November 12, 2024 • 38 mins
The essence of true Christian identity and faith takes center stage as we embark on a transformative journey together. With exciting plans for the channel on the horizon, including an interview with a cherished friend who has made significant contributions to ministry work, we tackle pivotal topics like leadership and pastoral mental health. Our episode also features a heartfelt conversation with a brave woman who found solace in our content amidst personal tragedy. Join us as we explore scripture and deepen our faith, with an open invitation to share your stories and engage with our community through email and social media.
Reflecting on Jesus' profound teachings, we examine the spiritual rebirth required for eternal salvation. Many modern believers find themselves spiritually malnourished, reliant on external beliefs rather than fostering a deep, personal connection with God. Through the story of the rich young ruler, we highlight the importance of a heart surrendered to God, exploring common misconceptions about church roles and finances. We aim to demystify these topics, emphasizing personal responsibility in faith and encouraging a genuine relationship with Christ that goes beyond rule-following.
In our quest to live out true Christian faith, a recent inspiring experience of giving and prayer leads us to discuss the importance of actions reflecting faith. Drawing inspiration from James, we urge listeners to evaluate their spiritual health and commitment, emphasizing that salvation is a lifelong pursuit, not just a one-time decision. We challenge you to break away from traditional family churches if they no longer nourish your spirit, urging you to find a community that aligns with God's purpose for you. By sparking curiosity and deepening your walk with Christ, this episode serves as a call to live a life set apart, preparing for His return.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before we get into today's video, I just wanted to
(00:02):
say thank you to all of the newsubscribers.
If you haven't yet, considersubscribing, hit that bell
notification so that you can seeevery time I put out a new
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A major portion of you thatwatch my videos haven't
subscribed yet, so why not?
It's free.
You can also find a PayPal linkbelow if you want to give a
one-time or give a monthly tosupport the channel.
(00:23):
Anything, great or small, isappreciated.
Now let's get into the video.
What is up?
Faith and Failures family.
Thank you so much for joiningme today on another episode.
If you're watching on YouTube,thank you so much.
(00:44):
Make sure you do like andsubscribe and even comment with
and I know you see my legs.
I'm wearing shorts.
I do have pants on for those ofyou watching online, but if
you're listening on a podcastplatform, whatever it may be,
please download the episode,share with your friends.
Hopefully you can really getsome encouragement from these
episodes.
(01:04):
I went from kind of a and I'mstill going to do some.
I have a.
First of all, I'll tell you alittle bit of stuff that's
coming up on the schedule.
I got a couple of things in thenext couple of months and maybe
even one larger fish to startoff the year.
I'm not sure yet how it's goingto work out, but I got a friend
of mine that has been on Fox.
He's written blogs for Fox.
(01:26):
He's a well-known,well-traveled, he's done years
and years of ministry, and Iasked him if he would be willing
to come on and talk about aleadership, talk about pastoral
mental health.
I think that is something that,as far as I've seen, we kind of
gets shuffled and put to thewayside.
(01:47):
So I want to talk a little bitabout that.
So I will be putting out littleteasers and let y'all know when
that's going to happen as well.
As another person reached outto me on TikTok.
They said that through one ofmy videos they were encouraged
One of the little TikToks onthere and they mentioned and
(02:11):
kind of shared a little bit withme about their, I think, their
loss of a child and there wassome serious stuff going on and
I said, hey, you know you're aChristian woman, do you mind
coming on the podcast?
She said yes.
She said this month is full, sostay tuned for that.
Just want to let you know wegot some cool things coming up
as well as continuing to do thisBible teaching type podcast
(02:32):
Like I.
I like doing where I was, livestreaming and doing, you know,
going on the rabbit trails ofdifferent topics and things like
that.
But I'm really I love teachingand so I want to kind of get
back.
I'm going to do some some ofthat every now and then.
But to me, if I'm going to havelimited amount of time, I want
(02:53):
my, my time is valuable.
So I'm trying to teach myteenager this to value your time
so that you don't waste it.
And for me, my value and mypriority is to get the gospel of
Jesus Christ to study and diveinto scripture and to help you
(03:16):
as a believer or as anon-believer, whichever the case
may be, to want to dive intoscripture and get to know the
word better, get to know theword better, get to know God
better, and so that's kind of myheart.
But I really also love, love,love doing interviews.
I love that, that dialogue backand forth, so trying to get
those.
If you ever want to beinterviewed on this podcast, you
(03:37):
have something to share.
Whether it's a testimony,whether it's a struggle you've
been going through or have gonethrough, feel free to email me
at faithandfailures at gmailcom.
That's faithandfailures atgmailcom.
You could also join our privateFacebook group.
There's seven, maybe 800 peoplenow on this YouTube channel.
(03:57):
We have over 10,000 subscribers, 10,300 and something.
So praise the Lord for that.
All glory to God.
So let's dive into today.
So you can probably tell by thetitle of this video.
There's a question that most ofthe time, when you ask people
(04:18):
who have been going to churchfor a while they've been a part
of the Christian ecosystem youask them this question and what
is one of the things that theystart doing?
They start naming off thingsthey do instead of fruit of who
they are.
Now, what does that mean?
(04:38):
What's the question?
So you can tell by the titleare you a Christian?
And most people will be like ohyeah, man, I go to church here,
my parents went to this church,my dad's a pastor, my this and
that you know I was born andraised Baptist, blah, blah, blah
, whatever you know.
Or I'm a Catholic, I say myHail Marys, or whatever they do.
(05:00):
Okay, that's not making fun,that's a legitimate answer that
I have received.
Oh yeah, I go to to this thisSt Mary's, blah, blah, blah.
And they start like telling meall the things they do to be a
Christian, when in reality, uh,it's the opposite.
So you don't do things to be aChristian, you actually give
(05:23):
your life to Christ andtherefore it produces good works
out of you.
Because you cannot and this isbiblical For those of you who
say different you pray to asaint or you whatever to help
you and blah, blah, blah.
They're not God.
And so when you pray to a God,pray to a person who has passed
on, you are, in essence, insteadof the veil being torn and you
(05:45):
coming before the father andpraying to Jesus, praying to the
Holy spirit, you have, inessence, made an idol out of
that person.
I'm not talking about, you know,statues and reverence and and
and remembering them, but I mean, peter even said when he was
with Jesus I think it was Mosesand Elijah, I think, if I'm
(06:09):
remembering correctly if notcorrect me in the comments, I
know probably some of you willanyways but he didn't know what
to do.
So he's like oh, let's build,let's build monuments.
And Jesus shut it down.
Right then, because it was notsomething right to do.
Read that story.
I don't know what you take awayfrom it, but I think sometimes
(06:32):
we push to idolize people andit's wrong, it's not the right
thing to do.
So, that being said, so thatbeing said, are you saved?
So let's look at this verse.
So Matthew, chapter seven,verse 21.
And this is, to me, thescariest verse in the Bible.
(06:53):
Now, why is it the scariestverse?
Because this is a direct wordfor church people.
Not everyone who calls out tome, lord, lord, will enter the
kingdom of heaven.
Only those who actually do thewill of my Father in heaven will
(07:19):
enter.
So I want you to ask yourself asimple question.
This should be a question.
If you say you know God, thisshould be a pretty easy answer.
But I believe and this issomething that I've been for
years now saying to my churchPart of the mission and vision
that I have for the church thatI feel God put on my heart was
(07:41):
spiritual maturity, spiritualmaturity, because spiritual
maturity, spiritual maturity,spiritual maturity leads to
other places in your life tobecome mature, because you're
aligning your spirit with God'sspirit and you are submitting
yourself to a holy God.
And when you submit yourself toa holy God, you become a holy
people.
And when you become a holypeople, you are aligned with
what he desires to happen inyour life, and when you are
(08:02):
aligned with what he wants tohappen in your life, and when
you are aligned with what hewants to happen in your life,
things go better.
That isn't.
That isn't.
It's not to say things areperfect or things are magically
good and great and perfect andnobody ever comes against you in
this, and that we're actuallypromised the opposite.
So when we say, are you saved,what does that mean?
(08:24):
True salvation is not merelyabout external actions, but
about a deep, authenticrelationship with God that
should transform our lives.
Now the question, are you saved?
Isn't about a one-time decision.
I had a friend in high school.
Him and I would have this, Iguess you called it argument him
(08:45):
, and I would have this back andforth, and he was a what is a
common word or phrase?
Once saved, always saved.
Apparently, if you're adenomination of Baptist,
sometimes that seems to betethered to that denomination.
I'm not sure exactly why, butlike because you once accepted
(09:06):
Christ, now you're good and youcan do anything, and this was
his attitude.
And then some will say, wellthen you were never saved.
That's just semantics.
We're not going to dive intothat, that's not today's topic
but are you saved?
Should be a to ask themselvesto prompt an internal
examination of what am I doingin my day-to-day life, every
(09:31):
single day.
What am I doing to externallyshow what God has done
internally?
Now remember this.
I said this before and it canget very muddy and confusing.
I said this before and it canget very muddy and confusing.
External actions will notproduce an internal salvation,
but internal salvation willproduce external actions.
(09:52):
Even in the word it says faithwithout works is dead, like it's
not going to be.
You getting saved and thenyou're just good to go and you
never do anything.
Holy, you never correctanything, you never change
anything in your life.
The word of God.
Okay, let's go back to the oldTestament.
And then you're just good to goand you never do anything.
Holy, you never correctanything, you never change
anything in your life.
The word of God.
Okay, let's go back to the oldTestament.
Then we'll go to the newTestament.
(10:12):
Old Testament Moses comes out ofthe mountain and he has the
tablets.
Okay, the first tablet download.
He has 10 commandments.
Okay, he breaks and he gets mad.
Let's go back or let's scootforward a little bit.
Comes back down.
Now he's got the new version.
He's got the 2.0.
All right, he's got the tablets.
10 commandments what was thereason for the 10 commandments?
(10:33):
It was because a holy people, aset apart people, was so
damaged, so sinful, that theyhad to have some sort of
regulation and parameters tolive their life.
So the 10 commandments wasgiven, god tried, he even wiped
(10:53):
out the earth, started overagain.
And because we are sinfulcreatures, we are inherently
sinful.
It's like you don't have toteach a child to be disobedient.
You don't have to teach a childto lie they can lie better but
you don't teach a child to lie.
You don't teach a child to notdo what they are told not to do.
(11:14):
It's just my little daughter.
Right now she's a year and alittle bit over a month.
She does not have to be taughtthat when I say no to put
there's a, can you see it on thescreen?
Yeah, right here.
Right there, there is a routerthat is wired into the wall and
(11:37):
it's plugged in right there.
She comes in my officeSometimes she has some toys.
There's not any in here at themoment.
Well, there's a block overthere, but I cleaned some of
them out because I was feelingcluttered.
As you can see, I have aclutter problem.
I lay things down.
Actually, that's my wife's workright there.
She did that.
Uh, shout out, shout out, jesseTillman.
And she reaches for thatbecause it's got wires hanging
(12:02):
and it's just right at her eyelevel.
So, yeah, she's going to reachfor it.
Well, I told her no and guesswhat happened?
She reached for it again.
So I went over there and Ismacked her hand.
Some of you may be like well,it's your fault for having it
that low.
She needs to learn what nomeans.
Some adults, a lot of adults,need to learn what no means it's
(12:25):
okay to be told no.
So are you saved?
Are you saved?
Not a one-time decision, it isan ongoing and this is what we
call in my denomination and frombiblical texts, as far as where
we get our theology and all ofour key beliefs.
(12:47):
We call it sanctification.
So an ongoing process of everysingle day dedicating, saying
yes, I will live for Christtoday.
It's an ongoing journey offaith.
It's an everyday decision ofobedience and an internal
transformation that thenproduces external works.
(13:12):
Faith without works is dead.
So you having faith, you reallyhave faith, you really believe,
you are really trusting God,then it should produce in you
external results, but externalresults doing all this stuff,
and you know what's up, and itjust it doesn't do anything for
(13:33):
you as far as Christ isconcerned.
It doesn't automatically meanyou get into heaven.
It's just not how it works.
I wish that it did.
That would make, probablythings a lot easier.
But this is why Jesus looked tothe Pharisees and said they were
whitewashed tombs.
He said live like them, butdon't be like them, because they
had the law down, they had whatthey were supposed to do down
(13:55):
to the T, but it meant nothing,because inside of their hearts
there was no relationship, therewas no depth to their
relationship with God, there wasno actual substance.
And this is what I believe isone of the biggest problems with
the church today Is we'rewalking around as malnourished
zombies claiming Christ and wehave no clue who God really is,
(14:20):
because we're living off of ourparents' beliefs, parents'
relationships with God and wedon't have any truly ourselves.
And so then we becomemalnourished because there's no
actual substance that we've beenconsuming ourselves.
And we have to do that.
When you stand before God,every person will and we will be
held accountable for the good,the bad, the ugly, everything we
(14:43):
say, everything we do be heldaccountable for the good, the
bad, the ugly, everything we say, everything we do, everything
we think.
It is being recorded, writtendown.
The only thing that can makeall that go away and to be made
righteous and be made whole andholy before a holy God is the
blood of Jesus, is the receivingJesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior.
That is the only way to besaved.
(15:03):
So what is salvation?
So salvation is being bornagain.
Let's look in John, chapterthree, verse three and seven
through seven says Jesus repliedI tell you the truth unless you
are born again, you cannot seethe kingdom of God.
What do you mean, exclaimedNicodemus.
(15:24):
How can an old man he's asking,I mean, it's a very.
I mean if someone's telling youthis and you're like that
doesn't make any sense, if youdon't understand what the word
is saying, if you don'tunderstand, ask a question just
like Nicodemus.
Some may look at him and belike dude, that was a dumb
question.
But if he doesn't get it, I'drather ask and look dumb than
(15:45):
think I have it and I ain't gotit.
How can an old man go back intohis mother's womb and be born
again.
Jesus replied I assure you, noone can enter the kingdom of God
without being born of water andthe spirit.
Humans can reproduce only humanlife, but the Holy Spirit gives
birth to spiritual life.
(16:06):
So don't be surprised when Isay you must be born again.
So Jesus' conversation withNicodemus in John, chapter 3, it
clarifies that salvationinvolves being born again.
So you have to let your fleshdie and let the new spirit, man
or spirit woman, be born againso that you can be a new
(16:30):
creation, a spiritual rebirththat the Holy Spirit can bring
about, that only the Holy Spiritcan bring about.
It's not about human effortokay, said this since we started
.
It's not about human effortOkay, said this since we started
.
It's not about human effort.
It's about divinetransformation that redefines
our identity and ourrelationship with God.
(16:50):
Now, being born again is thestarting point of true salvation
and it marks the beginning oflife in the spirit, reflecting
the character of God.
So this is the starting pointreceiving Jesus as your Lord and
Savior.
So a few weeks ago I felt notconvicted, but maybe just like
(17:13):
moved in a way.
I would always say stuff likegive your heart to Jesus, things
like that, and I feel that Godkind of pushed me in a direction
of not just your heart, giveyour life to Jesus, like he
don't just want this, he wantsall that you have, and giving
(17:33):
your heart to Jesus.
So this is and I say this to mypeople because it's so so, so
true and it's so vital for us tounderstand whether new or old
believers it's so, so, so trueand it's so vital for us to
understand whether, new or oldbelievers, you can receive
salvation free of charge.
What does that mean?
Jesus came, he lived and hedied.
He lived us in this life.
He died as the perfectsacrifice for all eternity.
(17:55):
So, hey, even if there's aliens, they got to know Jesus too, to
make it to heaven.
That's so weird.
I'm going to get on that topicone day.
But Jesus came, lived, died,perfect one and done.
But after you receive that now,there is an ongoing effort that
(18:17):
must happen every single day inyour life to maintain and retain
that relationship with God.
You can't just come to Jesusand even in the moment really
mean it, but then go back outand be with your same friends,
be with your you know all thesame atmosphere, be the same
person.
It doesn't.
There should be a shift Now.
I'm not saying that you'regoing to be perfect.
(18:39):
God's not expecting perfection,but he does desire for us to
grow in maturity, which means,just as we were children and we
began to grow, we begin tochange, both physically,
mentally, emotionally andspiritually.
There should be, after webecome, we pass that new birth
canal in Christ, in the spirit.
We should begin to grow, weshould begin to mature.
(19:01):
We should begin to grow.
We should begin to mature, weshould begin to change.
That's what we need to try towork on, that right there.
Salvation is free, butremaining in Christ will cost
you.
It should cost you everything,everything that you were, and
then allow God to give you backwhat he desires for you to have
(19:22):
back.
That makes sense.
I hope it does.
So.
Look over in Matthew, chapter 19.
Probably going to be a littlefull for the screen, but that'll
be alright.
Let me change this up just atad for my reels.
I want it to be able to fit.
(19:44):
That'll be all right.
Do it right there, all right.
Matthew 19, 16 through 22.
Someone came to Jesus with thisquestion Teacher, what good deed
must I do to have eternal life?
Now, that seems like a prettypretty.
(20:07):
I mean common sense question.
Why ask me what is good?
Jesus replied there is only oneabout what is good.
There's only one that is good.
But to answer your question, ifyou want to receive eternal
life, keep the commandments.
Which ones?
The man asked?
And Jesus replied you must notmurder, you must not commit
(20:31):
adultery, you must not steal,you must not testify falsely,
honor your father and mother,love your neighbor as yourself.
I've obeyed all of thesecommandments.
The young man replied.
What else must I do?
Jesus told him if you want tobe perfect, go and sell your
(20:52):
possessions and give the moneyto the poor and you will have
treasures in heaven.
Now, if you recall, when Jesusstarted picking up his posse and
the disciples, they literallyleft their jobs, their families
and they followed Jesus.
He was not asking this guy todo anything other than what he
(21:13):
had already asked others to do,but this is why he wouldn't do
it.
Think about this.
But the young man heard this.
He went away sad, for he hadmany possessions.
I think sometimes it's easierfor those that don't have much
to continue to follow the willof God.
It's easier for those who don'tknow a lot to study the word
(21:36):
and be used by God, to pray andsee miracles happen, because
they don't overthink, they don'tovercomplicate, they just
believe that God is who he sayshe is.
And it's very simple.
I think sometimes weovercomplicate I'm sorry I
forgot to move it down to thenext one for you.
They overcomplicate the walkwith Christ and it ends up
making us fall away because wecan't adhere to what we think
(22:00):
God desires, when really he justwants us.
It's a lot more simple than Ibelieve we make it so.
In this passage, jesuschallenges the rich ruler to
look beyond mere rule keepingand consider the condition of
his heart.
A true salvation requires morethan external obedience.
(22:23):
It demands a heart fullysurrendered to God.
And listen to me, people,whoever watches.
I know we got people from allover the world that tune in, but
I'm here in East Texas and herein East Texas everybody thinks
they're going to heaven.
Everybody thinks, becausethey're going to their mom and
dad's church, they've got aticket into heaven, that is,
(22:47):
they're good.
And that's not true at all.
When we stand before God, wewill be by ourselves.
There will be no family, therewill be no church, there'll be
no pastor, There'll be nodeacons, board members, worship
leaders anything, it will bejust you and it will be just God
.
And I'm telling you straight upthat God does not play games
when it comes to salvation andserving him.
And that means even in yourfinances.
(23:10):
People get so upset when youtalk about their money in church
and honestly, I think they getupset because the money that
they have doesn't belong to God.
Because if it did and someoneis literally quoting scripture
and sticking to what the wordsays there should not be any
animosity in their heart, likefor me.
I'm going to give you a littlebit inside of me and believe and
(23:32):
trust me when I say this.
I'm not bragging.
I'm telling you I make acertain amount of money from the
church, that from tithes.
That pays me.
That's how.
If you don't know, that's howchurch works People on staff,
the lights, the renovations, the, the, the, the supplies.
If you don't, if you never rana business, you don't understand
(23:52):
it.
But that's when you pay ties,that's what it goes towards to
keep the lights on.
For leadership.
Um, and some people don't thinkpastors should get paid.
Some people don't think worshipleaders should get paid.
But those are people who havenever done the position and
really don't have theinformation to make that call.
So if you feel that way, shutup because you don't have a clue
(24:15):
what it is.
Any other business model, solet's use my church Any other
business model.
You have someone who is incharge.
I have 22 leaders and thoseleaders have volunteers
underneath them.
I have five board members Ihave, and that five is also
(24:36):
included in that 22, maybe morethan that now, but then I have
about 100 to 120 people,depending on the Sunday, every
single Sunday that I have to bein contact with.
That, I have to counsel withthat.
I have to every single day bedoing something with somebody.
Every Tuesday night, wednesdaynight and Thursday night I have
(24:57):
something going on at the churchand then anything we have going
on on Saturday.
I have something going on atthe church and then anything we
have going on on Saturday.
Now you take pastor out of theequation and you have CEO or
business owner or manager orwhatever and you would be
willing to pay them 70 to 100,maybe even over that, depending
on the job thousand dollars ayear.
(25:20):
But people get all weird whenyou talk about paying a pastor
or paying a worship leader andall this other stuff when they
have a lot of responsibility,that we actually have to care
for people.
We don't get to just make harddecisions and cut people, and
who cares about therepercussions?
Cause that's the decision.
You have to actually care aboutthem, so that stacks even more.
So it's like it's really weirddynamic of this person who's in
charge but yet has to actuallycare about everyone's opinion
and love on them.
(25:40):
It's pretty heavy sometimes.
What I'm saying is when I pay mytithes and I do pay tithes I
pay mine.
When I have a company as well,everything I get, if somebody
gives me a gift, if somebodygives me anything, it doesn't
matter what it is I immediatelypay my tithes on it.
(26:01):
Now, why do I do that?
Am I trying to pay myselfthrough the church?
No, I have this rule at mychurch If God doesn't have your
money right now and that'shonestly the truth if you won't
pay tithes or give gifts orwhatever, give it somewhere else
for three months and watch Godbe true to his word.
Now people get all uncomfortabletalking about money.
So I say listen, we don't needyour money here.
(26:22):
Give it somewhere else.
Prove God right, that he is whohe says he is, that his word
says what it says and that hewill always come through.
I've never had a person comeback to me and say, man, I just
it's not working.
Never, because I don't askanybody, just like Jesus here.
(26:44):
I don't ask anybody to doanything that I don't do myself
For my business.
I don't pay after taxes For mytithes, I pay on the gross, and
then when I get a tax return ifI do last year I didn't I pay
off of that too.
Some people, why would you dothat?
Why after if you've done itbefore taxes, then when you get
(27:05):
your return back, that shouldall be yours.
False.
Everything that comes to me ishis.
So that means to me, from whatI see in scripture, that not
only does my mind belong to GodI don't curse anymore not only
does my mouth belong to God Idon't watch porn anymore.
(27:26):
Not only does my eyes belong toGod I don't listen to anything
but worship music anymore.
Not only do my ears belong toGod.
Some of you may think this isextreme, but I'm telling you
what, what my convictions are,because I've asked God to show
me, teach me, lead me and guideme, because that is my level of
dedication to him.
(27:47):
And so if we say we're saved,what level of dedication are we
really giving everything over toGod, like we say we are?
I mean, this question shouldnot tick you off.
It should actually.
If you desire to please aloving, holy God, you should
want to live your life as such.
(28:08):
There should be no question.
So then you get to finances andall of a sudden we clam up and
we're like man, I don't know,this just wasn't my money.
No, we don't want anything.
God wants you to give, and Itell people this too if you're,
(28:30):
if you're giving and you're madabout it, I don't want that
curse.
The bible tells us to be acheerful giver, to give because
we love to give, because we wantto see things taken care of, we
love the people that come there, and so we're able to finance
and fund things back to thepeople because everybody's
giving in together.
In Acts I don't remember whatchapter it is you see this same
(28:54):
type of thing where everybody isgiving into the church body and
the church body helps, takescare of everybody else.
We are very, very generous inwhat we do.
If we have something andanother church needs it, we
immediately give it.
There's no holding back at all.
We fund outreach things wherewe go hand food out once a month
(29:18):
to people who need food.
We also give food into thechurch, into a freezer, so if
there's a family that has anissue or someone's in the
hospital, we can give them mealsthroughout the week and take
care of them.
This is what the body shouldlook like, but this can only
happen whatever church you go to.
If you've been holding on toyour money because you're like
well, I don't know what they'regoing to do with it.
(29:39):
If you don't trust them, youshouldn't be going there.
Bottom line.
If you don't trust your church,you should not be in that
church, because they should bedoing it the way God's word
designed for us to do it, andthat is giving in so we can give
out.
That's the way it's set up.
So does God have all of you?
Finances is a very stickysituation and in my personal
(30:01):
opinion and from what I see inthe scripture, it shouldn't be,
because a lot of us will fall inthis category where we're like
oh, jesus, I want to follow you,jesus, I want everything you
have, and he's like okay, well,then here, show me with your
monetary gain that you reallywant what you say you want that,
you really want to follow me.
Do this and give it to the poor.
(30:22):
Do this and donate and blah,blah, blah.
You know, whatever the lordleads you to do, I'm not telling
you what he's leading you to do, I'm just this is an example
from the word, because it'sscripture.
You have to stop, assess and belike am I really, am I
outlandishly like, outrageously,being generous, or am I being
stingy with what God has blessedme with?
(30:44):
Because I know this fromfirsthand experience you're
stingy with what God has blessedyou with.
He eventually will dry up thatblessing and there will be no
more fruit of that labor.
And so I have made it in mymind, in my heart, that my house
, everything we earn, eventhough we're not giving it all
(31:06):
away, everything we earn belongsto God and if he lays on our
heart.
I was with some ministersactually at the time of
recording this yesterday, and Iwas with some ministers actually
as the time of recording thisyesterday and I was invited.
They said hey, we go out to arestaurant.
Our waitress or waiter, eachone of us, brings $100 to the
table and we give that as a tipand we pray with them.
(31:29):
So we did that yesterday.
That's the first time I wasinvited to do this.
I'm like Lord, I'm not really,I'm not rich, I ain't got $
hundred dollars, you know.
But they don't do it all thetime, but it's just kind of an
every now and then thing to tobless somebody else.
And so I was like, all right,I'll go, lord out of faith, I'll
go.
So I did it, and today I've hadthree or four invoices that
(31:54):
finally got paid, and today I'vehad three or four invoices that
finally got paid.
God knows what he's doing.
When we're faithful, sometimeswe wait for God to do something
before we're faithful, and Godis actually waiting for us to be
faithful so that he can reallydo something.
Think about it.
Your blessing could be rightaround the corner, but you've
(32:18):
been holding on to what you haveso tight that your hand
couldn't receive it if he threwit your way.
Think about it.
Look over in James.
Let's look in James.
Guys, has a modern churchforgot about the ingredients of
true salvation?
As we read this look at this.
What good is it, dear brothersand sisters, if you say you have
faith but don't show it by youractions?
(32:39):
He's saying your faith ispointless if you're not showing
it by how you live.
Can that kind of faith saveanyone?
Question mark Is anybody goingto come to church if you've got
an attitude all the time andyou're always bitter and griping
and complaining?
Absolutely not.
You'll be the reason they nevercome to church.
Suppose you see a brother orsister who has no food, clothing
(33:00):
and you say goodbye and have agood day, stay warm and eat well
, but then you don't give thatperson any food or clothing.
What does that do?
So you see, faith by itselfisn't enough.
Unless it produces good deedsit is dead and useless.
James is trying to tell uslisten, just every once in a
(33:24):
while, take an internal selfinventory and say am I doing
what I'm supposed to be doingLike, what am I here for?
A lot of us walk around withoutaim, without intention, and at
the end of the day we got to askourselves what am I here for?
A lot of us walk around withoutaim, without intention, and at
the end of the day we got to askourselves what am I here for?
What am I doing here?
If you start asking these typesof questions, I guarantee you
it'll prompt something in you,internally, in your heart, in
(33:48):
your mind, with your spouse, saywhat are we doing here?
What's the reason for this?
And when you start trying tounearth those roots, you can see
what the reason for either badfruit or fruit that's not
producing.
Well, sometimes you have to gothrough a pruning process to
(34:09):
actually get good product.
That was a lot of peas.
That was a lot of peas.
So the modern church oftenemphasizes grace and faith, but
James reminds us that true faithis the evidence, produces
evidence out of our actions.
(34:29):
Salvation isn't just about themoment of belief.
It's about a lifetime ofdemonstrating the belief through
the way we live.
Now here's a question.
If you are a believer, or maybeif you're not, hopefully me
even talking like this willinterest you in diving deeper
into what the church is actuallysupposed to be, so that you can
(34:51):
find a church that you can getfed.
And if you're at a church rightnow, listen.
Church that you can get fed.
And if you're at a church rightnow, listen.
I was a pastor's child my entirelife.
Okay, I understand.
When your parents go somewhere.
If it's your family church, youwill go there and spiritually
starve for your entire lifebecause somebody that means
(35:12):
something to you goes there butyou never get anything out of it
.
That is dangerous, and Iunderstand it's very difficult
to make these types of decisionswhen people you love and care
about are in the middle of it.
But at the end of the day, atthe end of the day, you are
(35:36):
responsible for you.
You are responsible for yourfamily inside of your house.
You need to be spirituallyhealthy and a lot of times that
comes from being able to prune.
So look over at Philippians.
(35:56):
Work hard to show the resultsof your salvation.
Obeying God with deep reverenceand fear for God is working in
you, giving you the desire andthe power to do what pleases Him
.
Now ask yourself is your lifepleasing to God?
(36:22):
Have you gotten stale?
Have you gotten boring in yourwalk?
Are you saved?
Is your life producing thefruit that proves that you are,
or are you a dying branch?
(36:49):
Being saved is not about aone-time decision.
It is that moment, that pivotmoment, that can change your
life forever.
But every day after that, therehas to be pursuit, there has to
be.
There is life in Christ.
It's not meant for you to justbe yeah, I'm saved.
(37:10):
God desires for us to be somuch more than that.
He desires for our lives to beso much more full than that.
So ask yourself are you living alife of saved?
Are you living a life full offaith?
Are you living a life that ispleasing to God?
Are you living a life that, ifGod came down right now and he
was doing the rapture andsnatching people up, he's coming
(37:32):
back for his holy, spotlessbride?
Would he have to dig and findyou because you're blending in
with everybody else?
Or are you actually set apart,as the Bible tells us to be?
I can't answer that for you,but I can tell you it is a
question that you must answerbecause one day there's going to
be a deciding factor andthere's going to be a massive
fracture in who is and who isnot.
(37:54):
There's no middle gray groundand I hope this inspires you to
a deeper walk with Christ.
And if you don't know him, Ihope it makes you incredibly
curious to where.
You may not fully understandwhat I'm talking about, but you
want to learn.
(38:14):
I love you, I'm praying for youand I hope you have an amazing
rest of your week.
Faith and Failures Podcast.
Before we get into today's video, I just wanted to
(00:02):
say thank you to all of the newsubscribers.
If you haven't yet, considersubscribing, hit that bell
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one-time or give a monthly tosupport the channel.
(00:23):
Anything, great or small, isappreciated.
Now let's get into the video.
What is up?
Faith and Failures family.
Thank you so much for joiningme today on another episode.
If you're watching on YouTube,thank you so much.
(00:44):
Make sure you do like andsubscribe and even comment with
and I know you see my legs.
I'm wearing shorts.
I do have pants on for those ofyou watching online, but if
you're listening on a podcastplatform, whatever it may be,
please download the episode,share with your friends.
Hopefully you can really getsome encouragement from these
episodes.
(01:04):
I went from kind of a and I'mstill going to do some.
I have a.
First of all, I'll tell you alittle bit of stuff that's
coming up on the schedule.
I got a couple of things in thenext couple of months and maybe
even one larger fish to startoff the year.
I'm not sure yet how it's goingto work out, but I got a friend
of mine that has been on Fox.
He's written blogs for Fox.
(01:26):
He's a well-known,well-traveled, he's done years
and years of ministry, and Iasked him if he would be willing
to come on and talk about aleadership, talk about pastoral
mental health.
I think that is something that,as far as I've seen, we kind of
gets shuffled and put to thewayside.
(01:47):
So I want to talk a little bitabout that.
So I will be putting out littleteasers and let y'all know when
that's going to happen as well.
As another person reached outto me on TikTok.
They said that through one ofmy videos they were encouraged
One of the little TikToks onthere and they mentioned and
(02:11):
kind of shared a little bit withme about their, I think, their
loss of a child and there wassome serious stuff going on and
I said, hey, you know you're aChristian woman, do you mind
coming on the podcast?
She said yes.
She said this month is full, sostay tuned for that.
Just want to let you know wegot some cool things coming up
as well as continuing to do thisBible teaching type podcast
(02:32):
Like I.
I like doing where I was, livestreaming and doing, you know,
going on the rabbit trails ofdifferent topics and things like
that.
But I'm really I love teachingand so I want to kind of get
back.
I'm going to do some some ofthat every now and then.
But to me, if I'm going to havelimited amount of time, I want
(02:53):
my, my time is valuable.
So I'm trying to teach myteenager this to value your time
so that you don't waste it.
And for me, my value and mypriority is to get the gospel of
Jesus Christ to study and diveinto scripture and to help you
(03:16):
as a believer or as anon-believer, whichever the case
may be, to want to dive intoscripture and get to know the
word better, get to know theword better, get to know God
better, and so that's kind of myheart.
But I really also love, love,love doing interviews.
I love that, that dialogue backand forth, so trying to get
those.
If you ever want to beinterviewed on this podcast, you
(03:37):
have something to share.
Whether it's a testimony,whether it's a struggle you've
been going through or have gonethrough, feel free to email me
at faithandfailures at gmailcom.
That's faithandfailures atgmailcom.
You could also join our privateFacebook group.
There's seven, maybe 800 peoplenow on this YouTube channel.
(03:57):
We have over 10,000 subscribers, 10,300 and something.
So praise the Lord for that.
All glory to God.
So let's dive into today.
So you can probably tell by thetitle of this video.
There's a question that most ofthe time, when you ask people
(04:18):
who have been going to churchfor a while they've been a part
of the Christian ecosystem youask them this question and what
is one of the things that theystart doing?
They start naming off thingsthey do instead of fruit of who
they are.
Now, what does that mean?
(04:38):
What's the question?
So you can tell by the titleare you a Christian?
And most people will be like ohyeah, man, I go to church here,
my parents went to this church,my dad's a pastor, my this and
that you know I was born andraised Baptist, blah, blah, blah
, whatever you know.
Or I'm a Catholic, I say myHail Marys, or whatever they do.
(05:00):
Okay, that's not making fun,that's a legitimate answer that
I have received.
Oh yeah, I go to to this thisSt Mary's, blah, blah, blah.
And they start like telling meall the things they do to be a
Christian, when in reality, uh,it's the opposite.
So you don't do things to be aChristian, you actually give
(05:23):
your life to Christ andtherefore it produces good works
out of you.
Because you cannot and this isbiblical For those of you who
say different you pray to asaint or you whatever to help
you and blah, blah, blah.
They're not God.
And so when you pray to a God,pray to a person who has passed
on, you are, in essence, insteadof the veil being torn and you
(05:45):
coming before the father andpraying to Jesus, praying to the
Holy spirit, you have, inessence, made an idol out of
that person.
I'm not talking about, you know,statues and reverence and and
and remembering them, but I mean, peter even said when he was
with Jesus I think it was Mosesand Elijah, I think, if I'm
(06:09):
remembering correctly if notcorrect me in the comments, I
know probably some of you willanyways but he didn't know what
to do.
So he's like oh, let's build,let's build monuments.
And Jesus shut it down.
Right then, because it was notsomething right to do.
Read that story.
I don't know what you take awayfrom it, but I think sometimes
(06:32):
we push to idolize people andit's wrong, it's not the right
thing to do.
So, that being said, so thatbeing said, are you saved?
So let's look at this verse.
So Matthew, chapter seven,verse 21.
And this is, to me, thescariest verse in the Bible.
(06:53):
Now, why is it the scariestverse?
Because this is a direct wordfor church people.
Not everyone who calls out tome, lord, lord, will enter the
kingdom of heaven.
Only those who actually do thewill of my Father in heaven will
(07:19):
enter.
So I want you to ask yourself asimple question.
This should be a question.
If you say you know God, thisshould be a pretty easy answer.
But I believe and this issomething that I've been for
years now saying to my churchPart of the mission and vision
that I have for the church thatI feel God put on my heart was
(07:41):
spiritual maturity, spiritualmaturity, because spiritual
maturity, spiritual maturity,spiritual maturity leads to
other places in your life tobecome mature, because you're
aligning your spirit with God'sspirit and you are submitting
yourself to a holy God.
And when you submit yourself toa holy God, you become a holy
people.
And when you become a holypeople, you are aligned with
what he desires to happen inyour life, and when you are
(08:02):
aligned with what he wants tohappen in your life, and when
you are aligned with what hewants to happen in your life,
things go better.
That isn't.
That isn't.
It's not to say things areperfect or things are magically
good and great and perfect andnobody ever comes against you in
this, and that we're actuallypromised the opposite.
So when we say, are you saved,what does that mean?
(08:24):
True salvation is not merelyabout external actions, but
about a deep, authenticrelationship with God that
should transform our lives.
Now the question, are you saved?
Isn't about a one-time decision.
I had a friend in high school.
Him and I would have this, Iguess you called it argument him
(08:45):
, and I would have this back andforth, and he was a what is a
common word or phrase?
Once saved, always saved.
Apparently, if you're adenomination of Baptist,
sometimes that seems to betethered to that denomination.
I'm not sure exactly why, butlike because you once accepted
(09:06):
Christ, now you're good and youcan do anything, and this was
his attitude.
And then some will say, wellthen you were never saved.
That's just semantics.
We're not going to dive intothat, that's not today's topic
but are you saved?
Should be a to ask themselvesto prompt an internal
examination of what am I doingin my day-to-day life, every
(09:31):
single day.
What am I doing to externallyshow what God has done
internally?
Now remember this.
I said this before and it canget very muddy and confusing.
I said this before and it canget very muddy and confusing.
External actions will notproduce an internal salvation,
but internal salvation willproduce external actions.
(09:52):
Even in the word it says faithwithout works is dead, like it's
not going to be.
You getting saved and thenyou're just good to go and you
never do anything.
Holy, you never correctanything, you never change
anything in your life.
The word of God.
Okay, let's go back to the oldTestament.
And then you're just good to goand you never do anything.
Holy, you never correctanything, you never change
anything in your life.
The word of God.
Okay, let's go back to the oldTestament.
Then we'll go to the newTestament.
(10:12):
Old Testament Moses comes out ofthe mountain and he has the
tablets.
Okay, the first tablet download.
He has 10 commandments.
Okay, he breaks and he gets mad.
Let's go back or let's scootforward a little bit.
Comes back down.
Now he's got the new version.
He's got the 2.0.
All right, he's got the tablets.
10 commandments what was thereason for the 10 commandments?
(10:33):
It was because a holy people, aset apart people, was so
damaged, so sinful, that theyhad to have some sort of
regulation and parameters tolive their life.
So the 10 commandments wasgiven, god tried, he even wiped
(10:53):
out the earth, started overagain.
And because we are sinfulcreatures, we are inherently
sinful.
It's like you don't have toteach a child to be disobedient.
You don't have to teach a childto lie they can lie better but
you don't teach a child to lie.
You don't teach a child to notdo what they are told not to do.
(11:14):
It's just my little daughter.
Right now she's a year and alittle bit over a month.
She does not have to be taughtthat when I say no to put
there's a, can you see it on thescreen?
Yeah, right here.
Right there, there is a routerthat is wired into the wall and
(11:37):
it's plugged in right there.
She comes in my officeSometimes she has some toys.
There's not any in here at themoment.
Well, there's a block overthere, but I cleaned some of
them out because I was feelingcluttered.
As you can see, I have aclutter problem.
I lay things down.
Actually, that's my wife's workright there.
She did that.
Uh, shout out, shout out, jesseTillman.
And she reaches for thatbecause it's got wires hanging
(12:02):
and it's just right at her eyelevel.
So, yeah, she's going to reachfor it.
Well, I told her no and guesswhat happened?
She reached for it again.
So I went over there and Ismacked her hand.
Some of you may be like well,it's your fault for having it
that low.
She needs to learn what nomeans.
Some adults, a lot of adults,need to learn what no means it's
(12:25):
okay to be told no.
So are you saved?
Are you saved?
Not a one-time decision, it isan ongoing and this is what we
call in my denomination and frombiblical texts, as far as where
we get our theology and all ofour key beliefs.
(12:47):
We call it sanctification.
So an ongoing process of everysingle day dedicating, saying
yes, I will live for Christtoday.
It's an ongoing journey offaith.
It's an everyday decision ofobedience and an internal
transformation that thenproduces external works.
(13:12):
Faith without works is dead.
So you having faith, you reallyhave faith, you really believe,
you are really trusting God,then it should produce in you
external results, but externalresults doing all this stuff,
and you know what's up, and itjust it doesn't do anything for
(13:33):
you as far as Christ isconcerned.
It doesn't automatically meanyou get into heaven.
It's just not how it works.
I wish that it did.
That would make, probablythings a lot easier.
But this is why Jesus looked tothe Pharisees and said they were
whitewashed tombs.
He said live like them, butdon't be like them, because they
had the law down, they had whatthey were supposed to do down
(13:55):
to the T, but it meant nothing,because inside of their hearts
there was no relationship, therewas no depth to their
relationship with God, there wasno actual substance.
And this is what I believe isone of the biggest problems with
the church today Is we'rewalking around as malnourished
zombies claiming Christ and wehave no clue who God really is,
(14:20):
because we're living off of ourparents' beliefs, parents'
relationships with God and wedon't have any truly ourselves.
And so then we becomemalnourished because there's no
actual substance that we've beenconsuming ourselves.
And we have to do that.
When you stand before God,every person will and we will be
held accountable for the good,the bad, the ugly, everything we
(14:43):
say, everything we do be heldaccountable for the good, the
bad, the ugly, everything we say, everything we do, everything
we think.
It is being recorded, writtendown.
The only thing that can makeall that go away and to be made
righteous and be made whole andholy before a holy God is the
blood of Jesus, is the receivingJesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior.
That is the only way to besaved.
(15:03):
So what is salvation?
So salvation is being bornagain.
Let's look in John, chapterthree, verse three and seven
through seven says Jesus repliedI tell you the truth unless you
are born again, you cannot seethe kingdom of God.
What do you mean, exclaimedNicodemus.
(15:24):
How can an old man he's asking,I mean, it's a very.
I mean if someone's telling youthis and you're like that
doesn't make any sense, if youdon't understand what the word
is saying, if you don'tunderstand, ask a question just
like Nicodemus.
Some may look at him and belike dude, that was a dumb
question.
But if he doesn't get it, I'drather ask and look dumb than
(15:45):
think I have it and I ain't gotit.
How can an old man go back intohis mother's womb and be born
again.
Jesus replied I assure you, noone can enter the kingdom of God
without being born of water andthe spirit.
Humans can reproduce only humanlife, but the Holy Spirit gives
birth to spiritual life.
(16:06):
So don't be surprised when Isay you must be born again.
So Jesus' conversation withNicodemus in John, chapter 3, it
clarifies that salvationinvolves being born again.
So you have to let your fleshdie and let the new spirit, man
or spirit woman, be born againso that you can be a new
(16:30):
creation, a spiritual rebirththat the Holy Spirit can bring
about, that only the Holy Spiritcan bring about.
It's not about human effortokay, said this since we started
.
It's not about human effortOkay, said this since we started
.
It's not about human effort.
It's about divinetransformation that redefines
our identity and ourrelationship with God.
(16:50):
Now, being born again is thestarting point of true salvation
and it marks the beginning oflife in the spirit, reflecting
the character of God.
So this is the starting pointreceiving Jesus as your Lord and
Savior.
So a few weeks ago I felt notconvicted, but maybe just like
(17:13):
moved in a way.
I would always say stuff likegive your heart to Jesus, things
like that, and I feel that Godkind of pushed me in a direction
of not just your heart, giveyour life to Jesus, like he
don't just want this, he wantsall that you have, and giving
(17:33):
your heart to Jesus.
So this is and I say this to mypeople because it's so so, so
true and it's so vital for us tounderstand whether new or old
believers it's so, so, so trueand it's so vital for us to
understand whether, new or oldbelievers, you can receive
salvation free of charge.
What does that mean?
Jesus came, he lived and hedied.
He lived us in this life.
He died as the perfectsacrifice for all eternity.
(17:55):
So, hey, even if there's aliens, they got to know Jesus too, to
make it to heaven.
That's so weird.
I'm going to get on that topicone day.
But Jesus came, lived, died,perfect one and done.
But after you receive that now,there is an ongoing effort that
(18:17):
must happen every single day inyour life to maintain and retain
that relationship with God.
You can't just come to Jesusand even in the moment really
mean it, but then go back outand be with your same friends,
be with your you know all thesame atmosphere, be the same
person.
It doesn't.
There should be a shift Now.
I'm not saying that you'regoing to be perfect.
(18:39):
God's not expecting perfection,but he does desire for us to
grow in maturity, which means,just as we were children and we
began to grow, we begin tochange, both physically,
mentally, emotionally andspiritually.
There should be, after webecome, we pass that new birth
canal in Christ, in the spirit.
We should begin to grow, weshould begin to mature.
(19:01):
We should begin to grow.
We should begin to mature, weshould begin to change.
That's what we need to try towork on, that right there.
Salvation is free, butremaining in Christ will cost
you.
It should cost you everything,everything that you were, and
then allow God to give you backwhat he desires for you to have
(19:22):
back.
That makes sense.
I hope it does.
So.
Look over in Matthew, chapter 19.
Probably going to be a littlefull for the screen, but that'll
be alright.
Let me change this up just atad for my reels.
I want it to be able to fit.
(19:44):
That'll be all right.
Do it right there, all right.
Matthew 19, 16 through 22.
Someone came to Jesus with thisquestion Teacher, what good deed
must I do to have eternal life?
Now, that seems like a prettypretty.
(20:07):
I mean common sense question.
Why ask me what is good?
Jesus replied there is only oneabout what is good.
There's only one that is good.
But to answer your question, ifyou want to receive eternal
life, keep the commandments.
Which ones?
The man asked?
And Jesus replied you must notmurder, you must not commit
(20:31):
adultery, you must not steal,you must not testify falsely,
honor your father and mother,love your neighbor as yourself.
I've obeyed all of thesecommandments.
The young man replied.
What else must I do?
Jesus told him if you want tobe perfect, go and sell your
(20:52):
possessions and give the moneyto the poor and you will have
treasures in heaven.
Now, if you recall, when Jesusstarted picking up his posse and
the disciples, they literallyleft their jobs, their families
and they followed Jesus.
He was not asking this guy todo anything other than what he
(21:13):
had already asked others to do,but this is why he wouldn't do
it.
Think about this.
But the young man heard this.
He went away sad, for he hadmany possessions.
I think sometimes it's easierfor those that don't have much
to continue to follow the willof God.
It's easier for those who don'tknow a lot to study the word
(21:36):
and be used by God, to pray andsee miracles happen, because
they don't overthink, they don'tovercomplicate, they just
believe that God is who he sayshe is.
And it's very simple.
I think sometimes weovercomplicate I'm sorry I
forgot to move it down to thenext one for you.
They overcomplicate the walkwith Christ and it ends up
making us fall away because wecan't adhere to what we think
(22:00):
God desires, when really he justwants us.
It's a lot more simple than Ibelieve we make it so.
In this passage, jesuschallenges the rich ruler to
look beyond mere rule keepingand consider the condition of
his heart.
A true salvation requires morethan external obedience.
(22:23):
It demands a heart fullysurrendered to God.
And listen to me, people,whoever watches.
I know we got people from allover the world that tune in, but
I'm here in East Texas and herein East Texas everybody thinks
they're going to heaven.
Everybody thinks, becausethey're going to their mom and
dad's church, they've got aticket into heaven, that is,
(22:47):
they're good.
And that's not true at all.
When we stand before God, wewill be by ourselves.
There will be no family, therewill be no church, there'll be
no pastor, There'll be nodeacons, board members, worship
leaders anything, it will bejust you and it will be just God
.
And I'm telling you straight upthat God does not play games
when it comes to salvation andserving him.
And that means even in yourfinances.
(23:10):
People get so upset when youtalk about their money in church
and honestly, I think they getupset because the money that
they have doesn't belong to God.
Because if it did and someoneis literally quoting scripture
and sticking to what the wordsays there should not be any
animosity in their heart, likefor me.
I'm going to give you a littlebit inside of me and believe and
(23:32):
trust me when I say this.
I'm not bragging.
I'm telling you I make acertain amount of money from the
church, that from tithes.
That pays me.
That's how.
If you don't know, that's howchurch works People on staff,
the lights, the renovations, the, the, the, the supplies.
If you don't, if you never rana business, you don't understand
(23:52):
it.
But that's when you pay ties,that's what it goes towards to
keep the lights on.
For leadership.
Um, and some people don't thinkpastors should get paid.
Some people don't think worshipleaders should get paid.
But those are people who havenever done the position and
really don't have theinformation to make that call.
So if you feel that way, shutup because you don't have a clue
(24:15):
what it is.
Any other business model, solet's use my church Any other
business model.
You have someone who is incharge.
I have 22 leaders and thoseleaders have volunteers
underneath them.
I have five board members Ihave, and that five is also
(24:36):
included in that 22, maybe morethan that now, but then I have
about 100 to 120 people,depending on the Sunday, every
single Sunday that I have to bein contact with.
That, I have to counsel withthat.
I have to every single day bedoing something with somebody.
Every Tuesday night, wednesdaynight and Thursday night I have
(24:57):
something going on at the churchand then anything we have going
on on Saturday.
I have something going on atthe church and then anything we
have going on on Saturday.
Now you take pastor out of theequation and you have CEO or
business owner or manager orwhatever and you would be
willing to pay them 70 to 100,maybe even over that, depending
on the job thousand dollars ayear.
(25:20):
But people get all weird whenyou talk about paying a pastor
or paying a worship leader andall this other stuff when they
have a lot of responsibility,that we actually have to care
for people.
We don't get to just make harddecisions and cut people, and
who cares about therepercussions?
Cause that's the decision.
You have to actually care aboutthem, so that stacks even more.
So it's like it's really weirddynamic of this person who's in
charge but yet has to actuallycare about everyone's opinion
and love on them.
(25:40):
It's pretty heavy sometimes.
What I'm saying is when I pay mytithes and I do pay tithes I
pay mine.
When I have a company as well,everything I get, if somebody
gives me a gift, if somebodygives me anything, it doesn't
matter what it is I immediatelypay my tithes on it.
(26:01):
Now, why do I do that?
Am I trying to pay myselfthrough the church?
No, I have this rule at mychurch If God doesn't have your
money right now and that'shonestly the truth if you won't
pay tithes or give gifts orwhatever, give it somewhere else
for three months and watch Godbe true to his word.
Now people get all uncomfortabletalking about money.
So I say listen, we don't needyour money here.
(26:22):
Give it somewhere else.
Prove God right, that he is whohe says he is, that his word
says what it says and that hewill always come through.
I've never had a person comeback to me and say, man, I just
it's not working.
Never, because I don't askanybody, just like Jesus here.
(26:44):
I don't ask anybody to doanything that I don't do myself
For my business.
I don't pay after taxes For mytithes, I pay on the gross, and
then when I get a tax return ifI do last year I didn't I pay
off of that too.
Some people, why would you dothat?
Why after if you've done itbefore taxes, then when you get
(27:05):
your return back, that shouldall be yours.
False.
Everything that comes to me ishis.
So that means to me, from whatI see in scripture, that not
only does my mind belong to GodI don't curse anymore not only
does my mouth belong to God Idon't watch porn anymore.
(27:26):
Not only does my eyes belong toGod I don't listen to anything
but worship music anymore.
Not only do my ears belong toGod.
Some of you may think this isextreme, but I'm telling you
what, what my convictions are,because I've asked God to show
me, teach me, lead me and guideme, because that is my level of
dedication to him.
(27:47):
And so if we say we're saved,what level of dedication are we
really giving everything over toGod, like we say we are?
I mean, this question shouldnot tick you off.
It should actually.
If you desire to please aloving, holy God, you should
want to live your life as such.
(28:08):
There should be no question.
So then you get to finances andall of a sudden we clam up and
we're like man, I don't know,this just wasn't my money.
No, we don't want anything.
God wants you to give, and Itell people this too if you're,
(28:30):
if you're giving and you're madabout it, I don't want that
curse.
The bible tells us to be acheerful giver, to give because
we love to give, because we wantto see things taken care of, we
love the people that come there, and so we're able to finance
and fund things back to thepeople because everybody's
giving in together.
In Acts I don't remember whatchapter it is you see this same
(28:54):
type of thing where everybody isgiving into the church body and
the church body helps, takescare of everybody else.
We are very, very generous inwhat we do.
If we have something andanother church needs it, we
immediately give it.
There's no holding back at all.
We fund outreach things wherewe go hand food out once a month
(29:18):
to people who need food.
We also give food into thechurch, into a freezer, so if
there's a family that has anissue or someone's in the
hospital, we can give them mealsthroughout the week and take
care of them.
This is what the body shouldlook like, but this can only
happen whatever church you go to.
If you've been holding on toyour money because you're like
well, I don't know what they'regoing to do with it.
(29:39):
If you don't trust them, youshouldn't be going there.
Bottom line.
If you don't trust your church,you should not be in that
church, because they should bedoing it the way God's word
designed for us to do it, andthat is giving in so we can give
out.
That's the way it's set up.
So does God have all of you?
Finances is a very stickysituation and in my personal
(30:01):
opinion and from what I see inthe scripture, it shouldn't be,
because a lot of us will fall inthis category where we're like
oh, jesus, I want to follow you,jesus, I want everything you
have, and he's like okay, well,then here, show me with your
monetary gain that you reallywant what you say you want that,
you really want to follow me.
Do this and give it to the poor.
(30:22):
Do this and donate and blah,blah, blah.
You know, whatever the lordleads you to do, I'm not telling
you what he's leading you to do, I'm just this is an example
from the word, because it'sscripture.
You have to stop, assess and belike am I really, am I
outlandishly like, outrageously,being generous, or am I being
stingy with what God has blessedme with?
(30:44):
Because I know this fromfirsthand experience you're
stingy with what God has blessedyou with.
He eventually will dry up thatblessing and there will be no
more fruit of that labor.
And so I have made it in mymind, in my heart, that my house
, everything we earn, eventhough we're not giving it all
(31:06):
away, everything we earn belongsto God and if he lays on our
heart.
I was with some ministersactually at the time of
recording this yesterday, and Iwas with some ministers actually
as the time of recording thisyesterday and I was invited.
They said hey, we go out to arestaurant.
Our waitress or waiter, eachone of us, brings $100 to the
table and we give that as a tipand we pray with them.
(31:29):
So we did that yesterday.
That's the first time I wasinvited to do this.
I'm like Lord, I'm not really,I'm not rich, I ain't got $
hundred dollars, you know.
But they don't do it all thetime, but it's just kind of an
every now and then thing to tobless somebody else.
And so I was like, all right,I'll go, lord out of faith, I'll
go.
So I did it, and today I've hadthree or four invoices that
(31:54):
finally got paid, and today I'vehad three or four invoices that
finally got paid.
God knows what he's doing.
When we're faithful, sometimeswe wait for God to do something
before we're faithful, and Godis actually waiting for us to be
faithful so that he can reallydo something.
Think about it.
Your blessing could be rightaround the corner, but you've
(32:18):
been holding on to what you haveso tight that your hand
couldn't receive it if he threwit your way.
Think about it.
Look over in James.
Let's look in James.
Guys, has a modern churchforgot about the ingredients of
true salvation?
As we read this look at this.
What good is it, dear brothersand sisters, if you say you have
faith but don't show it by youractions?
(32:39):
He's saying your faith ispointless if you're not showing
it by how you live.
Can that kind of faith saveanyone?
Question mark Is anybody goingto come to church if you've got
an attitude all the time andyou're always bitter and griping
and complaining?
Absolutely not.
You'll be the reason they nevercome to church.
Suppose you see a brother orsister who has no food, clothing
(33:00):
and you say goodbye and have agood day, stay warm and eat well
, but then you don't give thatperson any food or clothing.
What does that do?
So you see, faith by itselfisn't enough.
Unless it produces good deedsit is dead and useless.
James is trying to tell uslisten, just every once in a
(33:24):
while, take an internal selfinventory and say am I doing
what I'm supposed to be doingLike, what am I here for?
A lot of us walk around withoutaim, without intention, and at
the end of the day we got to askourselves what am I here for?
A lot of us walk around withoutaim, without intention, and at
the end of the day we got to askourselves what am I here for?
What am I doing here?
If you start asking these typesof questions, I guarantee you
it'll prompt something in you,internally, in your heart, in
(33:48):
your mind, with your spouse, saywhat are we doing here?
What's the reason for this?
And when you start trying tounearth those roots, you can see
what the reason for either badfruit or fruit that's not
producing.
Well, sometimes you have to gothrough a pruning process to
(34:09):
actually get good product.
That was a lot of peas.
That was a lot of peas.
So the modern church oftenemphasizes grace and faith, but
James reminds us that true faithis the evidence, produces
evidence out of our actions.
(34:29):
Salvation isn't just about themoment of belief.
It's about a lifetime ofdemonstrating the belief through
the way we live.
Now here's a question.
If you are a believer, or maybeif you're not, hopefully me
even talking like this willinterest you in diving deeper
into what the church is actuallysupposed to be, so that you can
(34:51):
find a church that you can getfed.
And if you're at a church rightnow, listen.
Church that you can get fed.
And if you're at a church rightnow, listen.
I was a pastor's child my entirelife.
Okay, I understand.
When your parents go somewhere.
If it's your family church, youwill go there and spiritually
starve for your entire lifebecause somebody that means
(35:12):
something to you goes there butyou never get anything out of it
.
That is dangerous, and Iunderstand it's very difficult
to make these types of decisionswhen people you love and care
about are in the middle of it.
But at the end of the day, atthe end of the day, you are
(35:36):
responsible for you.
You are responsible for yourfamily inside of your house.
You need to be spirituallyhealthy and a lot of times that
comes from being able to prune.
So look over at Philippians.
(35:56):
Work hard to show the resultsof your salvation.
Obeying God with deep reverenceand fear for God is working in
you, giving you the desire andthe power to do what pleases Him
.
Now ask yourself is your lifepleasing to God?
(36:22):
Have you gotten stale?
Have you gotten boring in yourwalk?
Are you saved?
Is your life producing thefruit that proves that you are,
or are you a dying branch?
(36:49):
Being saved is not about aone-time decision.
It is that moment, that pivotmoment, that can change your
life forever.
But every day after that, therehas to be pursuit, there has to
be.
There is life in Christ.
It's not meant for you to justbe yeah, I'm saved.
(37:10):
God desires for us to be somuch more than that.
He desires for our lives to beso much more full than that.
So ask yourself are you living alife of saved?
Are you living a life full offaith?
Are you living a life that ispleasing to God?
Are you living a life that, ifGod came down right now and he
was doing the rapture andsnatching people up, he's coming
(37:32):
back for his holy, spotlessbride?
Would he have to dig and findyou because you're blending in
with everybody else?
Or are you actually set apart,as the Bible tells us to be?
I can't answer that for you,but I can tell you it is a
question that you must answerbecause one day there's going to
be a deciding factor andthere's going to be a massive
fracture in who is and who isnot.
(37:54):
There's no middle gray groundand I hope this inspires you to
a deeper walk with Christ.
And if you don't know him, Ihope it makes you incredibly
curious to where.
You may not fully understandwhat I'm talking about, but you
want to learn.
(38:14):
I love you, I'm praying for youand I hope you have an amazing
rest of your week.
Faith and Failures Podcast.
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