October 1, 2024 • 39 mins
Unity in the body of Christ is pivotal; it is not just a peripheral concern but central to the Christian testimony. In this episode of Revealing Jesus with Christina Perera, guest Brady Boyd, Lead Pastor of New Life Church, delves into the essential topic of unity within the body of Christ. Host Christina Perera introduces the episode by emphasizing the importance of understanding Jesus so that one can fully experience His grace and peace. The episode opens with Brady Boyd sharing his journey to Christ, surrounded by the prayerful support of his Pentecostal upbringing and the transformative experience on a Louisiana backroad that steered his life to ministry.
Boyd’s new book, Life: Eight Practices for Belonging to God and Each Other, is a focal point as he discusses the critical nature of unity in the Christian faith, both with God and among believers. Boyd touches on the intrinsic value of discipleship, the implications of Jesus' teachings on love and unity, and Christians’ responsibility to reflect Jesus through their actions. Additionally, he explores the role of social media in shaping societal attitudes and the pressing need for discernment among the faithful. "If we're afraid of our neighbor that has the MAGA sign out front or we're afraid of the neighbor with the rainbow flag hanging off their porch, if we're afraid of them and demonize them, we're never going to reach them." - Pastor Brady Boyd Listen to the end for a powerful prayer.
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Jesus, Grace, Unity, Faith, Bible, Christian podcast, Revealing Jesus, Christina Perera, Great Commission, Holy Spirit, How to love your neighbor, Importance of church unity, Living a life of grace, Practicing discernment in faith, How to be life minded
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to Revealing Jesus!
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Are you hungry to learn more about our beautiful Savior Jesus?
I am your host, Cristina Perera, lover of Jesus, apostolic leader, licensed and ordained
minister, author, podcaster, and Kingdom Party planner.
Did you know that the Bible declares that grace and peace are multiplied to us in the
knowledge of Jesus?
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And that simply means the more we learn about our beautiful Savior, the more we will experience
all He died to give us.
Join me for all things the King and His Kingdom, including revelatory teaching, interviews
with five full ministers, media leaders, authors, and more.
Come discover the beauty of God displayed all across the body of Christ.
(00:45):
Together we are revealing more of Jesus to a hurting world today.
So those of you that are listening and watching today, pay attention to who God brings before
you today.
The person at the checkout line, the person at the gas station, the person that you bump
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into that you haven't seen in a while, the neighbor walking on your sidewalk that stops
in front of your house to talk to you there.
Whoever God puts in front of you today, that's your neighbor, and that's the person we're
supposed to love well, which leads us to the opportunities for the Great Commission.
But I think if we're afraid of our neighbor that has the MAGA sign out front, or we're
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afraid of the neighbor with the rainbow flag hanging off their porch, if we're afraid of
them and demonize them, we're never going to reach them.
We're never going to share the good news of Jesus with them if we're afraid of them or
angry at them.
And I think we got to get the great commandment right, right first.
But before we get started, I want to give a quick shout-out to our Christina Perera
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Harvest Family Network through which I am licensed and ordained.
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(02:36):
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Hey everybody, thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode of Revealing Jesus with
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Christina Perera.
I am your host Christina and I'm so happy to have you with me here today.
I hope and I pray that you are doing well right where you are and enjoying the continuously
flowing favor of grace flowing from our beautiful Savior and Father in Heaven.
I've got a great show for you today.
I have an amazing leader here with me today.
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He is the lead pastor of New Life Church in Colorado and he hosts the Essential Church
podcast and he is also the author of the new book, Life-Minded, Eight Practices for Belonging
to God and Each Other.
I have with me here today Pastor Brady Boyd.
Welcome.
(03:43):
Thank you.
Thanks for having me on.
This topic is so needed and so critical.
I know it's near to your heart as well, the idea of unity, the idea of belonging to one
another, serving one another as Jesus asked us to do.
It's a great honor to be with you today and have this conversation.
Thanks for having me.
Of course.
Thank you so much.
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I was excited when I saw your book and I thought, oh, this is the man after my heart and after
God's heart.
So yes, Lord, yes.
I'm so excited.
So anyway, tell me a little, since this is revealing Jesus, can you share with our listeners
a little bit about how you met our beautiful Savior Jesus?
Well, I grew up in a home with a praying mom in a very Pentecostal home.
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That was the tradition that I grew up in.
And so small churches in North Louisiana, East Texas, I was in church three days a week,
Sunday mornings or three times a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
My mom prayed every morning for me, but I didn't really come to Christ until I was a
senior in college.
I was 21 on a Saturday night driving home from a date with the girl who is now my wife
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and really had an encounter with Jesus on the back roads of Louisiana and said yes to
following him.
And now 36 years later, I'm still following Jesus.
My wife and I have been married now for 35 years and we came to Christ kind of around
the same time and together have been pastoring and leading ever since.
I love that so much.
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I love getting to hear people's stories because they're all so different.
And I love that the Lord encounters us all in such unique ways.
Isn't that beautiful?
It is beautiful.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I'm so excited to talk about your new book today, The Message of Unity.
I loved part of your subtitle, it says, Belonging to God and Each Other.
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And so that's so vital.
So when we belong to God, we also belong to each other because we are knitted together
in the body of Christ.
Tell me more about that.
Well, you can't get Jesus without his messy church, right?
And I know the church is imperfect.
It's sometimes messy.
It sometimes can be painful.
But Jesus gave us the church as the Petri dish, as the grand experiment of what the
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kingdom of heaven could look like on earth before his return.
And I think the best place on the planet right now is the local church.
I think the local church has a tremendous opportunity right now in a world that's gone
drunk on violence and vitriol and arguing.
I think the church is the perfect place for us to gather.
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Think about this, where else in the culture can you sing the same song with a group of
people where you have multiple people that will pray for you and check on you and look
you in the face and give you a hug that you need?
Where else can you hear the scriptures taught in a way that's tailored for you?
The pastor is looking you in the eye and teaching you the scriptures.
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I just think there's no other place on the planet that's more beautiful than the gathering
of the local church.
And so when I wrote this book, I wrote it with the idea of helping us rediscover the
beauty of unity.
And what does the Bible say about unity?
How did we lose it?
And what will happen if we ever rediscover it?
Yeah, you know, it's so interesting to me.
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I think I said it earlier when I first met you, I said, this is not a peripheral issue.
This is a central issue.
And this issue is critical if we are to demonstrate to the world that we are his disciples indeed
through love and through unity.
Well, John 13 says that your love for one another is proof to the world that you're
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actually my disciples.
In other words, we can't call ourselves disciples of Jesus unless there's a true love that we
have for our brothers and sisters.
And it's not just brothers and sisters who are identical to us.
I mean, it's brothers and sisters that we share in common that may look different.
They're different genders, different maybe political parties, different socioeconomic
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levels, black, white and brown people.
I just think the church is the great melting pot.
The church is that place where some of those differences that are separating us out in
the culture, out in the world, we find common ground inside the church because of Jesus,
because Christ is the one that saved all of us.
And we can work through some of those secondary issues as long as we keep Jesus central, right?
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As long as we keep him at first.
Well, it's really vital that we recognize that we are already united in Christ.
I love what the Bible says that he has recreated in himself one new man.
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There's now neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek slave nor free, but all are one in Christ.
And I think once we as the body of Christ begin to grasp that truth and recognize that
truth, that we are already one with one another, we can truly treat people the way that we
would treat Jesus.
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That shifts our perspective.
If I'm seeing Jesus sitting right there, I'm going to guard my mouth.
I'm going to guard my heart, right?
If you have any fear of God, right?
Yeah, no doubt.
I mean, I wrote the book, people have asked me, is it a play on words about being like-minded?
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And it's not.
That was an unfortunate play on words because I'm not telling everyone to be like-minded.
I'm asking everyone to be life-minded, which is right out of Romans chapter eight.
Romans chapter eight says the mind governed by the flesh is death.
And that's what we're seeing being played out in our culture right now.
The minds that are governed by the works of the flesh are going to lead us to death.
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But it says the mind governed by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is life and peace.
In fact, I'm sitting right now at a little coffee table in my house and it was right
here a year and a half ago that the Holy Spirit led me to Romans chapter eight.
And he said, I want you to be, it was really a personal conversation with just me and the
Lord.
He said, Brady, I want you to be life-minded.
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I want more life in you.
And the only way that's going to happen if you start welcoming more of the Holy Spirit's
activity in your life.
And that really did something to me.
It wrecked me a bit.
And I'm 57 years old now, so I'm past halftime probably.
And I want to end well.
I want to get to the end of my life being a really good human being.
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I want to be a representative of Jesus.
I don't want to be the old curmudgeon, the cynic, the angry old guy that's mad at everyone.
I want to be the kind, gentle soul who looks like Jesus.
And I really do think the more we age, the more we should reflect Jesus.
And the only way to do that is to allow the Holy Spirit to bring life and peace to us
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every single day, because the world's not offering me life and peace right now.
My social media thread is not offering me life and peace right now.
Cable news is not offering me life and peace.
Only the Holy Spirit offers us life and peace.
And so that's what I want to plug into.
That's why I wrote this book.
I wrote it for myself.
I wrote it for my church and my family to help navigate us right now in a world that's really
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drunk on violence.
I know.
You know, what the Lord is bringing up on my heart right now, Jesus says, the thief
comes only to kill, steal and destroy, but I have come that they might have life in life
abundantly.
And if you go back and you look at the Hebrew word there, it's the plural form.
It's life's.
So such abundant life's that it's overflowing.
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Yes.
And that's the intention in the heart of God.
And you're right.
Whenever we're being led by the Spirit of God, it leads us into life, whether it's life
in a conversation, life in a book.
Your book was written in companionship with the Holy Spirit.
So there's life in the book.
It's life wherever we go.
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And as we go, we can impart that life, that Zoe life of God.
Yes.
You know, when I turned 50 years old, I remember that morning I woke up.
It was cold as in January, seven and a half years ago.
And I was kind of laying there and wondering, you know, what's the second half of my life
going to look like?
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And the Lord said, what do you want?
And I said, I want more of you.
I want more of the Holy Spirit.
That's all I really asked for at this stage of my life.
And he reminded me of a prayer that's been prayed by the local church for 1700 years.
We can find church evidence of this prayer being prayed 1700 years ago.
And so three word prayer is come Holy Spirit.
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And that prayer is it's not because I think the Holy Spirit ran off and left me in the
middle of the night or has abandoned me or something.
It's actually a reminder that I need the Holy Spirit, how much I need the Holy Spirit.
So even this morning, I got up early this morning before I my feet touched the floor,
before I open up social media, before I check the news of the first thing that comes out
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of my mouth for the last seven and a half years, come Holy Spirit.
And it marches me into my day.
I don't know what the rest of the day is going to hold.
I mean, I have some things on my calendar, but I need the Holy Spirit.
I had a young guy say, Pastor Brady, I'm having a hard time with this.
Do I need the Holy Spirit to go to heaven?
I said, you need the Holy Spirit to go to Walmart.
Yeah, you need the Holy Spirit for every activity in your life.
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I'm just surprised at how many people are trying to follow Jesus without the Holy Spirit.
And it's impossible.
Jesus said it was impossible.
Jesus said it's better for me if I leave, I'm going to send you a gift and he's going
to guide you into all truth.
I mean, what an amazing gift that is.
Holy Spirit leading us into all truth.
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I just think it's a beautiful gift that Jesus left us and the person of the Holy Spirit.
And so I need more.
I want more of it, not less of it.
Yes.
Amen.
Amen.
You know, it's so interesting.
I think that's one of the best promises in the new covenant.
Isaiah says, they will all be taught by God and great will be the shalom of their children.
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And that is ours in Christ to be taught by God, to be led into all truth through the
power of the Holy Spirit so that when we hear things, we can say, yes, that's God or no,
that's not.
And so many things are out there.
There's so many opinions on social media.
And if you follow my social media, I don't give my opinions.
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I don't know if I trust my opinion.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But honestly, honestly, I feel like so many people out there in the world, they value
their own opinions so highly more than they value the person that God created in front
of them.
Yeah.
And to me, to me, that's so egregious.
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And one of the chapters that are right about it, we talked about the eight practices for
belonging to God and each other.
You're making a great point because one of the chapters that I wrote is a chapter on
discernment, the ability to walk into any situation and to know whether it's right or
wrong, good or evil.
But here's the better thing.
Sometimes when you just need to know, is it wise or unwise?
Yes.
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So is it good or bad, evil or good or evil?
Is it right or wrong?
And is it wise or unwise?
And we have to make those decisions dozens of times a day.
Am I reading the truth?
Am I being manipulated?
Am I being controlled?
Am I being lied to?
Is this evil?
Is this unwise to repeat this?
Is this gossip?
So all of those things require discernment.
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And I think that is a I think we're not teaching on that enough.
And we're paying the price for it, quite honestly.
The inability for people who say I am I am saved by Christ, I am filled with the spirit,
I have the written word of God in front of me.
We should be the most discerning group of people on the planet.
I mean, it should be very difficult to trick us, to fool or to manipulate us.
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Right.
If all three of those things are true, Christ is King, Christ is Lord of my life.
I am the Holy Spirit is my guide.
And the scriptures are living and active sharper than any double edged sword able to teach
rebuke and correct.
If all three of those things are true and active in our lives, we should be the wisest
group of people on the planet.
We should be the most discerning.
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We should be the most life minded group of people on the planet.
And that's what I'm hoping this book calls us back to.
Some of these basic principles, the blocking and tackling of our faith so that we are not
tricked, we're not manipulated because social media is manipulating all of us.
I mean, they admit it out in the open.
It's not a trade secret.
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It's an obvious algorithm that's being targeted against all of us.
And I think we need to be more discerning.
So I wrote a chapter on that in this book.
Yeah.
And I want to make a note in my mind, you know, I have a love hate relationship with
social media.
I love it because God has the opportunity to reach people just like what we're doing
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right now.
But I am I never like I never like it.
In fact, a lot of my social media, I will stick it on like, auto posts and things like
that.
So I don't have to go.
It is.
Well, it just you know, social media is when it came out in 2010, when it kind of became
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a thing back in 2010, the promise was that I was going to draw us together.
You're going to have more.
You're going to increase your social activity.
You're going to be closer and more intimate with a larger group of people.
You're going to find new friends.
That was the promise.
And we all jumped on.
We all dove into that thinking that that's a good promise.
I don't mind that.
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I want it.
I want more conversations.
I want more friends.
I want to understand the world better.
But what it did instead is it started separating us.
And in order to keep our eyes on the screen, they begin to show us things that aggravate
us, make us angry, make us mad, make us sad.
That's what you're reading.
And here's what it also did.
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The social media algorithms are telling me that the people who agree with me are amazing.
I mean, they're right there.
They are amazing people and that the people who disagree with me are evil.
And so there's this larger gap.
This gap continues to increase.
Instead of bringing us together, it started separating us.
I mean, there's lots of really good documentaries out there that people have made about the
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dangers of social media.
And so I think we have to get back to the scriptures.
We have to start reading scriptures like Ephesians, chapter four.
We have to start practicing scriptures and really get back to the idea that we do belong
to each other, that people are not our enemy.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty for the pulling down of
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strongholds.
But we started using carnal weapons against carnal people.
And that was never the plan.
That was never the intention.
It was never what Jesus imagined for his church.
And I think we need to correct.
Yeah.
You know, it's so interesting.
What's coming up on my heart right now is that we are all created to look different
and operate in different gifts and I, you know, callings and things like that.
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But every single one of them should point to Jesus and it should help fulfill the Great
Commission.
And I feel like those two points are central.
And so I love getting to partner with different ministries and I love how different they all
look.
I have a dear friend who just who's called to women's ministries.
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I have another dear friend who he goes around and he he is literally like equipment and
hands and feet to churches at events and stuff.
How amazing is he?
And I have another friend that shares about Jesus through digital broadcasting.
And so it all looks different, but it's all pointing to Jesus and it's all helping to
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fulfill the Great Commission.
Right?
Exactly.
And before we can ever fulfill the Great Commission, we need to fulfill the Great Commandment,
which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor
as yourself and then go into all the world, which is a Great Commission.
And I think sometimes the reason we're not fulfilling the Great Commission is we're afraid
of our neighbor.
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We don't even know our neighbor.
We we certainly are not looking to find our neighbor.
And that word neighbor is simply whoever's in front of you today is that's that's what
your neighbor is.
So those of you that are listening and watching today, pay attention to who God brings before
you today.
The person at the checkout line, the person at the gas station, the person that you bump
into that you haven't seen in a while, the neighbor walking on your sidewalk that stops
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in front of your house to talk to you there.
Whoever God puts in front of you today, that's your neighbor.
And that's the person we're supposed to love well.
And which leads us to the opportunities for the Great Commission.
But I think if we're afraid of our neighbor that has the MAGA sign out front or we're
afraid of the neighbor with the rainbow flag hanging off their porch, if we're afraid of
them and demonize them, we're never going to reach them.
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We're never going to share the good news of Jesus with them if we're afraid of them or
angry at them.
And I think we got to get the great commandment right, right first.
Yeah, I am not.
I don't think anger ever truly saved anybody.
And you know, I'm not a big proponent of fear saving anyone either.
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I'm not a hellfire and brimstone kind of person.
I'm a Jesus paid it all kind of person.
And so, you know, it's a fiery brimstone.
I am.
You come across as very kind and I like that about you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I try.
I try.
I think, you know, kindness is one of Jesus's primary qualities.
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But I love that he can be kind, but he can be firm.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, make is not weak, right?
The blessed.
Meek is not weak.
Meekness is humility.
Meekness is bringing a sense of humility into every conversation.
So look at this picture in Ephesians four.
It says, take, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit to the bond of peace.
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That's Ephesians four, verse three.
But what most people fail to realize is what verse two says.
But we're never going to keep the unity of the spirit to the bond of peace if we don't
first obey verse two, which says be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with
one another in love, and then make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit to the bond
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of peace.
But the reason we're not peaceful people is we're not humble people.
Humble people are peaceful people.
Peaceful people are humble people.
Humility and peace are cousins that you can't separate.
And I think that's where we've lost is we've gotten this arrogance about ourselves that
we're always right.
Everyone should agree with me.
That's not humble.
That's not meek.
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That's being obnoxious.
That's being prideful.
And the Bible is clear about what God does with pride.
It's never good.
But it's always good when we're humble.
It's never good when we're prideful.
So we've got to keep that right first, right?
Amen.
Well, you know, what I have found just in my experience in my ministry is that people
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who are filled with grace are very humble people because people who are filled with
grace know that that all we have is grace.
Like we did not deserve any of it.
Every single one of us deserved death and destruction.
And yet God was so gracious to give us life and life abundantly.
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And I think when we know how gracious God is, even to those who don't deserve it, you
know, the Bible says that that God is even gracious to the sinners and the worldly people
sending rain on their crops to feed them.
That's how kind and gracious our God is.
And so if we have a kind and gracious God, we are going to be a kind and gracious people.
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Right.
Exactly.
Well, chapter 11 is a chapter on grace in my book.
And I agree that, you know, I was I was down on the Florida Gulf Coast a few years ago.
We're on vacation.
This one of my favorite places to go is that that Destin, Falk Walton, Panama City beach
area.
The sand is really white.
The water is green and clear.
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It's always warm.
And so it's one of my favorite places to go.
So for whatever reason, I'm out I'm out there one day in the water and I'm out there kind
of by myself.
There's no one there.
And so I have kind of had the whole gulf, the whole ocean to myself.
Right.
And I'm looking out the huge expanse of the ocean in front of me because my back has turned
to the beach and I'm facing the gulf.
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And the Lord spoke to me, said, Brady, I want you to look at all the water that's in front
of you.
It was a lot of miles and miles and miles all the way to the horizon was nothing but
ocean and gulf.
And he says, that's how much grace I have given you.
That's how much grace is required for your life that I've given you freely.
And I didn't withhold it from you.
So the next time that someone in your life needs a cup of water, it should be easy for
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you to give someone a cup of grace when you realize you're swimming in oceans of grace.
And it was that moment where I caught grace maybe in a deeper way than I've ever caught
it.
And I think if we all realize how much grace is required for our lives to be blessed by
the Lord, we would be the most gracious people on the planet to anyone else that needed it.
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You're exactly what you just said.
And I think that's beautiful.
Yeah.
Isn't it?
What a beautiful picture he gave you.
Wow.
I love that.
I can't imagine a cup versus a whole ocean, man.
And I just want to add this.
The Lord gives and He loves people who will give away.
So He'll give you more, you give it away.
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So cup by cup by cup, you get more and more and more and more.
And so when we look at our Lord Jesus, we have to come to Him and we have to realize
that we are empty and we are bankrupt without Him.
And He is the ever present giver.
He is the giver of everything.
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He's the giver of health and wholeness, prosperity, protection, deliverance, all of it.
And all of it comes by grace, even unity.
Unity has come by grace because we have been recreated in Christ through no strength of
our own.
Right?
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Well, the next time you want to be angry at someone for disagreeing with you, just put
yourself in front of the cross on the day that Christ was crucified.
Yeah.
You know, He was falsely accused.
He was rejected by his friends.
They fled.
Most of them abandoned him.
He was stripped of his clothes.
He was brutally beaten.
He was hung on a cross like a violent criminal.
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And yet in his final breath before he dies, he pulls himself up with all the strength
that he has left in him.
And he says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Instead of calling down violence upon the people that had crucified him, instead of
lashing out with a verbal assault that he would have been justified to defend himself,
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he would have been justified to lash out.
But instead he blessed, he forgave.
So the next time I'm tempted to get online and be a keyboard warrior and go at somebody,
I think, what would Jesus do?
What did Jesus do when he was being falsely accused, when he was being punished unfairly?
He was gracious.
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He was kind.
He showed us a new way to use power.
Yeah.
That changed the world.
Yeah.
And true grace and strength and forgiveness and humility like that, that is way more power
than screaming at someone, belittling someone, condemning someone could ever do.
(28:07):
Exactly.
He gave us a new way to change the world.
And here we are, what, you know, 2000 years later, there's 2.4 billion Christians on the
planet.
He left us with what, 100?
And here we are, 2.4 billion people later that are on the planet today who are Christ
followers because of he showed us a new way.
(28:28):
He showed us a radical different way to settle our issues, to come together.
And it's not the ways of the dragon.
It's the way of the lamb that's going to change the world.
And I think that was the heart behind my book.
It was what was motivating me.
And I took a lot of risk when I wrote this book because I use a lot of examples that
(28:48):
people may say, well, he's just a social justice warrior.
I'm going to get called names for those kinds of things, but it's not.
I'm trying to present the biblical case for unity.
And it's going to unsettle people when they read the book because it unsettled me writing
it.
It aggravated me to write it.
And I think that's a good thing.
We need to read books and we need to hear preaching that unsettles us, that challenges
(29:12):
us, that brings some conviction back to us and causes us to close the book and pray about
it and think about it.
Am I living up to the standards that Jesus gave us?
So these are not my opinions I'm writing in the book.
I really tried to stay tuned in to what the scriptures tell us and try to give like a
really basic, simple explanation of a mirror.
(29:33):
I mean, there's so much Bible about this topic and we're ignoring it.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's an excellent point.
There's so many that are, well, to be quite frankly honest with you, they're ignoring
a lot of it, not just the topic of unity.
But I believe, and this is the heart that I feel from the Lord, I believe that we are
(29:58):
coming into a time and a place where we are going to be so desperate for the unity.
It's what's going to sustain us as a body.
It's what's going to protect us and keep us.
And I believe that we're coming into a place where it's no longer an option to be your
own ministry, your own this, your own that, your own whatever.
(30:21):
It's going to be those who are connected are going to survive and those who are not connected
are not going to thrive.
So you know.
Well, Jesus gave us that picture of staying connected to the vine.
And we know that the vine is God.
We know that.
But the vine also, I think, is staying connected to the people of God.
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So that we know the more isolated, the more alone we become.
I was with a mental health professional recently, Christina, and she was telling me that here
in my county, El Paso County in Colorado, that we're seeing a huge increase in the number
of cases of anxiety, depression, suicide are all at an all time high in my county.
And I live in a beautiful state of Colorado.
(31:03):
This is a gorgeous outdoor area here.
People come here for vacation.
I mean, we live in a wonderland here.
It's beautiful.
But depression, anxiety is at an all time high.
And so we were talking about it.
And I said, how can we help?
She said, listen to what she said.
She said 70 to 80 percent of my clients would see remarkable improvement in their symptoms
(31:24):
if they had someone calling to check on them every day who cared about them.
I went, wait, are you saying that a phone call knocking on someone's door, taking someone
out to coffee is the solution for this crisis?
She goes, 70 to 80 percent of my clients would see remarkable improvement.
(31:44):
And she didn't say it would be a cure all.
She didn't say it would just magically go away.
She said 70 to 80 percent would see remarkable improvement if someone that cared about them
would just call every day and check on them.
I encourage people that are watching your podcast after the podcast is over, pick up
your phone call and surprise someone with a phone call.
For no reason.
Just say, hey, I'm just thinking about you.
(32:07):
I was praying for you.
The Lord brought you to mind.
How are you doing today?
How can I pray for you?
That is the key to bringing a lot of healing to this thing.
We're living in a very anxious world right now and human to human contact, being life
minded is one of the solutions.
Amen.
Amen.
(32:27):
I love that suggestion.
Well, is there anything else burning on your heart that you'd like to say directly to our
listeners?
Can I just read a text, a scripture to everyone as we close out our time?
I know you love the Bible.
Your Bible teachers have put my readers on here because I realized my book is very small
print.
I'm going to read this to you.
(32:48):
This is out of Romans 12 and this will conclude my time with you, but I just think it's a
beautiful, powerful reminder of what the Bible says about this topic.
Bear with me and listen to the scriptures.
Love must be sincere.
This is Romans 12.
Love must be sincere.
Hate what is evil.
Cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in love.
(33:08):
Honor one another above yourselves.
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Share with the Lord's people who are in need.
Practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you.
Bless and do not curse.
(33:29):
Rejoice with those who rejoice.
Mourn with those who mourn.
Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.
Do not be conceited.
What a powerful reminder from the Bible just how to live.
This is a book written to people living in violent Rome where they were intensely persecuted
(33:51):
for their faith.
They were living in much more dire conditions than any of us are living in.
And that was the charge that the writer of Romans gave to the church.
Practice hospitality and live in peace with one another.
And there 300 years later, Rome became a Christian city because a group of people dared to act
that way.
(34:11):
Wow.
I love that.
Thank you so much for sharing that.
That's beautiful.
Well, I, this has been so much fun.
I know that this is going to encourage so many people out there once this airs and to
encourage them to live like Jesus and operate in that spirit of unity.
So thank you so much for being here with me today.
(34:32):
Thank you. It's an honor to be on your show.
You're such a good interviewer.
You're such a good hostess and you do an amazing job.
So I appreciate the opportunity and let's talk again sometimes.
I would love that.
Unity is always on my heart.
So yes, absolutely.
Well, I hope and I pray today's episode has blessed you.
I will have links in today's podcast.
(34:55):
This is going to air in just a few weeks on revealing Jesus with Christina Perera
There you'll find additional resources to connect with us and our special guest, Pastor
Brady Boyd and make sure to pick up a copy of his new book, Life-Minded.
This is so important to the heart of God.
And I'm so thankful that he wants us to be together in love and unity until next week.
(35:19):
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of Jesus.
God bless.
Beloved, let me introduce you to my King.
He is altogether lovely.
No matter which way you turn him, he is perfection personified.
He is velvet and steel.
He is meekness and majesty.
(35:42):
He is glory and humility.
He is kindness and strength.
He is altogether lovely.
And he is my King.
And he can be yours as well.
All day long, he holds his hand that you might take, that you might turn, one step, one grasp,
(36:03):
one yes, one breath away from the arms of your loving Savior.
Beloved, if you hear him, do not harden your heart.
The Bible declares that not one of us is guaranteed another moment upon this earth.
So pray this prayer with me today and run into the arms of the one who loves you, who
knows you best.
Father, I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin, for all of the places that I have
(36:27):
fallen short, God, of your glorious standard.
I ask you now to send your Son into my heart, to be the forgiveness of my sin, to be my
redemption, to be my righteousness, to be my holiness, to be my sanctification.
I ask you to forgive me, to cleanse me, to fill me with your Spirit, your power, your
(36:53):
glory, that I might bring glory to your name, Father.
I thank you that I receive all of this by faith and the Son of God who loved me and
who gave himself up for me.
I thank you that I am now a child of God, fully forgiven, fully righteous, fully holy
(37:14):
in your eyes, and I ask you to help me walk out this life in a way that pleases and honors
you, Father.
I thank you, Jesus, for all that you've done.
I thank you for your love, for your kindness, for your great joy in saving me.
(37:35):
And I thank you, Father, and I thank you, Holy Spirit, and I pray all of these things
in your beautiful Son's name.
Amen.
If you've just prayed that prayer for the first time, I want to congratulate you.
You are now a child of God, and all things are now yours.
(37:57):
Keep listening to Revealing Jesus.
Find a good Bible translation that makes sense to you, and keep hearing about our beautiful
Savior Jesus.
Please let us know we want to continue to pray for you, and we want to send you a free
PDF copy of our New Believer Workbook.
(38:19):
Just go to christinaparara.org slash welcome hyphen home.
Enter your email address, and we will be happy to send this free gift.
And continue to pray for your journey.
God bless.
I sincerely hope and pray today's episode has blessed you.
(38:41):
Now it's your turn to continue the conversation.
We are all evangelists of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Like this episode, rate it, share it with friends if it's impacted your life.
Let them know that you want it to do the same in theirs.
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(39:06):
you.
Link in show notes or just text Jesus to 1-833-815-7778.
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We would love to connect with you on social media.
You can find us at Christina Perera Ministries on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
(39:30):
Until next week, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of Jesus.
God bless.
Welcome to Revealing Jesus!
(00:03):
Are you hungry to learn more about our beautiful Savior Jesus?
I am your host, Cristina Perera, lover of Jesus, apostolic leader, licensed and ordained
minister, author, podcaster, and Kingdom Party planner.
Did you know that the Bible declares that grace and peace are multiplied to us in the
knowledge of Jesus?
(00:25):
And that simply means the more we learn about our beautiful Savior, the more we will experience
all He died to give us.
Join me for all things the King and His Kingdom, including revelatory teaching, interviews
with five full ministers, media leaders, authors, and more.
Come discover the beauty of God displayed all across the body of Christ.
(00:45):
Together we are revealing more of Jesus to a hurting world today.
So those of you that are listening and watching today, pay attention to who God brings before
you today.
The person at the checkout line, the person at the gas station, the person that you bump
(01:08):
into that you haven't seen in a while, the neighbor walking on your sidewalk that stops
in front of your house to talk to you there.
Whoever God puts in front of you today, that's your neighbor, and that's the person we're
supposed to love well, which leads us to the opportunities for the Great Commission.
But I think if we're afraid of our neighbor that has the MAGA sign out front, or we're
(01:28):
afraid of the neighbor with the rainbow flag hanging off their porch, if we're afraid of
them and demonize them, we're never going to reach them.
We're never going to share the good news of Jesus with them if we're afraid of them or
angry at them.
And I think we got to get the great commandment right, right first.
But before we get started, I want to give a quick shout-out to our Christina Perera
(01:49):
Ministries sponsors who help support the mission to unite the body of Christ and fulfill the
Great Commission with love.
A big shout out to Go4Ministries who provides all of our equipment for our gospel events.
Davis Financial Services who does all of our financial accounting.
Harvest Family Network through which I am licensed and ordained.
(02:12):
And Life Changing Productions who helps put together evangelistic events to reach our
city for Jesus.
If you or your organization are interested in becoming a CPM sponsor, you can find out
more information on our website at ChristinaParrera.org.
Do you have a Loved One special occasion coming up and don't know what to get them?
(02:36):
Well, now you can sponsor an episode of Revealing Jesus in Their Name.
And you can give them a special dedication message read on air.
It makes a great gift.
To find out more information, just go to ChristinaPerera.org.
Hey everybody, thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode of Revealing Jesus with
(03:00):
Christina Perera.
I am your host Christina and I'm so happy to have you with me here today.
I hope and I pray that you are doing well right where you are and enjoying the continuously
flowing favor of grace flowing from our beautiful Savior and Father in Heaven.
I've got a great show for you today.
I have an amazing leader here with me today.
(03:22):
He is the lead pastor of New Life Church in Colorado and he hosts the Essential Church
podcast and he is also the author of the new book, Life-Minded, Eight Practices for Belonging
to God and Each Other.
I have with me here today Pastor Brady Boyd.
Welcome.
(03:43):
Thank you.
Thanks for having me on.
This topic is so needed and so critical.
I know it's near to your heart as well, the idea of unity, the idea of belonging to one
another, serving one another as Jesus asked us to do.
It's a great honor to be with you today and have this conversation.
Thanks for having me.
Of course.
Thank you so much.
(04:03):
I was excited when I saw your book and I thought, oh, this is the man after my heart and after
God's heart.
So yes, Lord, yes.
I'm so excited.
So anyway, tell me a little, since this is revealing Jesus, can you share with our listeners
a little bit about how you met our beautiful Savior Jesus?
Well, I grew up in a home with a praying mom in a very Pentecostal home.
(04:28):
That was the tradition that I grew up in.
And so small churches in North Louisiana, East Texas, I was in church three days a week,
Sunday mornings or three times a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
My mom prayed every morning for me, but I didn't really come to Christ until I was a
senior in college.
I was 21 on a Saturday night driving home from a date with the girl who is now my wife
(04:51):
and really had an encounter with Jesus on the back roads of Louisiana and said yes to
following him.
And now 36 years later, I'm still following Jesus.
My wife and I have been married now for 35 years and we came to Christ kind of around
the same time and together have been pastoring and leading ever since.
I love that so much.
(05:13):
I love getting to hear people's stories because they're all so different.
And I love that the Lord encounters us all in such unique ways.
Isn't that beautiful?
It is beautiful.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I'm so excited to talk about your new book today, The Message of Unity.
I loved part of your subtitle, it says, Belonging to God and Each Other.
(05:37):
And so that's so vital.
So when we belong to God, we also belong to each other because we are knitted together
in the body of Christ.
Tell me more about that.
Well, you can't get Jesus without his messy church, right?
And I know the church is imperfect.
It's sometimes messy.
It sometimes can be painful.
But Jesus gave us the church as the Petri dish, as the grand experiment of what the
(06:01):
kingdom of heaven could look like on earth before his return.
And I think the best place on the planet right now is the local church.
I think the local church has a tremendous opportunity right now in a world that's gone
drunk on violence and vitriol and arguing.
I think the church is the perfect place for us to gather.
(06:24):
Think about this, where else in the culture can you sing the same song with a group of
people where you have multiple people that will pray for you and check on you and look
you in the face and give you a hug that you need?
Where else can you hear the scriptures taught in a way that's tailored for you?
The pastor is looking you in the eye and teaching you the scriptures.
(06:48):
I just think there's no other place on the planet that's more beautiful than the gathering
of the local church.
And so when I wrote this book, I wrote it with the idea of helping us rediscover the
beauty of unity.
And what does the Bible say about unity?
How did we lose it?
And what will happen if we ever rediscover it?
Yeah, you know, it's so interesting to me.
(07:10):
I think I said it earlier when I first met you, I said, this is not a peripheral issue.
This is a central issue.
And this issue is critical if we are to demonstrate to the world that we are his disciples indeed
through love and through unity.
Well, John 13 says that your love for one another is proof to the world that you're
(07:34):
actually my disciples.
In other words, we can't call ourselves disciples of Jesus unless there's a true love that we
have for our brothers and sisters.
And it's not just brothers and sisters who are identical to us.
I mean, it's brothers and sisters that we share in common that may look different.
They're different genders, different maybe political parties, different socioeconomic
(07:56):
levels, black, white and brown people.
I just think the church is the great melting pot.
The church is that place where some of those differences that are separating us out in
the culture, out in the world, we find common ground inside the church because of Jesus,
because Christ is the one that saved all of us.
And we can work through some of those secondary issues as long as we keep Jesus central, right?
(08:19):
As long as we keep him at first.
Well, it's really vital that we recognize that we are already united in Christ.
I love what the Bible says that he has recreated in himself one new man.
(08:40):
There's now neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek slave nor free, but all are one in Christ.
And I think once we as the body of Christ begin to grasp that truth and recognize that
truth, that we are already one with one another, we can truly treat people the way that we
would treat Jesus.
(09:02):
That shifts our perspective.
If I'm seeing Jesus sitting right there, I'm going to guard my mouth.
I'm going to guard my heart, right?
If you have any fear of God, right?
Yeah, no doubt.
I mean, I wrote the book, people have asked me, is it a play on words about being like-minded?
(09:23):
And it's not.
That was an unfortunate play on words because I'm not telling everyone to be like-minded.
I'm asking everyone to be life-minded, which is right out of Romans chapter eight.
Romans chapter eight says the mind governed by the flesh is death.
And that's what we're seeing being played out in our culture right now.
The minds that are governed by the works of the flesh are going to lead us to death.
(09:45):
But it says the mind governed by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is life and peace.
In fact, I'm sitting right now at a little coffee table in my house and it was right
here a year and a half ago that the Holy Spirit led me to Romans chapter eight.
And he said, I want you to be, it was really a personal conversation with just me and the
Lord.
He said, Brady, I want you to be life-minded.
(10:06):
I want more life in you.
And the only way that's going to happen if you start welcoming more of the Holy Spirit's
activity in your life.
And that really did something to me.
It wrecked me a bit.
And I'm 57 years old now, so I'm past halftime probably.
And I want to end well.
I want to get to the end of my life being a really good human being.
(10:28):
I want to be a representative of Jesus.
I don't want to be the old curmudgeon, the cynic, the angry old guy that's mad at everyone.
I want to be the kind, gentle soul who looks like Jesus.
And I really do think the more we age, the more we should reflect Jesus.
And the only way to do that is to allow the Holy Spirit to bring life and peace to us
(10:48):
every single day, because the world's not offering me life and peace right now.
My social media thread is not offering me life and peace right now.
Cable news is not offering me life and peace.
Only the Holy Spirit offers us life and peace.
And so that's what I want to plug into.
That's why I wrote this book.
I wrote it for myself.
I wrote it for my church and my family to help navigate us right now in a world that's really
(11:13):
drunk on violence.
I know.
You know, what the Lord is bringing up on my heart right now, Jesus says, the thief
comes only to kill, steal and destroy, but I have come that they might have life in life
abundantly.
And if you go back and you look at the Hebrew word there, it's the plural form.
It's life's.
So such abundant life's that it's overflowing.
(11:39):
Yes.
And that's the intention in the heart of God.
And you're right.
Whenever we're being led by the Spirit of God, it leads us into life, whether it's life
in a conversation, life in a book.
Your book was written in companionship with the Holy Spirit.
So there's life in the book.
It's life wherever we go.
(12:00):
And as we go, we can impart that life, that Zoe life of God.
Yes.
You know, when I turned 50 years old, I remember that morning I woke up.
It was cold as in January, seven and a half years ago.
And I was kind of laying there and wondering, you know, what's the second half of my life
going to look like?
(12:20):
And the Lord said, what do you want?
And I said, I want more of you.
I want more of the Holy Spirit.
That's all I really asked for at this stage of my life.
And he reminded me of a prayer that's been prayed by the local church for 1700 years.
We can find church evidence of this prayer being prayed 1700 years ago.
And so three word prayer is come Holy Spirit.
(12:41):
And that prayer is it's not because I think the Holy Spirit ran off and left me in the
middle of the night or has abandoned me or something.
It's actually a reminder that I need the Holy Spirit, how much I need the Holy Spirit.
So even this morning, I got up early this morning before I my feet touched the floor,
before I open up social media, before I check the news of the first thing that comes out
(13:03):
of my mouth for the last seven and a half years, come Holy Spirit.
And it marches me into my day.
I don't know what the rest of the day is going to hold.
I mean, I have some things on my calendar, but I need the Holy Spirit.
I had a young guy say, Pastor Brady, I'm having a hard time with this.
Do I need the Holy Spirit to go to heaven?
I said, you need the Holy Spirit to go to Walmart.
Yeah, you need the Holy Spirit for every activity in your life.
(13:28):
I'm just surprised at how many people are trying to follow Jesus without the Holy Spirit.
And it's impossible.
Jesus said it was impossible.
Jesus said it's better for me if I leave, I'm going to send you a gift and he's going
to guide you into all truth.
I mean, what an amazing gift that is.
Holy Spirit leading us into all truth.
(13:48):
I just think it's a beautiful gift that Jesus left us and the person of the Holy Spirit.
And so I need more.
I want more of it, not less of it.
Yes.
Amen.
Amen.
You know, it's so interesting.
I think that's one of the best promises in the new covenant.
Isaiah says, they will all be taught by God and great will be the shalom of their children.
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And that is ours in Christ to be taught by God, to be led into all truth through the
power of the Holy Spirit so that when we hear things, we can say, yes, that's God or no,
that's not.
And so many things are out there.
There's so many opinions on social media.
And if you follow my social media, I don't give my opinions.
(14:36):
I don't know if I trust my opinion.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But honestly, honestly, I feel like so many people out there in the world, they value
their own opinions so highly more than they value the person that God created in front
of them.
Yeah.
And to me, to me, that's so egregious.
(15:01):
And one of the chapters that are right about it, we talked about the eight practices for
belonging to God and each other.
You're making a great point because one of the chapters that I wrote is a chapter on
discernment, the ability to walk into any situation and to know whether it's right or
wrong, good or evil.
But here's the better thing.
Sometimes when you just need to know, is it wise or unwise?
Yes.
(15:21):
So is it good or bad, evil or good or evil?
Is it right or wrong?
And is it wise or unwise?
And we have to make those decisions dozens of times a day.
Am I reading the truth?
Am I being manipulated?
Am I being controlled?
Am I being lied to?
Is this evil?
Is this unwise to repeat this?
Is this gossip?
So all of those things require discernment.
(15:44):
And I think that is a I think we're not teaching on that enough.
And we're paying the price for it, quite honestly.
The inability for people who say I am I am saved by Christ, I am filled with the spirit,
I have the written word of God in front of me.
We should be the most discerning group of people on the planet.
I mean, it should be very difficult to trick us, to fool or to manipulate us.
(16:06):
Right.
If all three of those things are true, Christ is King, Christ is Lord of my life.
I am the Holy Spirit is my guide.
And the scriptures are living and active sharper than any double edged sword able to teach
rebuke and correct.
If all three of those things are true and active in our lives, we should be the wisest
group of people on the planet.
We should be the most discerning.
(16:27):
We should be the most life minded group of people on the planet.
And that's what I'm hoping this book calls us back to.
Some of these basic principles, the blocking and tackling of our faith so that we are not
tricked, we're not manipulated because social media is manipulating all of us.
I mean, they admit it out in the open.
It's not a trade secret.
(16:47):
It's an obvious algorithm that's being targeted against all of us.
And I think we need to be more discerning.
So I wrote a chapter on that in this book.
Yeah.
And I want to make a note in my mind, you know, I have a love hate relationship with
social media.
I love it because God has the opportunity to reach people just like what we're doing
(17:08):
right now.
But I am I never like I never like it.
In fact, a lot of my social media, I will stick it on like, auto posts and things like
that.
So I don't have to go.
It is.
Well, it just you know, social media is when it came out in 2010, when it kind of became
(17:30):
a thing back in 2010, the promise was that I was going to draw us together.
You're going to have more.
You're going to increase your social activity.
You're going to be closer and more intimate with a larger group of people.
You're going to find new friends.
That was the promise.
And we all jumped on.
We all dove into that thinking that that's a good promise.
I don't mind that.
(17:50):
I want it.
I want more conversations.
I want more friends.
I want to understand the world better.
But what it did instead is it started separating us.
And in order to keep our eyes on the screen, they begin to show us things that aggravate
us, make us angry, make us mad, make us sad.
That's what you're reading.
And here's what it also did.
(18:11):
The social media algorithms are telling me that the people who agree with me are amazing.
I mean, they're right there.
They are amazing people and that the people who disagree with me are evil.
And so there's this larger gap.
This gap continues to increase.
Instead of bringing us together, it started separating us.
I mean, there's lots of really good documentaries out there that people have made about the
(18:35):
dangers of social media.
And so I think we have to get back to the scriptures.
We have to start reading scriptures like Ephesians, chapter four.
We have to start practicing scriptures and really get back to the idea that we do belong
to each other, that people are not our enemy.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty for the pulling down of
(18:55):
strongholds.
But we started using carnal weapons against carnal people.
And that was never the plan.
That was never the intention.
It was never what Jesus imagined for his church.
And I think we need to correct.
Yeah.
You know, it's so interesting.
What's coming up on my heart right now is that we are all created to look different
and operate in different gifts and I, you know, callings and things like that.
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But every single one of them should point to Jesus and it should help fulfill the Great
Commission.
And I feel like those two points are central.
And so I love getting to partner with different ministries and I love how different they all
look.
I have a dear friend who just who's called to women's ministries.
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I have another dear friend who he goes around and he he is literally like equipment and
hands and feet to churches at events and stuff.
How amazing is he?
And I have another friend that shares about Jesus through digital broadcasting.
And so it all looks different, but it's all pointing to Jesus and it's all helping to
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fulfill the Great Commission.
Right?
Exactly.
And before we can ever fulfill the Great Commission, we need to fulfill the Great Commandment,
which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor
as yourself and then go into all the world, which is a Great Commission.
And I think sometimes the reason we're not fulfilling the Great Commission is we're afraid
of our neighbor.
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We don't even know our neighbor.
We we certainly are not looking to find our neighbor.
And that word neighbor is simply whoever's in front of you today is that's that's what
your neighbor is.
So those of you that are listening and watching today, pay attention to who God brings before
you today.
The person at the checkout line, the person at the gas station, the person that you bump
into that you haven't seen in a while, the neighbor walking on your sidewalk that stops
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in front of your house to talk to you there.
Whoever God puts in front of you today, that's your neighbor.
And that's the person we're supposed to love well.
And which leads us to the opportunities for the Great Commission.
But I think if we're afraid of our neighbor that has the MAGA sign out front or we're
afraid of the neighbor with the rainbow flag hanging off their porch, if we're afraid of
them and demonize them, we're never going to reach them.
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We're never going to share the good news of Jesus with them if we're afraid of them or
angry at them.
And I think we got to get the great commandment right, right first.
Yeah, I am not.
I don't think anger ever truly saved anybody.
And you know, I'm not a big proponent of fear saving anyone either.
(21:30):
I'm not a hellfire and brimstone kind of person.
I'm a Jesus paid it all kind of person.
And so, you know, it's a fiery brimstone.
I am.
You come across as very kind and I like that about you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I try.
I try.
I think, you know, kindness is one of Jesus's primary qualities.
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But I love that he can be kind, but he can be firm.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, make is not weak, right?
The blessed.
Meek is not weak.
Meekness is humility.
Meekness is bringing a sense of humility into every conversation.
So look at this picture in Ephesians four.
It says, take, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit to the bond of peace.
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That's Ephesians four, verse three.
But what most people fail to realize is what verse two says.
But we're never going to keep the unity of the spirit to the bond of peace if we don't
first obey verse two, which says be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with
one another in love, and then make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit to the bond
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of peace.
But the reason we're not peaceful people is we're not humble people.
Humble people are peaceful people.
Peaceful people are humble people.
Humility and peace are cousins that you can't separate.
And I think that's where we've lost is we've gotten this arrogance about ourselves that
we're always right.
Everyone should agree with me.
That's not humble.
That's not meek.
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That's being obnoxious.
That's being prideful.
And the Bible is clear about what God does with pride.
It's never good.
But it's always good when we're humble.
It's never good when we're prideful.
So we've got to keep that right first, right?
Amen.
Well, you know, what I have found just in my experience in my ministry is that people
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who are filled with grace are very humble people because people who are filled with
grace know that that all we have is grace.
Like we did not deserve any of it.
Every single one of us deserved death and destruction.
And yet God was so gracious to give us life and life abundantly.
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And I think when we know how gracious God is, even to those who don't deserve it, you
know, the Bible says that that God is even gracious to the sinners and the worldly people
sending rain on their crops to feed them.
That's how kind and gracious our God is.
And so if we have a kind and gracious God, we are going to be a kind and gracious people.
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Right.
Exactly.
Well, chapter 11 is a chapter on grace in my book.
And I agree that, you know, I was I was down on the Florida Gulf Coast a few years ago.
We're on vacation.
This one of my favorite places to go is that that Destin, Falk Walton, Panama City beach
area.
The sand is really white.
The water is green and clear.
(24:27):
It's always warm.
And so it's one of my favorite places to go.
So for whatever reason, I'm out I'm out there one day in the water and I'm out there kind
of by myself.
There's no one there.
And so I have kind of had the whole gulf, the whole ocean to myself.
Right.
And I'm looking out the huge expanse of the ocean in front of me because my back has turned
to the beach and I'm facing the gulf.
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And the Lord spoke to me, said, Brady, I want you to look at all the water that's in front
of you.
It was a lot of miles and miles and miles all the way to the horizon was nothing but
ocean and gulf.
And he says, that's how much grace I have given you.
That's how much grace is required for your life that I've given you freely.
And I didn't withhold it from you.
So the next time that someone in your life needs a cup of water, it should be easy for
(25:13):
you to give someone a cup of grace when you realize you're swimming in oceans of grace.
And it was that moment where I caught grace maybe in a deeper way than I've ever caught
it.
And I think if we all realize how much grace is required for our lives to be blessed by
the Lord, we would be the most gracious people on the planet to anyone else that needed it.
(25:33):
You're exactly what you just said.
And I think that's beautiful.
Yeah.
Isn't it?
What a beautiful picture he gave you.
Wow.
I love that.
I can't imagine a cup versus a whole ocean, man.
And I just want to add this.
The Lord gives and He loves people who will give away.
So He'll give you more, you give it away.
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So cup by cup by cup, you get more and more and more and more.
And so when we look at our Lord Jesus, we have to come to Him and we have to realize
that we are empty and we are bankrupt without Him.
And He is the ever present giver.
He is the giver of everything.
(26:17):
He's the giver of health and wholeness, prosperity, protection, deliverance, all of it.
And all of it comes by grace, even unity.
Unity has come by grace because we have been recreated in Christ through no strength of
our own.
Right?
(26:37):
Well, the next time you want to be angry at someone for disagreeing with you, just put
yourself in front of the cross on the day that Christ was crucified.
Yeah.
You know, He was falsely accused.
He was rejected by his friends.
They fled.
Most of them abandoned him.
He was stripped of his clothes.
He was brutally beaten.
He was hung on a cross like a violent criminal.
(27:00):
And yet in his final breath before he dies, he pulls himself up with all the strength
that he has left in him.
And he says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Instead of calling down violence upon the people that had crucified him, instead of
lashing out with a verbal assault that he would have been justified to defend himself,
(27:23):
he would have been justified to lash out.
But instead he blessed, he forgave.
So the next time I'm tempted to get online and be a keyboard warrior and go at somebody,
I think, what would Jesus do?
What did Jesus do when he was being falsely accused, when he was being punished unfairly?
He was gracious.
(27:45):
He was kind.
He showed us a new way to use power.
Yeah.
That changed the world.
Yeah.
And true grace and strength and forgiveness and humility like that, that is way more power
than screaming at someone, belittling someone, condemning someone could ever do.
(28:07):
Exactly.
He gave us a new way to change the world.
And here we are, what, you know, 2000 years later, there's 2.4 billion Christians on the
planet.
He left us with what, 100?
And here we are, 2.4 billion people later that are on the planet today who are Christ
followers because of he showed us a new way.
(28:28):
He showed us a radical different way to settle our issues, to come together.
And it's not the ways of the dragon.
It's the way of the lamb that's going to change the world.
And I think that was the heart behind my book.
It was what was motivating me.
And I took a lot of risk when I wrote this book because I use a lot of examples that
(28:48):
people may say, well, he's just a social justice warrior.
I'm going to get called names for those kinds of things, but it's not.
I'm trying to present the biblical case for unity.
And it's going to unsettle people when they read the book because it unsettled me writing
it.
It aggravated me to write it.
And I think that's a good thing.
We need to read books and we need to hear preaching that unsettles us, that challenges
(29:12):
us, that brings some conviction back to us and causes us to close the book and pray about
it and think about it.
Am I living up to the standards that Jesus gave us?
So these are not my opinions I'm writing in the book.
I really tried to stay tuned in to what the scriptures tell us and try to give like a
really basic, simple explanation of a mirror.
(29:33):
I mean, there's so much Bible about this topic and we're ignoring it.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's an excellent point.
There's so many that are, well, to be quite frankly honest with you, they're ignoring
a lot of it, not just the topic of unity.
But I believe, and this is the heart that I feel from the Lord, I believe that we are
(29:58):
coming into a time and a place where we are going to be so desperate for the unity.
It's what's going to sustain us as a body.
It's what's going to protect us and keep us.
And I believe that we're coming into a place where it's no longer an option to be your
own ministry, your own this, your own that, your own whatever.
(30:21):
It's going to be those who are connected are going to survive and those who are not connected
are not going to thrive.
So you know.
Well, Jesus gave us that picture of staying connected to the vine.
And we know that the vine is God.
We know that.
But the vine also, I think, is staying connected to the people of God.
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So that we know the more isolated, the more alone we become.
I was with a mental health professional recently, Christina, and she was telling me that here
in my county, El Paso County in Colorado, that we're seeing a huge increase in the number
of cases of anxiety, depression, suicide are all at an all time high in my county.
And I live in a beautiful state of Colorado.
(31:03):
This is a gorgeous outdoor area here.
People come here for vacation.
I mean, we live in a wonderland here.
It's beautiful.
But depression, anxiety is at an all time high.
And so we were talking about it.
And I said, how can we help?
She said, listen to what she said.
She said 70 to 80 percent of my clients would see remarkable improvement in their symptoms
(31:24):
if they had someone calling to check on them every day who cared about them.
I went, wait, are you saying that a phone call knocking on someone's door, taking someone
out to coffee is the solution for this crisis?
She goes, 70 to 80 percent of my clients would see remarkable improvement.
(31:44):
And she didn't say it would be a cure all.
She didn't say it would just magically go away.
She said 70 to 80 percent would see remarkable improvement if someone that cared about them
would just call every day and check on them.
I encourage people that are watching your podcast after the podcast is over, pick up
your phone call and surprise someone with a phone call.
For no reason.
Just say, hey, I'm just thinking about you.
(32:07):
I was praying for you.
The Lord brought you to mind.
How are you doing today?
How can I pray for you?
That is the key to bringing a lot of healing to this thing.
We're living in a very anxious world right now and human to human contact, being life
minded is one of the solutions.
Amen.
Amen.
(32:27):
I love that suggestion.
Well, is there anything else burning on your heart that you'd like to say directly to our
listeners?
Can I just read a text, a scripture to everyone as we close out our time?
I know you love the Bible.
Your Bible teachers have put my readers on here because I realized my book is very small
print.
I'm going to read this to you.
(32:48):
This is out of Romans 12 and this will conclude my time with you, but I just think it's a
beautiful, powerful reminder of what the Bible says about this topic.
Bear with me and listen to the scriptures.
Love must be sincere.
This is Romans 12.
Love must be sincere.
Hate what is evil.
Cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in love.
(33:08):
Honor one another above yourselves.
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Share with the Lord's people who are in need.
Practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you.
Bless and do not curse.
(33:29):
Rejoice with those who rejoice.
Mourn with those who mourn.
Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.
Do not be conceited.
What a powerful reminder from the Bible just how to live.
This is a book written to people living in violent Rome where they were intensely persecuted
(33:51):
for their faith.
They were living in much more dire conditions than any of us are living in.
And that was the charge that the writer of Romans gave to the church.
Practice hospitality and live in peace with one another.
And there 300 years later, Rome became a Christian city because a group of people dared to act
that way.
(34:11):
Wow.
I love that.
Thank you so much for sharing that.
That's beautiful.
Well, I, this has been so much fun.
I know that this is going to encourage so many people out there once this airs and to
encourage them to live like Jesus and operate in that spirit of unity.
So thank you so much for being here with me today.
(34:32):
Thank you. It's an honor to be on your show.
You're such a good interviewer.
You're such a good hostess and you do an amazing job.
So I appreciate the opportunity and let's talk again sometimes.
I would love that.
Unity is always on my heart.
So yes, absolutely.
Well, I hope and I pray today's episode has blessed you.
I will have links in today's podcast.
(34:55):
This is going to air in just a few weeks on revealing Jesus with Christina Perera
There you'll find additional resources to connect with us and our special guest, Pastor
Brady Boyd and make sure to pick up a copy of his new book, Life-Minded.
This is so important to the heart of God.
And I'm so thankful that he wants us to be together in love and unity until next week.
(35:19):
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of Jesus.
God bless.
Beloved, let me introduce you to my King.
He is altogether lovely.
No matter which way you turn him, he is perfection personified.
He is velvet and steel.
He is meekness and majesty.
(35:42):
He is glory and humility.
He is kindness and strength.
He is altogether lovely.
And he is my King.
And he can be yours as well.
All day long, he holds his hand that you might take, that you might turn, one step, one grasp,
(36:03):
one yes, one breath away from the arms of your loving Savior.
Beloved, if you hear him, do not harden your heart.
The Bible declares that not one of us is guaranteed another moment upon this earth.
So pray this prayer with me today and run into the arms of the one who loves you, who
knows you best.
Father, I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin, for all of the places that I have
(36:27):
fallen short, God, of your glorious standard.
I ask you now to send your Son into my heart, to be the forgiveness of my sin, to be my
redemption, to be my righteousness, to be my holiness, to be my sanctification.
I ask you to forgive me, to cleanse me, to fill me with your Spirit, your power, your
(36:53):
glory, that I might bring glory to your name, Father.
I thank you that I receive all of this by faith and the Son of God who loved me and
who gave himself up for me.
I thank you that I am now a child of God, fully forgiven, fully righteous, fully holy
(37:14):
in your eyes, and I ask you to help me walk out this life in a way that pleases and honors
you, Father.
I thank you, Jesus, for all that you've done.
I thank you for your love, for your kindness, for your great joy in saving me.
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And I thank you, Father, and I thank you, Holy Spirit, and I pray all of these things
in your beautiful Son's name.
Amen.
If you've just prayed that prayer for the first time, I want to congratulate you.
You are now a child of God, and all things are now yours.
(37:57):
Keep listening to Revealing Jesus.
Find a good Bible translation that makes sense to you, and keep hearing about our beautiful
Savior Jesus.
Please let us know we want to continue to pray for you, and we want to send you a free
PDF copy of our New Believer Workbook.
(38:19):
Just go to christinaparara.org slash welcome hyphen home.
Enter your email address, and we will be happy to send this free gift.
And continue to pray for your journey.
God bless.
I sincerely hope and pray today's episode has blessed you.
(38:41):
Now it's your turn to continue the conversation.
We are all evangelists of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Like this episode, rate it, share it with friends if it's impacted your life.
Let them know that you want it to do the same in theirs.
Help spread the word of the good news of Jesus.
Subscribe to the mailing list and get episodes, articles, downloads, and more sent right to
(39:06):
you.
Link in show notes or just text Jesus to 1-833-815-7778.
Again that's Jesus 1-833-815-7778.
We would love to connect with you on social media.
You can find us at Christina Perera Ministries on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
(39:30):
Until next week, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of Jesus.
God bless.
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