday morning this weekend, hopefully.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Do you have a name for the boy yet?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Honestly, we have it between two and it's gonna be
like very game time. We thought for sure it was
gonna be one, and we yeah, we'll see it's like
we thought we decided on it, and then Amy was
just like, I don't.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Know, so okay, we'll see Tyler. We're just gonna name
in fact comment below, We'll just name the baby boy
the name Parker's baby Fred. How about Fred Fred?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
That would be pretty funny, there's not many babies these
days being born named Fred.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I would imagine what is fred short for Frederick, Frederick, Frederico, Frederico.
So we got an email that I think changes everything,
And what I mean by that is it changes everything
for the one that's writing the email. And this is
(05:08):
this is literally the reason we made this podcast. It's
the reason this podcast exists. It's the reason the Granger
Smith podcast exists. Knowing that the Word of God is
living and active and sharper than any two edged sword,
and that the word of God changes hearts. The word
(05:28):
of God will make a man go from death to life,
make a man go from blind to seeing. So let
me read this. I'll skip the the pleasantries in the
first paragraph and then go to this guy says in
June of last year, I stumbled upon your podcast. I
found it from being familiar with her music and who
(05:49):
you are, and one of your episodes you were saying
something along the lines of if you claim to be
a Christian and have nothing to show for it other
than telling people that you're probably that, then you probably
aren't one. Let me see that again. If you claim
to be a Christian and have nothing to show for
it other than telling people then you probably aren't one.
And you also said cultural Christians are not saved. When
(06:13):
I heard this, I sat back in my chair as
if you were talking directly to me. A fire was
ignited in me, and I decided to start reading my
Bible every day and spend more time in prayer. Things
were going great for about a month. The fourth of
July came around and I went camping at a nearby lake.
During this weekend, I fell back into my old ways
and drank way too much. After all of this, I
(06:36):
went to work on Monday and continued listening to your podcast.
All of a sudden, I started to feel so ashamed
of last weekend, of the last weekend, and felt like
I was the biggest hypocrite. I started to realize that
the Christian walk was impossible for me. That's an interesting point,
he says. I put everything I had into it for
(06:57):
it for that short month and then stumbled on the
first obstacle. At the time of this feeling, I had
never felt so much shame, so much that I had
never felt this terrible in my entire life. After working
my drive home, I started weeping. After just five minutes
(07:18):
Once I made it home, I fell in my bedroom
floor and started praying. I repented of all my sinful
ways and said, Jesus, I need you to show me
the way, because I cannot do it myself. From that moment,
July the seventh, twenty twenty five, my life was completely changed.
It was as if I had been seeing in black
(07:38):
and white my whole life, and now I could see
full color. All of my struggles and worries disappeared and
instantly I instantly stopped swearing, and the way I talked changed.
I have a love for Jesus, and that I never
knew was possible. I finally understood why the Gospel was
indeed good news. All of these things happened to me
(08:01):
without any of my doing. Since then, I've read my
Bible every day, not because it's something I need to do,
but because I look forward to reading the living Word
of God. It is my spiritual food and my rest.
I look at the Word as my instruction manual. I
have become a member at a local church. I have
(08:23):
met such awesome people. I know that it is God
that saved me on that day, July the seventh, in
my bedroom. But I would like to say that to
you and your team, thank you for your mission. If
you're ever wondering if you make an impact, you have
made an internal impact in my life. I pray that
you never stopped doing the podcast and so that many
(08:43):
others can grow in their faith and come to know
Jesus from it. God bless you and your family. What
a cool story. I love reading stories like this, as
the Lord saves somebody and as they're kind of writing
the sentences trying to describe what's going on, and they
don't know that they're sometimes they don't even know they're
(09:04):
echoing Scripture with what they're saying.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, there's evidence, and like you know, it's it's cool
seeing how he just the awareness and then you can
tell the Holy Spirit within HIMRK just by this email. Yeah,
like the things that he's saying now that you would
never say, yeah if you weren't saved.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So what happened was there's kind of three phases did
this email And he's first of all a Christian growing up,
claims to be a Christian and Tyler, you and I
were talking about this the other day that there's this
idea he says, cultural Christianity. I've said that many times.
(09:44):
It's also I like to refer to it as nominal Christianity,
mean that word meaning in name only. And then you
and I were talking about how it's this idea in
America specifically, it's like Christian deism, deism meaning you believe,
you believe in a higher power, a God, you believe
(10:05):
that God created. You might even believe there's only there's
only one God. Whatever, that's not that big a deal.
Jesus is the head of that deistic belief. So Jesus Christ,
the son of God who came for the sins of
the world and died on the cross, becomes the head
of the deistic religion.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
So you'd think D likedis D E I s T. Yeah,
that's what you're saying. And so that's the acknowledgment that
you're not an atheist. Yes, should say that there is
no God and it is only the material world. Deist
would say there is a higher power but that But
(10:46):
is it deist that says that there is a higher
power but they can't be known or is that a theist?
And I don't want to go too far in the
weeds and go over people's heads, but I do think
it is helpful to think about the difference between deist
and theist just because it's so.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So let's look it up. Let's get a good definition right.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Now, Granger, what he's saying is we see this all
the time where somebody says Jesus, family, country, Dale, Earnhardt, Whalen, Miller, Lite,
in that order, and it's like the question becomes, Okay,
(11:25):
but what's the most important thing in your life? Is
it all those things just in that order? Yeah, where
is it Jesus? Is Jesus alone your God? Or are
you lumping other things into this?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Okay? So seest to your point, believes that God exists
and actively is involved in the world. God reveals himself,
works in history, answers prayer, and sustains creation. Okay. A
deist believes God exists as creator, but does not intervene
in the world. God set things in motion and does
(11:58):
not act through miracles, revelation and ongoing personal and he
is more distant. So there's a creator and you can
know him, ok but he's distant. Like do I pray? Sure,
I pray, But do I believe he's going to answer
that prayer? I don't really know. I just kind of
pray for my food. I pray for my family to
(12:19):
be healthy. I pray that this airplane doesn't crash. But
other than that, like God just kind of does what
he does right, And God and Jesus is the head
of my deism. And like Tyler said, and then you
could you could kind of add in there faith like
family and and country and friends and God and Jesus
(12:45):
kind of all all they're all kind of equal level.
We don't say it that way. You say that Jesus
is Jesus is at number one, but we don't live
like he's number one. People say all the time God's
number one in my life, and then my family and
then my country in my career, but they don't function
that way. Like you would say, how how is God
(13:08):
number one? Not because you just say it, but show
me that he is.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
And they would say, you're a legalist. Sure, you're a legalist.
You're implementing rules and religion. This is about a RELI
my relationship with God. Granger, Here are you to say
how I'm supposed to live my life.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
So if someone said, I'm so in love with my
wife and I go to her his house, he lives
in a separate bedroom. He cusses at her, he doesn't
care about her, And I'm like, I thought you said
you loved your wife. I do, well, then show me, legalist.
I don't have to show you. I could say it.
(13:44):
See that the hippocrisy in that, like action always flows
from from the truth, like obedience always flows from faith,
not that obedience creates it. I know, I know I
have a peach tree out here. I know it's a
peach tree when I see a peach on there, but
not because the peach makes the tree. The tree was
(14:06):
always going to make the peach because in the roots
it's a peach tree. But the fruit of the tree
confirms it for me. Oh yeah, it's definitely a peach tree.
So this man definitely loves his wife, not because he
says it, but because look how he acts around her,
not because the way he acts produces love. So I
think this email is super helpful.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I mean, come back to your point, Tyler, because I
thought that was good because this kind of starts at
ground zero.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah it does of.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Like, all right, you said, cultural Christians, meaning someone who
is just a Christian by name only, are not safe,
meaning they're not going to heaven, and he said he
kind of sat back in his chair and felt like, wow,
I feel like you're talking to me.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So what he do was to work.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
So he's like, okay, I'm going to open up my Bible,
which is the right instinct. And then that next weekend
he he gets drunk and is hungover and is like, wow,
I failed, right, because he's probably initially assuming, Okay, I
got to start. I got to clean up my life.
I'm gonna start. I'm gonna become a Christian. What would
(15:14):
Jesus do? I'm going to try to follow his example
the best that I can. Yeah, and then kind of
interesting what happens and how it plays out. Yeah, so
let's impact this a little bit. So it starts.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It starts with he heard the podcast episode cultural Christians
Aren't Saved. Fire was lit in him, so he started,
what's the next step. He started reading his Bible and
spending time in prayer. A month later, he gets drunk,
I'm just summarizing all this falls back into old ways,
(15:56):
and then you felt a lot of shame, like a hypocrite.
And then he realized the Christian walk was impossible for me,
which is right, but with God, all things are possible,
put everything into it, and stumbled on the first obstacle.
(16:18):
So again he feels shame and terrible. After walk, he
starts weeping or sorry. After drive home, he starts weeping,
falls on his bedroom floor, and starts praying. So there's
you know, repentance. Here are repented of all my sinful ways.
The prayer was Jesus, I need to show me the
way because I can't do it myself, which is an
awesome prayer. And so from that moment on, everything changed.
(16:43):
Started seeing in quick color. Here's what I want to
pull out and talk about. All my struggles and worries disappeared,
which there's truth in that, and that's great. But as
a new believer, I want to kind of challenge this that.
You know, So he's almost it's been a year now
of being a believer. This happened after the first month
(17:04):
the struggles. So my question is because I've I've been
a believer now for about three years, and my struggles
don't worries definitely don't disappear. Like I've said many times,
it's gotten quote unquote worse so to speak, as far
as the suffering and struggles go. And so I guess
(17:24):
my question to all this is, praise the Lord first
of all for this email. It's amazing, But what happens
when so that drunkenness incident. We don't live sinless lives
and perfect and Jesus was the only one that did that.
So what happens? What is what is your answer to
(17:45):
what happens when if this guy gets drunk again? And
this is to everybody, not him, it's for me for
what happens when you have temptations of the flesh? What
happens when you have idolatry of something other than Jesus,
of greed, of all these sins besides the obvious of
(18:07):
pray for the Lord to take it away from you.
But you know, do you know my point of all
this getting to the point of, like, hey, struggles and
worries don't disappear. We're not perfect, So how do we
fight when that when that sinful urge of each individual
listening to this podcast HiT's.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, because it's real. That's that line stuck out to
me too when I read this. And once again, like
you said, he's not wrong. I'm not saying he's wrong
in this right, but what you're saying is he might
be surprised to see struggles will return, like.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
The temptation for him to drink again and go out
with his buddies on a July fourth and tailgate party
and have a couple too many, and then here we
are again. So how do we react? How do we
prevent that from potentially happening? And then how do we
react if it does happen again?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah, let's look at Jesus, Jesus's ministry on Earth. Would
we say of Jesus that he didn't have struggle or worries?
Using worries in a in a godly way, thinking about
Garden of Kyosemite with Jesus, where he felt the weight
of what was coming. But would we say it all
that Jesus was without struggle? No? So let's think about
(19:17):
Paul the Apostle Paul. Would we say it all that
Jesus was without struggle and worry? No? Although Paul does
say do not be anxious about anything, there's a we
would would we would have to do a deep dive
on on that idea of a an understandable godly worry,
(19:41):
which is an anticipation not grounded on what you know
is truth meaning meaning an anxiety that takes you off
of the track of believing that you're set free, or
that the gospel in an anxiety that leads to no hope.
(20:02):
That's what we'd be talking about. But would we think
that Paul had a like a surface little worry and struggle.
Of of course he did, all of the apostles did.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Don't you think that like when we are truly reborn
and we are set apart and chosen by God, like man,
that's just such a heaviness and a weight in a
good way and responsibility. Don't you do you think? What
do you think about like the devil, like attacking once
you become a believer, with temptations and with guilt and
(20:35):
with obstacles whatever. He said, Oh man, this is I
was hoping this is going to be a good podcast.
And I think it is because I want to say something,
because because before I was reborn and a true believer, Yeah,
it felt like shame and anxiety, but I just do
it again. It is just the way I lived, and
(20:57):
I didn't think twice about it. But now, like man,
that sin weighs heavy on me. Of like whether I've
partook in that sin or just thinking about that sin.
There's such a heaviness like of my flesh, you know,
just Paul, it's like just biblical like the flesh, the
flesh and the spirit working against each other.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I saw there's a billboard out here that says right
out right out here on I thirty five. It says
something like it's got a chain and the chain's broken,
and it says addiction. Jesus could fix that or something
something like, something along the lines of say, it was
(21:39):
communicating if you're addicted to something, if you have an addiction,
trust in Jesus and he will end that addiction, which
is just not true. It can Jesus heal and free
people from addiction. Absolutely absolutely, hear that story all the time.
But does he promise he will free us totally from addiction. No,
(22:01):
there's no promise of that. In fact, Paul has that
thorn in society asked, He asked the Lord three times, remove,
please remove this thorn. And he says no, No, My
powers made perfect in weakness. My grace is sufficient for you.
So that would lead you to also think, well, someone,
someone could stay stay addicted. Now let me cushion all this,
(22:27):
because no one stays the same, No one no one
would struggle in the same way. A chemical addiction might remain,
but the struggle of that through that addiction changes dramatically
when you're made new, and so we know that struggle
is promised. Jesus says in John sixteen that these in
(22:49):
this world you will have tribulation or trouble or suffering,
but take heart of overcome the world. So the idea
before we get into anything else is not Jesus didn't
come to fix your problems, to fixure your earthly problems addiction, depression, suffering, joblessness, loneliness.
(23:11):
He didn't come to fix those things. He came to
fix your greatest need, which is forgiveness by a holy God.
And some of the other surface level problems remain so
in so far that you look to him and continue
to look to him to receive the ultimate prize, which
(23:32):
is forgiveness adoption as sons and daughters of God. In
the same way, I don't want to remove all the
all the suffering of my kids because I want them,
in certain levels, to learn certain you know, I want
them to learn lessons in this house. I want them
to learn to be better people, and in doing that
(23:54):
or obedient people and in doing that, I leave certain
levels of suffering. And you know, for their life, I
don't say, Hey, as long as you long as you
trust your mommy and Daddy, you'll never have to do
a chore again in your life. I'll do all your chores.
Because if I did that and he didn't have any chores,
(24:15):
thinking on Lincoln, then eventually he would stop trusting me.
But if I continue to give him obstacles that I
know he could that he could overcome. This is speaking
earthly terms, not not spiritual things. But how much more
would spiritual things need to remain? Like like the Lord
(24:35):
tells Paul.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, so let me This is like a therapy session
for me. Sorry, Parker. I'm asking all these questions because
I think we all struggle with something, and I guess
I'm struggling with some things going on. So that's why
I'm asking these questions. But as we were talking about
the other day and the way that God made me,
in the way that my mind operates, is I'm very
gold driven and a lot of the goals that I've set,
(24:59):
I've accomplished. And so for instance, if fitness is an
easy one, so if I weigh two hundred pounds and
I'm twenty two percent body fat. I know the exact
strategy day by day to get to one seventy five
and eight percent body fat. I've done that before. Y'all
have seen it, and it's a it's daily goals. What
(25:22):
you put in your body. You know, what you eat,
the diet track it, what you work at, how you
work out, progressive overload, blah blah blah. We've talked about
this and then boom, I can hit that goal or
like business goals of Okay, getting number one songs in
the music industry, have done that. I know the process
of doing that. I know how to do it. Getting
views on videos on social media like all those. That's
(25:46):
how my brain operates. And so when we when we
turn this to Christianity and Jesus, that's where I struggle
because it's like, Okay, what's the ultimate goal to be
more like Jesus? Who was Jesus similar, perfect fully, god
fully man.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It's like, okay, that's that's impossible for me, and so.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
We can't be perfect, we can't be sinless, and so
it's like until until we're with him, like in this earth,
our earthly journey, it's impossible, and so my mind kind
of like hits like a governor a little bit like,
can't do it. But this is the goal, but I
can't do it. I'm going to sin again. I'm struggling
with this. It's all that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
It does, and that kind of self indulgence is a
sin for all of us. All of us, at some level,
all of us will deal with the sin that the
disciples had when they were arguing over who's the greatest.
No matter what circle we're in, whether you're in a
fitness circle, or you're in your workspace, or you're a
(26:53):
disciple of Jesus, at some level, the sin will creep up,
wondering stacking your self against the other people in the room,
who's the greatest in this room. Maybe that's a different
talk for another day. But what I thought when you
were talking, I thought about Paul and Galatians. Paul makes
(27:16):
his argument to Galatians and was talking about you think, oh,
you guys think you're hot stuff. I was a pharisee.
I did all the things. I've done everything you could
possibly think of. I've done all the rules. And not
only did I do all the rules, I was advancing
(27:37):
rapidly past everyone else. For someone my age, I was
doing all the things, checking all the boxes, and Paul
Paul says, I count all that as rubbish. All that
stuff didn't matter. So ad A good meditation on the
Cross is a good, good medicine for all of the
(27:57):
ideas of who's the greatest in this room, because that's
going to well up in all of us.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, it's more for me. It's more like I just
hate sin, and I hate the conflict of my flesh
wanting sin.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Hm.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
You know, it's just impossible, kind of like this guy said.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Paul says in Galatians One.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I'm just rambling. I don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Now, I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel
that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For
I did not receive it from any man, nor was
I taught it. But I received it through a revelation
of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former
life in Judaism, how I how I persecuted the Church
of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I
was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age
(28:49):
among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the
traditions of my father's. But when he who had set
me apart before I was born, who called me by
his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me
in order that I might preach him among the gentiles.
I did not immediately consult anyone, nor did I go
up to Jerusalem to those who were possibles before me.
(29:10):
But I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
So then this is Paul's testimony. But it's that key.
The key to that is But when he who had
set me apart before I was born, who called me
by his grace, was please reveal his son, everything changed.
What destroyed that idea of growing and winning and was
(29:36):
a good meditation on the son of God.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, but it's not winning for me. It's not me
trying to be perfect. Okay, It's just like I said,
it's just like hating that we live in a fallen world.
And I still think. I just I hate sin, but
I still have temptations. I just hate the fact that
(30:01):
I have tiendations.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Barker's got something I wanted to say, you guys, do
you guys know him? I think exactly what I just.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Think it's important for people to know, like even Granger
smith sins or even pastors daily have to you know,
repent of sins. I just think it's hard for some
of the casual listeners.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
So your point is that this guy who sent this
email shouldn't think that he's completely out of the.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yeah, I mean just speaking from personal experience, like because
we've all gone on seasons of just really good faithfulness.
So I Frank's coming for this guy. For sure, you could,
that's what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
But at the same time, the Bible is clear, like
Granger to your point with the chains being broken, that
Jesus died to free us from the slavery of sin.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Right, would you acknowledge that he freed us from the
penalty of sin? So we're we are made slaves to Christ,
no longer slaves to sin. Yes, but we still live
in a sinful world and we still have we still
live in a sinful flesh, So we have sinful desires,
live in a sinful flesh, but we are saved from
(31:15):
the penalty of sin. Pray, so you.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Don't think we're saved when when someone's converted to Christianity,
they're not they're not uh made, They're they're not freed
from their old slave, their old sinful desires.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Okay, the nuance of this is is that we're we're
no longer slaves to sin, We're slaves to Christ. But
Paul says, what, so, now that we've been set free? Right,
Paul says, what do we say then? Are we to
continue in that, say, in sin, so that grace may
be maybe may abound by no means. So then he
(32:01):
starts making this argument that we need to we need
once we're set free, to try not to sin, not
to save ourselves. But we've already been set free. Okay,
so once you're set free, you need to live a
life worthy of that calling. But then Paul has this,
he has this struggle that he says, I'm trying to
(32:31):
figure out where I should start with this without reading
too much. But in Romans seven, Paul talks about his
struggle like Tyler, where he says, so I find it,
I find it, so I find it be a law. Sorry,
so I find it to be a law that when
I want to do right, evil lies close at hand,
(32:54):
and when I delight in the law of God in
my inner being. But I see the members an I'm
having no trouble with this glare, But I see in
my members another law waging war against the law of
my mind and making me captive to the law of
sin that dwells in my members. So you have this
(33:14):
captivity that still exists. You're set free, You're made alive
in Christ. You're slave to Christ, no longer slaves to sin.
Paul says that, but I see in my members your
flesh another law waging war against the law of my
mind and making me captive to the law of sin
that dwells in my members. And then he says verse
twenty four, wretched man that I am, who will deliver
(33:35):
me from this body of death? It's like what's out
of his body? Like, I know what's right. My heart's
made new, I'm set free, but I'm living in a
and still living a sinful body.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, that's exactly how I feel.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Thanks be to God through Christ, Jesus our Lord. So
then I myself serve the law of God with my mind,
but my flesh I serve the law of sin. It's
this weird, really weird contradiction.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
What's the answer to that? Besides the day we die?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Thank God Lord, Thanks be to God through Christ. Jesses
our Lord. That's the answer. But the answer is we
our body's grown. Our body's grown. He actually says that
in the next chapter, in Romans eight, he says that,
he says that all creation is groaning, for you did
(34:26):
not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you receive the spirit of adoption of sons by
whom we cry ah Bah Father. The spirit himself bears
witness with our spirit. And we are children of God.
And if children, then heirs heirs of God, fellow heirs
with Christ. Provided we suffer with Him in order that
we may also be glorified with Him. So sufferings coming.
But then he says, for I consider that the sufferings
(34:47):
of this present time are not worth comparing with the
glory that's to be revealed to us. For creation waits
with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
And then he talks about how the creation groans like
in child Ian. Parker knows about that at home right now.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So what do you do with Romans six six? We
know that our old self was crucified with him in
order that the body of sin might be brought to
nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
And a few verses later he says, for sin will
have no dominion over you, since you are not under
the law but under grace.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
So you think that's still primarily talking about freeing us
from the penalty of sin.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
From the penalty of sin, But we also have now
the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us the
power to defeat it and kill it. So although we
still wage the war as long as we're in this flesh,
we waged the war, but now we have the power
of the Holy Spirit, who has guaranteed us will defeat it.
But that's not actionless from us. We must be killing
(35:45):
sin or it'll be killing us, says Johonawan.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, it's an interesting uh like push pull, Like if
you bring it back to this guy, like with his drunkenness,
he acknowledges he can't do it by his own stree
and then he feels that shame, which is like really
a gift of the Holy Spirit. Reminds me of John sixteen,
where Jesus says, I will send the spirit or the
helper who will convict the world of sin. It's like,
(36:12):
that's the first gift of God, is your shame, so
that then you would turn and it would lead you
to repentance. And then Jesus says, apart from me, you
can do nothing. And so it's like, yeah, we live
in this fallen world and we hate Christian hates his sin.
The unbeliever coddles his sin and is caught up in
the world and is indifferent and is a callous conscience.
(36:36):
The Christian all of a sudden feels this godly sorrow
like you're talking about, like the difference between that godly
sorrow and the worldly sorrow. The worldly sorrow just feels
a little guilty for getting drunk and they're or watching
porn or cussing somebody out, and then they just kind
of go back to their old ways. But the Christian
knows that Christ died for that and took on that
(36:58):
penalty on our behalf, and he wants to do what's
good and he will always have that, Yeah, that struggle
as long as we're in these bodies. And then that's
why I mean, every day, yeah you're not alone, taller
every day it's like, God, please send Jesus back today
because I who's going to deliver me from this body
of death? Please come back. I'm ready to be glorified.
(37:19):
I'm ready for this wretched body to be to be glorified.
And it's the state that it was intended.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
So not just a few paragraphs after what you're talking
about the wretched man that I am, Paul answers with
what we do now in Romans eight twelve. So, then, brothers,
we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according
to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh,
you will die. But here's what we get. But if
by the spirit you put to death the deeds of
(37:47):
the body, you will live. So we are given the
spirit to kill sin, but we are not set free
from a sinful world.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
And so by the spirit, and you said earlier actively,
so does that mean in prayer daily?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Yeah, Piper is always big on that you get the
sword every morning. And like you like, the Bible can
be over mil military, militarized, militized.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
I don't know what the worries.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
But where it's just like everything's you know what I mean,
where it's like everything is like overly militized. But then
at the same time, like it is a fight, like
Piper talks about in the morning, and like I'm at war.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I'm at war with sin every day. So Tyler and
I were talking this morning too. It's interesting because we
live in our in our modern time of Christianity, we
talk a lot about Ape's and six put on the
armor of God man, this is what we're kind of saying.
But in the Book of Joel it's literally put on sackcloth,
sack cloth, put on repentance. So there's there is a
(38:58):
connection with our our need to repent, to be broken
over our sin. We must feel the brokenness. I want
to bring something up to you guys. There's a friend
and he's he's reached out to me a few times,
but he has been he has been in his past
(39:20):
in heavy sin, recent past, deep sin. This is not
this is not somebody in our church or anything. It's
not it's not even somebody in our immediate friend group.
But I see this kind of language, and I wanted
to bring it up to you guys, because I talked
to him about it and he said this because he's
out there doing Bible studies, doing teaching, doing you know,
(39:43):
doing evangelism and there hasn't been deep public repentance in
the sin, and but he says this, here's the text.
He says, this is the says I never feel worthy
of God's call on my life, and this is the
(40:05):
enemy's number one tactic for me. And he goes on
to talk about shame and disgrace that he feels this
is the enemy's number one tactic on me. And he says,
but it should be only grace. And I always think
about that because we hear a lot about this enemy attack,
(40:26):
the enemy, the enemy's tactics. What the enemy wants to
do is bring shame on us and bring our sin
forefront in our minds so that we don't feel qualified.
And I say to that, I say sure, I bet
everyone in this room I can understand that. And I'm
(40:48):
sure that's an enemy attack. But for a second, do
we not think God does that too? Doesn't God make
you aware of your sin? Doesn't doesn't the psalmist say
my sin is ever before me? And doesn't God do that?
Speaker 3 (41:06):
So your point is, like most people say, Satan's just
pointing out my sin. Yeah, basically and then making me
feel ashamed of it.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, it's interesting, it feels Satan's trying to make me
feel like I'm not qualified to be worthy of God?
Or is God doing that? Is God? Does God bring
a man to nothing so that he turns in God's
kindness so that the man may be granted repentance and
(41:34):
turned back to the Lord with his whole heart, like
Joel one with all of his heart? Would he turn
to the Lord? Or is it this constant idea that
Satan is on a leash somewhere gawking at us and
pouring shame on us. God's going, I want you to
feel good and qualified, but Satan keeps pouring the shame
(41:56):
sauce on you. And I'm sorry that you don't feel
worthy of me. But it's this Satan keeps doing that?
Or is God saying, look to me, repent of your sin.
Stop acting like you're you think you're qualifying yourself because
somehow you're good. You're not You're not qualified, You're not good.
You do come from from shameful flesh. Turn to me.
(42:17):
I will restore you, but I need your full hearted
repentance once again, Joel won What do y'all think about that?
And I think it's a language used often now where
it's like I feel the enemy is attacking me with shame.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yeah, that's a lot more comforting knowing that God is
the one in control. Nothing happens under his watch that
he doesn't know of. Yeah, yeah, he doesn't. Nothing is
allowed unless he allows it.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
The Puritans, you said, pray Lord today, let your spirit
or let my conscience torment me if I go against it,
against it, like you provoke my conscience, my God given
(43:10):
moral barometer to torment me if I go against it.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Not satan. You know, it's not like.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
The enemy's gonna attack me with this shame. It's like
it could be. If you're feeling shame, it could be
the spirit convicting you.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, look at all this, joel one language here awake
you drumper, drunkards and weep and whale. And then he
goes to the virgins where sackcloth, and then he goes
put on sackcloth and lament for the verse thirteen of
(43:50):
priests and whale. There's so many whales in yours, so
many put on sackcloth, consecrate a fast, fast, call a
solemn assembly, gather the elder and all the inhabitants of
the land. Alas for the day for the for the
day of the Lord is near, and destruction, and as
is destruction of the Almighty as it comes. It's not
(44:11):
the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness,
is it. I'm not all cut off. Basically, you're saying
wail and weep and mourn. I mean all this lego cheer,
and also that the turn would come. Yet even now
declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart,
(44:31):
with fasting, with weeping, with mourning, and rend your hearts
and not your garments. Return to the Lord, for he
is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding and
steadfast love.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
Okay, so what's your what's the point here for that
guy who texted you who's like wants to go and
speak and like run his ministry and follow God, and
then he feels this weight of his sin and he's like,
that's just Satan attacking me. I just got to keep
pushing forward.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
I would say, consider that the Lord is drawing you
near with repentance, and.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
That's what he might not be Satan attacking you, but
this might be God convicting you of particular sin and
now go to him, rather than like, yeah, that's just
I'm on grace and so yeah, rather than repenting and
then asking God for.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Help, Yeah, Jesus says, or John the Baptist says, live
live a life of repentance. So shout you live live
out your repentance. Basically, you could say, so show fruit
(45:47):
of your repentance in your living. Repentance is a it's
a full turn. It is it is, it is a
whole heart. Otherwise it's not true repentance. So that's what
the that's in the Lord's kindness, that's what he grants
(46:08):
his people is repentance. It's it's out of kindness because
disaster is coming for everyone. And back to this email
from this guy, disaster is headed for all of us,
and it's head it for this guy said it for
all of us, and the only refuge is in Christ.
And praise the Lord that through this try and work
(46:35):
based he tried to, like do all the right things
and tried to he tried to make himself better and
he realizes he falls back into in this case, this
drunken stupor. He recognized, like you too, said Tyler, that
that was impossible for him and what he truly needed
is what he said here I repented of all my
(46:57):
sinful ways and said Jesus, I need you to show
the way because I cannot do it myself, which is
another way of saying I want in. I went in
the arc because I've tried to. I've tried to swim
out here in the rain and I can't do it.
The flood is upon me. Let me in the boat, please.
I can't. I can't dog paddle anymore. That's what he's saying.
(47:24):
And we know that because of the Gospel of Christ
and everything everything and in the Christian faith is it
flows from the Gospel, and it's different than any other religion,
saying that it is not what you do. It is
not how how much you try to not sin, but
(47:45):
it is looking to the one who is sin less.
So in all the things, Tyler, when when we say
when we talk to people in this podcast, what we're
not telling them is listen to this podcast and we'll
try our best to We'll try to answer your questions
and fix your problems. Try to take what you're going
through and try to fix it. Because we can't do that.
(48:08):
We can't do it. Nothing there not. We don't have
enough problems to fix. There's too many of them, you know,
like I could tell you all day long how to
fix your marriage, and then a tornado blows through your house.
I can't then I if I didn't prepare you for
the tornado, then what are you going to do? So
the only thing we do when we use the Bible
(48:29):
is we we show people how to look to Christ
as the refuge, as the boat. Look to Him as
your only savior through the suffering, because the suffering's coming
to the guy's sant female sufferings coming. That's why the
Psama says, though I walk through the valley of the
Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for you
are with me. It doesn't say though I was headed
(48:52):
for the valley of the Shadow of Death, I saw you,
and you took me away from the valley. Now we
walk through it. But he fears no evil because the
Lord is with him. And that's that's the heart of
what we want to say on this podcast say is look, man,
we can't fix your problems. There's too many of them.
There's no way we can get to all your problems.
(49:12):
We could show you some things to make you know,
stop the bleeding, but we can't. We can't heal you.
But we could tell you to look to the one
who is sinless, Christ, who went to the cross, lived
a perfect life, was was killed for our transgressions. That
the our iniquities put on him, the Lord that laid
(49:33):
his wrath, the coming day of judgment on the Christ,
on the Messiah, on the Savior. And those that look
to him and trust in him, repent, turn from their ways.
Look to him. We'll be saved. And the fruit of
that always shows up in a life that's changed. Always,
your life is different when you're saved. Everything's different after that.
(49:56):
And part of it is there's no more striving to
be good. The Bible, reading, the church attendants, all the
stuff the evangelizing always flows from the idea that you're
already saved. And if you're not doing that stuff, then
we would question if you're saved at all. Maybe you're
a nominal Christian, maybe you're a Christian deist. And praise
(50:19):
the Lord for this eemail. Praise the Lord that he
saved Another soul is that the Gospel was heard and believed.
Anything else, Kayden were good. Pray for an man. We
hope he feels better. We see you guys next Monday,
Host
Granger Smith
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