May 5, 2025 • 38 mins
What would happen if your faith was put on trial? Would there be enough evidence to convict you of truly loving God? This thought-provoking episode challenges believers to examine the authenticity of their relationship with Christ beyond mere words or social media declarations.
We often focus on how much God loves us – rightfully emphasizing John 3:16 and the sacrifice of Christ – but rarely turn the question around to ask ourselves: do we genuinely love God? And if so, what tangible evidence exists in our daily lives that would prove this love?
Jesus stated it plainly: "If you love me, obey my commandments." This simple yet profound statement reveals that love isn't measured by feelings or declarations but through obedience. Many believers today fill churches without demonstrating this love through transformed lives. They resist challenges to live differently, approaching faith as a spectator sport rather than a life-changing relationship.
The podcast offers five practical ways to demonstrate authentic love for God: prioritizing Him daily, choosing Him over convenience, serving His people (even when you don't feel like it), living with an eternal focus, and staying faithful during difficult seasons. Anyone can praise God when life is good, but love is proven in the fire – when prayers seem unanswered and challenges persist.
Whether you're struggling with complacency in your faith or seeking to deepen your relationship with God, this message will challenge you to move beyond casual Christianity and embrace a faith that transforms every aspect of your life. What parts of your life are you still holding back? What might God be asking you to surrender today?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
hey, cutie, I love you.
She's mad because I threw herout because I'm doing a podcast.
Life is tough.
(00:39):
You can also find a PayPal linkbelow if you want to give a
one-time or give a monthly tosupport the channel.
Anything, great or small, isappreciated.
Now let's get into the video.
What is up?
Faith and failures.
Thank you for joining me foranother episode.
(00:59):
It is Monday.
If you've been following alongfor a little bit, you know that
you're recent Life has gotextremely busy, so I have
windled it down to once a month,the first Monday of every month
, which is today.
So we're going to talk a littlebit about a topic.
(01:21):
Now, as a Christian, let meback up as, as believers, we
always talk about to newbelievers or people who are not
there yet, and we're trying toexplain the love of god.
We we quote john 3, 16.
All of this is true for god'slove, the world that he gave his
only begotten son.
(01:41):
It's almost like we try to baitthem in for how much God loves
them, which is true, which isaccurate.
But after you cross that lineand now you are saved, the next
question you should be askingyourself is do you love God?
I 100% disagree with the Muslimbelief of who God is and all
(02:10):
the Quran and everything.
But you've got to admire theirdedication Like they are
sincerely, over the top,dedicated to their God.
And so I want to start withJohn, chapter 14, verse 15.
(02:31):
It says pretty simply if youlove me, obey my commandments.
So if you are a Christian, letme ask you this what is it in
your life that proves that youactually love God?
Does your mouth sound like youlove God?
(02:53):
Does your attitude show thatyou love God?
Does your time, what you spenddoing, does it show that you are
actually about the Father'sbusiness, or are you about
nothing but your own?
Now, these sound like kind ofin your face questions, but
there's a reason.
(03:13):
There's a bunch of weakChristians and they're filling
up the churches.
Don't challenge me.
Don't tell me to live different.
Don't tell me how to do my life.
I'm going to do me and I'm justhere for the show.
To live different.
Don't tell me how to do my life.
I'm going to do me and I'm justhere for the show.
And what this does is itcreates a church full of people
who don't even know who God is.
And that's just the facts.
(03:33):
So I'm going to give you a fewpoints and I want you, if you're
, if you're, I'm not putting iton the screen.
Today I can't, although thenext time I have a video I will
be able to.
I brought a new computer, thelast one that I was doing, the
live stream stuff on it got sostinking slow it was literally
(03:53):
pointless and frustrating.
That's why I've been doing allthis stuff.
I still have my microphones andeverything and the whole setup,
but I just roll with what I cando at the moment.
So point number one is let'spoint this out in the beginning
that God's love is actuallyproven already.
It's been proven.
We can never question the loveof God, because he showed it
clearly through his son, john3.16.
(04:16):
We just quoted this.
For God to love the whole world, he gave his one and only son,
so that everyone who believes inhim will not perish but have
eternal life.
Now, this isn't a cliche, it'snot a haphazardly put verse, but
it is the foundation of theChristian faith.
(04:38):
God didn't just say I love you,but he proved it by the
sacrifice of his one and onlyson.
Jesus came down from heaven,took human form, bore our sins
and died a brutal death on thecross, then he rose from the
grave.
If he just would have died, hewould have been exactly what the
Quran described him as as agood prophet.
(05:02):
And if you want to break downpretty quickly, where they
worship Allah and they say thatJesus is a prophet, are prophets
also liars?
And if they say yes, then thatmeans Muhammad had to be a liar.
I mean he, obviously.
(05:23):
I mean he already married,apparently, children that were
little girls that were at leastnine years old.
That's called pedophilia.
But if they say no, then Jesus,saying that he is the Messiah,
he is the one true son of God,and the Bible saying that he is
the word and the life he livedvalidated that word and showed
(05:45):
it to be true and he fulfilledthe law, he fulfilled the
prophecy then everything on thatside that they believe has to
be false.
So it's not hard to dismantlethat.
But most people overlook thatbecause they're so strong in
their belief they'reargumentative without any
(06:05):
backing.
So God gave everything.
Jesus sacrificed everything sowe could live not only in this
life but in eternity.
So he did a work here so thatwe can live forever there.
His love is proven.
Love is proven.
(06:29):
But here's the real question,now that we know that God loves
us, how do we love him back?
So let's think about this.
My second point if you were ontrial?
So imagine for a moment thatyou were on trial, you were put
on trial and the charge isloving God.
If the evidence was yourconversations, your private
(06:51):
decisions, your entertainmentchoices, your generosity, your
prayer life, your hunger andthirst for righteousness, your
hunger and thirst for God's word, would there be clear evidence
that you belong to Jesus, thathe is the Lord of your life, or
would the evidence be minimaland you?
It would only be circumstantial?
(07:12):
Would your faith be casual,hidden when it's inconvenient?
Now, this isn't to shame us, toshame you, but this is to wake
you up and make you think.
Like just to shame you, butthis is to wake you up and make
you think like am I actuallyliving a life?
That if I was to be snatched upright now and put on trial
which one day we all will behave I been living a life?
(07:35):
Am I displaying the love forGod in the things every day?
Now, let's make a very distinctline between good works and
salvation.
Good works does not producesalvation, but salvation
produces out of us good works.
(07:56):
Faith without works is dead andyou cannot please God.
The word says without faith.
You can't please God withoutfaith.
So it is a must that we havefaith and that we say yes and
believe.
By grace, through faith, we aresaved, and in that faith, in
(08:17):
that grace, in that salvation,then the good works begin to
flow out of us, and so that isthe distinctive difference.
So wake up, examine yourself.
I tell this to my church.
If you don't know, I'm a leadpastor of a church here in
Longview, texas, and I tell mypeople all the time.
We cannot go out and tellpeople who don't know God, to
(08:40):
tell them that they need to turnto Jesus, to turn to God, to
tell them that they need to turnto Jesus, to turn to God, to
give their life to God, when weourselves have not been
examining ourselves and lookingand seeing.
Am I who I say I am?
Am I who the Bible says Ishould be?
Because it's easy to fall intothe trap of culture defining us,
(09:04):
or our past defining us, orrelationships defining us, all
these other variables in ourlife that we allow to define us,
instead of God defining us, theword defining us of who we are
supposed to be as Christians and, in that definition, should
(09:27):
change the way that we think.
It should change the way thatwe speak.
It should change the way thatwe look at people.
It should change the way weinteract with people.
When you've been saved by graceand you realize what God has
saved you from and what he iscalling you to, you begin to act
in a way, accordingly togratefulness.
You are just so appreciativethat God would even take the
(09:50):
time to do what he's doing.
That's how I am.
I do not find it hard to remainhumble, because I realize that
the platform God has given me,the abilities God has given me,
the family that God has given me, the abilities God has given me
, the family that God has givenme, all the blessings that he
(10:10):
has chosen to allow me toreceive, is not something that I
have done or earned, but theyhave been direct gifts from him,
from the very smallest detailto the greatest, and I'm so
thankful and I come to God everysingle day with a thankful and
grateful heart.
We have these flags out infront of our church and one of
(10:35):
them says this it's a challengeof 15, five, five and five, five
minutes of prayer, five minutesof reading a word, five minutes
of praising the Lord Everysingle day.
My suggestion is do it beforeyou start your day.
When I get up on a regular dayand I take my son to school, I
have worship music playing.
When I come back, about a 10minute drive, I have the Bible
(10:57):
being read to me.
So I'm preparing my heart.
It may not be a lot, but it'sin that moment.
It's getting my mind wrappedaround or focused on and getting
prepared for the day, becauseyour day can change like that
and most of the time, if you'renot prepared or ready and you
haven't already made a consciousdecision that you're going to
(11:19):
respond not react, but respondin a way that is pleasing to the
Lord, because you've alreadybeen spending time with him
before your day began You'resetting yourself up for success.
Okay, it doesn't leave you justhanging to where you have to
pick up the pieces later,because you've already decided
(11:42):
you're going to honor God withthe way that you are, the person
that you are, so person thatyou are.
So the third point love isproven through obedience.
So we're not called to justtell God we love him.
We're not called to put it inour Instagram description or
YouTube description or ourTikTok description oh, I love
(12:04):
Jesus and like, don't, don'ttell people in your description
of things that you love God andyou're I'm just getting closer
to Jesus.
And then you're taking selfiesall the time.
It's pretty obvious, like whoyour platform is about by
looking through your stuff.
Excuse me.
So love is proven throughobedience.
Not this, not your mouth justmoving, but your body doing,
(12:27):
your mind thinking.
John 14, 15,.
We started off with this If youlove me, obey my commandments.
Love for God isn't about afeeling, but it is directly tied
into a lifestyle.
It's obedience.
Your life should be aboutobedience.
If you are not obeying thescripture, obeying the word,
(12:51):
nobody's going to fill up achurch probably listening to
this.
But I'm telling you right now,like if, if we want to be the
church and the bride of Christthat Jesus is going to be
thrilled to come back, for weneed to get our crap together
because Christ is going to comeback.
He's going to come back in theclouds on a white horse.
(13:11):
I want it to be so obvious thatI am his bride that he doesn't
have to go searching trying tofind me.
I want to make it obvious whereI am.
I want to make it obvious whoseI am.
So obedience should be alifestyle.
Obedience is how our love forGod becomes visible.
(13:31):
The things we do shows of theinner work that God has done.
We can raise our hands inworship.
We can post scriptures on oursocial media.
We can wear Christian t-shirtsI'm wearing one right now.
This is our couples ministryt-shirt thing but if we're not
living in obedience and livingsacrificially, it's not love,
(13:55):
it's performance.
So let's be honest Partialobedience is still disobedience.
If I'm only picking and choosingwhat I want to obey God about
or what I want to obey the Bibleabout, that I'm not actually
living obedience.
I'm living in a performance sothat I stay in his good graces,
(14:16):
so that he will accept me and soI can get into heaven.
It's all about what I can get.
It's all about what I can getout of the situation.
And this is not a relationship,this is manipulation.
True love for God says not mywill, but your will be done.
Jesus displayed this in theexample when he prayed in the
(14:36):
garden before they came to gethim to be beaten and crucified.
He prayed, he was honest, he'slike Lord, if this cup can be
taken from me, please let it betaken.
But he said but not my will,but your will.
So not what I want, but, lord,what you want.
(14:57):
So what is it in your life thatyou have kept as a possession
for yourself, my precious?
Some of you will get that, someof you have no clue.
What is it that you've keptclose to you?
Or, like you, invite the HolySpirit into your house and you
say you can rearrange howeveryou want, you can clean up, you
(15:19):
can get rid of things, you cando whatever you want, but don't
touch that room back there,because that's mine.
We do that with God all thetime.
We try to hold on to thingsthat is very clear or obvious
that it needs to be gotten ridof.
Now I was talking with somebodylast night in a meeting and
(15:40):
talking about how some people'sconvictions of how they live
their life, they push them onother people and make it to
where they act.
Like the Bible has said, likeGod said, don't do this.
And so we have to be verycareful to not push our
convictions on other people.
There's obvious things and thenthere's optional things.
(16:00):
So for instance, like well, youknow what If you're interested
in and you have a specific topic, for instance, tattoos, uh,
women, pastors, things like thatcomment down below and let me
know if you would be interestedin a full video for those
(16:24):
specific topics, expanding onthat.
And what does the bible say?
Not opinion, but what does thebible say?
Not opinion, but what does theBible say about those things?
Let me know in the comments andI will make a video
specifically for you.
So point number four one day wewill give an account for
everything we have said and done.
(16:44):
There's a powerful message thatreminds us that everything in
our lives is being recorded oneand one day will be reviewed.
Romans 14, 10 through 12.
So why do you condemn anotherbeliever?
Why do you look down on anotherbeliever?
Remember, we will all standbefore judgment seat of god, for
(17:07):
the scriptures say as surely asI live the Lord, every knee
will bend, every tongue willdeclare allegiance to God.
Yes, each of us will give apersonal account to God.
Each of us, me, you, your mom,your dad, your sister, your
auntie, your kids.
Everybody is going to say allright, give an account one day
and stand before God and answerfor what we have done and said,
(17:31):
we will stand before God.
This is where Jesus comes in.
He took the punishment.
The grave, the empty grave, isa receipt.
He was not just another prophet, but he was the one true son of
God.
He was the ultimate sacrifice.
He was the eternal sacrificethat we must accept for us to be
(17:54):
saved.
Okay, so there's no excuses.
When you stand before God, youcan't say, well, I didn't, I had
a bad life, or I grew up inthis neighborhood, or I didn't
have this opportunity, this, andthat there's not going to be
any excuse.
There's just going to be youand God.
You can't hide behind yourtitle.
(18:16):
You can't even hide behind yourministries or church attendance
, not behind your pastor, notbehind your spouse.
You can't hide behind yourparents or your neighbors.
Every person is going to givetheir own account for their life
.
Every day, you lay your headdown on your pillow.
(18:39):
Every night, you have toaccount for what happened that
day.
Other people are going to dothings around you and you may
say, well, I acted that waybecause they acted, or they said
this, they attacked me, theycame after my family.
I understand.
I'm not saying that you don'thave reasons.
What I'm saying is you aregoing to be held accountable.
(19:03):
I try to get this through myteenager's head all the time.
Of course.
The kid's 16, he's about to be17.
The brain cells are about thisfar apart by now.
They're not touching anymoreUntil he gets closer to 25 and
30 and they'll come back,hopefully, lord.
But I've been there, Iunderstand that.
And so responsibility in thishouse.
He's great with other people,but in this house,
(19:25):
responsibility is something thatsometimes and we as adults do
this we will make excusesinstead of owning up to what
we've done wrong.
And it's everybody else's fault.
Everybody else is the problem.
Surely, it can't be me.
So we will give an account andwe cannot hide behind anybody.
(19:45):
We will give a personal account.
That means God won't just askdid you go to church?
Did you pay your tithes?
Did you give offering?
Did you volunteer your time?
Then there's not going to beany of this like what did you do
?
As far as, like, what's thegood stuff you did that will
outweigh and get you into heaven, outweigh all your bad stuff?
He's going to ask do you loveme with all your heart, your
(20:10):
soul, your mind and yourstrength?
Did you obey me when it costyou something?
Did you live for my glory.
This is God saying this myglory or your comfort or your
glory?
We have a lot of celebritypastors right now that they are
so self-absorbed and wrapped upin their image and they keep
(20:33):
drifting away from what Godwants the church to be because
they're so concerned about theyhave made themselves into an
image or an idol.
So all these questions thatI've been asking you, remember,
I started off with a question ifyou were put on trial, would
you be found guilty?
So would you?
(20:53):
Let me give you a few practicalways that you can be found
guilty.
I never want to leave a podcastand not give you any kind of
hope or a sense of like.
You can do it because you can.
So how do we do this?
We're going to look at fivethings.
Okay, if you want to write thisdown, prioritize God daily.
(21:14):
That's why I told you the five,five and five a minute ago.
Five minutes is nothing.
Two or three, almost all ofthem you can do at the same time
if you really wanted to.
It doesn't mean you're going tohave 15 minutes.
You can do seven minutes of thesame two.
You can overlap them very, veryeasily, but make God number one
(21:34):
in your life.
It's extremely hard anddifficult sometimes to,
especially when we get busy.
We got family stuff, the kidsgot soccer, tennis, whatever it
is, I got football games, andthen we got church and this and
that you can serve God yourentire life at a church and not
have a good, solid relationshipwith God because you're doing
(21:57):
things for God, for the church,for the bigger picture, and you
forget to have a relationshipwith God.
Like very simply stated, thiswill help you have a little bit
of an understanding.
But you can do the same in amarriage.
You can have all the thingsgoing on, you can eat together
(22:23):
as a family, you can take yourkids to this, you can go to
their events here, go to theirschools, this and that, but you
can get caught up in doing somuch that you just forget to be
and have a strong relationship.
It's very easy to do and we dothe same thing with God.
Spend time with Him in prayer,spend time with God in Scripture
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, and not just on Sunday.
This should be a daily thingfor those who love God.
The second one is choose Himover convenience.
When temptation comes, whenyou're tired, when obedience
costs, you choose him anyway,that's love.
(23:06):
Number three is serve his people.
I've been in some pretty darkplaces in my life or some kind
of places in my head where Ikind of get caught up in
thoughts that probably shouldn'tbe there, or self-pity stuff
where I'm like, oh, my lifesucks, or whatever.
Well, when I get in thoseplaces but I serve other people,
(23:27):
my spirits get lifted becauseI'm serving.
You'd think it'd be theopposite, like to get out of
that funk.
You would think that someonecoming and serving you would
make you feel better.
But it's actually the opposite.
When you stop making thingsabout yourself and you serve
other people outside of yourcomfort zone, there's just
(23:48):
something about it that makesyou feel fulfilled by, even
though you may not feel good andyou're in a bad spot, you're
serving other people.
So if you've never done itbefore, I highly encourage you
to do that.
Number four is live with eternalfocus.
This is one that's so hard forpeople today.
(24:11):
Don't chase the world'spleasures.
A love for God changes yourperspective.
You live with heaven in mind.
This should change what youpursue and how you pursue it.
For instance, relationships wasa big one for me.
I didn't feel loved, wanted orcared for until God was number
(24:40):
one in my life.
I was always chasing after thatnext relationship.
I thought if I had someone, Iwould be someone to someone else
, if that makes sense.
So I had to figure out that Godwas the only one that could
actually satisfy that inside ofme and I had to.
I had to let him be that for me.
(25:02):
And when I did that it made menot chase after other people,
other people's approval, but itactually began to help me become
more of the man of God I neededto be, because I wasn't taking
other people's opinion andmaking it truth.
I was taking truth and makingit my definition, if that makes
(25:25):
sense.
I excluded all the negativityand toxic things in my life,
whether people were saying it ornot.
Like my relationship with myex-wife now is good, but at one
point like she would call mestupid and she would.
She would say things to me thatjust it left me like with my
(25:46):
head covered up in depressionfor days.
Sometimes it would make me wantto drink more, it'd make me
want to get high more, and buteven though she said those
things, I'm still responsiblefor how I let those things
affect me.
I'm not saying that you're,you're a bad person or you're in
the wrong, but when you're when, because you feel that way, but
(26:08):
when you're, when, you'reestablished, solid in Christ,
you build your definition fromthere and not other people's
opinions.
And so, because I chased afterrelationships so hard, I thought
that that's when I had value,is when somebody else saw value
in me because they wanted to bearound me.
When I gave that up, thatcontrol part of my life, that I
(26:30):
thought that I had to controlthat or I did not have value,
and I realized that God is theone that supplies my value.
It made me actually live mylife more fulfilled, because I
wasn't defined by anything elseexcept for what the word of God
tells me, and that's a veryfreeing position.
It's a hard position to findyourself in, but it's a very
(26:51):
freeing place to be in whenyou're not consumed by all the
nonsense and you can think moreclearly, you can see more
clearly, you pray more clearly,you read the Word more clearly
Instead of like everything youread in the Word.
Oh, that's exactly what I'mgoing through right now.
It's not all about you.
There's a shift when you're justreading to get closer to God
(27:14):
and you're not reading the Wordto be validated to get closer to
God, and you're not reading theword to be validated, because
the word wasn't written tovalidate you.
It's there to instruct you, so,but it also is there to define
you, and in that definitioncomes validation, because you're
starting with Christ.
You're starting with what theword says and not the other way
around, because if you this is aconfirmation bias, I'll dive
(27:39):
into it.
Just a second Confirmation.
Bias is when you have somethingin your mind and you look up
Bible studies or you look upTikTok, instagram, whatever
YouTube channels and everythingthat you are wanting to see or
hear comes up and you use it asa place to argue your position
(27:59):
and it becomes toxic to you andyou don't even realize it,
because it feels good to you,and so you go down a rabbit
trail of a bunch of nonsensethat just puffs you up even more
instead of challenging you.
It's sugarcoating and ticklingyour ears.
So you got to be careful withthat, because we can use the
word in that same way to win anargument or make ourselves feel
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like we've done it right, notall the time, but just pray and
ask the Holy Spirit to lead you,because that's all another
podcast in itself.
Stay faithful in the fire soanyone can praise God when
things are going really good.
I know I'm very good atpraising the Lord when
everything is going right, butdo you still love him when the
prayers go unanswered, when thestorms don't stop, when you're
(28:47):
still out there struggling,you're still climbing up that
same hill you've been climbingup.
You're still on the same.
Round and round and round we go.
If you're still on the same,round and round and round we go.
Like are you a child to whereyou whine about being on the
ride, or are you going to be aman or a woman of God and say my
Lord is in control?
If I'm still here, I haven'tlearned something?
(29:11):
Or maybe God is doing somethingthat actually has nothing to do
with you, but he knows he cantrust you to be faithful and
stay there instead of run or tryto get out of the situation.
Maybe God's honoring you inthat way.
I know that it seems backwards,but so does.
Pray for your enemies and prayblessings over your enemies.
Like no, that's not what Godwants.
He wants me to pray that theystub their toes so bad that they
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just change.
That was the Christian version.
But what is God trying to teachyou?
What is God leading you to Like?
Are you going to stay faithful?
And staying faithful doesn'tmean you stay there and you
whine about being there thewhole time.
That's not being faithful.
That's complaining.
That's mumbling and grumbling.
Ungrateful.
That's complaining.
(29:57):
That's mumbling and grumbling,which is exactly why God ended
up keeping the children ofIsrael in the desert, because
they were ungrateful for wherethey were.
I need to get closer.
They were ungrateful for whereGod had led them to, even though
he provided along the way.
It wasn't pleasant, but thenthey fantasized about being back
(30:17):
in captivity, being back inslavery, being back where they
begged God to bring them out of,because they just didn't like
where they were at, which isunderstandable.
They were in the desert, itwasn't like they were in an
oasis, or they were over inHawaii.
They were in the desert, itwasn't pleasant, but they were
(30:38):
provided for.
So why are you going through thedesert?
Look around, because Iguarantee you you've gotten
severely ungrateful and you'veforgotten that God has supplied,
even though the journey mightbe unpleasant in the moment, and
you're not yet in the promisethat he is, that he is leading
(30:59):
you to.
You've got to learn to begrateful, even in the desert.
That was for free first.
John 419.
We love each other because heloved us first.
So let your life testify.
Let your obedience be the proofof your love for God.
(31:24):
Let your priorities be theevidence of your love for God.
Let your surrender be thestatement I love God.
And here, the way I live, theway I speak, the way I interact,
the way I represent you knowwhy people don't come to church
(31:45):
anymore.
It's because Christians havenot been representing the love,
the forgiveness that Christ.
If you're like, oh well, I'mjust done with them.
That is not.
That is not the way of Christat all.
Even Christ, hanging on thecross between two thieves,
(32:05):
looked down and he said Father,forgive them.
They don't know what they'redoing.
The very people that put him upthere, the soldiers that were
standing around there, that putthe nails in his hands and his
feet, that pierced his side,that he was praying that God
would forgive them.
I don't know if I could do that, but that's what Christ is
(32:28):
trying to call us to asbelievers.
How can they know the love ofGod?
By the love for each other andby the way we show and love them
.
That is the proof that we havebeen set free, transformed and
redeemed, that our heart ofstone has become a heart of
flesh, because we now actdifferent.
(32:48):
If you're not acting different,I question if you have ever
given your life to God.
Or maybe you have given yourlife to God and you have become
so complacent that no one wantsto be around you.
Check yourself, because you maybe the reason some people are
not even coming to church.
Don't claim Christ and then actlike a jerk.
(33:10):
Check yourself, examineyourself, so ask yourself this
am I truly living like someonewho loves God?
What is God asking you tosurrender?
What parts?
It may be your mouth.
It may be your thought process.
It may be how you makeeverything about you.
(33:32):
It may be your thought process.
It may be how you makeeverything about you.
It may be your pride, maybeyour anxiety, maybe depression,
maybe your relationships.
What is God calling you to letgo of so that he can begin to
actually do the work in you andthrough you that he desires?
He's put you in a place ofwhere you are right now for a
purpose, and you will block thatpurpose.
(33:55):
You will be out of the will ofGod because you're not willing
to let things go and let God beGod in your life and the God of
your life.
Because you're not acting likeyou love him.
This is easy to drift away from.
You're not acting like you lovehim.
This is easy to drift away from.
(34:16):
Relationships marriages are thegreatest example to me of our
relationship with God, becausewhen we come to Christ, in the
very beginning we're on fire.
We want to save the world, wewant to charge the gates of hell
with a water pistol, we want toanoint everybody and watch
healings and watch.
I mean we are on fire, butafter a few years that fire
easily fades, just like in ourmarriages.
(34:36):
When we first get married.
We're still dating her, from myperspective.
We're still in love.
We're.
Everything about her is cute,and then the very things that we
thought was cute now annoy usFive, 10 years later.
The things that we thought wascute now annoy us Five, ten
years later.
The things that she used to dois now like would you just shut
up?
Like I don't even understandwhy are you doing that?
(34:57):
Because we forget, we stoppursuing and we start getting so
comfortable that we lose anappreciation for what we're
actually blessed with, and thesame goes with God.
We come to Christ.
We say, lord, you are my God,and then a few years later, we
(35:19):
get so comfortable that if wewere put on trial, I don't know
if anybody could find thisguilty, because we don't act
like we love God anymore.
We just talk about how much heloves us.
Surely he wouldn't let me go tohell.
Surely he wouldn't act like youwant to go there.
Because if God is our God, weserve him.
(35:42):
What does the word say that aChristian should look like?
Not what's your opinion, nothow culture has changed.
What does the word say that abeliever should look like?
How should we be living ourlives?
I'm not going to give youscriptures.
I'm not going to give you anymore points.
You need to figure this out foryourself.
You don't need a guy on YouTubetelling you how to live a
(36:02):
Christian life and spoon feedingyou when you're not willing to
do the due diligence and searchfor yourself, because if you're
not willing to do that, youprobably won't last long.
That's a little harsh.
I know it's not like good jobguys, welcome to my YouTube
channel, but you need somebodyto tell you the truth, that you
need to stop being a baby andbeing weak in your walk and you
(36:24):
need to step up and be the manor woman of God that he has
called you to be, that he hasdesigned you to be, and quit
worrying about all the otherstuff.
You are called, every believeris called to live their life
according to scripture and whatthe word says Not preference,
not denomination, not somemanipulated version of scripture
(36:48):
, but what does the word say andthat that will produce the
maximum amount of spiritualfruit in your life.
Thank you so much for joining metoday.
I really do appreciate yousticking around to the end of
the video, if you haven't yet.
If you like listening topodcasts, go to any of your
(37:10):
favorite podcast platforms andyou can find every episode there
, as well as a YouTube channel.
You can go to TikTok and searchSteven Tillman.
I put all the TikTok cuts thereInstagram, facebook and if you
ever want to be on the show, Isoon will start live streaming
(37:31):
again, once my new computercomes in.
So if you want to be on theshow or you would like to be
interviewed and you want toencourage or give some
correction, uh, get with me atfaithandfailuresatgmailcom.
I love you, I'm praying for you.
You have an amazing rest ofyour week.
Faith and Failures Podcast.
hey, cutie, I love you.
She's mad because I threw herout because I'm doing a podcast.
Life is tough.
(00:39):
You can also find a PayPal linkbelow if you want to give a
one-time or give a monthly tosupport the channel.
Anything, great or small, isappreciated.
Now let's get into the video.
What is up?
Faith and failures.
Thank you for joining me foranother episode.
(00:59):
It is Monday.
If you've been following alongfor a little bit, you know that
you're recent Life has gotextremely busy, so I have
windled it down to once a month,the first Monday of every month
, which is today.
So we're going to talk a littlebit about a topic.
(01:21):
Now, as a Christian, let meback up as, as believers, we
always talk about to newbelievers or people who are not
there yet, and we're trying toexplain the love of god.
We we quote john 3, 16.
All of this is true for god'slove, the world that he gave his
only begotten son.
(01:41):
It's almost like we try to baitthem in for how much God loves
them, which is true, which isaccurate.
But after you cross that lineand now you are saved, the next
question you should be askingyourself is do you love God?
I 100% disagree with the Muslimbelief of who God is and all
(02:10):
the Quran and everything.
But you've got to admire theirdedication Like they are
sincerely, over the top,dedicated to their God.
And so I want to start withJohn, chapter 14, verse 15.
(02:31):
It says pretty simply if youlove me, obey my commandments.
So if you are a Christian, letme ask you this what is it in
your life that proves that youactually love God?
Does your mouth sound like youlove God?
(02:53):
Does your attitude show thatyou love God?
Does your time, what you spenddoing, does it show that you are
actually about the Father'sbusiness, or are you about
nothing but your own?
Now, these sound like kind ofin your face questions, but
there's a reason.
(03:13):
There's a bunch of weakChristians and they're filling
up the churches.
Don't challenge me.
Don't tell me to live different.
Don't tell me how to do my life.
I'm going to do me and I'm justhere for the show.
To live different.
Don't tell me how to do my life.
I'm going to do me and I'm justhere for the show.
And what this does is itcreates a church full of people
who don't even know who God is.
And that's just the facts.
(03:33):
So I'm going to give you a fewpoints and I want you, if you're
, if you're, I'm not putting iton the screen.
Today I can't, although thenext time I have a video I will
be able to.
I brought a new computer, thelast one that I was doing, the
live stream stuff on it got sostinking slow it was literally
(03:53):
pointless and frustrating.
That's why I've been doing allthis stuff.
I still have my microphones andeverything and the whole setup,
but I just roll with what I cando at the moment.
So point number one is let'spoint this out in the beginning
that God's love is actuallyproven already.
It's been proven.
We can never question the loveof God, because he showed it
clearly through his son, john3.16.
(04:16):
We just quoted this.
For God to love the whole world, he gave his one and only son,
so that everyone who believes inhim will not perish but have
eternal life.
Now, this isn't a cliche, it'snot a haphazardly put verse, but
it is the foundation of theChristian faith.
(04:38):
God didn't just say I love you,but he proved it by the
sacrifice of his one and onlyson.
Jesus came down from heaven,took human form, bore our sins
and died a brutal death on thecross, then he rose from the
grave.
If he just would have died, hewould have been exactly what the
Quran described him as as agood prophet.
(05:02):
And if you want to break downpretty quickly, where they
worship Allah and they say thatJesus is a prophet, are prophets
also liars?
And if they say yes, then thatmeans Muhammad had to be a liar.
I mean he, obviously.
(05:23):
I mean he already married,apparently, children that were
little girls that were at leastnine years old.
That's called pedophilia.
But if they say no, then Jesus,saying that he is the Messiah,
he is the one true son of God,and the Bible saying that he is
the word and the life he livedvalidated that word and showed
(05:45):
it to be true and he fulfilledthe law, he fulfilled the
prophecy then everything on thatside that they believe has to
be false.
So it's not hard to dismantlethat.
But most people overlook thatbecause they're so strong in
their belief they'reargumentative without any
(06:05):
backing.
So God gave everything.
Jesus sacrificed everything sowe could live not only in this
life but in eternity.
So he did a work here so thatwe can live forever there.
His love is proven.
Love is proven.
(06:29):
But here's the real question,now that we know that God loves
us, how do we love him back?
So let's think about this.
My second point if you were ontrial?
So imagine for a moment thatyou were on trial, you were put
on trial and the charge isloving God.
If the evidence was yourconversations, your private
(06:51):
decisions, your entertainmentchoices, your generosity, your
prayer life, your hunger andthirst for righteousness, your
hunger and thirst for God's word, would there be clear evidence
that you belong to Jesus, thathe is the Lord of your life, or
would the evidence be minimaland you?
It would only be circumstantial?
(07:12):
Would your faith be casual,hidden when it's inconvenient?
Now, this isn't to shame us, toshame you, but this is to wake
you up and make you think.
Like just to shame you, butthis is to wake you up and make
you think like am I actuallyliving a life?
That if I was to be snatched upright now and put on trial
which one day we all will behave I been living a life?
(07:35):
Am I displaying the love forGod in the things every day?
Now, let's make a very distinctline between good works and
salvation.
Good works does not producesalvation, but salvation
produces out of us good works.
(07:56):
Faith without works is dead andyou cannot please God.
The word says without faith.
You can't please God withoutfaith.
So it is a must that we havefaith and that we say yes and
believe.
By grace, through faith, we aresaved, and in that faith, in
(08:17):
that grace, in that salvation,then the good works begin to
flow out of us, and so that isthe distinctive difference.
So wake up, examine yourself.
I tell this to my church.
If you don't know, I'm a leadpastor of a church here in
Longview, texas, and I tell mypeople all the time.
We cannot go out and tellpeople who don't know God, to
(08:40):
tell them that they need to turnto Jesus, to turn to God, to
tell them that they need to turnto Jesus, to turn to God, to
give their life to God, when weourselves have not been
examining ourselves and lookingand seeing.
Am I who I say I am?
Am I who the Bible says Ishould be?
Because it's easy to fall intothe trap of culture defining us,
(09:04):
or our past defining us, orrelationships defining us, all
these other variables in ourlife that we allow to define us,
instead of God defining us, theword defining us of who we are
supposed to be as Christians and, in that definition, should
(09:27):
change the way that we think.
It should change the way thatwe speak.
It should change the way thatwe look at people.
It should change the way weinteract with people.
When you've been saved by graceand you realize what God has
saved you from and what he iscalling you to, you begin to act
in a way, accordingly togratefulness.
You are just so appreciativethat God would even take the
(09:50):
time to do what he's doing.
That's how I am.
I do not find it hard to remainhumble, because I realize that
the platform God has given me,the abilities God has given me,
the family that God has given me, the abilities God has given me
, the family that God has givenme, all the blessings that he
(10:10):
has chosen to allow me toreceive, is not something that I
have done or earned, but theyhave been direct gifts from him,
from the very smallest detailto the greatest, and I'm so
thankful and I come to God everysingle day with a thankful and
grateful heart.
We have these flags out infront of our church and one of
(10:35):
them says this it's a challengeof 15, five, five and five, five
minutes of prayer, five minutesof reading a word, five minutes
of praising the Lord Everysingle day.
My suggestion is do it beforeyou start your day.
When I get up on a regular dayand I take my son to school, I
have worship music playing.
When I come back, about a 10minute drive, I have the Bible
(10:57):
being read to me.
So I'm preparing my heart.
It may not be a lot, but it'sin that moment.
It's getting my mind wrappedaround or focused on and getting
prepared for the day, becauseyour day can change like that
and most of the time, if you'renot prepared or ready and you
haven't already made a consciousdecision that you're going to
(11:19):
respond not react, but respondin a way that is pleasing to the
Lord, because you've alreadybeen spending time with him
before your day began You'resetting yourself up for success.
Okay, it doesn't leave you justhanging to where you have to
pick up the pieces later,because you've already decided
(11:42):
you're going to honor God withthe way that you are, the person
that you are, so person thatyou are.
So the third point love isproven through obedience.
So we're not called to justtell God we love him.
We're not called to put it inour Instagram description or
YouTube description or ourTikTok description oh, I love
(12:04):
Jesus and like, don't, don'ttell people in your description
of things that you love God andyou're I'm just getting closer
to Jesus.
And then you're taking selfiesall the time.
It's pretty obvious, like whoyour platform is about by
looking through your stuff.
Excuse me.
So love is proven throughobedience.
Not this, not your mouth justmoving, but your body doing,
(12:27):
your mind thinking.
John 14, 15,.
We started off with this If youlove me, obey my commandments.
Love for God isn't about afeeling, but it is directly tied
into a lifestyle.
It's obedience.
Your life should be aboutobedience.
If you are not obeying thescripture, obeying the word,
(12:51):
nobody's going to fill up achurch probably listening to
this.
But I'm telling you right now,like if, if we want to be the
church and the bride of Christthat Jesus is going to be
thrilled to come back, for weneed to get our crap together
because Christ is going to comeback.
He's going to come back in theclouds on a white horse.
(13:11):
I want it to be so obvious thatI am his bride that he doesn't
have to go searching trying tofind me.
I want to make it obvious whereI am.
I want to make it obvious whoseI am.
So obedience should be alifestyle.
Obedience is how our love forGod becomes visible.
(13:31):
The things we do shows of theinner work that God has done.
We can raise our hands inworship.
We can post scriptures on oursocial media.
We can wear Christian t-shirtsI'm wearing one right now.
This is our couples ministryt-shirt thing but if we're not
living in obedience and livingsacrificially, it's not love,
(13:55):
it's performance.
So let's be honest Partialobedience is still disobedience.
If I'm only picking and choosingwhat I want to obey God about
or what I want to obey the Bibleabout, that I'm not actually
living obedience.
I'm living in a performance sothat I stay in his good graces,
(14:16):
so that he will accept me and soI can get into heaven.
It's all about what I can get.
It's all about what I can getout of the situation.
And this is not a relationship,this is manipulation.
True love for God says not mywill, but your will be done.
Jesus displayed this in theexample when he prayed in the
(14:36):
garden before they came to gethim to be beaten and crucified.
He prayed, he was honest, he'slike Lord, if this cup can be
taken from me, please let it betaken.
But he said but not my will,but your will.
So not what I want, but, lord,what you want.
(14:57):
So what is it in your life thatyou have kept as a possession
for yourself, my precious?
Some of you will get that, someof you have no clue.
What is it that you've keptclose to you?
Or, like you, invite the HolySpirit into your house and you
say you can rearrange howeveryou want, you can clean up, you
(15:19):
can get rid of things, you cando whatever you want, but don't
touch that room back there,because that's mine.
We do that with God all thetime.
We try to hold on to thingsthat is very clear or obvious
that it needs to be gotten ridof.
Now I was talking with somebodylast night in a meeting and
(15:40):
talking about how some people'sconvictions of how they live
their life, they push them onother people and make it to
where they act.
Like the Bible has said, likeGod said, don't do this.
And so we have to be verycareful to not push our
convictions on other people.
There's obvious things and thenthere's optional things.
(16:00):
So for instance, like well, youknow what If you're interested
in and you have a specific topic, for instance, tattoos, uh,
women, pastors, things like thatcomment down below and let me
know if you would be interestedin a full video for those
(16:24):
specific topics, expanding onthat.
And what does the bible say?
Not opinion, but what does thebible say?
Not opinion, but what does theBible say about those things?
Let me know in the comments andI will make a video
specifically for you.
So point number four one day wewill give an account for
everything we have said and done.
(16:44):
There's a powerful message thatreminds us that everything in
our lives is being recorded oneand one day will be reviewed.
Romans 14, 10 through 12.
So why do you condemn anotherbeliever?
Why do you look down on anotherbeliever?
Remember, we will all standbefore judgment seat of god, for
(17:07):
the scriptures say as surely asI live the Lord, every knee
will bend, every tongue willdeclare allegiance to God.
Yes, each of us will give apersonal account to God.
Each of us, me, you, your mom,your dad, your sister, your
auntie, your kids.
Everybody is going to say allright, give an account one day
and stand before God and answerfor what we have done and said,
(17:31):
we will stand before God.
This is where Jesus comes in.
He took the punishment.
The grave, the empty grave, isa receipt.
He was not just another prophet, but he was the one true son of
God.
He was the ultimate sacrifice.
He was the eternal sacrificethat we must accept for us to be
(17:54):
saved.
Okay, so there's no excuses.
When you stand before God, youcan't say, well, I didn't, I had
a bad life, or I grew up inthis neighborhood, or I didn't
have this opportunity, this, andthat there's not going to be
any excuse.
There's just going to be youand God.
You can't hide behind yourtitle.
(18:16):
You can't even hide behind yourministries or church attendance
, not behind your pastor, notbehind your spouse.
You can't hide behind yourparents or your neighbors.
Every person is going to givetheir own account for their life
.
Every day, you lay your headdown on your pillow.
(18:39):
Every night, you have toaccount for what happened that
day.
Other people are going to dothings around you and you may
say, well, I acted that waybecause they acted, or they said
this, they attacked me, theycame after my family.
I understand.
I'm not saying that you don'thave reasons.
What I'm saying is you aregoing to be held accountable.
(19:03):
I try to get this through myteenager's head all the time.
Of course.
The kid's 16, he's about to be17.
The brain cells are about thisfar apart by now.
They're not touching anymoreUntil he gets closer to 25 and
30 and they'll come back,hopefully, lord.
But I've been there, Iunderstand that.
And so responsibility in thishouse.
He's great with other people,but in this house,
(19:25):
responsibility is something thatsometimes and we as adults do
this we will make excusesinstead of owning up to what
we've done wrong.
And it's everybody else's fault.
Everybody else is the problem.
Surely, it can't be me.
So we will give an account andwe cannot hide behind anybody.
(19:45):
We will give a personal account.
That means God won't just askdid you go to church?
Did you pay your tithes?
Did you give offering?
Did you volunteer your time?
Then there's not going to beany of this like what did you do
?
As far as, like, what's thegood stuff you did that will
outweigh and get you into heaven, outweigh all your bad stuff?
He's going to ask do you loveme with all your heart, your
(20:10):
soul, your mind and yourstrength?
Did you obey me when it costyou something?
Did you live for my glory.
This is God saying this myglory or your comfort or your
glory?
We have a lot of celebritypastors right now that they are
so self-absorbed and wrapped upin their image and they keep
(20:33):
drifting away from what Godwants the church to be because
they're so concerned about theyhave made themselves into an
image or an idol.
So all these questions thatI've been asking you, remember,
I started off with a question ifyou were put on trial, would
you be found guilty?
So would you?
(20:53):
Let me give you a few practicalways that you can be found
guilty.
I never want to leave a podcastand not give you any kind of
hope or a sense of like.
You can do it because you can.
So how do we do this?
We're going to look at fivethings.
Okay, if you want to write thisdown, prioritize God daily.
(21:14):
That's why I told you the five,five and five a minute ago.
Five minutes is nothing.
Two or three, almost all ofthem you can do at the same time
if you really wanted to.
It doesn't mean you're going tohave 15 minutes.
You can do seven minutes of thesame two.
You can overlap them very, veryeasily, but make God number one
(21:34):
in your life.
It's extremely hard anddifficult sometimes to,
especially when we get busy.
We got family stuff, the kidsgot soccer, tennis, whatever it
is, I got football games, andthen we got church and this and
that you can serve God yourentire life at a church and not
have a good, solid relationshipwith God because you're doing
(21:57):
things for God, for the church,for the bigger picture, and you
forget to have a relationshipwith God.
Like very simply stated, thiswill help you have a little bit
of an understanding.
But you can do the same in amarriage.
You can have all the thingsgoing on, you can eat together
(22:23):
as a family, you can take yourkids to this, you can go to
their events here, go to theirschools, this and that, but you
can get caught up in doing somuch that you just forget to be
and have a strong relationship.
It's very easy to do and we dothe same thing with God.
Spend time with Him in prayer,spend time with God in Scripture
(22:44):
, and not just on Sunday.
This should be a daily thingfor those who love God.
The second one is choose Himover convenience.
When temptation comes, whenyou're tired, when obedience
costs, you choose him anyway,that's love.
(23:06):
Number three is serve his people.
I've been in some pretty darkplaces in my life or some kind
of places in my head where Ikind of get caught up in
thoughts that probably shouldn'tbe there, or self-pity stuff
where I'm like, oh, my lifesucks, or whatever.
Well, when I get in thoseplaces but I serve other people,
(23:27):
my spirits get lifted becauseI'm serving.
You'd think it'd be theopposite, like to get out of
that funk.
You would think that someonecoming and serving you would
make you feel better.
But it's actually the opposite.
When you stop making thingsabout yourself and you serve
other people outside of yourcomfort zone, there's just
(23:48):
something about it that makesyou feel fulfilled by, even
though you may not feel good andyou're in a bad spot, you're
serving other people.
So if you've never done itbefore, I highly encourage you
to do that.
Number four is live with eternalfocus.
This is one that's so hard forpeople today.
(24:11):
Don't chase the world'spleasures.
A love for God changes yourperspective.
You live with heaven in mind.
This should change what youpursue and how you pursue it.
For instance, relationships wasa big one for me.
I didn't feel loved, wanted orcared for until God was number
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one in my life.
I was always chasing after thatnext relationship.
I thought if I had someone, Iwould be someone to someone else
, if that makes sense.
So I had to figure out that Godwas the only one that could
actually satisfy that inside ofme and I had to.
I had to let him be that for me.
(25:02):
And when I did that it made menot chase after other people,
other people's approval, but itactually began to help me become
more of the man of God I neededto be, because I wasn't taking
other people's opinion andmaking it truth.
I was taking truth and makingit my definition, if that makes
(25:25):
sense.
I excluded all the negativityand toxic things in my life,
whether people were saying it ornot.
Like my relationship with myex-wife now is good, but at one
point like she would call mestupid and she would.
She would say things to me thatjust it left me like with my
(25:46):
head covered up in depressionfor days.
Sometimes it would make me wantto drink more, it'd make me
want to get high more, and buteven though she said those
things, I'm still responsiblefor how I let those things
affect me.
I'm not saying that you're,you're a bad person or you're in
the wrong, but when you're when, because you feel that way, but
(26:08):
when you're, when, you'reestablished, solid in Christ,
you build your definition fromthere and not other people's
opinions.
And so, because I chased afterrelationships so hard, I thought
that that's when I had value,is when somebody else saw value
in me because they wanted to bearound me.
When I gave that up, thatcontrol part of my life, that I
(26:30):
thought that I had to controlthat or I did not have value,
and I realized that God is theone that supplies my value.
It made me actually live mylife more fulfilled, because I
wasn't defined by anything elseexcept for what the word of God
tells me, and that's a veryfreeing position.
It's a hard position to findyourself in, but it's a very
(26:51):
freeing place to be in whenyou're not consumed by all the
nonsense and you can think moreclearly, you can see more
clearly, you pray more clearly,you read the Word more clearly
Instead of like everything youread in the Word.
Oh, that's exactly what I'mgoing through right now.
It's not all about you.
There's a shift when you're justreading to get closer to God
(27:14):
and you're not reading the Wordto be validated to get closer to
God, and you're not reading theword to be validated, because
the word wasn't written tovalidate you.
It's there to instruct you, so,but it also is there to define
you, and in that definitioncomes validation, because you're
starting with Christ.
You're starting with what theword says and not the other way
around, because if you this is aconfirmation bias, I'll dive
(27:39):
into it.
Just a second Confirmation.
Bias is when you have somethingin your mind and you look up
Bible studies or you look upTikTok, instagram, whatever
YouTube channels and everythingthat you are wanting to see or
hear comes up and you use it asa place to argue your position
(27:59):
and it becomes toxic to you andyou don't even realize it,
because it feels good to you,and so you go down a rabbit
trail of a bunch of nonsensethat just puffs you up even more
instead of challenging you.
It's sugarcoating and ticklingyour ears.
So you got to be careful withthat, because we can use the
word in that same way to win anargument or make ourselves feel
(28:21):
like we've done it right, notall the time, but just pray and
ask the Holy Spirit to lead you,because that's all another
podcast in itself.
Stay faithful in the fire soanyone can praise God when
things are going really good.
I know I'm very good atpraising the Lord when
everything is going right, butdo you still love him when the
prayers go unanswered, when thestorms don't stop, when you're
(28:47):
still out there struggling,you're still climbing up that
same hill you've been climbingup.
You're still on the same.
Round and round and round we go.
If you're still on the same,round and round and round we go.
Like are you a child to whereyou whine about being on the
ride, or are you going to be aman or a woman of God and say my
Lord is in control?
If I'm still here, I haven'tlearned something?
(29:11):
Or maybe God is doing somethingthat actually has nothing to do
with you, but he knows he cantrust you to be faithful and
stay there instead of run or tryto get out of the situation.
Maybe God's honoring you inthat way.
I know that it seems backwards,but so does.
Pray for your enemies and prayblessings over your enemies.
Like no, that's not what Godwants.
He wants me to pray that theystub their toes so bad that they
(29:37):
just change.
That was the Christian version.
But what is God trying to teachyou?
What is God leading you to Like?
Are you going to stay faithful?
And staying faithful doesn'tmean you stay there and you
whine about being there thewhole time.
That's not being faithful.
That's complaining.
That's mumbling and grumbling.
Ungrateful.
That's complaining.
(29:57):
That's mumbling and grumbling,which is exactly why God ended
up keeping the children ofIsrael in the desert, because
they were ungrateful for wherethey were.
I need to get closer.
They were ungrateful for whereGod had led them to, even though
he provided along the way.
It wasn't pleasant, but thenthey fantasized about being back
(30:17):
in captivity, being back inslavery, being back where they
begged God to bring them out of,because they just didn't like
where they were at, which isunderstandable.
They were in the desert, itwasn't like they were in an
oasis, or they were over inHawaii.
They were in the desert, itwasn't pleasant, but they were
(30:38):
provided for.
So why are you going through thedesert?
Look around, because Iguarantee you you've gotten
severely ungrateful and you'veforgotten that God has supplied,
even though the journey mightbe unpleasant in the moment, and
you're not yet in the promisethat he is, that he is leading
(30:59):
you to.
You've got to learn to begrateful, even in the desert.
That was for free first.
John 419.
We love each other because heloved us first.
So let your life testify.
Let your obedience be the proofof your love for God.
(31:24):
Let your priorities be theevidence of your love for God.
Let your surrender be thestatement I love God.
And here, the way I live, theway I speak, the way I interact,
the way I represent you knowwhy people don't come to church
(31:45):
anymore.
It's because Christians havenot been representing the love,
the forgiveness that Christ.
If you're like, oh well, I'mjust done with them.
That is not.
That is not the way of Christat all.
Even Christ, hanging on thecross between two thieves,
(32:05):
looked down and he said Father,forgive them.
They don't know what they'redoing.
The very people that put him upthere, the soldiers that were
standing around there, that putthe nails in his hands and his
feet, that pierced his side,that he was praying that God
would forgive them.
I don't know if I could do that, but that's what Christ is
(32:28):
trying to call us to asbelievers.
How can they know the love ofGod?
By the love for each other andby the way we show and love them
.
That is the proof that we havebeen set free, transformed and
redeemed, that our heart ofstone has become a heart of
flesh, because we now actdifferent.
(32:48):
If you're not acting different,I question if you have ever
given your life to God.
Or maybe you have given yourlife to God and you have become
so complacent that no one wantsto be around you.
Check yourself, because you maybe the reason some people are
not even coming to church.
Don't claim Christ and then actlike a jerk.
(33:10):
Check yourself, examineyourself, so ask yourself this
am I truly living like someonewho loves God?
What is God asking you tosurrender?
What parts?
It may be your mouth.
It may be your thought process.
It may be how you makeeverything about you.
(33:32):
It may be your thought process.
It may be how you makeeverything about you.
It may be your pride, maybeyour anxiety, maybe depression,
maybe your relationships.
What is God calling you to letgo of so that he can begin to
actually do the work in you andthrough you that he desires?
He's put you in a place ofwhere you are right now for a
purpose, and you will block thatpurpose.
(33:55):
You will be out of the will ofGod because you're not willing
to let things go and let God beGod in your life and the God of
your life.
Because you're not acting likeyou love him.
This is easy to drift away from.
You're not acting like you lovehim.
This is easy to drift away from.
(34:16):
Relationships marriages are thegreatest example to me of our
relationship with God, becausewhen we come to Christ, in the
very beginning we're on fire.
We want to save the world, wewant to charge the gates of hell
with a water pistol, we want toanoint everybody and watch
healings and watch.
I mean we are on fire, butafter a few years that fire
easily fades, just like in ourmarriages.
(34:36):
When we first get married.
We're still dating her, from myperspective.
We're still in love.
We're.
Everything about her is cute,and then the very things that we
thought was cute now annoy usFive, 10 years later.
The things that we thought wascute now annoy us Five, ten
years later.
The things that she used to dois now like would you just shut
up?
Like I don't even understandwhy are you doing that?
(34:57):
Because we forget, we stoppursuing and we start getting so
comfortable that we lose anappreciation for what we're
actually blessed with, and thesame goes with God.
We come to Christ.
We say, lord, you are my God,and then a few years later, we
(35:19):
get so comfortable that if wewere put on trial, I don't know
if anybody could find thisguilty, because we don't act
like we love God anymore.
We just talk about how much heloves us.
Surely he wouldn't let me go tohell.
Surely he wouldn't act like youwant to go there.
Because if God is our God, weserve him.
(35:42):
What does the word say that aChristian should look like?
Not what's your opinion, nothow culture has changed.
What does the word say that abeliever should look like?
How should we be living ourlives?
I'm not going to give youscriptures.
I'm not going to give you anymore points.
You need to figure this out foryourself.
You don't need a guy on YouTubetelling you how to live a
(36:02):
Christian life and spoon feedingyou when you're not willing to
do the due diligence and searchfor yourself, because if you're
not willing to do that, youprobably won't last long.
That's a little harsh.
I know it's not like good jobguys, welcome to my YouTube
channel, but you need somebodyto tell you the truth, that you
need to stop being a baby andbeing weak in your walk and you
(36:24):
need to step up and be the manor woman of God that he has
called you to be, that he hasdesigned you to be, and quit
worrying about all the otherstuff.
You are called, every believeris called to live their life
according to scripture and whatthe word says Not preference,
not denomination, not somemanipulated version of scripture
(36:48):
, but what does the word say andthat that will produce the
maximum amount of spiritualfruit in your life.
Thank you so much for joining metoday.
I really do appreciate yousticking around to the end of
the video, if you haven't yet.
If you like listening topodcasts, go to any of your
(37:10):
favorite podcast platforms andyou can find every episode there
, as well as a YouTube channel.
You can go to TikTok and searchSteven Tillman.
I put all the TikTok cuts thereInstagram, facebook and if you
ever want to be on the show, Isoon will start live streaming
(37:31):
again, once my new computercomes in.
So if you want to be on theshow or you would like to be
interviewed and you want toencourage or give some
correction, uh, get with me atfaithandfailuresatgmailcom.
I love you, I'm praying for you.
You have an amazing rest ofyour week.
Faith and Failures Podcast.
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