January 13, 2025 • 25 mins
Counterfeit Believers:
How to Spot Them According to Jesus
This podcast episode dives deep into the essential question of what it truly means to be a believer in Christ, particularly in today's complex social climate.
Pastor Robert Thibodeau and guest Scott Wright explore how Jesus defined a true believer, emphasizing that recognition of sin is the first step in faith.
The discussion highlights the importance of surrendering one’s life to Christ, moving beyond mere acknowledgment of faith to a full commitment to His authority. They also address the challenge of identifying counterfeit beliefs in a world filled with distractions, stressing the necessity of aligning with the Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. With insights into the last stage of the church and the urgency of living authentically as believers, this episode serves as both a call to introspection and an encouragement to embrace the truth of the Gospel.
Takeaways:
- The podcast emphasizes the importance of understanding sin as the core issue for believers, which is a timeless message.
- Surrendering to Christ means giving up your life and complete authority to Him.
- Being a believer in today's world requires wholehearted commitment, not just acknowledgment of faith.
- Counterfeit beliefs can be identified by testing them against the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
- The last stage of the church centers on recognizing the work of the cross in our lives.
- True believers must live under the authority of Christ, which challenges societal views on personal freedom.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Email: gccgodcenteredconcept2038@gmail.com
Book: “God Centered Concept Journal: Making God’s Word My Ways.” - on Amazon
Podcast: The God Centered Concept
_____________________________________________
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Welcome to Revelation Warning,a weekly podcast hosted by Pastor
Robert Thibodeau as heinterviews prophecy experts from
around the world as we discusscurrent events in relation to Bible
prophecy.
All of this is to give theworld a final Revelation Warning.
Now here is your host withthis week's guest, Pastor Robert
(00:29):
Thibodeau, Foreign.
Everywhere.
Pastor Robert Thibodeau here.
Welcome to the RevelationWarning podcast.
We are so blessed that you'rejoining us here today.
First off, at the time of thisrecording, this is the first week
(00:51):
in January 2025.
So happy new Year to you andyours and, and I appreciate you starting
your year off with us today.
Praise God.
As we get started, I want toshare that this podcast, this podcast
today is sponsored byPodcasters for Christ.
Now, if you're a pastor, aministry leader, a Christian entrepreneur
who's struggling to fill theseats, or if you've noticed that
(01:13):
it's harder today to getpeople to come to your church or
attend your trainings and allthat, don't despair.
That's where Podcasts forChrist can help you to get the word
out about what you're doing.
Now, we're currently offeringa free podcast interview for pastors,
church leaders, ministryleaders to share about everything
that you're doing.
Then we'll blast it out to allof our followers and all that.
(01:34):
Okay.
It's a great way to promotewhat you're doing without increasing
your advertising budget.
And I know how important thatis in today's economic environment.
Amen.
Just go to podcastofsprice.comfor more information.
Now, today we're going to bedoing a deep dive into, into a question
that just plagues a lot ofChristians today, and that is, what
(01:54):
does it mean to be a believer?
I mean, this is especiallyimportant in the day and time and
social climate that wecurrently find ourselves in today.
Amen.
To dive into this topic, wehave back with us today our good
friend T.S.
wright, author of the GodCentered Concepts.
Together we're going toexplore how Jesus defined a true
(02:16):
believer, what it looks liketo live out that faith in today's
world, how to recognizecounterfeit beliefs, and how all
of this connects to the laststage of the church.
So get ready for an insightfuland thought provoking discussion
today.
Praise God.
With that being said, help me.
Welcome to the program, ourgood friend, Scott Wright.
(02:36):
Scott, it's a blessing to haveyou back on the program.
Kick it off 2025, brother.
Happy new Year to you and yours.
Well, happy New Year to youand I'm just grateful to Be back
here and ready for another funand fruitful discussion.
Amen.
Amen.
Well, I guess we're going tostart with a question.
How did Jesus define a believer?
(02:58):
Wow.
You know, it's funny when,When Jesus is talking to Nicodemus
in John 3, John chapter 3.
I, I've always, I, I have sat,even when I was a new believer, just
pondering what did that really.
What was that conversationreally about?
(03:19):
You know, what, what spurredthe conversation?
Why were they having it?
What was really going on?
And, And I feel like that whatwas happening was, is there were
so many people that had somany ideas of what just how the nation
of Israel was supposed to, youknow, who they thought the Messiah
(03:42):
was going to be.
They were just struggling with that.
It was.
There was, you know, theythought it was going to be a political
king.
So many of them, and, youknow, some of them just, so many
of them lost hope.
But had they really paidattention to the word of God as it
was written, not putting theirown spin on it, they would have realized
(04:03):
that this was an eternalkingdom and that an eternal kingdom
would have brought aninternal, eternal Messiah.
Eternal Messiah would mean onethat takes care of their real issue.
And the real issue was not the Romans.
It was sin.
Sin is the issue.
I will tell you, to be abeliever, you have to first recognize
(04:25):
that sin is the issue.
It is the.
It's not just the issue of theday, which it feels like in this
day and age, everything'sabout, you know, what is the.
What is the thing of today orthe message of today, or, you know,
and it seems like it changesevery week.
Right?
Amen.
But this message has not changed.
It has been the same since thevery beginning of human history.
(04:47):
It is going to be the same allthe way through the end times and
everything in between.
And the issue is sin.
Sin is the issue.
So how does that connect us tobeing a believer in Christ?
Jesus says we must be born again.
Yeah.
We must not.
And, you know, and thatdoesn't mean we're going to be physically
(05:07):
born again, but we must bespiritually born again.
Well, that confused Nicodemustoo, right?
Of course.
I mean, he's like, how can Igo back in the womb?
I mean, holy cow.
I mean, that's, you know, andso, you know, but, you know, flesh
gives birth to flesh, but theSpirit gives birth to the spirit.
Well, if the spur, if the HolySpirit is the one that works within
(05:32):
us to make us a believer inChrist, that means obviously the
Holy Spirit plays a massiverole in this.
And the Holy Spirit has towork inside of us to shape our hearts
to understand this message.
And then we, we.
Our job is.
We have to surrender to that.
That's the key.
Notice I use the wordsurrender and not believe because
(05:55):
the problem is, is that theword belief in the English language
is not the same as the wordbelief would have been in that day
and age.
It wouldn't have.
It would have.
The word belief today does nothave the same power, so to speak,
because it just means, really,the way we think of belief and in
(06:16):
the English language is just acknowledgment.
You cannot just acknowledge this.
Okay, yeah.
Surrender means a wholehearted surrender.
It means a giving up ofoneself too.
So for instance, if you, you,you went.
You were in the military, all right?
When you're in the military,you're giving up your life to serve
(06:39):
in the military.
You are, you belong to them.
Well, it's no different whenyou become.
If you're going to surrenderto Christ, you're surrendering your
life to be a soldier for Christ.
You are.
It's a wholehearted.
Throwing yourself into.
Every aspect of you belongs to Christ.
(07:00):
You're giving it all to him.
That's what being a believerreally is.
It's a wholesale change.
You're saying, I can't do this anymore.
I'm not going to do this anymore.
This belongs to Christ.
And now I'm going to turn itall over to him.
And he gives a lot ofspeeches, a lot of sermons, a lot
(07:22):
of teachings.
After that, after you know it,after that.
John 3:16.
Of course, I know some of thesequence sequences in which John
puts things is not insequence, but he gives a lot of other
messages that really help giveyou the grounding for that.
One of the ones that comes tomind is Luke, chapter 14.
(07:45):
And he.
I tell people envision Jesuswalking in a crowd with a crowd.
He's been doing miracles.
He's put the Pharisees andSadducees in their place.
Nobody can stand up to thisguy and his teachings and everything
that he's been doing isliterally perfect.
And you're like, okay.
(08:06):
I mean, you're like, you're excited.
This guy, I mean, he's helping us.
He's doing all this.
And he turns around and helooks at you and he go, if you do
not hate your mother, yourbrother, your father, your son, your
friends, your, even your ownlife, you are not worthy to be my
disciple.
Deny yourself.
Take up your cross and follow me.
(08:31):
I would imagine.
I don't Care where they were at.
You could probably heard a pindrop after that.
I'm just envisioning walkingon him, just turning, saying that
to all of them after they'veseen all these things and experience
a lot of these things.
And they're like, I mean,yeah, remember.
There was that point when, youknow, he was saying something and
(08:53):
then everybody left.
Yeah.
And then he turned to thedisciples, said, you want to go too?
Go ahead.
Yeah, leave.
You know, leave.
Yeah.
He's.
I'm not forcing anybody to stay.
No, they got to want to stay.
So, yeah.
And I opened with thequestion, you know, what does a believer
look like, especially in thissocial climate that we live in today?
(09:16):
So how can you define what abeliever looks like today?
Again, what do you.
How do you determine to whatyou're going to live up to?
You know, well, you surrenderto Christ now.
You have to live under his authority.
See, the key is that right there.
So, and, and I would say evenas much as at any time in history,
(09:40):
I would say even today,because nobody in our society, we
are geared.
Everything in our.
In our psyche, in our trainingand in our culture is all about personal
freedom.
Everything is geared towardspersonal freedom.
Nobody.
It is.
It is completely looked downupon in every way, shape and form
(10:02):
to put yourself under theauthority of anything except what
you think, how you should live.
That's just way we're trained.
That's what Americans andWestern society has become.
That idea has transformed theworld in many ways.
However, what Jesus is sayingis, you're putting yourself under
(10:26):
my authority.
That's what Jesus is saying.
He's.
He's telling us to putourselves under his authority.
That is the key.
Are you willing, would you bewilling to give up all your freedom
and everything else for Christ?
That means nothing is off the table.
There's not a thing in yourlife that is off the table when it
(10:50):
comes to putting it under theauthority of Christ.
That means Christ has thefirst and last say in everything.
And honestly, that's what thewhole idea of the God center concept
is, is that God is the centerand that he is the ultimate authority
(11:11):
and that we put ourselvesunder his authority.
It's exactly what you said, Bob.
You talked about that right there.
You said he looked at thosedisciples after everybody else had
left.
You want to leave too.
He gave them a choice.
It wasn't like he was forcing him.
He gives us the same choice.
So I tell people, you don'treally have rights.
(11:33):
You don't really have freedom.
You have a choice.
There are Two kingdoms.
You're going to serve one of them.
Which kingdom are you going to serve?
And put yourself under theauthority of making no decision and
trying to stay in that middle ground.
And that neutral ground ismaking a decision.
There is no middle ground.
Amen.
And that takes any of yoursoul wants you to be neutral.
(11:55):
He wants that neutralitybecause that's the perfect spot for
him.
Yep.
And like I said, that takes meto my next question.
Because we know there arethose who proclaim to be believers,
but they're, let's just saytheir lifestyles leave some questions
about how true that mayactually be.
And thankfully, the finaldecision isn't left to us as mere
(12:19):
mortals.
But how can we identifycounterfeit believers?
Is that even possible for usto identify counterfeit believers?
So Jesus talked about thisvery thing in Matthew chapter 13
when he talked about theparable of the tars and the wheat.
Now in your Bibles it's justsay weeds and wheat.
But I want you to replace theword wheat or excuse me, weeds with
(12:40):
Taurus.
What Ataris is, is a certaintype of weed that actually looks
like wheat until it's fullygrown, until it's fully mature.
And what it is is that a lotof things are going to look exactly
like what they should looklike up until full maturity.
That's why you got to testthem by their fruits.
(13:02):
So here's what I say, and it'svery simple.
I have two filters and both ofthese filters matter.
The first filter is the Wordof God.
If something is not in line inalignment with the Word of God, then
it is not alignment with Christ.
(13:23):
And people can say what theywant, but Christ made the Word of
God a centerpiece of every,all of his teaching.
He reverts back to the OldTestament many, many times.
He reverts back to differentbooks of the Old Testament many,
(13:45):
many times.
So we have to realize that heis already uplifting the Word of
God.
And don't think of the Word ofGod as, as just the Bible, like words
written on paper.
Think of those as Godbreathing life into a subject.
(14:08):
It's a living.
The Word is a living organismbecause it is born from the Holy
Spirit.
The other filter is the Holy Spirit.
Because the whole.
Not everything in life isgoing to be in a perfect.
Like there's some things thatare like, it's just.
It feels like there's thisgray area with stuff.
(14:28):
Yeah.
Because it's not exactlyspelled out in the Bible.
That's where the Holy Spiritcomes in and that's where us Being
committed to the Holy Spiritand following the spiritual disciplines
help us to be able to rootthrough those.
But I will say this, and thisis an easy way when it's in those
gray areas, anything in yourlife that diminishes the work of
(14:53):
the cross in any way is counterfeit.
If you go back and you lookat, and we were to study all the
heresies that Paul, even Paulwas dealing with, I mean, he dealt
with a lot of them, okay?
These disciples were dealing,especially Paul, establishing all
these different churches andthe churches and all the counterfeits
(15:17):
and all the schisms and allthe things that we've seen over the
ages.
Even, you know, even theprimary church of the time got off
course and started formingtheir own counterfeit things and
adding their man made beliefs,which is part of what led to the,
the whole ProtestantReformation and the English Reformation.
(15:38):
And there was, I mean, youguys can study that.
And I will actually be talkingabout that some on my podcast if
you ever want to get moredepth into that.
But, and in some of mywritings, the, the real key is still
this.
Anything that diminishes thework of the cross is counterfeit.
(16:03):
Yeah.
Amen.
We, anytime we try to diminish that.
So every time you have thatdiscussion, no matter where that
discussion will start, it willalways end up in a place of how serious
do you take your sin?
How serious does God look atyour sin and how does the work of
(16:25):
the cross take care of that?
It will always end up in that place.
No matter where you start, nomatter what the subject is, every
answer always filters.
When we funnel it down, itwill funnel down to that very fundamental.
Again, ask yourself, is what Ibelieve, what I'm promoting, what
(16:46):
I'm doing, is it diminishingthe work of the cross in any way?
That would be a question thatI would ask.
And we always wrap ourdiscussion around the end days and
the last stage of the church.
And how does all this fit intothe end times?
And as I said, the last day,last age of the church.
(17:07):
Well, Revelation, chapter 3,verse, verses 18 through 21 are really
important because that iscoming out of the message that was
delivered for the last stageof the church, the church of Lyodecia.
Jesus is talking about how toconnect with him.
If you go to the very start ofverse 18, he says, Buy from me.
(17:33):
Gold refined by fire.
Gold represents the truth.
Refined by fire is the workingit out into.
And working it into your, intoyour being.
So it becomes faith.
But gold represents that truth.
Who does Jesus tell us to buyit from Him.
(17:55):
That means he is the onlytruth it goes in.
And that all ties right backin when he said, I'm the way, the
truth and the life.
No one comes to the Fatherexcept through me.
Truth begins and ends with theWord of God.
Jesus is the Word and made flesh.
It begins and ends with hiswork at the cross.
(18:15):
Everything.
It is no different.
And so in this age, what wehave now, instead of having a society
that represses knowledge, orthe gaining of it, I should say,
the knowledge was there.
It was just for so long.
Society was designed tosuppress knowledge.
And then the printing presswill start to change all that.
(18:39):
But as we, as we get to nowwith social media, it is so easy
to.
We can type something in andwe can find out all kinds of truth
quote truths, right?
Yeah.
But the truth about lifebegins and ends with.
With the cross.
It truly does.
Your life begins and ends withthe cross.
(19:01):
All judgment will be funneledthrough your surrendering or not
surrendering to the cross.
The work in the cross.
I mean, that's just truth.
And that's what Jesus istrying to tell people.
You've abandoned the truth.
This is what the church ofLaodicea is.
He's really telling them.
You've abandoned the truthbecause you were completely deceived.
(19:22):
You, you think you have itall, but you go back to verse 17
and 16, you'll kind of get a.
You'll think you have allthis, but yet you're rich, wretched,
pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
All of a sudden you, you startthinking about that.
What does that really mean?
That means you no longerunderstand the truth at all.
You don't even have it.
(19:43):
You've completely abandoned it.
Which means you probably haveall these other truths that you're
buying into.
But there's only one truth,and that is through Christ.
And that is done at the workof the cross.
I'm going to tell you this, Ihave to say this, and I think this
completely defines this age.
(20:03):
There's always the next bestthing to make your life either better
or make you feel better ormaking you do better.
But I'm going to tell you, nomatter what you do, you're still
going to face the grave.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
You're still going to face the grave.
You, you can do all thecosmetic surgery, you can do all
the stuff, make yourself lookall whatever and look all great.
(20:26):
And you can get, you know, youcan put all the money in and you
can get the next trophy wife,or you can Be the next trophy wife
or, or have all the money inthe world and all that stuff.
But you're still going to facethe grave.
Yeah.
No matter what, no matter whoyou are, it is going to happen.
And it all filters right backto the same place, which is exactly
(20:48):
what Jesus is trying to tellyou, only by the truth from Christ.
Because in the end, it's theonly one that's going to be the eternal
truth that matters.
The rest of that stuff's goingto fade.
None of it's going to matter.
Matthew, chapter 24.
Heaven and Earth will passaway, but my words will never pass
away.
That's exactly what Jesus said.
(21:08):
That's right.
That's right.
It is so important that inthis age that we do not lose focus
on the real truth and on theultimate truth.
And that is the truth thatJesus died for our sins.
How serious our sin separatesus from God and how serious our sin
is.
How his work on the crosstakes care of it and that we surrender
(21:29):
to that as an act of our will.
Amen.
Amen.
Well, Scott, as usual, thishas been so interesting.
How can someone reach out toyou with questions or they want to
get more information or maybeinvite you to an interview like this?
How can someone get in touchwith you?
Sure, it's GCC, God CenteredConcept 2038 gmail.com Just reach
(21:51):
out to us.
We'll be glad to do interviews.
We, we're actually nowlaunching our own YouTube podcast
on you.
Our podcast on YouTube aswe've had one on Spotify and Apple.
But we're going to launch thisthing on YouTube now and we're redone
the show recordings arealready in progress and we're actually
going to start doing interviews.
So if you know, you're, you'resomebody that is part of a podcast
(22:16):
broad, you know, wanting toget in or in that network.
We also do interviews ourselves.
So we're going to be doing interviews.
And hey, for all you listenersout there, Pastor Bob's going to
be on one of our podcasts herepretty soon as well.
So.
Amen.
And you cannot miss that episode.
Episode for sure.
Okay.
But we're going to be, we'reworking on putting out our writings
(22:38):
and doing all the pieces.
This ministry is alreadystarting to grow and we've, we've,
we've already taken a lot ofsteps now to, to get the ball rolling
here in the direction that wewant this ministry to roll.
Amen.
Amen.
I'll put all this informationin the links down below, folks.
I can't emphasize enough howimportant it is for you to realize
(23:02):
we are living right now in theactual last of the last days.
Okay?
The days that have beenprophesied as the end times.
They're here at the doorstepright now.
Just drop down the show notes,reach out to Scott Wright, get in
touch with him, subscribe tohis podcast, be sure to purchase
his journal, start learningall about the God centered concepts
that he specializes in.
(23:22):
Amen.
I mean, well, we justscratched the surface on stuff today.
Praise God and do it right nowbefore you forget about it.
You.
You don't want to give thedevil a chance to distract you and
then make you forget all aboutgetting something so important as
getting in touch with Scottright, right now.
Just drop down the shows,click the links.
They're right there.
Scott, I appreciate you takingthe time to join us today and sharing
(23:44):
all this information and Ican't wait till the next one.
Hey, looking forward toanother one, Bob.
And all I can say to everybodyis Happy New Year.
Amen.
Amen, folks.
That's all the time we havefor today for Scott Wright, myself,
Pastor Bob, reminding you tobe blessed in all that you do.
(24:09):
You have been listening toRevelation Warning with Pastor Robert
Thibodeau and his guest experton Bible prophecy as it relates to
current events.
This podcast is not designedto invoke fear, but concern.
Help us to make everyone awarethat the soon return of Jesus is
close at hand by clicking thelike subscribe and then share buttons
(24:33):
below.
Share this episode with yourloved ones, friends and co workers.
For more information on ourMinistry, please visit podcasterforchrist.com
and be sure to come back nextweek for another episode of Revelation
Warning.
Welcome to Revelation Warning,a weekly podcast hosted by Pastor
Robert Thibodeau as heinterviews prophecy experts from
around the world as we discusscurrent events in relation to Bible
prophecy.
All of this is to give theworld a final Revelation Warning.
Now here is your host withthis week's guest, Pastor Robert
(00:29):
Thibodeau, Foreign.
Everywhere.
Pastor Robert Thibodeau here.
Welcome to the RevelationWarning podcast.
We are so blessed that you'rejoining us here today.
First off, at the time of thisrecording, this is the first week
(00:51):
in January 2025.
So happy new Year to you andyours and, and I appreciate you starting
your year off with us today.
Praise God.
As we get started, I want toshare that this podcast, this podcast
today is sponsored byPodcasters for Christ.
Now, if you're a pastor, aministry leader, a Christian entrepreneur
who's struggling to fill theseats, or if you've noticed that
(01:13):
it's harder today to getpeople to come to your church or
attend your trainings and allthat, don't despair.
That's where Podcasts forChrist can help you to get the word
out about what you're doing.
Now, we're currently offeringa free podcast interview for pastors,
church leaders, ministryleaders to share about everything
that you're doing.
Then we'll blast it out to allof our followers and all that.
(01:34):
Okay.
It's a great way to promotewhat you're doing without increasing
your advertising budget.
And I know how important thatis in today's economic environment.
Amen.
Just go to podcastofsprice.comfor more information.
Now, today we're going to bedoing a deep dive into, into a question
that just plagues a lot ofChristians today, and that is, what
(01:54):
does it mean to be a believer?
I mean, this is especiallyimportant in the day and time and
social climate that wecurrently find ourselves in today.
Amen.
To dive into this topic, wehave back with us today our good
friend T.S.
wright, author of the GodCentered Concepts.
Together we're going toexplore how Jesus defined a true
(02:16):
believer, what it looks liketo live out that faith in today's
world, how to recognizecounterfeit beliefs, and how all
of this connects to the laststage of the church.
So get ready for an insightfuland thought provoking discussion
today.
Praise God.
With that being said, help me.
Welcome to the program, ourgood friend, Scott Wright.
(02:36):
Scott, it's a blessing to haveyou back on the program.
Kick it off 2025, brother.
Happy new Year to you and yours.
Well, happy New Year to youand I'm just grateful to Be back
here and ready for another funand fruitful discussion.
Amen.
Amen.
Well, I guess we're going tostart with a question.
How did Jesus define a believer?
(02:58):
Wow.
You know, it's funny when,When Jesus is talking to Nicodemus
in John 3, John chapter 3.
I, I've always, I, I have sat,even when I was a new believer, just
pondering what did that really.
What was that conversationreally about?
(03:19):
You know, what, what spurredthe conversation?
Why were they having it?
What was really going on?
And, And I feel like that whatwas happening was, is there were
so many people that had somany ideas of what just how the nation
of Israel was supposed to, youknow, who they thought the Messiah
(03:42):
was going to be.
They were just struggling with that.
It was.
There was, you know, theythought it was going to be a political
king.
So many of them, and, youknow, some of them just, so many
of them lost hope.
But had they really paidattention to the word of God as it
was written, not putting theirown spin on it, they would have realized
(04:03):
that this was an eternalkingdom and that an eternal kingdom
would have brought aninternal, eternal Messiah.
Eternal Messiah would mean onethat takes care of their real issue.
And the real issue was not the Romans.
It was sin.
Sin is the issue.
I will tell you, to be abeliever, you have to first recognize
(04:25):
that sin is the issue.
It is the.
It's not just the issue of theday, which it feels like in this
day and age, everything'sabout, you know, what is the.
What is the thing of today orthe message of today, or, you know,
and it seems like it changesevery week.
Right?
Amen.
But this message has not changed.
It has been the same since thevery beginning of human history.
(04:47):
It is going to be the same allthe way through the end times and
everything in between.
And the issue is sin.
Sin is the issue.
So how does that connect us tobeing a believer in Christ?
Jesus says we must be born again.
Yeah.
We must not.
And, you know, and thatdoesn't mean we're going to be physically
(05:07):
born again, but we must bespiritually born again.
Well, that confused Nicodemustoo, right?
Of course.
I mean, he's like, how can Igo back in the womb?
I mean, holy cow.
I mean, that's, you know, andso, you know, but, you know, flesh
gives birth to flesh, but theSpirit gives birth to the spirit.
Well, if the spur, if the HolySpirit is the one that works within
(05:32):
us to make us a believer inChrist, that means obviously the
Holy Spirit plays a massiverole in this.
And the Holy Spirit has towork inside of us to shape our hearts
to understand this message.
And then we, we.
Our job is.
We have to surrender to that.
That's the key.
Notice I use the wordsurrender and not believe because
(05:55):
the problem is, is that theword belief in the English language
is not the same as the wordbelief would have been in that day
and age.
It wouldn't have.
It would have.
The word belief today does nothave the same power, so to speak,
because it just means, really,the way we think of belief and in
(06:16):
the English language is just acknowledgment.
You cannot just acknowledge this.
Okay, yeah.
Surrender means a wholehearted surrender.
It means a giving up ofoneself too.
So for instance, if you, you,you went.
You were in the military, all right?
When you're in the military,you're giving up your life to serve
(06:39):
in the military.
You are, you belong to them.
Well, it's no different whenyou become.
If you're going to surrenderto Christ, you're surrendering your
life to be a soldier for Christ.
You are.
It's a wholehearted.
Throwing yourself into.
Every aspect of you belongs to Christ.
(07:00):
You're giving it all to him.
That's what being a believerreally is.
It's a wholesale change.
You're saying, I can't do this anymore.
I'm not going to do this anymore.
This belongs to Christ.
And now I'm going to turn itall over to him.
And he gives a lot ofspeeches, a lot of sermons, a lot
(07:22):
of teachings.
After that, after you know it,after that.
John 3:16.
Of course, I know some of thesequence sequences in which John
puts things is not insequence, but he gives a lot of other
messages that really help giveyou the grounding for that.
One of the ones that comes tomind is Luke, chapter 14.
(07:45):
And he.
I tell people envision Jesuswalking in a crowd with a crowd.
He's been doing miracles.
He's put the Pharisees andSadducees in their place.
Nobody can stand up to thisguy and his teachings and everything
that he's been doing isliterally perfect.
And you're like, okay.
(08:06):
I mean, you're like, you're excited.
This guy, I mean, he's helping us.
He's doing all this.
And he turns around and helooks at you and he go, if you do
not hate your mother, yourbrother, your father, your son, your
friends, your, even your ownlife, you are not worthy to be my
disciple.
Deny yourself.
Take up your cross and follow me.
(08:31):
I would imagine.
I don't Care where they were at.
You could probably heard a pindrop after that.
I'm just envisioning walkingon him, just turning, saying that
to all of them after they'veseen all these things and experience
a lot of these things.
And they're like, I mean,yeah, remember.
There was that point when, youknow, he was saying something and
(08:53):
then everybody left.
Yeah.
And then he turned to thedisciples, said, you want to go too?
Go ahead.
Yeah, leave.
You know, leave.
Yeah.
He's.
I'm not forcing anybody to stay.
No, they got to want to stay.
So, yeah.
And I opened with thequestion, you know, what does a believer
look like, especially in thissocial climate that we live in today?
(09:16):
So how can you define what abeliever looks like today?
Again, what do you.
How do you determine to whatyou're going to live up to?
You know, well, you surrenderto Christ now.
You have to live under his authority.
See, the key is that right there.
So, and, and I would say evenas much as at any time in history,
(09:40):
I would say even today,because nobody in our society, we
are geared.
Everything in our.
In our psyche, in our trainingand in our culture is all about personal
freedom.
Everything is geared towardspersonal freedom.
Nobody.
It is.
It is completely looked downupon in every way, shape and form
(10:02):
to put yourself under theauthority of anything except what
you think, how you should live.
That's just way we're trained.
That's what Americans andWestern society has become.
That idea has transformed theworld in many ways.
However, what Jesus is sayingis, you're putting yourself under
(10:26):
my authority.
That's what Jesus is saying.
He's.
He's telling us to putourselves under his authority.
That is the key.
Are you willing, would you bewilling to give up all your freedom
and everything else for Christ?
That means nothing is off the table.
There's not a thing in yourlife that is off the table when it
(10:50):
comes to putting it under theauthority of Christ.
That means Christ has thefirst and last say in everything.
And honestly, that's what thewhole idea of the God center concept
is, is that God is the centerand that he is the ultimate authority
(11:11):
and that we put ourselvesunder his authority.
It's exactly what you said, Bob.
You talked about that right there.
You said he looked at thosedisciples after everybody else had
left.
You want to leave too.
He gave them a choice.
It wasn't like he was forcing him.
He gives us the same choice.
So I tell people, you don'treally have rights.
(11:33):
You don't really have freedom.
You have a choice.
There are Two kingdoms.
You're going to serve one of them.
Which kingdom are you going to serve?
And put yourself under theauthority of making no decision and
trying to stay in that middle ground.
And that neutral ground ismaking a decision.
There is no middle ground.
Amen.
And that takes any of yoursoul wants you to be neutral.
(11:55):
He wants that neutralitybecause that's the perfect spot for
him.
Yep.
And like I said, that takes meto my next question.
Because we know there arethose who proclaim to be believers,
but they're, let's just saytheir lifestyles leave some questions
about how true that mayactually be.
And thankfully, the finaldecision isn't left to us as mere
(12:19):
mortals.
But how can we identifycounterfeit believers?
Is that even possible for usto identify counterfeit believers?
So Jesus talked about thisvery thing in Matthew chapter 13
when he talked about theparable of the tars and the wheat.
Now in your Bibles it's justsay weeds and wheat.
But I want you to replace theword wheat or excuse me, weeds with
(12:40):
Taurus.
What Ataris is, is a certaintype of weed that actually looks
like wheat until it's fullygrown, until it's fully mature.
And what it is is that a lotof things are going to look exactly
like what they should looklike up until full maturity.
That's why you got to testthem by their fruits.
(13:02):
So here's what I say, and it'svery simple.
I have two filters and both ofthese filters matter.
The first filter is the Wordof God.
If something is not in line inalignment with the Word of God, then
it is not alignment with Christ.
(13:23):
And people can say what theywant, but Christ made the Word of
God a centerpiece of every,all of his teaching.
He reverts back to the OldTestament many, many times.
He reverts back to differentbooks of the Old Testament many,
(13:45):
many times.
So we have to realize that heis already uplifting the Word of
God.
And don't think of the Word ofGod as, as just the Bible, like words
written on paper.
Think of those as Godbreathing life into a subject.
(14:08):
It's a living.
The Word is a living organismbecause it is born from the Holy
Spirit.
The other filter is the Holy Spirit.
Because the whole.
Not everything in life isgoing to be in a perfect.
Like there's some things thatare like, it's just.
It feels like there's thisgray area with stuff.
(14:28):
Yeah.
Because it's not exactlyspelled out in the Bible.
That's where the Holy Spiritcomes in and that's where us Being
committed to the Holy Spiritand following the spiritual disciplines
help us to be able to rootthrough those.
But I will say this, and thisis an easy way when it's in those
gray areas, anything in yourlife that diminishes the work of
(14:53):
the cross in any way is counterfeit.
If you go back and you lookat, and we were to study all the
heresies that Paul, even Paulwas dealing with, I mean, he dealt
with a lot of them, okay?
These disciples were dealing,especially Paul, establishing all
these different churches andthe churches and all the counterfeits
(15:17):
and all the schisms and allthe things that we've seen over the
ages.
Even, you know, even theprimary church of the time got off
course and started formingtheir own counterfeit things and
adding their man made beliefs,which is part of what led to the,
the whole ProtestantReformation and the English Reformation.
(15:38):
And there was, I mean, youguys can study that.
And I will actually be talkingabout that some on my podcast if
you ever want to get moredepth into that.
But, and in some of mywritings, the, the real key is still
this.
Anything that diminishes thework of the cross is counterfeit.
(16:03):
Yeah.
Amen.
We, anytime we try to diminish that.
So every time you have thatdiscussion, no matter where that
discussion will start, it willalways end up in a place of how serious
do you take your sin?
How serious does God look atyour sin and how does the work of
(16:25):
the cross take care of that?
It will always end up in that place.
No matter where you start, nomatter what the subject is, every
answer always filters.
When we funnel it down, itwill funnel down to that very fundamental.
Again, ask yourself, is what Ibelieve, what I'm promoting, what
(16:46):
I'm doing, is it diminishingthe work of the cross in any way?
That would be a question thatI would ask.
And we always wrap ourdiscussion around the end days and
the last stage of the church.
And how does all this fit intothe end times?
And as I said, the last day,last age of the church.
(17:07):
Well, Revelation, chapter 3,verse, verses 18 through 21 are really
important because that iscoming out of the message that was
delivered for the last stageof the church, the church of Lyodecia.
Jesus is talking about how toconnect with him.
If you go to the very start ofverse 18, he says, Buy from me.
(17:33):
Gold refined by fire.
Gold represents the truth.
Refined by fire is the workingit out into.
And working it into your, intoyour being.
So it becomes faith.
But gold represents that truth.
Who does Jesus tell us to buyit from Him.
(17:55):
That means he is the onlytruth it goes in.
And that all ties right backin when he said, I'm the way, the
truth and the life.
No one comes to the Fatherexcept through me.
Truth begins and ends with theWord of God.
Jesus is the Word and made flesh.
It begins and ends with hiswork at the cross.
(18:15):
Everything.
It is no different.
And so in this age, what wehave now, instead of having a society
that represses knowledge, orthe gaining of it, I should say,
the knowledge was there.
It was just for so long.
Society was designed tosuppress knowledge.
And then the printing presswill start to change all that.
(18:39):
But as we, as we get to nowwith social media, it is so easy
to.
We can type something in andwe can find out all kinds of truth
quote truths, right?
Yeah.
But the truth about lifebegins and ends with.
With the cross.
It truly does.
Your life begins and ends withthe cross.
(19:01):
All judgment will be funneledthrough your surrendering or not
surrendering to the cross.
The work in the cross.
I mean, that's just truth.
And that's what Jesus istrying to tell people.
You've abandoned the truth.
This is what the church ofLaodicea is.
He's really telling them.
You've abandoned the truthbecause you were completely deceived.
(19:22):
You, you think you have itall, but you go back to verse 17
and 16, you'll kind of get a.
You'll think you have allthis, but yet you're rich, wretched,
pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
All of a sudden you, you startthinking about that.
What does that really mean?
That means you no longerunderstand the truth at all.
You don't even have it.
(19:43):
You've completely abandoned it.
Which means you probably haveall these other truths that you're
buying into.
But there's only one truth,and that is through Christ.
And that is done at the workof the cross.
I'm going to tell you this, Ihave to say this, and I think this
completely defines this age.
(20:03):
There's always the next bestthing to make your life either better
or make you feel better ormaking you do better.
But I'm going to tell you, nomatter what you do, you're still
going to face the grave.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
You're still going to face the grave.
You, you can do all thecosmetic surgery, you can do all
the stuff, make yourself lookall whatever and look all great.
(20:26):
And you can get, you know, youcan put all the money in and you
can get the next trophy wife,or you can Be the next trophy wife
or, or have all the money inthe world and all that stuff.
But you're still going to facethe grave.
Yeah.
No matter what, no matter whoyou are, it is going to happen.
And it all filters right backto the same place, which is exactly
(20:48):
what Jesus is trying to tellyou, only by the truth from Christ.
Because in the end, it's theonly one that's going to be the eternal
truth that matters.
The rest of that stuff's goingto fade.
None of it's going to matter.
Matthew, chapter 24.
Heaven and Earth will passaway, but my words will never pass
away.
That's exactly what Jesus said.
(21:08):
That's right.
That's right.
It is so important that inthis age that we do not lose focus
on the real truth and on theultimate truth.
And that is the truth thatJesus died for our sins.
How serious our sin separatesus from God and how serious our sin
is.
How his work on the crosstakes care of it and that we surrender
(21:29):
to that as an act of our will.
Amen.
Amen.
Well, Scott, as usual, thishas been so interesting.
How can someone reach out toyou with questions or they want to
get more information or maybeinvite you to an interview like this?
How can someone get in touchwith you?
Sure, it's GCC, God CenteredConcept 2038 gmail.com Just reach
(21:51):
out to us.
We'll be glad to do interviews.
We, we're actually nowlaunching our own YouTube podcast
on you.
Our podcast on YouTube aswe've had one on Spotify and Apple.
But we're going to launch thisthing on YouTube now and we're redone
the show recordings arealready in progress and we're actually
going to start doing interviews.
So if you know, you're, you'resomebody that is part of a podcast
(22:16):
broad, you know, wanting toget in or in that network.
We also do interviews ourselves.
So we're going to be doing interviews.
And hey, for all you listenersout there, Pastor Bob's going to
be on one of our podcasts herepretty soon as well.
So.
Amen.
And you cannot miss that episode.
Episode for sure.
Okay.
But we're going to be, we'reworking on putting out our writings
(22:38):
and doing all the pieces.
This ministry is alreadystarting to grow and we've, we've,
we've already taken a lot ofsteps now to, to get the ball rolling
here in the direction that wewant this ministry to roll.
Amen.
Amen.
I'll put all this informationin the links down below, folks.
I can't emphasize enough howimportant it is for you to realize
(23:02):
we are living right now in theactual last of the last days.
Okay?
The days that have beenprophesied as the end times.
They're here at the doorstepright now.
Just drop down the show notes,reach out to Scott Wright, get in
touch with him, subscribe tohis podcast, be sure to purchase
his journal, start learningall about the God centered concepts
that he specializes in.
(23:22):
Amen.
I mean, well, we justscratched the surface on stuff today.
Praise God and do it right nowbefore you forget about it.
You.
You don't want to give thedevil a chance to distract you and
then make you forget all aboutgetting something so important as
getting in touch with Scottright, right now.
Just drop down the shows,click the links.
They're right there.
Scott, I appreciate you takingthe time to join us today and sharing
(23:44):
all this information and Ican't wait till the next one.
Hey, looking forward toanother one, Bob.
And all I can say to everybodyis Happy New Year.
Amen.
Amen, folks.
That's all the time we havefor today for Scott Wright, myself,
Pastor Bob, reminding you tobe blessed in all that you do.
(24:09):
You have been listening toRevelation Warning with Pastor Robert
Thibodeau and his guest experton Bible prophecy as it relates to
current events.
This podcast is not designedto invoke fear, but concern.
Help us to make everyone awarethat the soon return of Jesus is
close at hand by clicking thelike subscribe and then share buttons
(24:33):
below.
Share this episode with yourloved ones, friends and co workers.
For more information on ourMinistry, please visit podcasterforchrist.com
and be sure to come back nextweek for another episode of Revelation
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