January 21, 2026 • 47 mins
What if your life had nothing to hide—no low-grade guilt, no secret compromises, no dread of being found out? Pastor Ryan and Pastor Tim map a clear path toward that kind of freedom by connecting faith, obedience, and righteousness as one living rhythm: say yes to Jesus and your heart, habits, and horizon begin to change. This isn’t about earning salvation; it’s about receiving the Spirit’s gift of new “want-tos” and learning how quiet confidence grows when your life aligns with God’s way.
We unpack why righteousness matters beyond Sunday. Think less checklist, more protection. Paul’s “breastplate of righteousness” guards your inner life in the real battlegrounds: tense meetings, hospital hallways, hard conversations, and private choices no one sees. Isaiah’s promise becomes tangible—the result of righteousness is peace, and the effect is quiet confidence—because you stop handing the enemy footholds and start walking with a clean conscience. We talk through common pitfalls like calling our preplanned sin a “struggle,” and we offer a better prayer: “Holy Spirit, change my want-to.”
Grounded in Luke 5, 2 Corinthians 5, Ephesians, and 2 Peter, we show how grace clothes you in Christ’s righteousness and then trains you to live rightly. You’ll hear practical ways to present your whole self as a weapon for good, build integrity that stands up to scrutiny later, and pray from victory instead of shame. From Job’s ordinary-yet-righteous example to modern moments of courage at work and home, you’ll see how small yeses add up to a life heaven marvels at and God can use anywhere.
If you’re ready for peace that lasts and confidence that doesn’t need to boast, press play. Then share this with someone who needs hope today, subscribe for more conversations like this, and leave a review with one question you want us to tackle next.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast, broughtto you by a Fresh Wind Church.
Each week our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
SPEAKER_03 (00:27):
Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined as alwayswith Pastor Tim, and we are in
week three of our sermon seriesMarvel, and we're talking about
living lives that please God.
And uh Tim, I've it's beenreally cool uh each week as
we've been preparing, or I'vebeen preparing.
I think you're getting ready forto preach this Sunday.
Um, but just how these are allkind of building right on top of
(00:50):
one another.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Yeah, I don't think we understand.
Uh we go to church, um, we nightmight not hit every Sunday.
Uh they might be preachingthrough a book like we're gonna
do in in the summertime.
We always preach through thebook of the Bible, and and we
don't ever pull these thingsout, put them on a big uh board
(01:11):
and see how they go together.
And uh this sermon series hashas been uh walking up faith,
obedience, righteousness, howthey all um are like holding
hands with your wife.
You just they all go together,and uh this lays it out for you
to where you can you canactually track it.
(01:32):
Yeah and it's good to get it alltogether.
So if you missed any of these umsermons, you need to uh jump on
and and grab a hold of them anduh because these are are really
lining up in a way that'll helpyou understand the Christian
life as a whole instead of anaspect of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_03 (01:52):
That's good.
Yeah, I was I shared with youbefore we hopped on here as I
was preparing for this pastSunday.
Um I had the whole sermonwritten out, ready to go, and as
I was going over it, and I thinkthis Saturday, you know, I'm
trying to go through it a couplemore times, get it all in my
head.
I'm just like, man, I've I'vegot a lot of good content in
(02:15):
here.
Um I I think it, you know, I'mtrying to define what
righteousness is, and it's kindof this double-sided coin.
We'll talk about that.
But I'm like, I I've I've notgiven anybody a glimpse of what
their life could look like ifthey would take this serious.
Um because sometimes, man, wecan we can hear these sermons
(02:36):
and it can be this religiousidea.
Okay, that's important.
We can take notes on it.
I need to know that.
I need to know whatrighteousness is, I need to know
why it's important to God.
And I had talked about all ofthat in the sermon, you know, as
I'm studying it.
I'm like, I got all thosepieces, but man, I was like, I
want people to see thedifference this could have in
their life.
(02:56):
Um, and and I think how thiswhole series is kind of
building.
Um, man, if you would take thesethings and just start applying
it, it would change your life.
You'd live differently, you'd bethe kind of person that heaven
marvels at and that God can use.
Um, and we've talked about thata lot in our sermons, in our
podcast, about being prepared tobe used by God, you know, and so
(03:19):
we've said, you know, you needto you need to study scripture
so that when you're in thosesituations, God can bring those
things up.
Um, and we've talked about thesethings, and so on Sunday I
that's kind of how I ended itwas trying to give the vision of
this is the life you could leadif you started saying yes to
Jesus right now.
SPEAKER_01 (03:38):
I think when we think about that, we I don't
know what it is.
I while you were speaking there,I was trying to think what
causes us to take that one thingand say no?
You know, that one thing thatyou uh don't want your wife to
find out about, that one thingyou don't want uh your kids to
(04:00):
know about you, um anger,racism, whatever, whatever those
things are, that you just sayno, I'm not gonna lay that down.
I'm not gonna treat that personthis way.
And it has a lot to do withbitterness and hurt and all that
kind of stuff.
I don't want to drill down toodeep.
But what would life be like ifthere was no guilt?
(04:26):
Yeah, you're gonna make amistake, but you're gonna
confess that, say you're sorry,and and and move on.
But there are some things wejust take take a hold of, which
is I'm not gonna let you havethat, or I've given enough, I
don't want to give any more,that we that we grab a hold of
(04:46):
that we we live in guilt for youknow, most of our lives.
Just this is the thing.
I feel guilty about it all thetime.
I'm I'm waiting for somebody tofind out about it.
I you know, what would it belike if you just didn't have to
live that way and just laid itdown and and uh and that I know
(05:08):
it's a crazy word, that'srighteous living.
Yeah, you know, just saying uhthat's not as important as
Jesus.
So I'm gonna I'm just gonna layit down.
And to live that kind of life isa life of peace.
And I know we we talk about howis God gonna use you?
(05:29):
They were gonna raise John theBaptist, you use um Zechariah
and Elizabeth.
Uh they were gonna raise Johnthe Baptist, which is a big
deal.
Um, but coming up to that point,they lived righteous lives and
they were free.
Yep.
And you you might not ever raisea John the Baptist, but you can
(05:50):
live free and in peace and knowthat um you don't have anything
between you and God.
SPEAKER_03 (05:56):
Yeah, I you know, I read that verse from the prophet
Isaiah.
Um he said the result ofrighteousness will be peace.
That's what it is.
If you will live this way, youcan have peace.
And then he says, the effect ofrighteousness will be quiet
confidence forever.
And man, as I was reading that,I could feel it in my bones, you
(06:19):
know, that that longing to say,God, I want that quiet
confidence.
Not the boastful confidencewhere you gotta try to like
prove something to someone or ummaybe even to yourself, you
know.
If I I gotta I gotta prove thisto me.
No, no, no, that quietconfidence that in any room, in
any situation, whatever's goingon in the world, whatever's
(06:40):
going on around me, I know I'mon solid ground.
That quiet, sure confidence.
SPEAKER_01 (06:49):
We talk about how this all goes together.
Um Jesus just he made it plain,my peace I leave with you.
What is that peace?
Total confidence that God's incontrol and he's got me.
unknown (07:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:06):
And um, it doesn't matter what's going on, that's
the peace that we're all lookingfor.
And and Jesus had that, he said,This is my peace, I want to
leave my peace with you, not theworld's peace, which is you
know, lack of conflict, or I gotenough money, I think I can get
all the way to the end of mylife with it, or something like
(07:28):
that.
Jesus said, No, I want to giveyou a confidence.
And uh and the way we get thatties into how we live, our
righteousness.
Now, when we talk aboutrighteousness, we get this idea
that you know, I'm all I'malways gonna be something wrong.
Um, there's something I don't door I don't want to do, and and
(07:49):
um so I feel like I've alwaysgot something going on uh
between me and God.
But I want you to understandthat Jesus Jesus knew that.
He didn't come for therighteous.
He said in um Matthew, I'msorry, Luke chapter five, it is
not those who are healthy.
(08:10):
Excuse me.
It is not those who are healthywho need a doctor, but those who
are sick.
I have not come to call therighteous, but sinners to
repentance.
That is the exciting thing.
Um I think we don't understand.
Um He's not here for therighteous, he's come for the
sinner to make them righteous.
SPEAKER_03 (08:32):
Yeah, he's he's gonna do it.
Um scripture talks about how heis going to sanctify us through
and through.
Um, he's going to to accomplishthis thing.
And and it's, you know, as I wastrying to talk about
righteousness, because man,there's people have a lot of
(08:53):
ideas, things they've read orgrew up with, you know,
depending on what church,denomination, whatever.
Um when it comes to howrighteousness and how that plays
out in in the Christian life, wegot a lot of preconceived ideas,
I think.
And you know, I I remember acouple years ago we did a sermon
series, um, and it was about,you know, living in obedience,
(09:15):
these things that God um expectsfrom his people.
Um, and ticked a couple peopleoff in that series.
They're like, um, no, you can'tadd stuff to salvation.
I'm like, well, that's that'snot what we're doing here.
SPEAKER_01 (09:29):
No, that's not what we're doing at all.
I think, I think we have a uh weneed to be that way.
We need to protect the way wethink about salvation.
Um when we're saved, we'resaved.
And then God begins thesanctification process.
It's always it's always happensthat way.
(09:50):
You're not living righteous tokeep your salvation, right?
You're living righteous to havepeace and confidence in the Lord
all the time.
Uh, when you don't liverighteous, you're all you know
what Hebrew says about uh fatherwho loves his children.
A father who loves his childrenuh will not um spare the rod,
(10:13):
you know.
He's going to uh try to bringbring you into alignment of his
will for your life.
SPEAKER_03 (10:20):
He disciplines those he loves.
SPEAKER_01 (10:21):
That's absolutely right.
And we have that we get thisidea that, okay, now me and God,
we got this thing.
And that usually comes from theway you were raised, you know.
Uh we get this idea of God who'slike the the person who had the
most power in your your raising,you know.
If uh God uh if your dad waskind of distant, you feel like
(10:46):
God is distant.
Uh or if your dad washeavy-handed, you feel like God
heavy-handed.
And so we we begin to live inthis culture of um I I gotta I
gotta hide, just like Adam, Adamand Eve, right?
I gotta hide.
Uh, and we we spend a lot of tuh a lot of our Christian life
(11:09):
hiding when the Lord is like,no, just live righteous.
I was in trouble one time withmy dad and um I had lied to him
and he found out.
And uh I finally he was walkingaway at the end of the argument
and the spanking, and I said, Idon't want to live afraid of
(11:33):
you.
And he turned around in a in aand is almost vicious.
And he looked at me, then liveright and you have nothing to be
afraid of.
And it it's it's it affects meto this day.
I'm 60 years old.
And and that's that's the truth.
(11:54):
Live right.
You don't have nothing to beafraid of uh when you're living
in alignment with what God hasfor your life.
And I know a lot of people,well, you that's not saving you.
Absolutely.
You are correct.
That is not saving you, but itis giving you uh the precious
life of peace and uhcompanionship with our Savior
(12:18):
and Lord.
Right.
And to live without it, once youlive with it, to live without it
is just not worth it anymore.
I think uh 2 Corinthians chapter5 uh really uh lays it out for
us.
He made the one who did not knowsin to be sin for us, so that in
him, now get this right, wegotta be in him, right?
(12:42):
Yeah, we might become therighteousness of God.
And uh that's what God's doingin us, and we need to cooperate
with that.
Get your life in alignment andstart fighting those things that
are uh are your rebellious uhparts of your life that you
wanna you wanna hang on to andand start saying, Lord, I need
(13:07):
the want to to lay this down.
Not that God helped me lay thisdown.
You need the want to.
God help me want to lay thisdown.
SPEAKER_03 (13:16):
Well, thankfully, I mean he promised his his Holy
Spirit will give us the desireand the power.
He'll give you both of thosethings.
He'll give you the power youneed to lay it down, but he'll
also give you that desire, thewant to to lay those things
down.
Um you know as I was again as Iwas studying, I I came across
this passage in Ephesians, andand Paul's talking about don't
(13:37):
give your bodies over to sin asweapons for unrighteousness.
Instead, you need to give everypart of you to God as a weapon
for righteousness.
And man, I was like, why use theword weapon there?
You know, um, yeah, it itdoesn't seem to make sense.
What are we talking about?
Why?
But then this just reminder,man, we're we are in a spiritual
(14:01):
battle every day, and how welive becomes a weapon, and we
can wield that weapon towardsunrighteousness, or we can use
it towards righteousness.
And Paul's like, man, don't giveyourselves over.
And we think this isn't that bigof a deal, and I'm not hurting
anybody, this you know,whatever, whatever excuse we
(14:23):
come up with to justify thatthing that we refuse to lay down
or or whatever.
And he's like, Man, that isyou're you're offering yourself
as a weapon for unrighteousness.
But if we would choose to laythose things down, however tough
it is for you, you know, whetherit's um a deeply ingrained habit
at this point, you know, you'vejust got those those grooves in
(14:45):
your brain, this is just yourdefault state, which it
naturally falls into, or youthink that thing um brings you
more pleasure or happiness.
We've talked about that a lot inthe series.
That the reason we struggle witha lot of these things is because
we trust that that it's gonnabring me more happiness than
than living God's way.
If we'll just say yes to Jesus,we will make ourselves a weapon
(15:10):
for righteousness in ourfamilies, in our workplaces, in
our homes, in our community, inour churches.
And man, it's you know,scripture says don't don't give
the enemy a foothold, but talksabout that idea.
Uh, we we we don't even want togive him the opportunity here.
Um and man, righteous living isthe thing that protects us
against that, um, to build awall um that the enemy can't
(15:34):
break through.
And and we need to liverighteously.
It's so important to theChristian life.
And when when we try to discountthat, I think uh I think we set
ourselves up for a lot ofheartbreak.
SPEAKER_01 (15:50):
Yeah, we were talking in our um life group
about that verse in Hebrews.
Pat Pat brought it up, he leadsour life group.
It says, In your struggleagainst sin, you have not yet
resisted to the point ofshedding your blood.
And we're like, okay, what'sthis mean?
(16:13):
Who's gonna shed blood over sin?
I mean, if the Lord said, Look,you need to stop watching our
rated movies, and um or I'mgonna cut you.
You know, that's that's uh so wewere talking about that, and um
Tim Olney was uh talking aboutyou know struggling with sin,
(16:35):
and then um Rich Seth jumped inand was talking about it was
talking about it and I wassitting there thinking, man, I
don't struggle with sin at all.
I'm awesome.
I don't I don't have thisstruggle.
So I told him, I said, I youknow, I don't have this struggle
(16:57):
anymore.
I don't struggle with sin.
I don't struggle at all.
I jump in both feet.
There's there's no resistance atall.
If it's something I want to doand I know it's wrong, I and I'm
just I'm gonna do it.
And there's no struggle at all.
And uh of course they looked atme like, okay, you're the
(17:21):
pastor.
And uh there are there are umsome things in my life that have
always we call them struggles,but it's not a struggle.
You've already made thatdecision, right?
It's not I feel bad.
That's not a struggle.
(17:41):
The struggle is don't let mefall into that anymore, Lord.
I'll do whatever I can.
And uh so there are somestruggles with sin.
And then there's some sin that'syou don't struggle.
And that's where we got to getthe Lord involved in the Holy
Spirit.
Make me want to not do that,make me want Jesus more.
(18:03):
And I think sometimes uh one ofthe things that when we talk
about righteousness, ourvernacular in the English has
changed over the years.
It's one thing you you if yougrew up on the King James Bible
and you see the wordrighteousness and
unrighteousness.
Now, if you look at some of thelater translations, more modern
(18:24):
translations, they saywickedness instead of
unrighteousness.
It's because our vernacular hasbecome, if I'm gonna be
righteous, then that means I'mgonna read my Bible, I'm gonna
go to church on Sundays, I'mgonna I'm gonna do all the
churchy things, I'm gonna sharethe gospel with people, I'm
(18:46):
gonna do all those things.
Don't let that the vernacular,when we when we say the word
righteous, um, that it has to dowith doing church things.
No, no, no.
You are responsible for yourwhole life.
Your whole life needs to be uhrighteous.
Um what we were at Cole's um uhtrying to find a bathing suit
(19:11):
for me because we're going onvacation and uh I'm looking out
the we're in the podcast room,I'm looking out the window and
there's snow blowing all overwhere and I'm like, I gotta get
out of here.
And uh, but when I buy those uhshorts, I need to make sure that
they're a righteous pair ofshorts.
What do you mean?
Churchy pair of shorts?
(19:32):
You you're gonna start wearinglong pants in the pool?
Uh no, but I need I need to knowthat this pair of shorts is not
gonna mess with my ability toshare Christ with someone else.
That's what we're talking aboutum being righteous.
I need to be a person who uhdoesn't have those things that
(19:56):
um say that I am of the world.
Because I am not of the world.
unknown (20:02):
That's right.
SPEAKER_01 (20:02):
I'm just here for a little while.
So don't get don't get trappedinto that thing that when they
say we need to live righteous,it means you got to go to church
and serve in the nursery.
That's part of it.
That's a big part of it.
But if you're if you're workinga job and you can't serve here
and this is where you go tochurch and you can only show up
(20:25):
one Sunday a month, that doesnot mean you can't live a
righteous life.
That means your righteous yourrighteousness uh is lived out in
every day, saying yes to Jesusevery day.
Uh you brought up what wouldJesus do.
And when that came out, I was alot younger man, and I thought,
(20:48):
wow.
What would Jesus do?
That is just trite.
That's a little that's a littlething.
Um for the kids to run aroundwith a bracelet on, I thought,
man, I guess that's okay.
But now that I'm 60 years oldand I find myself in these
situations all the time, Ithink, what would Jesus do,
(21:14):
right?
I mean, it is the best questionyou can ask yourself.
And um, I think I was madbecause I didn't come up with it
myself.
Right.
But uh but that is that that isthe question uh that we need to
be asking yourself.
And it it as you grow inrighteousness, God changes your
heart.
(21:34):
He doesn't um just change yourbehavior to where you're in that
struggle for sin that I don'thave a struggle with because I
just jump right in.
Um matured so much.
Yeah.
You're um you're not in thatstruggle with sin because you
want to do what Jesus does.
(21:55):
That's how he's changing you.
He's changing your want-tos.
So this is not in this at all,but um I had a question one
time, how do I know I won't sinin heaven?
I said, You won't sin in heaven,you don't have to worry about
that.
And he says, the angels were inheaven and they sinned, right?
(22:19):
And I said, Yes.
How do I know that I won't sinwhen I get to heaven?
And I was like, I need adefinitive biblical stance on
that.
So I started uh digging and Icame up with um and I teach a
(22:40):
class that has a lot of this init, uh, which is we will be like
him.
At the end of all this, we'regonna be like Jesus.
And could Jesus, Yahweh, theKing of the universe, our great
creator God sin in heaven?
(23:01):
Yeah.
He just don't want to.
You know?
He is that is not who he is.
So it doesn't even cross hismind.
And you're like, well, God can'tsin.
You're right.
He can't because that's not whohe is.
When we get to heaven, that'swho we will be.
And that that is therighteousness he bought and paid
(23:24):
for on the cross for us.
And I, man, if you can get ahold of that, you won't sin in
heaven because it won't evencross your mind.
Because you will be like him.
And he's calling us right now.
I'm gonna help you be like meright now.
We sing that song.
(23:45):
Um Praise Him like you're inheaven.
We sang it yesterday.
SPEAKER_03 (23:50):
You know that you're there in glory.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:52):
Praise him like you're there in glory because
right now he's just as holy.
Yep.
So are you.
So are you.
And I man, I praise God for thatbecause I don't have the
struggle some people have.
And I I need that struggle.
Lord, my dad used to say, youpray that God will change your
(24:15):
want-tos.
Don't get him, uh, don't praytogether, God will change your
priorities, your values, and youknow, your life, all this stuff.
Pray that God will change yourwant-tos because that's how he
changes your life.
SPEAKER_03 (24:31):
I mean, we're we have a podcast outline here.
We're so far off of it.
But man, years ago, you youpreached a sermon, and you even
brought this up actually, uh, ina sermon you preached recently.
Um, you you brought this idea upagain.
You know, God is in the forevernow.
Um, and so he's with me rightnow celebrating my birth, but
(24:52):
he's also with me on my 10,000thanniversary in heaven.
He's he is outside of time,which means whatever you're
struggling with right now, Godis already celebrating the day
when you get past that thing.
And it's no longer a strugglefor you.
And when I heard you preachthat, and I mean, this is years
(25:13):
ago, it changed how I prayedbecause I started saying, God,
you're already celebrating myvictory.
I want to join you in that.
And now I'm not praying with myeyes focused on my sin and all
that that comes along with.
I'm praying with that, my eyestowards Jesus in that moment of
(25:33):
victory.
He's already secured, he'salready in, he's already
celebrating that thing for me.
And I'm saying, God, I want to,I want to join that celebration.
When scripture says there's nocondemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus, man, so many ofus we we look at our sin, we
just are we're so focused on it.
And it's no wonder we struggleto live righteously because it's
(25:54):
all we think about.
Man, I gotta stop sinning.
I gotta stop sinning.
I know I'm disappointing God, Iknow I'm disappointing my wife
or my kids.
And and it's all we look at.
And the problem is we're runningheadlong into it because we're
staring right at it.
Right.
If we would start focusing onJesus, the author and the
perfecter, the finisher of ourfaith, and say, God, you're
already celebrating this thing.
(26:16):
I want to join you in thatcelebration.
It changes how we view the wholesituation.
Right.
Um man, he he you're alreadyover it.
He's already celebrating that.
Why don't you join him in it?
And how do you do that?
Just say yes.
SPEAKER_01 (26:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (26:34):
Just say yes to him.
SPEAKER_01 (26:35):
I I think that's part of the uh everlasting now
is the the fact that we arerighteous, we're holy.
We've already been declaredholy.
I mean, that judgment hasalready been made on who's ever
accepted Jesus Christ as theirSavior and Lord.
And if you've received Jesus, hepaid for your sin on the cross
(26:59):
and has declared you righteous.
And this is the promise, okay?
Even though you're struggling,even though you're addicted and
you can't let it go, um, andyou're struggling you're in that
uh mental struggle, Jesus said,I'm gonna give you God's
(27:23):
righteousness.
You will you will have God'srighteousness, and I never fail.
I never fail.
That's right.
SPEAKER_03 (27:40):
You know, especially for a crybaby.
Another sermon you brought up,and and I almost did this
yesterday, I probably shouldhave because it helped me so
much.
Um, again, probably a decadeago.
There's been a couple of yoursermons over the years that have
impacted me, just a few.
SPEAKER_01 (27:58):
I loved your one, your one yesterday.
You know, you know when a pastorloves a sermon, when he's back
there writing notes saying, Iwould have done it like this,
and I would have done it likethat.
SPEAKER_03 (28:08):
You know, um, one of the the best compliments, um,
because I think we all we still,however old we get, we still
want to impress our dads, youknow.
Um showed up to my dad's houseyesterday and he said, Man, I
just want to let you know thepast two sermons have been
incredible.
He goes, I they've been soinsightful and they have just
been they've been great.
(28:30):
Um and so even though I'm in my30s, hearing that from your dad
is still pretty awesome.
Um but sermon you had preachedyears ago, um, you had taken
some piece of paper or papertowel or something and you got
it all stained up and dirty andstomped on it on the stage and
you picked it up and you said,you know, man, this is our life.
(28:50):
And it's full of stains, it'sfull of holes and mistakes and
regrets, all this stuff.
Um, but then you took your yourBible and you put that piece of
paper in there and you closed itaround that piece of paper.
You said, but when God looks atyou, he doesn't see that.
He sees the perfect spotlessLamb of God.
So I used that terminologyyesterday.
I should have done the wholeillustration because I can I can
(29:13):
picture you doing it right now.
Um, that's the truth.
Jesus gave us that parable aboutthe prodigal son, and when he
comes home, that his dad takeshis robe and he wraps it around
him, he puts a ring on hisfinger.
Man, that's that's your God.
And so he doesn't see, oh mygosh, you just crawled out of
the pig pen and you stink.
(29:33):
Oh my gosh, you smell horrible,you're filthy.
No, no, no.
He puts a brand new robe on you,and when he looks at you, he
sees Jesus, he sees perfection,he's declared you righteous,
he's paid and bought that foryou.
Right.
And then now that you're part ofthe family, he expects us to
(29:55):
live rightly.
Right, exactly.
You know, it's and that's that'swhat I try to hope, and I'm
hoping I did a good job withthat.
Um praying the Lord works allthat out for people.
Because these are big doctrinalideas, and I and I want to help
people understand practically,okay, yeah, this is great in a
textbook, but what does it meanin your everyday life?
(30:15):
Right.
Um, and so I'm hoping the Lordworks all that out, but it's
it's not either or.
It's a and both.
He he clothes you, he wraps youin that righteousness, and you
stand justified before God.
Scripture says we can comeboldly before the throne of our
gracious God.
Imagine what that means.
You know, that we can we haveaccess to him because of what
(30:36):
Jesus has done.
Now go and sin no more.
SPEAKER_01 (30:39):
I want to jump in there, but I've got a cough, and
I don't know if I should starttalking or just cough.
SPEAKER_03 (30:44):
Here, let me pause or mute your mic and then you
cough away.
SPEAKER_01 (30:49):
And we're back.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Um, I forgot what I was gonnasay.
Now, here's here's the importantabout that.
Not only does God see you thatway, the rest of the universe
sees you that way.
The spiritual world, whatever isin there, sees you that way.
(31:13):
And that's why uh when you saidrighteousness matters, I man,
that's one of my uhcatchphrases, and I love it.
And I love to hear other peoplesay it.
And if somebody said youprobably have heard that from
you.
I was claiming it, probably.
You go ahead and claim it.
I want everybody out there toclaim that righteousness
matters, because righteousnessbecomes a protection in your
(31:36):
life against the evil one,against temptation, against all
the things in the world thatwants to distract you, even your
own selfishness, even your ownsinful desires.
Righteousness protects you.
And it's it's that's why umPaul, when he's talking about it
(31:58):
in Ephesians, he says, put onthe breastplate of
righteousness, protect yourheart, protect your organs,
protect all the stuff that makesyou alive with righteousness.
And man, it's just it's it'simportant.
And and I such good imagery.
(32:18):
Yeah, and that's uh yeah, Paul,he's just amazing with that kind
of stuff.
Yeah, you gotta attack with, butyou need to protect your organs.
And the way you protect that iswith righteousness.
Yeah, that's that's great.
I don't need to say any morethan that because his his was
the best.
Just go read what Paul wrote.
(32:39):
Yeah, I I I think we've theworld has and I I think it's
satanic, um has changed thatword.
That means churchy stuff.
Church stuff, yeah.
Yeah.
And uh but the Lord saying no,when I say talk to that person
on the elevator, and I say no,that's unrighteous.
(33:05):
When I say yes, it's righteous.
When I go to the hospitalvisiting people, I always see
someone walking down the hallwaylike look like they just got hit
by a bus.
You know, there's always someonein there, and I'll say, Are you
okay?
Are you okay?
And I I don't say that umbecause I feel like the Holy
(33:28):
Spirit's telling me to say that.
I say that because I'm afraidthe Holy Spirit might be telling
me to say that and I don't hearit, you know?
And I'm like, Are you okay?
Can I pray with you?
And and invariably there'ssomeone I can I can pray with.
And so I'm looking for what Godwants me to do in those
(33:49):
situations.
Um the hospital is abattleground.
Emotions are high, bad thingsare going on.
You wouldn't be there if thereweren't.
And uh so um when you get inthose battlegrounds like
hospitals, funerals, um at theend of church, when we're when
(34:10):
we're drawing the net, whenwe're doing our invitation, will
you raise your hand?
That's a battleground.
And you need to clear your headof all you're thinking about,
win the ball games, and pray andlive righteous in that moment.
Well, how do I live righteousstanding in church while Ryan's
praying?
(34:30):
By praying with him, by sayingamen, by paying attention.
Um, those those are thebattlegrounds uh that we need to
be, we need to come alive in,um, because that's when
righteousness matters the most.
Not doing what the church saysto do or live like the church
says, but to live like Jesus istelling you in that moment.
unknown (34:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (34:55):
It's this is so powerful.
And I and I hope I hope you takethis and begin to to apply it to
to desire and then to practiceliving righteously.
It'll change everything, youknow.
Um I I said on Sunday, it'llyour your family will feel it,
your home will experience it,you know, um, your workplace
(35:17):
will be different.
If we would be righteous, I meanjust imagine it if you live
righteously and we talked aboutpeace, we talked about that
quiet confidence, and thesemoments come up, you know,
especially if you're a boss, amanager, um, you got to fire
somebody, whatever that wouldbe.
And then the question is, well,you know, man, can our company
handle if they go and they starttalking about us and all.
(35:39):
Imagine if you had theconfidence to say, man, we've
treated that person well.
We treated their family well.
We we did good by them.
They don't have any ammunition.
That's quiet confidence.
That's what righteousnessproduces.
You don't have to live in fearand say, man, I want what, oh,
if that gets out, oh, if peopleheard about that, oh, if if
(36:01):
someone, you know, no, man, youyou're free to make the best
decision in any situationbecause you know, man, I've
lived righteous in that moment.
I I have the breastplate ofrighteousness and I've protected
myself.
I've not given the enemy afoothold.
I I've I've not I've notgossiped, I've not been talking
behind people's backs, I've notbeen, you know, cutting a little
(36:24):
bit for myself off the top,skimming some off the top.
I've not been doing thosethings, I've not been taking
pens from the break room, youknow, I've not done anything
because I want to liverighteously.
And then whenever thesesituations come out, you don't
have to be afraid.
You don't have to like all thesepoliticians, I can only imagine
all of them wondering, oh boy,if someone hacked my account, if
(36:47):
someone got in there and saw, ifsomeone looked at my DMs, you
know, all this, because youknow, people, I mean, there are
people paid to go and find thedirt on you.
Right.
Imagine if you lived in a waywhere there was no dirt.
SPEAKER_01 (37:01):
And there was there was some congressmen.
I know it's hard to believe thatwhen they were invited by
Epstein, they said, No.
No.
No, I'm not going.
Live that way.
No, that'll it'll be great.
Let's end on um my dad.
We talk about him a lot, but Idon't know if you know much
(37:22):
about my dad, but he was intoeverything.
SPEAKER_03 (37:25):
You should probably just rename the midweek podcast,
the El Royal Holt Show, becauseman, he is he's made a big
difference.
SPEAKER_01 (37:32):
Um but a lot of where he makes a big difference
is um what you're thinking aboutdoing, he's done and then paid
the price.
He was a con man.
Now, uh the definition of conman is a confidence man.
They earn your confidence andthen they steal you blind.
Okay, that's what a con mandoes.
(37:54):
So um one of the cons that mydad had is he had this ring.
It was worth no back in thefifties, um like two thousand
dollars, which makes it a twentythousand dollar ring now,
probably.
And um he got that ring, andthen he had a jeweler make him
(38:16):
another one made out of glass.
That looks just like it.
And uh he would get someone tohave some confidence in him, and
then he would say, Oh man, I'min trouble.
I need to I need to hock myring, and um and uh pawn chop
won't give me any money for it,and I know they'll just take it
and sell it.
(38:37):
And um he says, I need to borrowmoney, I can give you this ring.
And he'd say, No, no, no, I wantyou to know it's real.
So he'd take him to a jewelrystore and have that guy price
that ring out so he knew.
And um and then he'd ask the guyto loan him money, and the guy
would loan him money and hewould give him the glass ring
(38:57):
and then leave town.
So um that's a confidence gamethat uh I said, Well, how do you
how do you keep out of that?
And he looked at me and son andhe said, Son, you cannot cheat
an honest man.
And I I'm like, What are youtalking about?
(39:19):
He said, There are some honestmen out there that you can't get
past their righteousness.
He said, You have to to fall forthese things, you have to have a
little larceny in your soul.
And those are the words he used.
You gotta you gotta find the guywho's got a little bit of
(39:41):
larceny in his soul.
If you find a righteous man,he'll either just give you the
money and tell you to keep thering, or he'll just say no.
And he says, I run into a lot ofthem.
They're just honest men, and youcan't get past that.
What righteousness does for you.
(40:02):
It protects you from all ofSatan's schemes and um and and
protects uh you in a way that II don't think we understand
spiritually.
SPEAKER_03 (40:13):
So righteousness your life becomes a weapon, man.
Yeah, it does.
SPEAKER_01 (40:17):
And righteousness matters.
They can um Satan can pull allhell out, put them, line them up
like soldiers on a field, andyou can walk right through the
middle.
And that's that's what it does.
Um you gotta get let the Lordchange your want-tos, get that
larceny out of your soul so theycan't trick you into living a
(40:40):
life that's not worthy of thegospel.
Man, I can talk about this allday.
You better shut me down,brother.
SPEAKER_03 (40:46):
I don't know if if we're gonna get to Job in this
series.
Um but imagine living away insuch a way that God looks at
Satan and says, Have youconsidered my servant Job?
There's no one else like him.
There, and we think, man, thisthe this is too this is too
(41:08):
impossible.
You can't live this way.
No way you can live like this.
Um maybe, maybe pastors, and I'mtelling you it's not any easier
for us.
Um you you think, man, pastorsand priests, maybe, but this
ordinary people, we can't livethis.
Job was an ordinary man.
And God said, There's no oneelse like him.
(41:30):
We can live this way.
You can live a righteous life,and it's gonna take the Holy
Spirit for sure, changing yourwant-tos.
It's gonna take getting intoGod's word and allowing God to
renew your mind, um, totransform it.
Um it and if you'll cooperate,but man, you we can live
righteously.
(41:51):
And then in these situationsthat come up, we become the kind
of people God can use in anysituation.
So that when you're walkingthrough the hospital, God can
tap on your shoulder and say, Ineed you to go pray with them.
And and you'll be ready.
And and when you're on vacationat the beach and everyone's
living wild and crazy andwhatever, doing whatever they're
(42:13):
doing, you can show up in yourrighteous shorts and say, Hey,
you know what?
I need to share the gospel withyou, and you'll be ready.
This is if we would take thisserious, we become a weapon that
God can use in the world forrighteousness.
And man, I wonder what God coulddo in your family, what he could
(42:36):
do in your home and in yourworkplace, in your community, in
our church, if we would getserious about this.
And I man, I I'll tell you this.
I am so grateful because God haspeople here at A Fresh Wind, and
they live this way.
They do.
They do.
He has given us an example ofsome men, some women that I can
look at and I know I've seentheir stories, I've seen how
they live, and I can say there'ssomeone who lives righteously.
SPEAKER_01 (42:59):
Some that didn't live that way, and now they do.
I'm gonna I'm gonna end this uhpodcasting.
I'm gonna read you a passage ofscripture inspired by the Holy
Spirit, written to the churchfor all the ages.
His word shall stand.
And this comes from Peter, who Ifeel like I'm closest to.
(43:25):
And um I'm gonna read it to you,and then you can you can pray
for us.
Yep.
His divine power has given useverything required for life and
godliness.
You can change that word torighteousness through the
knowledge of him who called usby his own glory and goodness.
(43:46):
By these he has given us verygreat and precious promises, so
that through them you may sharein the divine nature, escaping
the corruption that is in thisworld because of evil desire.
For this reason, make everyeffort to supplement your faith
(44:08):
with goodness, goodness withknowledge, knowledge with
self-control, self-control withendurance, endurance with
godliness, godliness withbrotherly affection, and
brotherly affection with love.
For if you possess thesequalities in increasing measure,
they will keep you from beinguseless or unfruitful in the
(44:32):
knowledge of our Lord JesusChrist.
The person who lacks thesethings is blind and
short-sighted and has forgottenthe cleansing from his past
sins.
Therefore, brothers and sisters,make every effort to confirm
your calling and electionbecause if you do these things,
(44:54):
you will never stumble.
SPEAKER_03 (45:07):
Imagine picture living that way.
You'll never stumble.
Quiet confidence, peace.
This is what God wants for eachof our lives.
And if we'll if we'll takerighteousness seriously, this
will be the life that we welead.
And man, generations,generations will be changed
(45:28):
because of it.
Father, we thank you for yourword.
Lord, I thank you for umZechariah and Elizabeth, who
were righteous in your sight,blameless, according to all the
laws and regulations.
God, they they're people that wecan we can look at and say, man,
this is possible to live thisway.
Just two ordinary people.
(45:49):
And Father, I thank you for thepeople in our church who I can
look at.
I know their stories and I'veseen their lives.
And they they have chosen tolive this way.
And Father, for those of us whoare struggling saying, I just
don't know how to do it, Father,I pray that you would give us
the desire and the power, changeour want-tos, transform our
(46:09):
minds so that we can thinkrightly about these things and
then act rightly.
Make us righteous so that we canbe a weapon for righteousness in
the world.
In Jesus' name.
unknown (46:21):
Amen.
SPEAKER_03 (46:22):
Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00 (46:23):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at a
freshwind.org.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
(46:46):
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast, broughtto you by a Fresh Wind Church.
Each week our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
SPEAKER_03 (00:27):
Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined as alwayswith Pastor Tim, and we are in
week three of our sermon seriesMarvel, and we're talking about
living lives that please God.
And uh Tim, I've it's beenreally cool uh each week as
we've been preparing, or I'vebeen preparing.
I think you're getting ready forto preach this Sunday.
Um, but just how these are allkind of building right on top of
(00:50):
one another.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Yeah, I don't think we understand.
Uh we go to church, um, we nightmight not hit every Sunday.
Uh they might be preachingthrough a book like we're gonna
do in in the summertime.
We always preach through thebook of the Bible, and and we
don't ever pull these thingsout, put them on a big uh board
(01:11):
and see how they go together.
And uh this sermon series hashas been uh walking up faith,
obedience, righteousness, howthey all um are like holding
hands with your wife.
You just they all go together,and uh this lays it out for you
to where you can you canactually track it.
(01:32):
Yeah and it's good to get it alltogether.
So if you missed any of these umsermons, you need to uh jump on
and and grab a hold of them anduh because these are are really
lining up in a way that'll helpyou understand the Christian
life as a whole instead of anaspect of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_03 (01:52):
That's good.
Yeah, I was I shared with youbefore we hopped on here as I
was preparing for this pastSunday.
Um I had the whole sermonwritten out, ready to go, and as
I was going over it, and I thinkthis Saturday, you know, I'm
trying to go through it a couplemore times, get it all in my
head.
I'm just like, man, I've I'vegot a lot of good content in
(02:15):
here.
Um I I think it, you know, I'mtrying to define what
righteousness is, and it's kindof this double-sided coin.
We'll talk about that.
But I'm like, I I've I've notgiven anybody a glimpse of what
their life could look like ifthey would take this serious.
Um because sometimes, man, wecan we can hear these sermons
(02:36):
and it can be this religiousidea.
Okay, that's important.
We can take notes on it.
I need to know that.
I need to know whatrighteousness is, I need to know
why it's important to God.
And I had talked about all ofthat in the sermon, you know, as
I'm studying it.
I'm like, I got all thosepieces, but man, I was like, I
want people to see thedifference this could have in
their life.
(02:56):
Um, and and I think how thiswhole series is kind of
building.
Um, man, if you would take thesethings and just start applying
it, it would change your life.
You'd live differently, you'd bethe kind of person that heaven
marvels at and that God can use.
Um, and we've talked about thata lot in our sermons, in our
podcast, about being prepared tobe used by God, you know, and so
(03:19):
we've said, you know, you needto you need to study scripture
so that when you're in thosesituations, God can bring those
things up.
Um, and we've talked about thesethings, and so on Sunday I
that's kind of how I ended itwas trying to give the vision of
this is the life you could leadif you started saying yes to
Jesus right now.
SPEAKER_01 (03:38):
I think when we think about that, we I don't
know what it is.
I while you were speaking there,I was trying to think what
causes us to take that one thingand say no?
You know, that one thing thatyou uh don't want your wife to
find out about, that one thingyou don't want uh your kids to
(04:00):
know about you, um anger,racism, whatever, whatever those
things are, that you just sayno, I'm not gonna lay that down.
I'm not gonna treat that personthis way.
And it has a lot to do withbitterness and hurt and all that
kind of stuff.
I don't want to drill down toodeep.
But what would life be like ifthere was no guilt?
(04:26):
Yeah, you're gonna make amistake, but you're gonna
confess that, say you're sorry,and and and move on.
But there are some things wejust take take a hold of, which
is I'm not gonna let you havethat, or I've given enough, I
don't want to give any more,that we that we grab a hold of
(04:46):
that we we live in guilt for youknow, most of our lives.
Just this is the thing.
I feel guilty about it all thetime.
I'm I'm waiting for somebody tofind out about it.
I you know, what would it belike if you just didn't have to
live that way and just laid itdown and and uh and that I know
(05:08):
it's a crazy word, that'srighteous living.
Yeah, you know, just saying uhthat's not as important as
Jesus.
So I'm gonna I'm just gonna layit down.
And to live that kind of life isa life of peace.
And I know we we talk about howis God gonna use you?
(05:29):
They were gonna raise John theBaptist, you use um Zechariah
and Elizabeth.
Uh they were gonna raise Johnthe Baptist, which is a big
deal.
Um, but coming up to that point,they lived righteous lives and
they were free.
Yep.
And you you might not ever raisea John the Baptist, but you can
(05:50):
live free and in peace and knowthat um you don't have anything
between you and God.
SPEAKER_03 (05:56):
Yeah, I you know, I read that verse from the prophet
Isaiah.
Um he said the result ofrighteousness will be peace.
That's what it is.
If you will live this way, youcan have peace.
And then he says, the effect ofrighteousness will be quiet
confidence forever.
And man, as I was reading that,I could feel it in my bones, you
(06:19):
know, that that longing to say,God, I want that quiet
confidence.
Not the boastful confidencewhere you gotta try to like
prove something to someone or ummaybe even to yourself, you
know.
If I I gotta I gotta prove thisto me.
No, no, no, that quietconfidence that in any room, in
any situation, whatever's goingon in the world, whatever's
(06:40):
going on around me, I know I'mon solid ground.
That quiet, sure confidence.
SPEAKER_01 (06:49):
We talk about how this all goes together.
Um Jesus just he made it plain,my peace I leave with you.
What is that peace?
Total confidence that God's incontrol and he's got me.
unknown (07:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:06):
And um, it doesn't matter what's going on, that's
the peace that we're all lookingfor.
And and Jesus had that, he said,This is my peace, I want to
leave my peace with you, not theworld's peace, which is you
know, lack of conflict, or I gotenough money, I think I can get
all the way to the end of mylife with it, or something like
(07:28):
that.
Jesus said, No, I want to giveyou a confidence.
And uh and the way we get thatties into how we live, our
righteousness.
Now, when we talk aboutrighteousness, we get this idea
that you know, I'm all I'malways gonna be something wrong.
Um, there's something I don't door I don't want to do, and and
(07:49):
um so I feel like I've alwaysgot something going on uh
between me and God.
But I want you to understandthat Jesus Jesus knew that.
He didn't come for therighteous.
He said in um Matthew, I'msorry, Luke chapter five, it is
not those who are healthy.
(08:10):
Excuse me.
It is not those who are healthywho need a doctor, but those who
are sick.
I have not come to call therighteous, but sinners to
repentance.
That is the exciting thing.
Um I think we don't understand.
Um He's not here for therighteous, he's come for the
sinner to make them righteous.
SPEAKER_03 (08:32):
Yeah, he's he's gonna do it.
Um scripture talks about how heis going to sanctify us through
and through.
Um, he's going to to accomplishthis thing.
And and it's, you know, as I wastrying to talk about
righteousness, because man,there's people have a lot of
(08:53):
ideas, things they've read orgrew up with, you know,
depending on what church,denomination, whatever.
Um when it comes to howrighteousness and how that plays
out in in the Christian life, wegot a lot of preconceived ideas,
I think.
And you know, I I remember acouple years ago we did a sermon
series, um, and it was about,you know, living in obedience,
(09:15):
these things that God um expectsfrom his people.
Um, and ticked a couple peopleoff in that series.
They're like, um, no, you can'tadd stuff to salvation.
I'm like, well, that's that'snot what we're doing here.
SPEAKER_01 (09:29):
No, that's not what we're doing at all.
I think, I think we have a uh weneed to be that way.
We need to protect the way wethink about salvation.
Um when we're saved, we'resaved.
And then God begins thesanctification process.
It's always it's always happensthat way.
(09:50):
You're not living righteous tokeep your salvation, right?
You're living righteous to havepeace and confidence in the Lord
all the time.
Uh, when you don't liverighteous, you're all you know
what Hebrew says about uh fatherwho loves his children.
A father who loves his childrenuh will not um spare the rod,
(10:13):
you know.
He's going to uh try to bringbring you into alignment of his
will for your life.
SPEAKER_03 (10:20):
He disciplines those he loves.
SPEAKER_01 (10:21):
That's absolutely right.
And we have that we get thisidea that, okay, now me and God,
we got this thing.
And that usually comes from theway you were raised, you know.
Uh we get this idea of God who'slike the the person who had the
most power in your your raising,you know.
If uh God uh if your dad waskind of distant, you feel like
(10:46):
God is distant.
Uh or if your dad washeavy-handed, you feel like God
heavy-handed.
And so we we begin to live inthis culture of um I I gotta I
gotta hide, just like Adam, Adamand Eve, right?
I gotta hide.
Uh, and we we spend a lot of tuh a lot of our Christian life
(11:09):
hiding when the Lord is like,no, just live righteous.
I was in trouble one time withmy dad and um I had lied to him
and he found out.
And uh I finally he was walkingaway at the end of the argument
and the spanking, and I said, Idon't want to live afraid of
(11:33):
you.
And he turned around in a in aand is almost vicious.
And he looked at me, then liveright and you have nothing to be
afraid of.
And it it's it's it affects meto this day.
I'm 60 years old.
And and that's that's the truth.
(11:54):
Live right.
You don't have nothing to beafraid of uh when you're living
in alignment with what God hasfor your life.
And I know a lot of people,well, you that's not saving you.
Absolutely.
You are correct.
That is not saving you, but itis giving you uh the precious
life of peace and uhcompanionship with our Savior
(12:18):
and Lord.
Right.
And to live without it, once youlive with it, to live without it
is just not worth it anymore.
I think uh 2 Corinthians chapter5 uh really uh lays it out for
us.
He made the one who did not knowsin to be sin for us, so that in
him, now get this right, wegotta be in him, right?
(12:42):
Yeah, we might become therighteousness of God.
And uh that's what God's doingin us, and we need to cooperate
with that.
Get your life in alignment andstart fighting those things that
are uh are your rebellious uhparts of your life that you
wanna you wanna hang on to andand start saying, Lord, I need
(13:07):
the want to to lay this down.
Not that God helped me lay thisdown.
You need the want to.
God help me want to lay thisdown.
SPEAKER_03 (13:16):
Well, thankfully, I mean he promised his his Holy
Spirit will give us the desireand the power.
He'll give you both of thosethings.
He'll give you the power youneed to lay it down, but he'll
also give you that desire, thewant to to lay those things
down.
Um you know as I was again as Iwas studying, I I came across
this passage in Ephesians, andand Paul's talking about don't
(13:37):
give your bodies over to sin asweapons for unrighteousness.
Instead, you need to give everypart of you to God as a weapon
for righteousness.
And man, I was like, why use theword weapon there?
You know, um, yeah, it itdoesn't seem to make sense.
What are we talking about?
Why?
But then this just reminder,man, we're we are in a spiritual
(14:01):
battle every day, and how welive becomes a weapon, and we
can wield that weapon towardsunrighteousness, or we can use
it towards righteousness.
And Paul's like, man, don't giveyourselves over.
And we think this isn't that bigof a deal, and I'm not hurting
anybody, this you know,whatever, whatever excuse we
(14:23):
come up with to justify thatthing that we refuse to lay down
or or whatever.
And he's like, Man, that isyou're you're offering yourself
as a weapon for unrighteousness.
But if we would choose to laythose things down, however tough
it is for you, you know, whetherit's um a deeply ingrained habit
at this point, you know, you'vejust got those those grooves in
(14:45):
your brain, this is just yourdefault state, which it
naturally falls into, or youthink that thing um brings you
more pleasure or happiness.
We've talked about that a lot inthe series.
That the reason we struggle witha lot of these things is because
we trust that that it's gonnabring me more happiness than
than living God's way.
If we'll just say yes to Jesus,we will make ourselves a weapon
(15:10):
for righteousness in ourfamilies, in our workplaces, in
our homes, in our community, inour churches.
And man, it's you know,scripture says don't don't give
the enemy a foothold, but talksabout that idea.
Uh, we we we don't even want togive him the opportunity here.
Um and man, righteous living isthe thing that protects us
against that, um, to build awall um that the enemy can't
(15:34):
break through.
And and we need to liverighteously.
It's so important to theChristian life.
And when when we try to discountthat, I think uh I think we set
ourselves up for a lot ofheartbreak.
SPEAKER_01 (15:50):
Yeah, we were talking in our um life group
about that verse in Hebrews.
Pat Pat brought it up, he leadsour life group.
It says, In your struggleagainst sin, you have not yet
resisted to the point ofshedding your blood.
And we're like, okay, what'sthis mean?
(16:13):
Who's gonna shed blood over sin?
I mean, if the Lord said, Look,you need to stop watching our
rated movies, and um or I'mgonna cut you.
You know, that's that's uh so wewere talking about that, and um
Tim Olney was uh talking aboutyou know struggling with sin,
(16:35):
and then um Rich Seth jumped inand was talking about it was
talking about it and I wassitting there thinking, man, I
don't struggle with sin at all.
I'm awesome.
I don't I don't have thisstruggle.
So I told him, I said, I youknow, I don't have this struggle
(16:57):
anymore.
I don't struggle with sin.
I don't struggle at all.
I jump in both feet.
There's there's no resistance atall.
If it's something I want to doand I know it's wrong, I and I'm
just I'm gonna do it.
And there's no struggle at all.
And uh of course they looked atme like, okay, you're the
(17:21):
pastor.
And uh there are there are umsome things in my life that have
always we call them struggles,but it's not a struggle.
You've already made thatdecision, right?
It's not I feel bad.
That's not a struggle.
(17:41):
The struggle is don't let mefall into that anymore, Lord.
I'll do whatever I can.
And uh so there are somestruggles with sin.
And then there's some sin that'syou don't struggle.
And that's where we got to getthe Lord involved in the Holy
Spirit.
Make me want to not do that,make me want Jesus more.
(18:03):
And I think sometimes uh one ofthe things that when we talk
about righteousness, ourvernacular in the English has
changed over the years.
It's one thing you you if yougrew up on the King James Bible
and you see the wordrighteousness and
unrighteousness.
Now, if you look at some of thelater translations, more modern
(18:24):
translations, they saywickedness instead of
unrighteousness.
It's because our vernacular hasbecome, if I'm gonna be
righteous, then that means I'mgonna read my Bible, I'm gonna
go to church on Sundays, I'mgonna I'm gonna do all the
churchy things, I'm gonna sharethe gospel with people, I'm
(18:46):
gonna do all those things.
Don't let that the vernacular,when we when we say the word
righteous, um, that it has to dowith doing church things.
No, no, no.
You are responsible for yourwhole life.
Your whole life needs to be uhrighteous.
Um what we were at Cole's um uhtrying to find a bathing suit
(19:11):
for me because we're going onvacation and uh I'm looking out
the we're in the podcast room,I'm looking out the window and
there's snow blowing all overwhere and I'm like, I gotta get
out of here.
And uh, but when I buy those uhshorts, I need to make sure that
they're a righteous pair ofshorts.
What do you mean?
Churchy pair of shorts?
(19:32):
You you're gonna start wearinglong pants in the pool?
Uh no, but I need I need to knowthat this pair of shorts is not
gonna mess with my ability toshare Christ with someone else.
That's what we're talking aboutum being righteous.
I need to be a person who uhdoesn't have those things that
(19:56):
um say that I am of the world.
Because I am not of the world.
unknown (20:02):
That's right.
SPEAKER_01 (20:02):
I'm just here for a little while.
So don't get don't get trappedinto that thing that when they
say we need to live righteous,it means you got to go to church
and serve in the nursery.
That's part of it.
That's a big part of it.
But if you're if you're workinga job and you can't serve here
and this is where you go tochurch and you can only show up
(20:25):
one Sunday a month, that doesnot mean you can't live a
righteous life.
That means your righteous yourrighteousness uh is lived out in
every day, saying yes to Jesusevery day.
Uh you brought up what wouldJesus do.
And when that came out, I was alot younger man, and I thought,
(20:48):
wow.
What would Jesus do?
That is just trite.
That's a little that's a littlething.
Um for the kids to run aroundwith a bracelet on, I thought,
man, I guess that's okay.
But now that I'm 60 years oldand I find myself in these
situations all the time, Ithink, what would Jesus do,
(21:14):
right?
I mean, it is the best questionyou can ask yourself.
And um, I think I was madbecause I didn't come up with it
myself.
Right.
But uh but that is that that isthe question uh that we need to
be asking yourself.
And it it as you grow inrighteousness, God changes your
heart.
(21:34):
He doesn't um just change yourbehavior to where you're in that
struggle for sin that I don'thave a struggle with because I
just jump right in.
Um matured so much.
Yeah.
You're um you're not in thatstruggle with sin because you
want to do what Jesus does.
(21:55):
That's how he's changing you.
He's changing your want-tos.
So this is not in this at all,but um I had a question one
time, how do I know I won't sinin heaven?
I said, You won't sin in heaven,you don't have to worry about
that.
And he says, the angels were inheaven and they sinned, right?
(22:19):
And I said, Yes.
How do I know that I won't sinwhen I get to heaven?
And I was like, I need adefinitive biblical stance on
that.
So I started uh digging and Icame up with um and I teach a
(22:40):
class that has a lot of this init, uh, which is we will be like
him.
At the end of all this, we'regonna be like Jesus.
And could Jesus, Yahweh, theKing of the universe, our great
creator God sin in heaven?
(23:01):
Yeah.
He just don't want to.
You know?
He is that is not who he is.
So it doesn't even cross hismind.
And you're like, well, God can'tsin.
You're right.
He can't because that's not whohe is.
When we get to heaven, that'swho we will be.
And that that is therighteousness he bought and paid
(23:24):
for on the cross for us.
And I, man, if you can get ahold of that, you won't sin in
heaven because it won't evencross your mind.
Because you will be like him.
And he's calling us right now.
I'm gonna help you be like meright now.
We sing that song.
(23:45):
Um Praise Him like you're inheaven.
We sang it yesterday.
SPEAKER_03 (23:50):
You know that you're there in glory.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:52):
Praise him like you're there in glory because
right now he's just as holy.
Yep.
So are you.
So are you.
And I man, I praise God for thatbecause I don't have the
struggle some people have.
And I I need that struggle.
Lord, my dad used to say, youpray that God will change your
(24:15):
want-tos.
Don't get him, uh, don't praytogether, God will change your
priorities, your values, and youknow, your life, all this stuff.
Pray that God will change yourwant-tos because that's how he
changes your life.
SPEAKER_03 (24:31):
I mean, we're we have a podcast outline here.
We're so far off of it.
But man, years ago, you youpreached a sermon, and you even
brought this up actually, uh, ina sermon you preached recently.
Um, you you brought this idea upagain.
You know, God is in the forevernow.
Um, and so he's with me rightnow celebrating my birth, but
(24:52):
he's also with me on my 10,000thanniversary in heaven.
He's he is outside of time,which means whatever you're
struggling with right now, Godis already celebrating the day
when you get past that thing.
And it's no longer a strugglefor you.
And when I heard you preachthat, and I mean, this is years
(25:13):
ago, it changed how I prayedbecause I started saying, God,
you're already celebrating myvictory.
I want to join you in that.
And now I'm not praying with myeyes focused on my sin and all
that that comes along with.
I'm praying with that, my eyestowards Jesus in that moment of
(25:33):
victory.
He's already secured, he'salready in, he's already
celebrating that thing for me.
And I'm saying, God, I want to,I want to join that celebration.
When scripture says there's nocondemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus, man, so many ofus we we look at our sin, we
just are we're so focused on it.
And it's no wonder we struggleto live righteously because it's
(25:54):
all we think about.
Man, I gotta stop sinning.
I gotta stop sinning.
I know I'm disappointing God, Iknow I'm disappointing my wife
or my kids.
And and it's all we look at.
And the problem is we're runningheadlong into it because we're
staring right at it.
Right.
If we would start focusing onJesus, the author and the
perfecter, the finisher of ourfaith, and say, God, you're
already celebrating this thing.
(26:16):
I want to join you in thatcelebration.
It changes how we view the wholesituation.
Right.
Um man, he he you're alreadyover it.
He's already celebrating that.
Why don't you join him in it?
And how do you do that?
Just say yes.
SPEAKER_01 (26:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (26:34):
Just say yes to him.
SPEAKER_01 (26:35):
I I think that's part of the uh everlasting now
is the the fact that we arerighteous, we're holy.
We've already been declaredholy.
I mean, that judgment hasalready been made on who's ever
accepted Jesus Christ as theirSavior and Lord.
And if you've received Jesus, hepaid for your sin on the cross
(26:59):
and has declared you righteous.
And this is the promise, okay?
Even though you're struggling,even though you're addicted and
you can't let it go, um, andyou're struggling you're in that
uh mental struggle, Jesus said,I'm gonna give you God's
(27:23):
righteousness.
You will you will have God'srighteousness, and I never fail.
I never fail.
That's right.
SPEAKER_03 (27:40):
You know, especially for a crybaby.
Another sermon you brought up,and and I almost did this
yesterday, I probably shouldhave because it helped me so
much.
Um, again, probably a decadeago.
There's been a couple of yoursermons over the years that have
impacted me, just a few.
SPEAKER_01 (27:58):
I loved your one, your one yesterday.
You know, you know when a pastorloves a sermon, when he's back
there writing notes saying, Iwould have done it like this,
and I would have done it likethat.
SPEAKER_03 (28:08):
You know, um, one of the the best compliments, um,
because I think we all we still,however old we get, we still
want to impress our dads, youknow.
Um showed up to my dad's houseyesterday and he said, Man, I
just want to let you know thepast two sermons have been
incredible.
He goes, I they've been soinsightful and they have just
been they've been great.
(28:30):
Um and so even though I'm in my30s, hearing that from your dad
is still pretty awesome.
Um but sermon you had preachedyears ago, um, you had taken
some piece of paper or papertowel or something and you got
it all stained up and dirty andstomped on it on the stage and
you picked it up and you said,you know, man, this is our life.
(28:50):
And it's full of stains, it'sfull of holes and mistakes and
regrets, all this stuff.
Um, but then you took your yourBible and you put that piece of
paper in there and you closed itaround that piece of paper.
You said, but when God looks atyou, he doesn't see that.
He sees the perfect spotlessLamb of God.
So I used that terminologyyesterday.
I should have done the wholeillustration because I can I can
(29:13):
picture you doing it right now.
Um, that's the truth.
Jesus gave us that parable aboutthe prodigal son, and when he
comes home, that his dad takeshis robe and he wraps it around
him, he puts a ring on hisfinger.
Man, that's that's your God.
And so he doesn't see, oh mygosh, you just crawled out of
the pig pen and you stink.
(29:33):
Oh my gosh, you smell horrible,you're filthy.
No, no, no.
He puts a brand new robe on you,and when he looks at you, he
sees Jesus, he sees perfection,he's declared you righteous,
he's paid and bought that foryou.
Right.
And then now that you're part ofthe family, he expects us to
(29:55):
live rightly.
Right, exactly.
You know, it's and that's that'swhat I try to hope, and I'm
hoping I did a good job withthat.
Um praying the Lord works allthat out for people.
Because these are big doctrinalideas, and I and I want to help
people understand practically,okay, yeah, this is great in a
textbook, but what does it meanin your everyday life?
(30:15):
Right.
Um, and so I'm hoping the Lordworks all that out, but it's
it's not either or.
It's a and both.
He he clothes you, he wraps youin that righteousness, and you
stand justified before God.
Scripture says we can comeboldly before the throne of our
gracious God.
Imagine what that means.
You know, that we can we haveaccess to him because of what
(30:36):
Jesus has done.
Now go and sin no more.
SPEAKER_01 (30:39):
I want to jump in there, but I've got a cough, and
I don't know if I should starttalking or just cough.
SPEAKER_03 (30:44):
Here, let me pause or mute your mic and then you
cough away.
SPEAKER_01 (30:49):
And we're back.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Um, I forgot what I was gonnasay.
Now, here's here's the importantabout that.
Not only does God see you thatway, the rest of the universe
sees you that way.
The spiritual world, whatever isin there, sees you that way.
(31:13):
And that's why uh when you saidrighteousness matters, I man,
that's one of my uhcatchphrases, and I love it.
And I love to hear other peoplesay it.
And if somebody said youprobably have heard that from
you.
I was claiming it, probably.
You go ahead and claim it.
I want everybody out there toclaim that righteousness
matters, because righteousnessbecomes a protection in your
(31:36):
life against the evil one,against temptation, against all
the things in the world thatwants to distract you, even your
own selfishness, even your ownsinful desires.
Righteousness protects you.
And it's it's that's why umPaul, when he's talking about it
(31:58):
in Ephesians, he says, put onthe breastplate of
righteousness, protect yourheart, protect your organs,
protect all the stuff that makesyou alive with righteousness.
And man, it's just it's it'simportant.
And and I such good imagery.
(32:18):
Yeah, and that's uh yeah, Paul,he's just amazing with that kind
of stuff.
Yeah, you gotta attack with, butyou need to protect your organs.
And the way you protect that iswith righteousness.
Yeah, that's that's great.
I don't need to say any morethan that because his his was
the best.
Just go read what Paul wrote.
(32:39):
Yeah, I I I think we've theworld has and I I think it's
satanic, um has changed thatword.
That means churchy stuff.
Church stuff, yeah.
Yeah.
And uh but the Lord saying no,when I say talk to that person
on the elevator, and I say no,that's unrighteous.
(33:05):
When I say yes, it's righteous.
When I go to the hospitalvisiting people, I always see
someone walking down the hallwaylike look like they just got hit
by a bus.
You know, there's always someonein there, and I'll say, Are you
okay?
Are you okay?
And I I don't say that umbecause I feel like the Holy
(33:28):
Spirit's telling me to say that.
I say that because I'm afraidthe Holy Spirit might be telling
me to say that and I don't hearit, you know?
And I'm like, Are you okay?
Can I pray with you?
And and invariably there'ssomeone I can I can pray with.
And so I'm looking for what Godwants me to do in those
(33:49):
situations.
Um the hospital is abattleground.
Emotions are high, bad thingsare going on.
You wouldn't be there if thereweren't.
And uh so um when you get inthose battlegrounds like
hospitals, funerals, um at theend of church, when we're when
(34:10):
we're drawing the net, whenwe're doing our invitation, will
you raise your hand?
That's a battleground.
And you need to clear your headof all you're thinking about,
win the ball games, and pray andlive righteous in that moment.
Well, how do I live righteousstanding in church while Ryan's
praying?
(34:30):
By praying with him, by sayingamen, by paying attention.
Um, those those are thebattlegrounds uh that we need to
be, we need to come alive in,um, because that's when
righteousness matters the most.
Not doing what the church saysto do or live like the church
says, but to live like Jesus istelling you in that moment.
unknown (34:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (34:55):
It's this is so powerful.
And I and I hope I hope you takethis and begin to to apply it to
to desire and then to practiceliving righteously.
It'll change everything, youknow.
Um I I said on Sunday, it'llyour your family will feel it,
your home will experience it,you know, um, your workplace
(35:17):
will be different.
If we would be righteous, I meanjust imagine it if you live
righteously and we talked aboutpeace, we talked about that
quiet confidence, and thesemoments come up, you know,
especially if you're a boss, amanager, um, you got to fire
somebody, whatever that wouldbe.
And then the question is, well,you know, man, can our company
handle if they go and they starttalking about us and all.
(35:39):
Imagine if you had theconfidence to say, man, we've
treated that person well.
We treated their family well.
We we did good by them.
They don't have any ammunition.
That's quiet confidence.
That's what righteousnessproduces.
You don't have to live in fearand say, man, I want what, oh,
if that gets out, oh, if peopleheard about that, oh, if if
(36:01):
someone, you know, no, man, youyou're free to make the best
decision in any situationbecause you know, man, I've
lived righteous in that moment.
I I have the breastplate ofrighteousness and I've protected
myself.
I've not given the enemy afoothold.
I I've I've not I've notgossiped, I've not been talking
behind people's backs, I've notbeen, you know, cutting a little
(36:24):
bit for myself off the top,skimming some off the top.
I've not been doing thosethings, I've not been taking
pens from the break room, youknow, I've not done anything
because I want to liverighteously.
And then whenever thesesituations come out, you don't
have to be afraid.
You don't have to like all thesepoliticians, I can only imagine
all of them wondering, oh boy,if someone hacked my account, if
(36:47):
someone got in there and saw, ifsomeone looked at my DMs, you
know, all this, because youknow, people, I mean, there are
people paid to go and find thedirt on you.
Right.
Imagine if you lived in a waywhere there was no dirt.
SPEAKER_01 (37:01):
And there was there was some congressmen.
I know it's hard to believe thatwhen they were invited by
Epstein, they said, No.
No.
No, I'm not going.
Live that way.
No, that'll it'll be great.
Let's end on um my dad.
We talk about him a lot, but Idon't know if you know much
(37:22):
about my dad, but he was intoeverything.
SPEAKER_03 (37:25):
You should probably just rename the midweek podcast,
the El Royal Holt Show, becauseman, he is he's made a big
difference.
SPEAKER_01 (37:32):
Um but a lot of where he makes a big difference
is um what you're thinking aboutdoing, he's done and then paid
the price.
He was a con man.
Now, uh the definition of conman is a confidence man.
They earn your confidence andthen they steal you blind.
Okay, that's what a con mandoes.
(37:54):
So um one of the cons that mydad had is he had this ring.
It was worth no back in thefifties, um like two thousand
dollars, which makes it a twentythousand dollar ring now,
probably.
And um he got that ring, andthen he had a jeweler make him
(38:16):
another one made out of glass.
That looks just like it.
And uh he would get someone tohave some confidence in him, and
then he would say, Oh man, I'min trouble.
I need to I need to hock myring, and um and uh pawn chop
won't give me any money for it,and I know they'll just take it
and sell it.
(38:37):
And um he says, I need to borrowmoney, I can give you this ring.
And he'd say, No, no, no, I wantyou to know it's real.
So he'd take him to a jewelrystore and have that guy price
that ring out so he knew.
And um and then he'd ask the guyto loan him money, and the guy
would loan him money and hewould give him the glass ring
(38:57):
and then leave town.
So um that's a confidence gamethat uh I said, Well, how do you
how do you keep out of that?
And he looked at me and son andhe said, Son, you cannot cheat
an honest man.
And I I'm like, What are youtalking about?
(39:19):
He said, There are some honestmen out there that you can't get
past their righteousness.
He said, You have to to fall forthese things, you have to have a
little larceny in your soul.
And those are the words he used.
You gotta you gotta find the guywho's got a little bit of
(39:41):
larceny in his soul.
If you find a righteous man,he'll either just give you the
money and tell you to keep thering, or he'll just say no.
And he says, I run into a lot ofthem.
They're just honest men, and youcan't get past that.
What righteousness does for you.
(40:02):
It protects you from all ofSatan's schemes and um and and
protects uh you in a way that II don't think we understand
spiritually.
SPEAKER_03 (40:13):
So righteousness your life becomes a weapon, man.
Yeah, it does.
SPEAKER_01 (40:17):
And righteousness matters.
They can um Satan can pull allhell out, put them, line them up
like soldiers on a field, andyou can walk right through the
middle.
And that's that's what it does.
Um you gotta get let the Lordchange your want-tos, get that
larceny out of your soul so theycan't trick you into living a
(40:40):
life that's not worthy of thegospel.
Man, I can talk about this allday.
You better shut me down,brother.
SPEAKER_03 (40:46):
I don't know if if we're gonna get to Job in this
series.
Um but imagine living away insuch a way that God looks at
Satan and says, Have youconsidered my servant Job?
There's no one else like him.
There, and we think, man, thisthe this is too this is too
(41:08):
impossible.
You can't live this way.
No way you can live like this.
Um maybe, maybe pastors, and I'mtelling you it's not any easier
for us.
Um you you think, man, pastorsand priests, maybe, but this
ordinary people, we can't livethis.
Job was an ordinary man.
And God said, There's no oneelse like him.
(41:30):
We can live this way.
You can live a righteous life,and it's gonna take the Holy
Spirit for sure, changing yourwant-tos.
It's gonna take getting intoGod's word and allowing God to
renew your mind, um, totransform it.
Um it and if you'll cooperate,but man, you we can live
righteously.
(41:51):
And then in these situationsthat come up, we become the kind
of people God can use in anysituation.
So that when you're walkingthrough the hospital, God can
tap on your shoulder and say, Ineed you to go pray with them.
And and you'll be ready.
And and when you're on vacationat the beach and everyone's
living wild and crazy andwhatever, doing whatever they're
(42:13):
doing, you can show up in yourrighteous shorts and say, Hey,
you know what?
I need to share the gospel withyou, and you'll be ready.
This is if we would take thisserious, we become a weapon that
God can use in the world forrighteousness.
And man, I wonder what God coulddo in your family, what he could
(42:36):
do in your home and in yourworkplace, in your community, in
our church, if we would getserious about this.
And I man, I I'll tell you this.
I am so grateful because God haspeople here at A Fresh Wind, and
they live this way.
They do.
They do.
He has given us an example ofsome men, some women that I can
look at and I know I've seentheir stories, I've seen how
they live, and I can say there'ssomeone who lives righteously.
SPEAKER_01 (42:59):
Some that didn't live that way, and now they do.
I'm gonna I'm gonna end this uhpodcasting.
I'm gonna read you a passage ofscripture inspired by the Holy
Spirit, written to the churchfor all the ages.
His word shall stand.
And this comes from Peter, who Ifeel like I'm closest to.
(43:25):
And um I'm gonna read it to you,and then you can you can pray
for us.
Yep.
His divine power has given useverything required for life and
godliness.
You can change that word torighteousness through the
knowledge of him who called usby his own glory and goodness.
(43:46):
By these he has given us verygreat and precious promises, so
that through them you may sharein the divine nature, escaping
the corruption that is in thisworld because of evil desire.
For this reason, make everyeffort to supplement your faith
(44:08):
with goodness, goodness withknowledge, knowledge with
self-control, self-control withendurance, endurance with
godliness, godliness withbrotherly affection, and
brotherly affection with love.
For if you possess thesequalities in increasing measure,
they will keep you from beinguseless or unfruitful in the
(44:32):
knowledge of our Lord JesusChrist.
The person who lacks thesethings is blind and
short-sighted and has forgottenthe cleansing from his past
sins.
Therefore, brothers and sisters,make every effort to confirm
your calling and electionbecause if you do these things,
(44:54):
you will never stumble.
SPEAKER_03 (45:07):
Imagine picture living that way.
You'll never stumble.
Quiet confidence, peace.
This is what God wants for eachof our lives.
And if we'll if we'll takerighteousness seriously, this
will be the life that we welead.
And man, generations,generations will be changed
(45:28):
because of it.
Father, we thank you for yourword.
Lord, I thank you for umZechariah and Elizabeth, who
were righteous in your sight,blameless, according to all the
laws and regulations.
God, they they're people that wecan we can look at and say, man,
this is possible to live thisway.
Just two ordinary people.
(45:49):
And Father, I thank you for thepeople in our church who I can
look at.
I know their stories and I'veseen their lives.
And they they have chosen tolive this way.
And Father, for those of us whoare struggling saying, I just
don't know how to do it, Father,I pray that you would give us
the desire and the power, changeour want-tos, transform our
(46:09):
minds so that we can thinkrightly about these things and
then act rightly.
Make us righteous so that we canbe a weapon for righteousness in
the world.
In Jesus' name.
unknown (46:21):
Amen.
SPEAKER_03 (46:22):
Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00 (46:23):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at a
freshwind.org.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
(46:46):
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
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