May 26, 2025 • 35 mins
The spiritual battle between good and evil isn't just theological concept—it's a daily reality for Christians committed to doing good works. Have you ever noticed that the moment you start pursuing godly activities, obstacles suddenly appear? There's a reason for that.
Drawing from Job 1:8, we explore how our commitment to good works can actually put us on Satan's radar. Just as God pointed out Job's righteousness, your dedication to serving others might make you a target for spiritual opposition. But far from discouraging us, this understanding should empower us to stand firm.
The battle we face operates on two fronts: internally through temptation, doubt, and distraction; and externally through cultural pressures, discouragement from others, and direct spiritual attacks. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." This invisible warfare is real, though often unrecognized.
Romans 12:21 provides our battle strategy: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." When we actively fill our lives with purposeful good works, we displace sin and leave less room for temptation to take hold. This isn't just about avoiding evil—it's about actively pushing back against it through deliberate acts of goodness.
We conclude with a practical 7-day battle plan that includes generosity, encouragement, removing distractions, building new relationships, community service, sharing meals, and supporting worthy causes. These concrete steps help develop habits that strengthen our spiritual defenses while advancing God's kingdom.
Are you facing unusual opposition in your pursuit of good? It might be a sign you're making an impact. Stand firm, resist evil, and remember—you were made for this!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Made for Good, the podcast where we
explore how to live out ourpurpose through good works out
of a biblical tree.
Hey, I'm Josh.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And I'm Mark.
Today, josh, we're discussingone of the greatest challenges
that we face as believers, andthat's this battle between good
and evil.
Doing good isn't just aboutmaking the world a better place
around us.
It's about standing firmagainst opposition and resisting
(00:36):
temptation and staying faithful, and really in the middle of
this spiritual warfare, I have aquestion to start off.
We're 15 weeks in to this studyon good works and have you ever
felt, like the moment you startdoing something good, you're
starting to do these good worksthat these obstacles just appear
(00:56):
out of nowhere?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Absolutely I have.
As a matter of fact, I believethat's how Job felt and we were
talking about this before westarted recording.
But Job 1.8 says and the Lordsaid to Satan have you ever
considered my servant Job, thatthere is none like him on earth,
a blameless and upright man whofears God and turns away from
evil?
What Job didn't know that washappening behind the scenes here
(01:20):
was that God was having aconversation with Satan.
You made the comment we're 15weeks in.
Well to the listener, we are 15weeks in and there's a lot of
great things that you may havedone and pushed yourself to do
and we're very happy that that'shappening.
But the reality is, in the midstof all of that, you could have
(01:41):
experienced an unexpectedchallenge, you could be
discouraged.
You could be discouraged, youcould be distracted, and some of
this stuff is really heavy.
You could be a family thing, asickness, something related to
your spouse, financial, and itjust feels like sometimes, when
you're finally doing somethinggreat or you're pushing yourself
to do good things, there's thisenemy that's working against us
(02:02):
and we're going to talk abouthim more as we go.
But it's difficult when we'retrying to live out our faith
right, when we're faced withthis.
So I just go back to this, job1.8.
When you know that you aredoing things that are good, but
you feel discouraged, I want youto read Job 1.8 and just plug
your name in here.
Have you ever considered myservant?
(02:22):
Fill in the blank your name inhere.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Have you ever considered my servant?
Fill in the blank yeah, I thinka lot of times it's difficult
for us to even to put ourselvesin the position of Job, because
the comment there Job was anawesome person in the sight of
God.
But we know for a fact thatbecause Job was a man, he sinned
, he had struggles.
Maybe he had a greater grasp onthat and he was able to be more
(02:46):
righteous.
He was a man, yeah, but Godviewed him as a righteous person
and really someone to be anexample of what it means to
serve, to fear God and serve Godso much so that you know, if
you notice then thatconversation, it was God that
brought up Job, not Satan.
I think that we that's a verygood exercise for us to put our
(03:09):
own name in there and tounderstand and we're going to
support this a little more as weget into this podcast today
about this battle.
There is a spiritual battlethat's going on.
Spiritual battle that's goingon, and you know our
(03:30):
foundational verse that we'rebasing this on this whole
podcast, on Ephesians 2.10, forwe are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good workswhich God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in.
You know God has prepared thesegood works.
If God has prepared these goodworks, then you can be sure that
Satan is working to derail usfrom those good works.
(03:50):
When you look at, there's aparallel verse in Titus and I
think it says a lot of the samethings that Ephesians 2.10 does,
but it inserts another element.
So I want to read that.
I'll read verses 11 through 14,but we want to focus on verse
14.
(04:10):
So to get the full context,this is Titus 2.
For the grace of God hasappeared, bringing salvation for
all people, training us torenounce ungodliness and worldly
passions and to liveself-controlled, upright, godly
lives in this present age.
That sounds like Job to me,waiting for our blessed hope and
(04:33):
the appearing of the glory ofour great God and Savior, jesus
Christ.
Here's verse 14, who gavehimself for us to redeem us from
all lawlessness and to purifyhimself a people for.
So let's break down verse 14 andcompare it with Ephesians 2.10.
(04:53):
The first part of that versesays Well, that is in essence us
being created in Christ Jesus,we're recreated, we're born
again in Christ Jesus.
And if you skip to the end ofthe verse, who are these people
(05:16):
that he's created?
Are zealous for good works, andthat parallels Ephesians 2.10
as well, that we're created inChrist Jesus for the purpose of
good works.
But there's an element inbetween there that we haven't
talked about yet, and that's thepurification, it says, and to
purify himself by people for hisown possession who are zealous
(05:36):
for good works.
It's almost, in this case, likethe purification is a
prerequisite for the good works.
It sets our mind to do the goodworks, but we're going to talk
about in a later verse how thereciprocal of that is true as
well.
The good works can aid in ourpurification, and so I just find
(05:59):
it striking the comparisonbetween both of these, and, if
you'll notice, paul is theauthor of both of these.
He's writing to the Ephesiansand he's writing to Titus, and
he's saying a very, very similarthing.
And so today we're going tobreak down the reality of this
battle and how we can stand firmand the role that good works
(06:20):
can play in that.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Let's get into our Bible basis segment of this
episode.
The Bible makes it clear thatgood and evil are constantly at
war.
Isaiah 520 warns us of such,where the Bible says Woe to
those who call evil good andgood evil, who put darkness for
light and light for darkness,who put bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitter.
(06:42):
And Romans 12, 21 gives us ourbattle plan where it says do not
be overcome by evil, butovercome evil with good.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Okay, and so that overcome evil with good.
Again, I think that that's thereciprocal that we just talked
about in Ephesians 2, 14,overcoming evil with good.
We can use the good to overcomethe evil.
We can use the good in thepurification and the
sanctification of our lives.
I think God intends for that.
(07:13):
So that's the key.
Evil isn't just something thatwe avoid, it's something that we
actively fight against.
By doing good, we're displacingthat.
We're spending the resource oftime and energy on doing good
that we could and probably wouldbe spending on evil or on sin.
(07:38):
Romans 2, 6 through 8 tells usthat our choices in this life
have eternal consequences.
And you know, this is, Josh, avery sobering passage.
It says for he will render toevery man according to his works
.
To those who, by patience andwell-doing, see glory and honor
(08:02):
and immortality, he will giveeternal life.
But for those who are factiousand do not obey the truth but
obey wickedness, there will bewrath and fury.
So we want to be in the firstgroup.
To those who, by patience andwell-doing, what's well-doing,
it's doing well, it's good works, it's good works, it's doing
(08:30):
good, and we seek for glory andhonor and immortality, but we
seek that in eternal life withGod.
And again, if we don't do thatthe second part of that verse we
don't obey the truth, we'refactious, we're wicked.
God promises wrath and fury.
The battle is real, but God hasequipped us for victory.
He's given us everything thatwe need.
We just need to take advantageof it.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, I love that.
We've all heard this statementbefore and I'll say it for the
purpose of where we're going.
One of the biggest lies of theenemy is convincing people that
he doesn't exist.
But Jesus made it clear in John8, 44, where he says he, satan,
was a murderer from thebeginning and does not stand in
truth because there is no truthin him.
When he lies, he speaks out ofhis own character, for he is a
(09:15):
liar and the father of lies.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
You know, another verse that we want to look at is
in Ephesians six, and this tome is um, it's, it's just
otherworldly, literally, yeah,uh, it's a fascinating verse.
It reminds me of theconversation that you were
mentioning earlier between Godand the devil, where the devil
(09:41):
was hurling these accusationsagainst Job.
This conversation was happeningunbeknownst to Job.
Ephesians 6, verse 12 says Forwe do not wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against therulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers overthis present darkness, against
(10:03):
the spiritual forces of evil inthe heavenly places.
This is such a sobering thought.
That also reminds me of thepassage in 2 Kings 6, where
Elisha prayed that his servantcould, that his eyes would be
opened and that he could see,and it was described as the
(10:26):
mountain was full of horses andchariots of fire all around
Elisha.
There are powers and battlesgoing on that we may not know,
and Elisha's servant couldn'tsee the power of God that was
there to help his people winthis battle.
And so the battle, the battleis real and this is really
(10:47):
happening.
We don't see it with our eyes,but we see it by faith.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
So, if the battle is real, how do we fight back?
Well, let's get right into that.
I think this battle for us isboth an internal one and an
external one, and we face bothof them right.
Let's first start off with theinternal battles, and one of
them is just flat out resistingtemptation.
Folks, the fight against sin.
It's just flat out a dailystruggle.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Absolutely.
The devil doesn't give up andhe has the ability these days to
put so many things in front ofus.
You know, from television,media, phones, advertisements,
you know just the, maybe eventhe national conversation that
goes on, it's, it's, it's allaround us.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, it is.
Another internal battle is justovercoming doubt.
We've talked about this onprevious episodes.
But the enemy attacks our mindswith fear and discouragement.
But the enemy attacks our mindswith fear and discouragement.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
There are these things that get hurled at us
again, that Satan hurled at Job.
He had this huge discouragementof losing his family, losing
his possessions.
So it's there, it's real and ithappens to us today as well.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, and the last internal battle that I want to
touch on with you is stayingfocused on God's mission.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, the battle that goes on inside our minds is
strong, it's very powerful, andit can derail us from our
mission.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
For sure, and the last internal battle that we'll
discuss together is just stayingfocused on God's mission.
I mean, we've talked aboutdistractions throughout these
last 15 weeks, but the realityis, distractions can pull us
away from our calling.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah, but as we've already talked about that, I
think you mentioned the Romans12, 21 verse that that's really
the key to victory and that's toovercome evil with good.
Yeah, and don't let the reverseof that happen.
Yeah.
And Jesus also warned us whathappens if we try to just clean
up our act, if you will, withoutreplacing the wrongdoing that
(12:48):
we're doing with doing good.
You know, when he tells us theparable of the unclean spirit in
Matthew 12, he tells the storyof the spirit leaving the person
.
The spirit came back and hefound a place all cleaned up and
empty, and he brought backseven other spirits, and so the
person was actually worse offthan before.
(13:09):
And so what we're talking abouthere is filling the empty void.
When we push sin out, we canfill our lives with good, and
it's a defense.
We have displaced sin in ourlife with doing good.
If you do enough good, youdon't have a lot of time to sin,
to do evil, and that'sliterally what it means.
(13:29):
We're overcoming evil with good.
We are displacing evil in ourlife, displacing sin in our life
with doing good, and if wedon't do that, then we can push
the sin out and avoid sin for aperiod of time, but there's no
defense and we leave ourselfopen for attack and it can come
back, and it can be, as the casewith the unclean spirit, even
(13:52):
worse than it was before Mark.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Beyond our personal struggles the internal ones that
we talked about we also faceexternal opposition.
There's a number of things wecould discuss.
Let's just touch on threeCultural pressures the world
often opposes Christian values.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, it's everywhere .
It's very hard for us asbelievers to stand up and to
profess our faith, to stand indefense of what's right.
We mentioned the passage before, I think, in Isaiah, where
people are calling evil good andgood evil and they put in
(14:33):
darkness for light and light fordarkness back in Isaiah 5.
And that's the world that welive in.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, we face it and our children face it at school.
Another external battle isdiscouragement from others, and
here's the thing about this.
You would think thatdiscouragement from others can
just happen for people that youdon't really know that well, the
hardest battle that we facewithin that is sometimes we get
discouraged from our own friends, our close friends and even our
(15:02):
family, and maybe it's becausethey don't understand our faith.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, you know you may have.
Again.
We're 15 weeks into this seasonone of Made for Good, this
podcast on trying to give gloryto God and fulfill our mission,
and doing that by doing goodworks.
You know you may have alreadyfaced some snide comment yeah, I
(15:31):
can't believe you listened tothat, or I can't believe you did
this.
You're just again.
You're looking for recognition.
All the things that were themotives are right, but someone
else makes a discouragingcomment, or maybe they just make
a joke.
Well, hey, is this another oneof your good works?
You know, rolling their eyes,this could be someone, and you
(15:51):
may, you may have someone quotethe Bible to you to say well,
you know Matthew 6, you're notsupposed to let the left hand
know what the right hand isdoing.
And they omit Matthew 5, wherewe're to let our light shine.
Again, we need to be carefulabout our motivation.
Our motivation is to give gloryto God.
Our motivation should always beto give glory to God in these
(16:13):
good works.
But somebody very close to us aspouse, a family member, a close
friend, somebody in our churchfamily, can make a comment that
just you know we're so excitedand we're feeling good about
what we're doing as we've talkedabout in previous episode, and
then somebody comes along with apen and just pops that and it
(16:34):
deflates us and then we get inour head and that's an external
force.
That's happened to us.
But we need to not let that,and you mentioned maybe the
person who's making thosenegative comments needs to look
at themselves.
Maybe they're jealous that theydidn't do it or some other
things that you mentioned.
But that should not discourageus from doing good.
(16:55):
We just need to go back readthese verses again the Ephesians
2.10, the Matthew 5 verse,where it talks about letting our
light shine.
Do not be afraid to let yourlight shine, but always when
people comment, it's all gloryto God.
That's where our focus needs tobe.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
You touched on this, but our last external battle
that we wanted to talk about isspiritual attacks, and so, yes,
this can happen, unfortunately,with our friends and our family,
but we want to really kind ofhone in on this, as the enemy is
actively working against thosewho are making an impact.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
That's absolutely true, josh.
These challenges that we'vebeen working on for the past
several weeks might have put youon Satan's radar, and how might
that be manifested?
It could be any one of thesethings that could be
discouraging that he could bebehind the motivation of someone
that's jealous to make a snidecomment about what you're doing.
(17:59):
It could be other things thatare just the distractions where
we have a sick child, we havesomeone who's facing potential
family member, facing a badmedical diagnosis.
There are all these things thatare evil, that we experience
living in a fallen world, thatwe do.
(18:20):
We believe that Satan is behindthose things.
Often and those are we can lookat those as being spiritual
attacks.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Mark, you referenced this earlier Ephesians 6, 12.
It reminds us that our realenemy isn't people, it's
spiritual forces working behindthe scenes.
Think about the times where youjust have a bad experience
somewhere You've talked aboutthis before, yeah, you mentioned
in class and you just thinkwell, that person just flat out
mean what they did to me at thecounter or in the parking lot or
(18:54):
whatever, and we need to shiftour focus from thinking about
people as people and people assouls and, as we mentioned
earlier, that will changeeverything.
That person could be having aterrible day.
That person could be dealingwith pain and suffering, of
death or loss or financialissues.
We need to remember that thereare spiritual forces working
behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
That's absolutely true, Josh.
You look at 1 Peter 5, verse 8,there's a warning there for us.
It says be sober minded, bewatchful.
And this is so powerful.
Your adversary, the devil,prowls around like a roaring
line seeking someone to devour.
Yeah, he's evil incarnate.
(19:36):
He is our adversary and he'sactive.
He's on the prowl.
And if you're doing good and ifyou look at the people that are
doing evil and they've embracedevil he has them.
He didn't need to spend anymore time on them.
Maybe the ones he's spendingtime on are the ones that he
(19:57):
doesn't have, and that could beyou and me.
Yeah, and our good works canput us on his radar and we need
to be prepared.
When we do good, we areengaging in battle against evil.
The more you commit to doinggood, the more you may become a
(20:20):
target, and that's why we've gotto rely on God's strength and
not our own.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Yeah, mark, I was sitting across it was a very
similar setup, by the way.
I was doing an episode of Stopbeing a Pew Potato and I was
sitting across Alan Yator and Imade the comment to Alan and I
was being sincere that even as achild and growing up to the
point where I'm at now, I havenever doubted God.
I was just raised in aChristian home.
(20:48):
I believe in Jesus and theolder I get, the more my love
for what was done for me and theplan grows even deeper.
But the reality is there havebeen times where I have doubted
Satan, that he even exists, andso the comment I made to him was
that I questioned sometimes ifSatan's even real, because you
fall into this trap as a humanwhere when you mess up or you
(21:10):
sin, like oh, I did that and Igot to do work on myself, and so
you can beat yourself up andI'm not saying that you are not
the cause of some bad decisions,of what you do yourself, but
the reality is, in that momentwhen I said that to Alan, he
looked at me in the face and hesays never doubt the power of
Satan and he described that whathe just did, that he's
(21:34):
described as a lion seekingsomeone to devour, and so we
have to remember the devil isreal and we must pray like Jesus
taught in his model prayer.
We must pray that God will helpdeliver us from the evil one.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
And I'll just add one more thing.
One of the things that we'vealready discussed in this series
is the idea of distraction.
You may have embraced thesemission challenges over week
after week after week and donethose things.
As this season one draws to aclose, the same way our class
drew to a close, there is athere's a tendency for that
(22:14):
energy to dissipate.
It's so easy to go back to howyou know that season 12 of that
show that we binge watch iscoming out next month and my
wife and I like to watch that,or our family likes to watch
this together, and we can easilyslide back into the way we were
(22:35):
before and being lazy, yeah,and letting the energy and maybe
even the habits which would begreat that are being generated
by doing these things on aregular basis.
We've had people we challengepeople to try a lot of different
things, yeah, and if we're notcareful, he can use those
(22:59):
distractions.
So I'm saying it can be subtlehim grabbing us back into that
routine.
That doesn't involve doing good, it's the inertness of being on
the couch and not being out anddoing good and serving others.
As we draw this season one to aclose, we need to be mindful.
(23:19):
We need to be vigilant.
The same way we talked about inour class is to keep doing
these things.
Remind ourselves, maybe have,in a way, accountability
partners in that hey, let's havelunch with so-and-so.
You know, they've just gonethrough some things.
Have people to help you alongthe way, whether it's your
(23:39):
spouse, best friends, familymembers, others.
The battle goes on even afterthe class was over, and after
this season, one is over,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Well, that leads us into our most significant
mission, and I say that becauseit's a seven-day battle plan.
We've been talking about abattle that goes on within us,
internally and externally, andso I'll just add you've got 15
weeks behind you, and so we feelthat you're ready for this, so
let's talk about it.
And, by the way, I'll go aheadand say we'll put this out on
(24:11):
social later, because there's alot to unpack here, because
we've got a Sunday throughSaturday.
So, mark, let's start withSunday.
What we want you to do onSunday is to give generously.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Christians are called to give generously every Sunday
.
So really, kind of, what we'retalking about is and then some,
yeah, a little extra.
Now your finances, that littleextra might be $10 more extra.
Now your finances, that littleextra might be $10 more.
It may be on your finances thatit's $100 more, or maybe double
(24:43):
what you normally give, or, ifGod's really blessed you, maybe
$1,000.
I don't know, we don't knoweveryone's situation, but what
we're doing is challengingeveryone to give a little more
than what we normally give Right, and that gets us into Monday.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
So Monday what's funny is well, people will see
from this battle plan is thatyou've done several of these, so
you should be good at them atthis point.
But Monday is about encouragingtwo people.
Two people, and we don't carehow that happens or what it
looks like.
You could send a text, that'ssimple, right, you could call
them, or maybe even you couldtake the time to visit someone
(25:19):
in church.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, it could be something like you know, this
Monday maybe you worshiped onthe day before Somebody led a
prayer that really moved you,someone led a song that really
encouraged you and just sendthem a text.
Or somebody said something toyou after church services.
That was a big encouragement,so the text can be just a thank
(25:43):
you.
I've been thinking about whatyou said, or I've been thinking
about what you prayed in yourprayer and it stuck with me and
I've really benefited from it,thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah, tuesday is all about removing distractions.
What we mean by that is take abreak from social media and it's
not going to kill you, I'lltell you You'll be okay.
And we want you to commit to ascreen-free evening.
And if you have a family, ifyou're married, we want you to
do that Wait, wait, wait, wait,screen-free.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
You said social media that's fine, but you mean like
no screens like no TV.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I have a example of this.
There's a family that we know Iwon't say their name.
They go to church with us andthey have one of their days, one
of their evenings where theyhave screen free evening, a
screen free evening.
And, by the way, they have alarge family.
So that means no TVs, no gamingsystems.
(26:36):
There's different consoles thatyou play on.
There's just nothing.
And it's all about, by the way,just conversations with people.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You have an interaction with someone, so
what they do is, you know, theyhave board games, they have
conversations, there'sinteraction, there's bonding as
a family.
I think that's so powerful andthat's things that these
children will remember.
Yeah, game night my wife andher family growing up, you know,
with her aunt and uncle andcousins.
You know Friday night was pizzanight.
(27:04):
They didn't get together andwatch a TV show, they got
together and they played gamesand they ate pizza and it was.
She still talks about it today.
It's one of her, I think one ofher favorite memories.
Screens weren't involved, therewas interaction.
Yeah, just strengthens yourrelationships, exactly, and so
you know the relationships arebuilt stronger and you know
(27:26):
where people are and thereforeyou can tell if they're down, if
there's something bothering you.
There's the opportunity toserve more visibly when you know
the person.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Right, right Wednesday.
We want you to step out of yourcomfort and we know this one's
not really fun.
But we want you to introduceyourself to three new people at
church Not one, not two, butthree.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Maybe you're at a small church Bible study on a
Wednesday night and maybe youknow everybody, but you probably
don't talk to everybody everytime you're together.
While you may know them, maybeyou don't need to introduce
yourself to them.
In larger church families, yeah, you could probably introduce
yourself to someone new thatyou've never spoken to before,
(28:09):
but go talk to the widow thatsits up there.
Go talk to maybe one of theteenagers that you don't talk to
regularly.
Just go talk to someone new,whether it's someone that you
know already or someone youdon't regularly talk to.
So that's the challenge forWednesday.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
You know we both have moved around quite a bit and
we've lived in different states,we've been members of different
congregations and wherever Ihave been you probably can say
this is true for you too thereare like circles, there's like I
don't like to use the wordclicks, but it's basically
clicks people after a man, theyget with their people and they
(28:43):
stay with them.
So, going back to what you said,I've also grown up in a very
rural congregation very smallgroup where I could say well, I
know everyone, but you wererelated to most of them.
I was related to most of themand they're probably laughing at
this now listening.
But our point is, even withinthe smaller groups, that what
you were saying you are closerto someone there's after a man,
you are going to your person.
What we're asking you to do isdon't do that.
(29:03):
Talk to someone else.
Ok, on Thursday we want you toget out and serve in your
community, and this can looklike a number of things, but we
want you to participate andmaybe helping out at your kids
schools.
And I'll be on a project Go toa local food bank, Maybe it's
you're going to go visit somewidows at some assisted living
centers.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Some schools have regular volunteer spots all the
time that parents can canvolunteer for.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
So, yeah, these are great Serving in your community
being a light Right, and that'sleads us into Friday, and this
is one of my favorite ones.
Yeah, I love this one.
It's about buildingrelationships.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Because I love food.
Yeah, sorry.
Well, you have talked about icecream on multiple episodes of
this podcast.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Okay, so it's about building relationships.
Our request is that you invitesomeone it can just be one
person to lunch or to dinner.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Okay, and if you look at how many times you know
Jesus taught and had meaningfulconversations over a meal yeah,
I mean, it's over and over again.
It's really good when you don'tknow the person very well
because you've got these littleinterludes of chewing.
I call them interludes ofchewing, but you don't have to
talk the whole time.
It's not a conversation whereyou're just, you know,
(30:20):
one-on-one-on-one, you're backand forth.
There can be a little quiettime.
It gives you the opportunity toask a question and then you
know you can take a bite of yoursandwich and let the other
person talk.
You're giving them space totalk.
It's a great way to buildrelationships and we're
emulating Jesus when we do that.
We are doing what he did.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
So what you're saying is I'm going back to an episode
where we talked about activelistening.
Let's say, at this moment youstill struggle with active
listening.
A drink of tea or a bite ofsomething helps you with your
active listening.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
But you know chew with yourmouth closed.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
So that you're on distraction.
Okay, and this is our last dayof our seven day spiritual
battle plan ends with Saturday,where the request is for you to
go the extra mile and you'regiving.
You're thinking, wait a minute,we just talked about giving on
Sunday.
This is a little bit different.
We're not talking about yourcontribution at church.
What we're saying is to plan togive one time to a legitimate
(31:09):
charity outside of church.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Of course, if you're listening and you've got some
ideas of reputable charities, ifyou're listening and you've got
some ideas of reputablecharities meaningful charities,
those that are very effective intheir work let us know what
they are through our comments onsocial media and various places
and share them with others.
What we're looking for isefficient use of these gifts.
(31:33):
I'll just say this one timeoffering we're talking about
financial offering, but it couldbe taking some things down to
admission.
I sometimes take old things tothe thrift store but I know
they're going to sell them andthey're going to get money for
that and then they're going to.
You know somebody else is goingto buy that and, yes, there
might be good that's done fromthat.
(31:53):
I'm sure there is.
You know, make-a-wishFoundation is what, like one of
the thrift stores in ourneighborhood that they have
identified as their charity tosupport Taking clothes to a
shelter, like particularly awomen's shelter.
There are women and children inthose shelters taking old toys
there.
You will know that that toy,gently used, might be in the
(32:20):
hands of a child that very day.
It is so much more impactful, Ithink, giving to the people who
are going to actually use it,so it could be a financial gift
by a reputable, efficient,effective charitable
organization, or it could betaking things to a shelter where
(32:43):
people are in dire need to havenothing.
In those shelters people haveleft bad situations, maybe with
just the clothes on their back.
You know, one idea is preparethese, little a little, a
personal bag that has, you know,things that a mom would need.
It could be a toothbrush anddeodorant and and and makeup,
(33:03):
and you know these things.
A lot of times they left in inreally dire situation again with
nothing.
And preparing a few of thoseand bringing those to a women's
shelter, so powerful and you'redoing direct good to the
recipient that that's there atthe shelter yeah, I appreciate
(33:24):
you saying for people to to saysomething on social media, on
you know.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Obviously, as you all know, at this point we're on
facebook, instagram and x, andyou may be thinking, well, well,
I know these, these charitable,these legitimate charity
charitable companies or groupsbecause I'm doing it.
Well, that's great.
There may be some that don't,and so this could be really
helpful.
So we're not asking to know howmuch you give or what you do.
That's between you and God butwhat we do want to know is what
(33:50):
some legitimate charitablecompanies, organizations that we
can help share that news out toothers.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
So the challenge here in this episode, if you really
want to boil it down, is toactively fight against our enemy
, our adversary, the devil, byfilling your life with good
works.
Well, josh, that's it fortoday's episode of Made for Good
.
If this conversation hasencouraged you or challenged you
, be sure to subscribe so youdon't miss.
(34:18):
We've got one more, one morethis season and we're going to
try to tell a bow around all thethings that we've talked about
and maybe add one more elementinto our journey for good works,
our mission, executing thismission of good works.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Well, we hope you found this helpful and if you
did consider sharing with afriend, until next time, stand
firm, resist evil and rememberyou were made for this.
Thank you.
Welcome to Made for Good, the podcast where we
explore how to live out ourpurpose through good works out
of a biblical tree.
Hey, I'm Josh.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And I'm Mark.
Today, josh, we're discussingone of the greatest challenges
that we face as believers, andthat's this battle between good
and evil.
Doing good isn't just aboutmaking the world a better place
around us.
It's about standing firmagainst opposition and resisting
(00:36):
temptation and staying faithful, and really in the middle of
this spiritual warfare, I have aquestion to start off.
We're 15 weeks in to this studyon good works and have you ever
felt, like the moment you startdoing something good, you're
starting to do these good worksthat these obstacles just appear
(00:56):
out of nowhere?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Absolutely I have.
As a matter of fact, I believethat's how Job felt and we were
talking about this before westarted recording.
But Job 1.8 says and the Lordsaid to Satan have you ever
considered my servant Job, thatthere is none like him on earth,
a blameless and upright man whofears God and turns away from
evil?
What Job didn't know that washappening behind the scenes here
(01:20):
was that God was having aconversation with Satan.
You made the comment we're 15weeks in.
Well to the listener, we are 15weeks in and there's a lot of
great things that you may havedone and pushed yourself to do
and we're very happy that that'shappening.
But the reality is, in the midstof all of that, you could have
(01:41):
experienced an unexpectedchallenge, you could be
discouraged.
You could be discouraged, youcould be distracted, and some of
this stuff is really heavy.
You could be a family thing, asickness, something related to
your spouse, financial, and itjust feels like sometimes, when
you're finally doing somethinggreat or you're pushing yourself
to do good things, there's thisenemy that's working against us
(02:02):
and we're going to talk abouthim more as we go.
But it's difficult when we'retrying to live out our faith
right, when we're faced withthis.
So I just go back to this, job1.8.
When you know that you aredoing things that are good, but
you feel discouraged, I want youto read Job 1.8 and just plug
your name in here.
Have you ever considered myservant?
(02:22):
Fill in the blank your name inhere.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Have you ever considered my servant?
Fill in the blank yeah, I thinka lot of times it's difficult
for us to even to put ourselvesin the position of Job, because
the comment there Job was anawesome person in the sight of
God.
But we know for a fact thatbecause Job was a man, he sinned
, he had struggles.
Maybe he had a greater grasp onthat and he was able to be more
(02:46):
righteous.
He was a man, yeah, but Godviewed him as a righteous person
and really someone to be anexample of what it means to
serve, to fear God and serve Godso much so that you know, if
you notice then thatconversation, it was God that
brought up Job, not Satan.
I think that we that's a verygood exercise for us to put our
(03:09):
own name in there and tounderstand and we're going to
support this a little more as weget into this podcast today
about this battle.
There is a spiritual battlethat's going on.
Spiritual battle that's goingon, and you know our
(03:30):
foundational verse that we'rebasing this on this whole
podcast, on Ephesians 2.10, forwe are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good workswhich God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in.
You know God has prepared thesegood works.
If God has prepared these goodworks, then you can be sure that
Satan is working to derail usfrom those good works.
(03:50):
When you look at, there's aparallel verse in Titus and I
think it says a lot of the samethings that Ephesians 2.10 does,
but it inserts another element.
So I want to read that.
I'll read verses 11 through 14,but we want to focus on verse
14.
(04:10):
So to get the full context,this is Titus 2.
For the grace of God hasappeared, bringing salvation for
all people, training us torenounce ungodliness and worldly
passions and to liveself-controlled, upright, godly
lives in this present age.
That sounds like Job to me,waiting for our blessed hope and
(04:33):
the appearing of the glory ofour great God and Savior, jesus
Christ.
Here's verse 14, who gavehimself for us to redeem us from
all lawlessness and to purifyhimself a people for.
So let's break down verse 14 andcompare it with Ephesians 2.10.
(04:53):
The first part of that versesays Well, that is in essence us
being created in Christ Jesus,we're recreated, we're born
again in Christ Jesus.
And if you skip to the end ofthe verse, who are these people
(05:16):
that he's created?
Are zealous for good works, andthat parallels Ephesians 2.10
as well, that we're created inChrist Jesus for the purpose of
good works.
But there's an element inbetween there that we haven't
talked about yet, and that's thepurification, it says, and to
purify himself by people for hisown possession who are zealous
(05:36):
for good works.
It's almost, in this case, likethe purification is a
prerequisite for the good works.
It sets our mind to do the goodworks, but we're going to talk
about in a later verse how thereciprocal of that is true as
well.
The good works can aid in ourpurification, and so I just find
(05:59):
it striking the comparisonbetween both of these, and, if
you'll notice, paul is theauthor of both of these.
He's writing to the Ephesiansand he's writing to Titus, and
he's saying a very, very similarthing.
And so today we're going tobreak down the reality of this
battle and how we can stand firmand the role that good works
(06:20):
can play in that.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Let's get into our Bible basis segment of this
episode.
The Bible makes it clear thatgood and evil are constantly at
war.
Isaiah 520 warns us of such,where the Bible says Woe to
those who call evil good andgood evil, who put darkness for
light and light for darkness,who put bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitter.
(06:42):
And Romans 12, 21 gives us ourbattle plan where it says do not
be overcome by evil, butovercome evil with good.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Okay, and so that overcome evil with good.
Again, I think that that's thereciprocal that we just talked
about in Ephesians 2, 14,overcoming evil with good.
We can use the good to overcomethe evil.
We can use the good in thepurification and the
sanctification of our lives.
I think God intends for that.
(07:13):
So that's the key.
Evil isn't just something thatwe avoid, it's something that we
actively fight against.
By doing good, we're displacingthat.
We're spending the resource oftime and energy on doing good
that we could and probably wouldbe spending on evil or on sin.
(07:38):
Romans 2, 6 through 8 tells usthat our choices in this life
have eternal consequences.
And you know, this is, Josh, avery sobering passage.
It says for he will render toevery man according to his works
.
To those who, by patience andwell-doing, see glory and honor
(08:02):
and immortality, he will giveeternal life.
But for those who are factiousand do not obey the truth but
obey wickedness, there will bewrath and fury.
So we want to be in the firstgroup.
To those who, by patience andwell-doing, what's well-doing,
it's doing well, it's good works, it's good works, it's doing
(08:30):
good, and we seek for glory andhonor and immortality, but we
seek that in eternal life withGod.
And again, if we don't do thatthe second part of that verse we
don't obey the truth, we'refactious, we're wicked.
God promises wrath and fury.
The battle is real, but God hasequipped us for victory.
He's given us everything thatwe need.
We just need to take advantageof it.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, I love that.
We've all heard this statementbefore and I'll say it for the
purpose of where we're going.
One of the biggest lies of theenemy is convincing people that
he doesn't exist.
But Jesus made it clear in John8, 44, where he says he, satan,
was a murderer from thebeginning and does not stand in
truth because there is no truthin him.
When he lies, he speaks out ofhis own character, for he is a
(09:15):
liar and the father of lies.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
You know, another verse that we want to look at is
in Ephesians six, and this tome is um, it's, it's just
otherworldly, literally, yeah,uh, it's a fascinating verse.
It reminds me of theconversation that you were
mentioning earlier between Godand the devil, where the devil
(09:41):
was hurling these accusationsagainst Job.
This conversation was happeningunbeknownst to Job.
Ephesians 6, verse 12 says Forwe do not wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against therulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers overthis present darkness, against
(10:03):
the spiritual forces of evil inthe heavenly places.
This is such a sobering thought.
That also reminds me of thepassage in 2 Kings 6, where
Elisha prayed that his servantcould, that his eyes would be
opened and that he could see,and it was described as the
(10:26):
mountain was full of horses andchariots of fire all around
Elisha.
There are powers and battlesgoing on that we may not know,
and Elisha's servant couldn'tsee the power of God that was
there to help his people winthis battle.
And so the battle, the battleis real and this is really
(10:47):
happening.
We don't see it with our eyes,but we see it by faith.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
So, if the battle is real, how do we fight back?
Well, let's get right into that.
I think this battle for us isboth an internal one and an
external one, and we face bothof them right.
Let's first start off with theinternal battles, and one of
them is just flat out resistingtemptation.
Folks, the fight against sin.
It's just flat out a dailystruggle.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Absolutely.
The devil doesn't give up andhe has the ability these days to
put so many things in front ofus.
You know, from television,media, phones, advertisements,
you know just the, maybe eventhe national conversation that
goes on, it's, it's, it's allaround us.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, it is.
Another internal battle is justovercoming doubt.
We've talked about this onprevious episodes.
But the enemy attacks our mindswith fear and discouragement.
But the enemy attacks our mindswith fear and discouragement.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
There are these things that get hurled at us
again, that Satan hurled at Job.
He had this huge discouragementof losing his family, losing
his possessions.
So it's there, it's real and ithappens to us today as well.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, and the last internal battle that I want to
touch on with you is stayingfocused on God's mission.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, the battle that goes on inside our minds is
strong, it's very powerful, andit can derail us from our
mission.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
For sure, and the last internal battle that we'll
discuss together is just stayingfocused on God's mission.
I mean, we've talked aboutdistractions throughout these
last 15 weeks, but the realityis, distractions can pull us
away from our calling.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah, but as we've already talked about that, I
think you mentioned the Romans12, 21 verse that that's really
the key to victory and that's toovercome evil with good.
Yeah, and don't let the reverseof that happen.
Yeah.
And Jesus also warned us whathappens if we try to just clean
up our act, if you will, withoutreplacing the wrongdoing that
(12:48):
we're doing with doing good.
You know, when he tells us theparable of the unclean spirit in
Matthew 12, he tells the storyof the spirit leaving the person
.
The spirit came back and hefound a place all cleaned up and
empty, and he brought backseven other spirits, and so the
person was actually worse offthan before.
(13:09):
And so what we're talking abouthere is filling the empty void.
When we push sin out, we canfill our lives with good, and
it's a defense.
We have displaced sin in ourlife with doing good.
If you do enough good, youdon't have a lot of time to sin,
to do evil, and that'sliterally what it means.
(13:29):
We're overcoming evil with good.
We are displacing evil in ourlife, displacing sin in our life
with doing good, and if wedon't do that, then we can push
the sin out and avoid sin for aperiod of time, but there's no
defense and we leave ourselfopen for attack and it can come
back, and it can be, as the casewith the unclean spirit, even
(13:52):
worse than it was before Mark.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Beyond our personal struggles the internal ones that
we talked about we also faceexternal opposition.
There's a number of things wecould discuss.
Let's just touch on threeCultural pressures the world
often opposes Christian values.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, it's everywhere .
It's very hard for us asbelievers to stand up and to
profess our faith, to stand indefense of what's right.
We mentioned the passage before, I think, in Isaiah, where
people are calling evil good andgood evil and they put in
(14:33):
darkness for light and light fordarkness back in Isaiah 5.
And that's the world that welive in.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, we face it and our children face it at school.
Another external battle isdiscouragement from others, and
here's the thing about this.
You would think thatdiscouragement from others can
just happen for people that youdon't really know that well, the
hardest battle that we facewithin that is sometimes we get
discouraged from our own friends, our close friends and even our
(15:02):
family, and maybe it's becausethey don't understand our faith.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, you know you may have.
Again.
We're 15 weeks into this seasonone of Made for Good, this
podcast on trying to give gloryto God and fulfill our mission,
and doing that by doing goodworks.
You know you may have alreadyfaced some snide comment yeah, I
(15:31):
can't believe you listened tothat, or I can't believe you did
this.
You're just again.
You're looking for recognition.
All the things that were themotives are right, but someone
else makes a discouragingcomment, or maybe they just make
a joke.
Well, hey, is this another oneof your good works?
You know, rolling their eyes,this could be someone, and you
(15:51):
may, you may have someone quotethe Bible to you to say well,
you know Matthew 6, you're notsupposed to let the left hand
know what the right hand isdoing.
And they omit Matthew 5, wherewe're to let our light shine.
Again, we need to be carefulabout our motivation.
Our motivation is to give gloryto God.
Our motivation should always beto give glory to God in these
(16:13):
good works.
But somebody very close to us aspouse, a family member, a close
friend, somebody in our churchfamily, can make a comment that
just you know we're so excitedand we're feeling good about
what we're doing as we've talkedabout in previous episode, and
then somebody comes along with apen and just pops that and it
(16:34):
deflates us and then we get inour head and that's an external
force.
That's happened to us.
But we need to not let that,and you mentioned maybe the
person who's making thosenegative comments needs to look
at themselves.
Maybe they're jealous that theydidn't do it or some other
things that you mentioned.
But that should not discourageus from doing good.
(16:55):
We just need to go back readthese verses again the Ephesians
2.10, the Matthew 5 verse,where it talks about letting our
light shine.
Do not be afraid to let yourlight shine, but always when
people comment, it's all gloryto God.
That's where our focus needs tobe.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
You touched on this, but our last external battle
that we wanted to talk about isspiritual attacks, and so, yes,
this can happen, unfortunately,with our friends and our family,
but we want to really kind ofhone in on this, as the enemy is
actively working against thosewho are making an impact.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
That's absolutely true, josh.
These challenges that we'vebeen working on for the past
several weeks might have put youon Satan's radar, and how might
that be manifested?
It could be any one of thesethings that could be
discouraging that he could bebehind the motivation of someone
that's jealous to make a snidecomment about what you're doing.
(17:59):
It could be other things thatare just the distractions where
we have a sick child, we havesomeone who's facing potential
family member, facing a badmedical diagnosis.
There are all these things thatare evil, that we experience
living in a fallen world, thatwe do.
(18:20):
We believe that Satan is behindthose things.
Often and those are we can lookat those as being spiritual
attacks.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Mark, you referenced this earlier Ephesians 6, 12.
It reminds us that our realenemy isn't people, it's
spiritual forces working behindthe scenes.
Think about the times where youjust have a bad experience
somewhere You've talked aboutthis before, yeah, you mentioned
in class and you just thinkwell, that person just flat out
mean what they did to me at thecounter or in the parking lot or
(18:54):
whatever, and we need to shiftour focus from thinking about
people as people and people assouls and, as we mentioned
earlier, that will changeeverything.
That person could be having aterrible day.
That person could be dealingwith pain and suffering, of
death or loss or financialissues.
We need to remember that thereare spiritual forces working
behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
That's absolutely true, Josh.
You look at 1 Peter 5, verse 8,there's a warning there for us.
It says be sober minded, bewatchful.
And this is so powerful.
Your adversary, the devil,prowls around like a roaring
line seeking someone to devour.
Yeah, he's evil incarnate.
(19:36):
He is our adversary and he'sactive.
He's on the prowl.
And if you're doing good and ifyou look at the people that are
doing evil and they've embracedevil he has them.
He didn't need to spend anymore time on them.
Maybe the ones he's spendingtime on are the ones that he
(19:57):
doesn't have, and that could beyou and me.
Yeah, and our good works canput us on his radar and we need
to be prepared.
When we do good, we areengaging in battle against evil.
The more you commit to doinggood, the more you may become a
(20:20):
target, and that's why we've gotto rely on God's strength and
not our own.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Yeah, mark, I was sitting across it was a very
similar setup, by the way.
I was doing an episode of Stopbeing a Pew Potato and I was
sitting across Alan Yator and Imade the comment to Alan and I
was being sincere that even as achild and growing up to the
point where I'm at now, I havenever doubted God.
I was just raised in aChristian home.
(20:48):
I believe in Jesus and theolder I get, the more my love
for what was done for me and theplan grows even deeper.
But the reality is there havebeen times where I have doubted
Satan, that he even exists, andso the comment I made to him was
that I questioned sometimes ifSatan's even real, because you
fall into this trap as a humanwhere when you mess up or you
(21:10):
sin, like oh, I did that and Igot to do work on myself, and so
you can beat yourself up andI'm not saying that you are not
the cause of some bad decisions,of what you do yourself, but
the reality is, in that momentwhen I said that to Alan, he
looked at me in the face and hesays never doubt the power of
Satan and he described that whathe just did, that he's
(21:34):
described as a lion seekingsomeone to devour, and so we
have to remember the devil isreal and we must pray like Jesus
taught in his model prayer.
We must pray that God will helpdeliver us from the evil one.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
And I'll just add one more thing.
One of the things that we'vealready discussed in this series
is the idea of distraction.
You may have embraced thesemission challenges over week
after week after week and donethose things.
As this season one draws to aclose, the same way our class
drew to a close, there is athere's a tendency for that
(22:14):
energy to dissipate.
It's so easy to go back to howyou know that season 12 of that
show that we binge watch iscoming out next month and my
wife and I like to watch that,or our family likes to watch
this together, and we can easilyslide back into the way we were
(22:35):
before and being lazy, yeah,and letting the energy and maybe
even the habits which would begreat that are being generated
by doing these things on aregular basis.
We've had people we challengepeople to try a lot of different
things, yeah, and if we're notcareful, he can use those
(22:59):
distractions.
So I'm saying it can be subtlehim grabbing us back into that
routine.
That doesn't involve doing good, it's the inertness of being on
the couch and not being out anddoing good and serving others.
As we draw this season one to aclose, we need to be mindful.
(23:19):
We need to be vigilant.
The same way we talked about inour class is to keep doing
these things.
Remind ourselves, maybe have,in a way, accountability
partners in that hey, let's havelunch with so-and-so.
You know, they've just gonethrough some things.
Have people to help you alongthe way, whether it's your
(23:39):
spouse, best friends, familymembers, others.
The battle goes on even afterthe class was over, and after
this season, one is over,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Well, that leads us into our most significant
mission, and I say that becauseit's a seven-day battle plan.
We've been talking about abattle that goes on within us,
internally and externally, andso I'll just add you've got 15
weeks behind you, and so we feelthat you're ready for this, so
let's talk about it.
And, by the way, I'll go aheadand say we'll put this out on
(24:11):
social later, because there's alot to unpack here, because
we've got a Sunday throughSaturday.
So, mark, let's start withSunday.
What we want you to do onSunday is to give generously.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Christians are called to give generously every Sunday
.
So really, kind of, what we'retalking about is and then some,
yeah, a little extra.
Now your finances, that littleextra might be $10 more extra.
Now your finances, that littleextra might be $10 more.
It may be on your finances thatit's $100 more, or maybe double
(24:43):
what you normally give, or, ifGod's really blessed you, maybe
$1,000.
I don't know, we don't knoweveryone's situation, but what
we're doing is challengingeveryone to give a little more
than what we normally give Right, and that gets us into Monday.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
So Monday what's funny is well, people will see
from this battle plan is thatyou've done several of these, so
you should be good at them atthis point.
But Monday is about encouragingtwo people.
Two people, and we don't carehow that happens or what it
looks like.
You could send a text, that'ssimple, right, you could call
them, or maybe even you couldtake the time to visit someone
(25:19):
in church.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, it could be something like you know, this
Monday maybe you worshiped onthe day before Somebody led a
prayer that really moved you,someone led a song that really
encouraged you and just sendthem a text.
Or somebody said something toyou after church services.
That was a big encouragement,so the text can be just a thank
(25:43):
you.
I've been thinking about whatyou said, or I've been thinking
about what you prayed in yourprayer and it stuck with me and
I've really benefited from it,thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah, tuesday is all about removing distractions.
What we mean by that is take abreak from social media and it's
not going to kill you, I'lltell you You'll be okay.
And we want you to commit to ascreen-free evening.
And if you have a family, ifyou're married, we want you to
do that Wait, wait, wait, wait,screen-free.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
You said social media that's fine, but you mean like
no screens like no TV.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I have a example of this.
There's a family that we know Iwon't say their name.
They go to church with us andthey have one of their days, one
of their evenings where theyhave screen free evening, a
screen free evening.
And, by the way, they have alarge family.
So that means no TVs, no gamingsystems.
(26:36):
There's different consoles thatyou play on.
There's just nothing.
And it's all about, by the way,just conversations with people.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You have an interaction with someone, so
what they do is, you know, theyhave board games, they have
conversations, there'sinteraction, there's bonding as
a family.
I think that's so powerful andthat's things that these
children will remember.
Yeah, game night my wife andher family growing up, you know,
with her aunt and uncle andcousins.
You know Friday night was pizzanight.
(27:04):
They didn't get together andwatch a TV show, they got
together and they played gamesand they ate pizza and it was.
She still talks about it today.
It's one of her, I think one ofher favorite memories.
Screens weren't involved, therewas interaction.
Yeah, just strengthens yourrelationships, exactly, and so
you know the relationships arebuilt stronger and you know
(27:26):
where people are and thereforeyou can tell if they're down, if
there's something bothering you.
There's the opportunity toserve more visibly when you know
the person.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Right, right Wednesday.
We want you to step out of yourcomfort and we know this one's
not really fun.
But we want you to introduceyourself to three new people at
church Not one, not two, butthree.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Maybe you're at a small church Bible study on a
Wednesday night and maybe youknow everybody, but you probably
don't talk to everybody everytime you're together.
While you may know them, maybeyou don't need to introduce
yourself to them.
In larger church families, yeah, you could probably introduce
yourself to someone new thatyou've never spoken to before,
(28:09):
but go talk to the widow thatsits up there.
Go talk to maybe one of theteenagers that you don't talk to
regularly.
Just go talk to someone new,whether it's someone that you
know already or someone youdon't regularly talk to.
So that's the challenge forWednesday.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
You know we both have moved around quite a bit and
we've lived in different states,we've been members of different
congregations and wherever Ihave been you probably can say
this is true for you too thereare like circles, there's like I
don't like to use the wordclicks, but it's basically
clicks people after a man, theyget with their people and they
(28:43):
stay with them.
So, going back to what you said,I've also grown up in a very
rural congregation very smallgroup where I could say well, I
know everyone, but you wererelated to most of them.
I was related to most of themand they're probably laughing at
this now listening.
But our point is, even withinthe smaller groups, that what
you were saying you are closerto someone there's after a man,
you are going to your person.
What we're asking you to do isdon't do that.
(29:03):
Talk to someone else.
Ok, on Thursday we want you toget out and serve in your
community, and this can looklike a number of things, but we
want you to participate andmaybe helping out at your kids
schools.
And I'll be on a project Go toa local food bank, Maybe it's
you're going to go visit somewidows at some assisted living
centers.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Some schools have regular volunteer spots all the
time that parents can canvolunteer for.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
So, yeah, these are great Serving in your community
being a light Right, and that'sleads us into Friday, and this
is one of my favorite ones.
Yeah, I love this one.
It's about buildingrelationships.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Because I love food.
Yeah, sorry.
Well, you have talked about icecream on multiple episodes of
this podcast.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Okay, so it's about building relationships.
Our request is that you invitesomeone it can just be one
person to lunch or to dinner.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Okay, and if you look at how many times you know
Jesus taught and had meaningfulconversations over a meal yeah,
I mean, it's over and over again.
It's really good when you don'tknow the person very well
because you've got these littleinterludes of chewing.
I call them interludes ofchewing, but you don't have to
talk the whole time.
It's not a conversation whereyou're just, you know,
(30:20):
one-on-one-on-one, you're backand forth.
There can be a little quiettime.
It gives you the opportunity toask a question and then you
know you can take a bite of yoursandwich and let the other
person talk.
You're giving them space totalk.
It's a great way to buildrelationships and we're
emulating Jesus when we do that.
We are doing what he did.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
So what you're saying is I'm going back to an episode
where we talked about activelistening.
Let's say, at this moment youstill struggle with active
listening.
A drink of tea or a bite ofsomething helps you with your
active listening.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
But you know chew with yourmouth closed.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
So that you're on distraction.
Okay, and this is our last dayof our seven day spiritual
battle plan ends with Saturday,where the request is for you to
go the extra mile and you'regiving.
You're thinking, wait a minute,we just talked about giving on
Sunday.
This is a little bit different.
We're not talking about yourcontribution at church.
What we're saying is to plan togive one time to a legitimate
(31:09):
charity outside of church.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Of course, if you're listening and you've got some
ideas of reputable charities, ifyou're listening and you've got
some ideas of reputablecharities meaningful charities,
those that are very effective intheir work let us know what
they are through our comments onsocial media and various places
and share them with others.
What we're looking for isefficient use of these gifts.
(31:33):
I'll just say this one timeoffering we're talking about
financial offering, but it couldbe taking some things down to
admission.
I sometimes take old things tothe thrift store but I know
they're going to sell them andthey're going to get money for
that and then they're going to.
You know somebody else is goingto buy that and, yes, there
might be good that's done fromthat.
(31:53):
I'm sure there is.
You know, make-a-wishFoundation is what, like one of
the thrift stores in ourneighborhood that they have
identified as their charity tosupport Taking clothes to a
shelter, like particularly awomen's shelter.
There are women and children inthose shelters taking old toys
there.
You will know that that toy,gently used, might be in the
(32:20):
hands of a child that very day.
It is so much more impactful, Ithink, giving to the people who
are going to actually use it,so it could be a financial gift
by a reputable, efficient,effective charitable
organization, or it could betaking things to a shelter where
(32:43):
people are in dire need to havenothing.
In those shelters people haveleft bad situations, maybe with
just the clothes on their back.
You know, one idea is preparethese, little a little, a
personal bag that has, you know,things that a mom would need.
It could be a toothbrush anddeodorant and and and makeup,
(33:03):
and you know these things.
A lot of times they left in inreally dire situation again with
nothing.
And preparing a few of thoseand bringing those to a women's
shelter, so powerful and you'redoing direct good to the
recipient that that's there atthe shelter yeah, I appreciate
(33:24):
you saying for people to to saysomething on social media, on
you know.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Obviously, as you all know, at this point we're on
facebook, instagram and x, andyou may be thinking, well, well,
I know these, these charitable,these legitimate charity
charitable companies or groupsbecause I'm doing it.
Well, that's great.
There may be some that don't,and so this could be really
helpful.
So we're not asking to know howmuch you give or what you do.
That's between you and God butwhat we do want to know is what
(33:50):
some legitimate charitablecompanies, organizations that we
can help share that news out toothers.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
So the challenge here in this episode, if you really
want to boil it down, is toactively fight against our enemy
, our adversary, the devil, byfilling your life with good
works.
Well, josh, that's it fortoday's episode of Made for Good
.
If this conversation hasencouraged you or challenged you
, be sure to subscribe so youdon't miss.
(34:18):
We've got one more, one morethis season and we're going to
try to tell a bow around all thethings that we've talked about
and maybe add one more elementinto our journey for good works,
our mission, executing thismission of good works.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Well, we hope you found this helpful and if you
did consider sharing with afriend, until next time, stand
firm, resist evil and rememberyou were made for this.
Thank you.
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