Ep 71 Decoding Galatians 6: Paul's Finale

Episode Transcript
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Ryan (00:01):
Can you pray us

Imran (00:02):
Can you pray us in?

Ryan (00:07):
Sure.
Lord, I just wanna say thankyou for this opportunity this
time.
thank you for the privilege toparticipate in your work, lord
we ask that this is your work,that we stay focused on you,
that we keep it on you and notabout us.
Lord, we hope that thesacrifice we give in terms of
time, energy, everything that weoffer here today, is a pleasing

(00:30):
sacrifice to you, lord.
I ask that, lord, we have aplatform that reaches and, lord,
we ask that you use us as justvessels to reach those, to
disciple those who names wedon't even know, faces we don't
even know, but you don't wantthem, lord.

(00:52):
So we ask that you, being fullyreliant on your spirit, speak
to them in their situation, eventhough we have no nothing about
them.
Lord, let us walk in yourspirit tonight.
Let us speak truthunapologetically, but with grace
and mercy and gentleness, lord,and give us wisdom and

(01:16):
discernment that we know when tospeak and what to speak and
when to stay silent.
Pray this in your heavenly name, amen.

Imran (01:24):
Amen, Amen.
Hello and welcome to Real BibleStories.
Join us as we deep dive intothe historic, religious,
cultural, political andemotional context surrounding
the real lives of real people inthe Bible and the stories we've
all grown to love.

(01:44):
Hello and welcome to thisweek's episode of Real Bible
Stories.
I'm sitting here with mychamomile tea.
Surrounded by my two lovelyfriends and my wife, friend and
wife.
So this is your host, imranWard.

(02:04):
We're joined by Pastor RyanBrown, Hello and my wife, selina
Cruz.
Hey, yeah, so we ditched coffeea few weeks ago.
Well, I've ditched coffee,selina's mostly ditched coffee.

Ryan (02:17):
I'm fully in my sin.

Imran (02:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, if I take it away, you can
become a whole different person.

Ryan (02:24):
Yeah, I'm sure there's something there that's
absolutely correct.
There's something in the longer.
I'm gonna talk about thattonight actually Absolutely so.

Imran (02:31):
If you've been following along, we've been on an absolute
journey through the book ofGalatians over the last couple
months and this episode will bethe culmination of all of that.
So if you have, this is yourfirst episode of Real Bible
Stories you're welcome to pushthrough Galatians 6 with us.
But if things are coming upthat you're like I have no idea

(02:53):
what you're talking about, Ihave no idea what they're
referencing right now.
Well, good thing for you,there's about 10 to 15 other
episodes that you can divethrough and get the deep study
of the book of Galatians.
Probably more like seven, butyeah, I think it's like it's
definitely easy 15 is a long, itwould be.
You're right, it's a lot, butit's a lot, it's so many hours,

(03:15):
yeah, so if you're loving thisepisode and you're loving this
show, then there is so muchcontent there for you to get
this deep, in-depth Bible studyprovided by our very own Pastor,
ryan Brown.
All right so, but this weekwe're closing out the Galatians
series, going through chaptersix.
You have any tie-ins?
Oh, I guess.
Yeah, next week we'll havePastor David back.

(03:36):
Pastor David Squires jump ininto a new series with him.
The story behind the story.
So we'll get excited.

Ryan (03:41):
Which is really just the concept of Real Bible Stories to
begin with.

Imran (03:44):
Yeah, get back to the roots on that front as well.
So it's always a fun deep diveand journey through the Bible
over here.
So with that, ryan, how are wejumping into this All?

Ryan (03:54):
right.
So I wanna because it's gonnabe the last week kind of the
conclusion, not kind of it isthe conclusion Just wanna do a
recap right, just to kind of geteverybody centered on, you know
, the crux of the book and howit's going to ultimately feed
into our ending here.
So you know the primary.

(04:15):
I guess problem right is thatyou have teachers coming in
behind Paul teaching a gospel ofcircumcision that if you are
going to be part of why?

Selena (04:30):
You all right, Sorry.
Yeah, I was just laughing.
Sorry, it's okay.

Ryan (04:36):
So we were.
She finds circumcisionhilarious, apparently.

Imran (04:40):
Oh my God, that is a funny thing to learn, sorry
that's a full time.

Selena (04:43):
sorry, my mind is somewhere else All right.

Imran (04:45):
Tune in Gospel of circumcision.

Ryan (04:46):
Come on, selena, focus All right so, but these teachers
are teaching this gospel ofcircumcision, saying that if
you're gonna be part ofAbraham's family, you still need
to abide by some portions ofthe law, circumcision being a
big one, which is really playinginto a lot of the sensitivities
right of that time that theJews had an exemption from Rome
to practice they didn't have toworship all the Roman gods.

(05:09):
Christian Gentiles are now, andtheir view, converting into
Judaism, as they view it,because they have accepted
Christ as Messiah.
But there's nothing about themthat looks Jewish right.
They're not falling Torah,they're not.

Imran (05:26):
They're not pregnant in size.

Ryan (05:27):
They're not dressed like a Jew, they're not right.
So the Jewish authority, whoare not believers, are concerned
that this is going to lead topersecution of Rome and them
rescinding that Jewish exemption, right.
So they think the naturalconclusion to this is hey, go
get circumcised, so you'll dosomething Jewish, something very

(05:48):
.
Jewish that they won't questionyour commitment to this faith,
and that will help alleviate alot of the tension.
And, of course, paul comes inand says well, if you're still
under the law and you have toget circumcised, that means you
need to follow all of the lawand therefore you're really not
free.
Christ has not ushered insomething new and you're still

(06:09):
in your sin.
Right, so that's one.
So he rebukes these teachers,right, and he kind of starts off
.
He reflects on his years ofministry many years of ministry
preaching the gospel, andpreaching his gospel to those
who had received Christ, andwhich had been affirmed by Peter
and James.
So it wasn't right.
He starts like hey, the message, the gospel of grace that I

(06:32):
preach, you knew about way backthen, when I had brought Greeks
who were uncircumcised to you.
You had even not only affirmedme in my message, but you also
affirmed me in my community that, just as Peter had gone to the
Jews, I was sent to the Gentilesas an apostle to the Gentiles,

(06:53):
and the only thing you said isdon't forget the poor right.
So he starts there.
He then reflects that thoseGentile believers that he had
brought to Jerusalem had noissue.
Then he then turns to theGalatian church themselves,
because some of them weregetting circumcised.
In adopting this gospel ofcircumcision after Paul had left
right, who it took.

(07:16):
Paul and Barnabas, when theyshowed up, were in a really bad
physical state.
This cost Paul to bring thegospel to them, right?
So he then asks like questionslike did you receive the spirit
before or after you did thethings of the flesh, right?
So he's really trying to focuson as circumcision was a mark
for Jews, the spirit is now themark of those who belong to

(07:39):
Abraham's family, right?
So therefore, if the spirit isthe mark of who belonged to
Abraham's family, then insteadof getting circumcised, you need
to walk in the spirit, right?
That is really what he's beenkind of leading this all to
right, yeah, absolutely.
So it leads to this culmination,really at the end of chapter
four, where he pretty much tellsthe Galatian church you need to

(08:01):
remove these teachers from yourpresence, you need to cut them
out.
Right, he does that.
There's that whole series ofpuns right.
Cut them out, circumcise themaway.
You know, I wish they would goall the way and just completely
emasculate them, right?
He does that whole series ofpuns to pretty much say you need
to remove them from your ranksbecause they are polluting you.
Right, they are robbing you ofthe grace and the freedom to

(08:24):
which you live.
But then there's like naturalquestions that come from that.
Well, if we're not under thelaw, what keeps us out of sin?
And that's why he kind of getsinto the whole walking by the
spirit.
He warns them don't use yournew freedom in Christ to indulge
in the flesh, but instead walkin the spirit.
Right.

Imran (08:42):
And then we talk about how to measure that you are
walking in the spirit Right.

Ryan (08:45):
so then he does the comparison of acts of the flesh
and then where we left off lastweek or last episode, right?
It was fruits of the spirit.
So what I wanna do is becausethis is all the fruit good.
This is actually funny, so lastepisode we went in the whole
thing.
It's not fruit to the spirit,it's fruit, it's singular in the
Greek.

(09:05):
I said it's in line with thebook of Revelation, it's
singular, it's not the book ofRevelations.
And then later in the episode Iwas given it ran a hard time
because I was like, hey, thenyou said Revelations later in
the episode and then I just saidI see, see, I love it.
Anyways, but this all belongs inthis conclusion.
Is this set right?
So now he's saying if you'rewalking in the spirit, you will

(09:28):
not be doing the acts of theflesh and being in sin.
If you're not walking in thespirit, then yeah, you are gonna
go in the right.
So he was soft.
Here's the fruit of the spiritand it goes into this very in
this conclusion of what we'regonna talk about tonight, this
very practical way of everythinghe's talked about, not just in

(09:49):
terms of removing leaders anddealing with sin in the church
and living free.
But how does that lookpractically in some very
practical situations in thatchurch?
This is what remember what thefruit of the spirit is.
Now apply it to thesesituations now.

Selena (10:06):
Does that make sense?
So what we're?

Ryan (10:07):
gonna do is we're gonna start all the way back, we're
gonna reread through the fruitof the spirit, but we're gonna
continue on all the way throughthe end of chapter six and the
reading, because it belongs tothat set.
It's not a.
You can't parse that out treatit separately.

Imran (10:22):
The chapters and verses were added later.
It was all one letter.

Ryan (10:24):
Right, this all flows into what we're gonna talk to
tonight.

Selena (10:27):
So, selena, yeah so I apologize, we don't have Brandon
here to read us into it.
So you get me.
We are chapter five.

Imran (10:39):
You don't wanna talk about your thoughts until last
week's episode.

Selena (10:40):
Yes, for sure, verse 22.
And you want me to go ahead tochapter six?

(11:11):
Yep, I'll read it.
Brothers and sisters, if someoneis caught in a sin, you who
live by the spirit shouldrestore the person gently.
But watch yourselves, or youalso may be tempted.
Carry each other's burdens, andin this way you will fulfill
the law of Christ.
If anyone thinks they aresomething when they are not,

(11:34):
they deceive themselves.
Each one should test their ownactions.
Then they can take pride inthemselves alone without
comparing themselves to someoneelse, for each one should carry
their own load.
Nevertheless, the one whoreceives instruction in the Word
should share all good thingswith their instructor.

(11:54):
Do not be deceived.
God cannot be mocked.
A man reaps what he sows.
Whatever sows to please theirflesh from the flesh will reap
destruction.
Whoever sows to please theSpirit from the Spirit, will
reap eternal life.
Let us not become weary indoing good, for at the proper

(12:16):
time we will reap a harvest ifwe do not give up.
Therefore, as we haveopportunity, let us do good to
all people, especially to thosewho belong to the family of
believers.
See what large letters I use asa right to you with my own hand
.
Those who want to impress peopleby means of the flesh are

(12:39):
trying to compel you to becircumcised, the only reason
they do this is to avoid beingpersecuted for the cross of
Christ.
Not even those who arecircumcised keep the law, yet
they want you to be circumcised.
That they might boast aboutyour circumcision in the flesh.
May I never boast except in thecross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

(13:02):
through which the world hasbeen crucified.
To me and I to the world,neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision means anything.
What counts is a new creation.
Peace and mercy to all whofollow this rule, to the Israel
of God.
From now on, let no one causeme trouble, for I bear on my

(13:26):
body the marks of Jesus.
The grace of our Lord JesusChrist be with your spirit,
brothers and sister, amen.

Ryan (13:34):
Amen.
So I know it seems like thereis a lot.
Obviously there is a lot and wecould probably reconstruct a
lot of that more than what we'regoing to do tonight.
But really those kind of belong, if you guys remember, like in
the very first couple episodes Imean we went chapter one kind
of through two- right.
Because, ideally, now thatwe've gone through all of

(13:55):
Galatians right.
These sets should start flowingpretty easily for us, right,
yeah, so really okay, we startwith the fruit of the Spirit.
Right, it was a good reminder.
What is it?
Love, joy, peace, forbearance,kindness, goodness, faithfulness
, gentleness, self-control.
Really, you know, we did thewhole word studies last week.

Imran (14:15):
Right, we're really talking meekness strength under
control, right.

Ryan (14:20):
So remember what those actual fruits are as we kind of
go through this, Because thefirst thing he starts off here
in chapter six he says Now,brothers and sisters, if someone
is caught in a sin, you, wholive by the Spirit, should
restore that person gently,right.
So gentleness, meekness right.

Imran (14:37):
The word there is the same.

Ryan (14:39):
You should restore them with meekness right, so you have
a strength right.

Imran (14:43):
In the Amplified Bible.
It actually says in a spirit ofgentleness, not with a sense of
superiority orself-righteousness.

Ryan (14:50):
Right.
The idea being is that you'regoing to find people in the
church who are not doing whatthey should be doing and you're
going to know it.
You're going to know yourposition is right and you would
be able to come down with a fullextent of biblical law.
Right?
He says keep that swordsheathed, be gentle with them.

(15:11):
You want them to be restoredback right Now.
What's actually interesting isthe I think you were said it too
, but if someone is caught in asin, the Greek there is actually
the word overcome.
So if somebody is overcome withsin, the idea is somebody who
is losing a sin battle, sosomebody who's kind of caught in
.
To be caught right Means thatthey're in the snare of sin,

(15:36):
that they may not want to bethere but they just cannot get
themselves out of this.
Right, that's what you're kindof talking about Somebody who is
battling sin, but they'relosing battles right.
His point is that you don't comeat those people.

Imran (15:49):
I think that that's a Interesting point in it of
itself, because we don't oftenthink about sin and it's like
addictive quality.
We just get mad at people fordoing the wrong thing or being
in sin.
But sin has addictive qualitiesto it, like drug addiction,
porn addiction, coffee addictionand the same coffee as sin.

(16:10):
But it's an addiction.
It's a physical dependency.
Your body physically desires it, and it's the same thing with
sin.
Your body physically desiresthis thing and wants to be
dependent on it and you have todo a lot of work to turn away
from your flesh.
And we don't think about that.

Ryan (16:26):
And he's kind of setting this up.
He's like you need to be verymeek and gentle with people in
their sin especially whenthey're losing battles, because
and we're going to talk about itin the next set here Because
you have your sins and yourbattles, you're losing too, yeah
Right.
So remember everything.
When it comes to walking in thespirit and presenting fruit of
the spirit, or to have fruit,the spirit manifest in our life,

(16:48):
requires really two thingsHumility Right, so that's a
humility to understand, one thatyou are not capable of saving
yourself.
You never have been right.
You're under grace.
So, you need humility to canmaintain a constant awareness of
the grace you're under.
The second you start becomingprideful in yourself, as he says

(17:09):
later here, or thinking you'resomething you're not, then
that's the less grace you feelyou're covered under or you need
Right.
You start boasting in yourself.
So we'll get to that in duetime.
But the one thing I just wantedto kind of hit before we move
on to that is one is we'retalking about people who are
losing sin battles.
But notice that right after thefruits of the spirit right, he

(17:29):
says now you want to restorethem.
The goal is to restore them.
The goal is not to destroysomebody who is in their sin.

Imran (17:38):
Yeah.

Ryan (17:38):
Right it is to keep beating them down when you are
in a particular here saying theaddictive quality right Of sin
that you're like.
I already feel I'm trapped, I'ma slave to something.
The last thing you need issomebody else coming in to be
another master to you, whippingyou while you're caught in that
snare.

Imran (17:58):
Yeah Right, we're coming over the top with the.
Why don't you just stop?
Because it's not the thing thatthey're trying to do.

Ryan (18:04):
Just shame the new and just like why don't you just
stop?
And there's a real thing withaccountability, Right.

Imran (18:10):
Being addicted to whatever.

Ryan (18:12):
But how you do that matters right.
So it doesn't say the fruit ofthe spirit is not that you come
in and destroy that person,right, but it also doesn't say
that you ignore it.
The fruit of the spirit is notone that ignores people's sin.
The fruit of the spirit is notone where you become very good
at finding excuses for sin.

Imran (18:34):
Yeah.

Ryan (18:35):
And it says one of the fruit of the spirit.
One of the elements of that ispeace, right, the idea is not
that you find peace with sin,right, hey, you can become
completely fulfilled in your sinor accepting of other people's
sin.
That is not the fruit of thespirit, but the fruit of the
spirit is one to which you go.

(18:56):
Then goal is to restore them,not to prove that you're right
not to prove that.
They're wrong not to show anysort of superiority or
domineering.
I am more mature than you.
But, one that is hey, my goal,as it always is, is to restore
you.

Imran (19:12):
And it's really interesting, I'm sorry, I kind
of, because I was just going tosay.

Ryan (19:17):
We're in a lot of one-on-one pastoral meetings
with people in the church whenit comes to particularly
confronting sin with people, andevery single one of them, like
almost without fail, everysingle one of them they're
brought into a meeting and it'llbe either with the pastors, or
sometimes we'll have the deaconsthere, or not all of them, but

(19:37):
some deacons and representativeswhich is good.
You want godly men with wisdomin rooms, particularly when
you're having to adjudicate aconflict between people, right,
but they all treat it as ifthey're being called to the
principal's office every singletime.
That's what they feel like.
They really feel like they'recoming up to be reprimanded, and

(20:01):
it's unfortunate, because thegoal is always our goal here is
not to embarrass you, to shameyou.
Our goal is to restore youright To restore this in this
particular conflict betweenpeople.
We want to restore yourrelationship.
If you're in a sin that ishindering your relationship with
the church, we want to restorethat relationship to the church.
If it is just an internal sinwithin yourself, we're trying to

(20:26):
restore you back under God'sgrace right.
So it's always aboutrestoration.

Imran (20:33):
Yeah, because the pastor is not higher than the person
being a pastor.
Of course, not Absolutely notwe're all at the same level,
working through this lifetogether, dealing with different
sin, working our way towardssanctification.

Ryan (20:46):
But the sad thing is and it happens a lot people will
leave that meeting after havingwhat they thought was going to
be a trip to the principal'soffice where you get reprimanded
, to realize, oh, there was alot of actual grace that was
offered on this and they walkedrelieved and almost in a sense
refreshed.
But the sad thing is for a lotof those I mean a good portion

(21:15):
won't even show up to themeeting To them, they would just
rather leave and go find adifferent church who does not
know of the situation.

Imran (21:23):
Oh, wow.

Ryan (21:25):
Because, they are so afraid either of the reprimand
or the accountability.
But part of that is that theyalso then miss out on the actual
restoration.
And so much growth happens forpeople when you actually have
those confrontations, when youhave a sin, confrontation in a
godly gentle way, and then theyin themselves mature much

(21:49):
because they, you know, what I'msaying.
Like they learn so much aboutwhat the church should be and
they just rob themselves becausethey cower in what they think.
And, to be fair, you do havechurches or Christian
organizations where, if you showup into that office, you are
going to be right.

Imran (22:07):
You know what I mean.

Ryan (22:08):
They don't handle that the right way, and maybe they've
even had experiences of that inthe past, which is really
unfortunate.

Imran (22:12):
Was it Matthew 18 that talks about how to do that right
?

Ryan (22:15):
But even in Matthew 18, that gives you that model right.
There's a process for that.
But even that, the goal isrestoration.
Yeah, you know, it's notdisciplined in the sense of.

Imran (22:30):
Well, I was in applying that those other churches were
doing it right.

Ryan (22:33):
I was saying that no, no, I know, I that's.
What I'm saying, though, isthat many people even read
Matthew 18 in the form of it'sdiscipline, but it's like well
it's discipline, yes, but it'sCorrection.
The goal of discipline shouldalways be to restore.
It's a gentle discipline ofrestoration.

Imran (22:46):
The goal of putting some even in like a legal context.
The goal of putting someone inprison is not just to punish
them.
It's ultimately to restore themback to society eventually.
All right, like obviously, ofthe capital punishment, life in
prison, stuff like that.
But most of the time people arein prison for a limited amount
of time and prisons have a lotof services.
They're supposed to either helpyou gain a skill, find faith

(23:08):
because churches are go toprisons, and all that so that
hopefully, when you come out ofthe prison, you don't then fall
back into the same bad habitsthat led to you going to prison
in the first place.
Like it, even something likethat is ultimately the goal is
restoration.
I don't think we do it as wellwhen it's in the legal system,
but it's a similar intent, ifthat makes sense.

Ryan (23:31):
And you also get you know a lot of.
We hear it a lot.
Hey, why didn't you come to themeeting?
Well, I don't think that thechurch is in any place to judge
me.
Only God can judge me.

Selena (23:40):
Oh right, so what's funny?
Is that what Paul?

Ryan (23:45):
is about to get into, though, is answering one from a
leadership perspective of howyou approach that, but also
checking the hearts of those whomay have to get corrected.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, you're right.
We're not here to judge you.
We're here to restore you.
Yeah, but we should be growing,we should be moving forward,
but if we're all, walking in thespirit, then there should be

(24:05):
unity in this.

Imran (24:06):
Right.

Ryan (24:06):
So you're either saying that I possess the full spirit
of God and all these, you know,the church leadership that's
above me is not in the spirit,but I possess all the spirit,
which is a very arrogantposition to make Right.
That's why at the end, chapterfive, right, let us move forward
and not conceded right, butwith humility, Right.

Selena (24:28):
So that all feeds into that.

Ryan (24:29):
But so that kind of hits the destroy part, but I don't
want to skim over it, right.
But it's also not to ignore orexcuse it, and I think a lot of
people believe walking in thespirit is walking a line of
being in complete acceptance orexcuse of sin.
Yeah Right.
So what Paul's about to talkabout is hey, everybody deals
with sin.
So you're in there like, hey, Imean, I'm dealing with my own

(24:51):
sin.
Who am I to go hold emranaccountable for his sin?
Because, I know what I'm doing,I know I'm in sin right, but so
that's what Paul's about to talkabout.

Imran (25:00):
I was like, just like we have different talents, we have
different things we strugglewith, which is why we should be
leaning on each other.
You know the things that Istruggle with.
I don't struggle withdepression and anxiety and
things like Selena deals with,but Selena doesn't suffer from
like a porn addiction.
So we have to compliment andlean on each other to work
through this and like that'spart of the marriage, the stuff

(25:20):
that we do with on that front.
But like, even from a widersense in the body, the church
should be helping you with thatRight.
Like every week pastor callspeople up to come to the altar
pray for what your needs are.
But no, just come to the altar.
Also, like, find people in thechurch you can confess to.
That can help you through theprocess.
I think, like the very firstconversation we ever had was hi,

(25:42):
my marriage is about to fallapart and I'm addicted to
pornography.
Please help me.
I was sent to you Like that'show I met Ryan.

Ryan (25:50):
That's a completely humble state.
It's been great.

Imran (25:53):
You know, and I was like I'm so broken right now, Please
help me.

Ryan (25:56):
So Pastor David preached today on a hard passage out of
James, and what I loved aboutwhat he did today was it would
have been very easy just to keepon point of what James says,
right Like, hey, your moneyisn't yours, your life isn't
yours, you're like.
You know, we think that we haveownership of all the things
that we do not have ownership ofRight.

Imran (26:16):
Yeah.

Ryan (26:17):
Out of James, chapter four , going into chapter five.
But what I like what he did isat the end he went through and
said but don't miss theblessings in this teaching.
And just as the church has adiversity of talent right, we
have a diversity of gifts thatthe spirit gives that we should
all be sharing with each other,to each other's mutual benefit.
Yeah, there's also a diversityof sin, and you know the

(26:41):
diversity of sin piece which canmake church very frustrating
sometimes.
You could also maybe create asense sometimes of man.
I just feel like we're losingAll right Because you just see
all the diversity of sin in acongregation.
But you know what, the blessingI think what you should see in
that, and I think what's goingto be part of Paul's point here

(27:02):
in a second, is is we're notpart of his point but a
derivative of his point.

Imran (27:07):
Is that?

Ryan (27:08):
if you, when you see the vast diversity of sin, you also
then see the diversity of God'sgrace applied to it.

Imran (27:15):
Yeah.

Ryan (27:15):
So the blessing should be man.
You know, his grace is enoughto cover Imran's sin, which I'm
not dealing with Imran's sin.
I'm not dealing with Salinas,I'm dealing with my sin.
But his grace is big enough fortheir sin.
So it's big enough for mine.
Or because God's grace is bigenough to cover my sin, man,

(27:36):
it's also big enough to coverall those that I'm not dealing
with.

Imran (27:39):
Yeah.

Ryan (27:39):
And what people tend to do again because we get arrogant
and conceited which is whatPaul's about to talk about is
that we like to compareourselves to other people and we
start thinking highly ofourselves in our sin, like, yeah
, man, I deal with pride, butwhat man doesn't?
Every man deals with pride, butyou know what Homosexuality

(28:00):
that one you know.

Imran (28:02):
I'm gonna struggle with that one.

Ryan (28:04):
I struggle with lust, but I mean not that lust.

Imran (28:06):
That's a worse kind of lust.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan (28:10):
And we get in this comparison mode.
I was like oh so you're sayingthat their sin is of a a worse
degree than your own sin right.
And you get into that where weshould really be looking at man.
God's grace is big enough tocover the diversity of sin right
.
There is a.

Imran (28:27):
And all he asks is for you to come and make yourself to
him.

Ryan (28:29):
Gosh, I'm trying to remember now.
I think it was.
Her name was Joanne of Norwich.
She is the first female to everpublish a book in English at
least.
Oh, I'm sorry, yeah, joanne ofNorwich.
So she wrote she was dying ofthe Black Plague.
This was back in Norwich,england, during the Black Plague

(28:53):
, and she was dying, she.
The last thing she remembers iskind of fading to black as the
priest was giving her, her, herlast rights.
And as she kind of fades toblack, she essentially has a
series of 16 visions and thenshe wakes up and she's healed,
like she made it through and itwas over, oh wow.
But these 16, you knowrevelations that she had, you

(29:18):
know, she had a bunch of youknow and she wrote her book it
was the book of 16 revelationsor something but and it's
horribly written, like if you ifyou read it like and even in
the English it's like you couldjust, and I'm not.
It's not because I don't thinkshe was a woman.
It was just, I think, thegeneral how was it?

Imran (29:35):
She was an education.
She was at like the university.

Ryan (29:37):
Yeah, just horribly written the English like she.
It's very phonetic, Likethere's no vowels, Like it's
really interesting, Like if youtry to read it purely, it drove
me crazy.
But one of her points I thoughtwas amazing was she said all
sin because this is how bigGod's grace is all sin gets

(29:58):
turned into worship.
And I was like that concept.
I was like hey, that sounds.
Because initially you're likethat's kind of sounds offensive.
Right, Sin offends God.
So how is sin turned intoworship?
It gets turned into worshipbecause in your sin, once you
become, you recognize God'sgrace over your sin.
That instills a heart, a deeperheart of worship within you and

(30:21):
saying, man, I dealt with this,but God's grace covered me, so
I'm going to worship God for hischaracter and who he is no
longer, for who I am.

Imran (30:28):
I truly see that in the set free charts.

Selena (30:31):
Yeah, we thought of the same thing yeah.

Imran (30:33):
So I had two points I wanted to highlight there, the
one being that, like set free isa pretty large organization I
actually learned and talkedtalking with the pastor
yesterday but their whole thingis to go out to the most trying
parts of our communities and ofour societies and plant churches

(30:56):
there to reach out to peopleand the, the pastor's brother
that's actually at the set freechurch here in Wonder Valley.
Like he talks openly, like hedealt with drug addiction, he
dealt with an adultery issuethat caused his marriage to fall
apart and he ended up going toprison for some time and but

(31:20):
while there he was saved andlike rededicated himself to his
faith.
He came out and didn't knowwhat was going to happen to his
life and God pointed him outhere to the middle of nowhere
place and he ended up findinghis wife and and his and son,
who was born while he was inprison, and Reconnecting,

(31:41):
rekindling with his his marriageover the course of several
years and now they've remarriedsince then.
Like an insane Journey over thelast couple years.
But his story is not unique,like the entire population.
The set free church is, that isthese insane life stories of
people brought out of the mostdangerous and homelessness, drug

(32:03):
addiction, violent situations,and being saved, through God's
grace, out of those situationsand and their passion, yes, and
their worship is green yeahunlike
and it's like yeah, I was raisedin a middle-income American
home.
I didn't Like.

(32:24):
2008 was pretty bad.
My dad lost his job or retiredfrom his one job and then
couldn't get another one for awhile and Food was kind of
scarce.
But it was nothing like theextreme stuff that they talk
about, and their worship is asextreme as the situations that
they were saved from that'sright it is.
It is so Awesome to be a partof.

(32:45):
So like that.
That's exactly what I couldtotally see that the sin becomes
worship.

Ryan (32:50):
Yeah, that's how.
That's how good God is, Righthe?
Can even take sin and turn itinto worship.
And so when we keep readinghere, because, right, he says,
if anybody gets caught or is itbeing overcome, you need to live
by the spirit.
Okay, so everything we justread the fruit of the spirit.
You need to live by that andrestore them gently, right?
And then he says but watchyourselves or you also may be

(33:11):
tempted, right?
because when you start thinkingthat, oh, I'm mature enough to
start being a judge, in a sense,right.

Imran (33:21):
Then you're not mature anymore.

Ryan (33:22):
You'll be tempted yourself because that and itself is a
sin, because you now enter asense, a realm of pride right.

Imran (33:29):
I did want to also note that it was another thing that
the pastor set free brought upto me that that danger of
keeping a watchful eye onyourself because the nature of
their churches is they plant inreally crazy environments and
they were planting a church inVegas and the pastor that was
there ended up falling into sinI'm where he said back into sin
while he was, while he was there, and that kind of derailed the

(33:52):
whole church plant and and solike.
There's so much risk associatedto Not keeping a watchful eye.

Selena (34:02):
I didn't want to clarify that.
The first person that you'retalking about, I believe, is
Pastor's brother.

Imran (34:07):
Yes, I said yeah, okay, okay.

Selena (34:09):
Apologies, I just wanted to make sure that was, you know
, the passage brother to yourpoint right.

Ryan (34:14):
Watch yourselves, though, or you will also be tempted.
Carry each other's burdens, andin this way you will fulfill
the law of Christ.
If anyone thinks they aresomething when they are not,
they deceive themselves right.
So don't start thinking, justbecause you are called to
Christian accountability and toRestoration of people who are

(34:34):
falling or losing battles of sin, that you are now something.
You are not right.
You're not judge, christ'sjudge.
There's a judgment day for that.
Don't start thinking you'resomething that you are not For.
If you do, you deceive yourself.
Each one should test their ownactions, and they can take pride
in themselves alone withoutcomparing themselves to someone

(34:55):
else.
Like we were just talking aboutright, we get in this habit of
trying to compare, you know, onesin against another right
because you're maybe in aposition to, to, to go after,
you know, and dress somebodyelse's sin or to restore them.
That does not mean that youyourself are, you know, hunky
dory, for each one should carrytheir own load.

(35:16):
So, you know, paul continues askind of this whole motif of how
to handle your own sin, ofwhich is by serving others, yeah
, right.
So he says, if you see someonerestore them, go, go after them,
right, because again, if you'redealing with your own sin
remember we talked about thiswhat is the remedy?
It's a positive action.
It's not stop doing a bunch ofthings, it's rather start doing

(35:38):
these things.
And the number one thing hesaid, remember in Galatians 5.
Yeah, start serving people Right, and that includes restoring
people in their sin.
Right, when you start restoringothers in their sin, you in a
sense almost start restoringyourself in your own Right,
because again, your outward,because sin is very inward focus

(35:59):
.
If you, even when it comes toministry and restoring others,
you're outward of yourself andyou're working internally at the
same time, yeah, even thoughyou don't even realize that
you're doing it right.
But the thing is is that Ithink one of the problems I see
in church Is that you do see alot of people who are willing to
serve others.
Is those people are unwillingto receive it or even ask for

(36:22):
the help Interesting right,because, again to the same, if I
can see people like that, sinis embarrassing right.
Sin is embarrassing.
It should be embarrassing,right.
So it takes a lot of humilityand it is a little scary, right
like going to talk to the pastoror To somebody else saying hey,
like I know I seem good, butI'm not good, right.

(36:45):
I, I have an alcohol problemright Once we get done with this
worship night.
You know, I'm going home and I'mopening up that bottle of Jack
Daniels and I'm gonna down thewhole bottle you know I'm
drinking it until I fall asleep,right, yeah, I keep it clean
all the way up until I hit myministry obligations or you know
whatever.
But but then when that's good,I kick it back right like that.

(37:08):
That's scary to do and takes alot of humility to do that?
Yeah, it does absolutely peopletry to just keep it and I want
me handle it myself.
And then, even if they're openabout it, the idea of like, okay
, hey, well, next time thathappens, instead of like, give
me a Call, I don't care if it'sa two in the morning.
And then you start getting thatinclination.
It's like, oh, you know, ryantold me that if I started
feeling this, I could give him acall, but it's two in the

(37:30):
morning, like I'm not gonna wakehim up.
He has kids, he has a wife, hehas a job.

Selena (37:33):

Ryan (37:34):
I'm not gonna inconvenience him and they don't
want to ask, even though thesepeople are like, hey, I am
willing to help, right, so it'stwofold, right?
So one, you need to be willingto serve and then do that, but
you also need to be willing toask for it.
If you're in that position.
Absolutely right, so thatsometimes we're you know people
that you know that that's whereyou need to muster the courage
to say I need to ask for helpright, and then that's.

Imran (37:55):
That's true of so many things the well, I've said this
in some prior episodes too thatis like that's something I know
that I struggle with is Going toSelena and actually telling her
.
It's like, hey, I'm strugglingwith x, y and z thing and and
Every single time like I talkmyself into thinking that she's
gonna like blow up and have likea whole, the whole cow of a

(38:19):
response, and and every singletime she just shows grace and
love and Just care, and it'sjust every single time it's
impressive and I don't know how,after like what, we've been
married with five years, now Sixyears six years six years of
marriage and knowing each otherlike 15 years or something crazy
that I am still like surprisedby, or I'm even more surprised

(38:44):
that I still Lie to myself, likeI know your character and I
still lie to myself.

Ryan (38:51):
Think about how true that is of Selena, right?
Yeah, how much more true thatof God.
All right but like I mean,there's times where I'm like, oh
man, I messed up and I feellike, oh, I just I just
completely crushed my witness atwork because I lost my temper
or, you know, I was not walkingin the spirit in that meeting.

(39:12):
You know, I did not reflect thelight of Christ in that work
meeting and Like well, it's shotwith my co-workers, it's done
Okay.
I can't be effective to themever.
You know I mean.
Yeah, and then you just but youjust feel like the God comes in
with so much Grace.
You know, man, why did I like?
Because his character is somuch better, right.

(39:32):
Why did I think that I wassomehow now outside His purview
or outside of his strength inthat, or outside of his
forgiveness?

Selena (39:39):
and yeah, you know.

Ryan (39:40):
I mean we do that because, to your point, we do that with
people, right, good people andgood character people, yeah,
much more so the perfectcharacter of God.
And how we do that you knowdefinitely, but I also.
So we're gonna get to the careeach other's burdens here in a
second, so, but I wanted to kindof get to.
But if anyone thinks they aresomething when they are not

(40:01):
right, that is your Definitionof biblical hypocrisy people
thinking they are something theyare not.
Oh, that's verse three right,yeah and I Think a lot of people
because there's a claim forChristians.
I go there, hypocrites and whatthey mean?
Right and hypocrisy, or ahypocrite and itself in the
Greek is the name of an actor.
Right, the idea that you knowI'm putting a face on, I'm a

(40:26):
hypocrite.
That that's what they called.
You know, back in the Greek,it's the name of an actor.
It's and what they would haveis these different masks because
they didn't have like Hollywoodright.
So it's like you would have oneactor play multiple roles, so
they would have these masks.
So when they're playing one ofthe characters, they put that
mask on.

Imran (40:44):
Right, they go play that.
Oh yeah, yeah, they put it down.
I'm gonna do something likethat as a kid, yeah.

Ryan (40:49):
Yeah, so that that's a hypocrite right and in terms of
like what it meant.
Yeah, so to call somebodyhypocrite.
The idea is that you know whenI, when I'm at work, I got this
mask on.

Selena (41:01):
But then when I?

Ryan (41:01):
go to church, I take that mask off and I put this mask on
and then, when I'm around myfamily.
I take that mask and I put thismask on.
Right, you're being differentpeople in different environments
, and in one sense that's.
But as applied here, he'stalking about sin and I think
many people kind of look atChristians and say, well,
they're hypocrites becausethey'll say, I believe, and they

(41:25):
probably do believe, that sexbefore marriage is wrong.
And yet I see them out at thebar trying to hook up with
people.
Right, they say that you knowyou should be in control of your
mouth and shouldn't be cursingthis is.
But then I man, I hear him cuss.
They're a hypocrite and that'snot what.

(41:45):
That's not really what biblicalhypocrisy is here with Paul,
right, it's not that you'redealing with things that you
don't agree with, because thatthat is just the paradox of sin
and in the simple nature withinus, right, okay, I do the things
I don't want to do and I don'tdo the things I do want to do.
Right, he's Paul's not sayingwe're all hypocrites.
What he's saying is actuallythe kind of inverse of that is,

(42:06):
pretending that you're notdealing with the things you're
dealing with.
Right, it's not that I, I, Ithink pornography is absolutely
destructive to marriage and tothe the valuation of women To.
You know it's destructive tothe, for young men particularly,
maybe before even liketeenagers.

Imran (42:26):
I think the valuation of men too, valuation of human
beings, is masculinity, is beingright, but it's just across the
board, right like there's allthese things that you look at it
You're say you know, oh, thesex trafficking, it's feeding
the sex trafficking.

Ryan (42:40):
You know there's all these things like I hate it and then
yet you watch it, right.
That doesn't make you ahypocrite.
That makes you battling sin,right?
What makes you a hip makes youan addict.

Imran (42:50):
There's like there's drug addicts that hate doing drugs.
They hate that it destroyseverything about their life.
It doesn't make them ahypocrite that you forget to eat
, they forget to drink water,they forget to pay their bills,
and then they end up on thestreets.
But all they can think about isI want more of this drug and I
hate the fact that all they wantis more of that drug.

Ryan (43:05):
What Paul says is the true .
Hypocrisy, though, is not thatyou're dealing with it, even
though you disagree with it,because that's the paradox of
sinful nature and sanctification.
What is hypocrisy is to bedealing with sin but pretending
like you're not dealing with sin.
Yeah right trying to take somesuperior position, particularly
as you're trying to restorepeople in their sin, that

(43:26):
somehow you are not strugglingwith sin yourself.
Yeah you know what I mean.
And people get that way.
People get.
They get into a position wherethey may be right in the
position of someone else's sin,but they're wrong in their
position because they're noteven Able to recollect their own
sin.
That they're battling.
Go ask here's a good thing.

(43:47):
Go go ask somebody justrandomly hey, what sin are you
battling in your life right now?

Imran (43:51):
Yeah.

Ryan (43:52):
And if they can't answer you, then they're in a position
that, hey, you have not beenspending enough Time and prayer
and you're not fighting a battle, which means you have made
peace With sin in your life,yeah somewhere.
Yeah, because if you're, you'retelling me that you've made it,
that you embody, you're 100%sanctified and, yeah, been

(44:14):
renewed in the image of Christ.
100% yeah, absolutely notyou're the second coming.

Imran (44:18):
You know, I'm saying made it, it's like no.

Ryan (44:21):
So if you can't tell me what sin you're dealing with,
then what does that say?
Right like?
And then I get it like, I callit a problem could be a
listening problem.

Imran (44:30):
Probably is a listening problem.

Ryan (44:33):
For some people you know you, you get so busy in life
that it's like I just go fromone thing to the next.
I can't even you don't sit downto reflect right, I'm like man.
Where am I at like, what shouldI be battling right now?
What, where?
Where is God trying?

Imran (44:49):
to even even something as simple as Taking a moment to
think, because this hits me allthe time at work.
Like was the conversation thatI had, god honoring and I'll say
, generally speaking from myconversation with my junior
Marines are very, are very good,but it's when I get around my
peers and the other captains andit's just us and it's like I

(45:10):
leave the conversation.
I'm like my, my, my cussingcame out there, my potty mouth
came out there wasn't good.
That conversation was a veryChrist honoring, like that's
that's where I, but it beats meup.
But um, that that Do you haveto take that time to reflect and
actually think about it,because if you don't, then

(45:30):
you're just gonna rush to thenext thing and never, never grow
.
And then those that arewatching you and seeing your
witness they're not seeing yougrow and change in the spirit,
right.

Ryan (45:41):
And when they do see the change, then you have somewhere
to point the glory.
Yeah, absolutely, because thesin becomes worship but I am One
of the most we're talking about, kind of like some of those
confrontations that I've had,one of the most effective things
that we did one time, you know,they came in and they were very
combative, like you could tellthat they were like oh, this is
a principle, but I'm gonnadefend my position, right,

(46:02):
mm-hmm?
And I saw, really I kind of sawthe spirit from the very
beginning of like this person,this individual, like they're
being very Defensive becausethey thought it was gonna be
that reprimand, right, and Isaid, hey, before we go further,
I Just want you to know, rightnow I am struggling severely
with pride At work.

(46:23):
I feel you know I started kindof in confessing where I'm at
right and then one of the otherdeacons there was like yeah,
well, right now I'm strugglingwith lust.
Pornography is a problem for me.
I had beaten it but it startedto manifest itself back and I'm
in active battle with it rightnow.
Yeah, actually Ryan, over here,he's been praying with me, you

(46:44):
know what I mean?
Yeah, so we kind of went aroundand we all kind of confessed
our sins as a group, mm-hmm.
And this person was kind oflike, oh okay.
And my point to him I said, hey, that's what we're struggling
with, all right, so don't getoffended that we're talking
about what you're strugglingwith, because I have struggles
too.
All right, that's not what thisis about.
And the spirit completelychanged you.

(47:06):
And I mean I Thought that wassomething was so I guess a good
piece of advice for anybodywho's about to have a
confrontation like that.
Maybe start with your ownadmission.
Yeah this is where I'm at.
Can you pray for me with this?
Mm-hmm and this is where you'reat right and I want to pray for
you with this and what's workedtogether right.
Carry each other's burdens.

Selena (47:25):
That's what he's talking about.

Ryan (47:27):
We need to carry the burden that each of us carry.
I was gonna talk more aboutthat in a second.
Yeah, but I just wanted towrite so.
If you're ever finding yourselfin a position where You're
pretending like you are notdealing with things to other
people, now you're a hypocrite.

Imran (47:46):
Yeah cuz.
Now you're pretending to besomething you're not you're also
not only hurting yourself,you're hurting others, because
there is no way people aren'tseeing it in some way.
There are very few people thatcan just completely hide their
sin or completely hide the thingthat they're struggling with.
There are very few occasionswhere when that's like people,

(48:07):
there are gonna be thesuperficial people that only see
you on Sunday, only see you atwork and they're like oh, I
never would have thought, butlike your wife or your husband
or your kids, like they're gonna, there are cracks in your
facade that they are gonna seeand that's that that really
hurts your witness.
You know, and it's just becauseyou want to admit it to yourself
one of the most true hypocrisy.

Ryan (48:27):
I feel like one of the most Impact.
I don't, I mean I don't want to.
I Say most impactful sermons Iever preached was just because
of the response I got.
But is it was actually the dayI was ordained, when I just
really just gave my testimony?

Imran (48:42):
And one of the things was .
I think it was very shockingand the honesty that the truth
there is just well, but and Ithink, yeah, and I think that
all had things within itself.

Ryan (48:54):
But I think for many people who had been in the
church for a while around me,what I didn't realize and you
know, one of the one of thedeacon wives was very I
appreciate it.
She said this Because it wasvery encouraging what she told
me, like the whole conversation.
But you know, one of the thingsshe said is, like you know, a
lot of people kind of put youand Tricia, you know your wife,

(49:14):
on account of this pedestal,like they think, like this is
where they're at in life andthey're, they're just not at
your level, right, and byconfessing all that and being
honest with all that, it kind ofbrought me down to theirs.
Yeah, okay, so he, he's not andI didn't know.
People had that impression.
Yeah right, which is almostkind of concern me, of like man
am I putting up?
It might not be as honest on adaily basis I should be.

Imran (49:36):
I don't think that, that I think it's more the the
station.
We have this expectation of ourpastors and of our deacons, and
that's why it's so shockingwhen, like you, find out a
pastor like may suffer withpornography or adult, or has an
affair or something like that.
It is so much more shockingthan just finding that you're

(49:57):
that like a federal Christian tobe clear, they should have high
expectations, yeah, but that'sbut that's why it's like that's
gonna always follow you, cuz,like it's.
It's the same thing withofficers like my Marines will
look at, look at me, and butofficers also hold themselves to
that extremely high standards.

Ryan (50:12):
Because of that, you're like a representative.

Imran (50:14):
Represents the officer getting a DUI compared to a once
a couple right exactly, eventhough they have the same amount
of time of service.

Ryan (50:21):
But one of the things I wanted to To kind of hit here,
though, was so notice in versetwo it says that we are to all
carry each other's burdens,right, but then in verse five,
oh sorry.

Imran (50:36):
I did want to close up by saying it is important to Share
those things so that you becomeoh yeah, exactly was my point
right, was that?

Ryan (50:44):
when you do that, it you know to be honest with it and
people are more receptive thanto what you're saying.
So, if you're saying somethingthat's like man, that's really
hard, or you know.
Quote-unquote can be judgyright mm-hmm.
Which is really justdiscipleship.
It actually kind of sets thebaseline level like well, this
is also somebody who has thishistory or is struggling with
you what I mean.

(51:05):
Yeah so that they're not.
This isn't something that'sjust a blanket of you wagging
your finger at them and pointingat them but you know what I
mean that, hey, I think it'sboth two, right.
But so verse two it says now weare all to carry each other's
burdens.
But then in verse five it thenhe kind of switches his, but
each should carry their own mode.

(51:25):
You notice that?

Selena (51:26):
yeah, yeah.

Ryan (51:27):
So that's not a contradiction.
I actually think this is a very.
You could apply this to so manythings.
Let's first apply it to what Ithink Paul is talking about.
Paul was talking about when wetalk about carrying each other's
burdens, right?
mm-hmm contextually and go backto the very first episode when
we kind of did the, the introright with the context.
But you know, this is wrappedup in a, in a bunch of things,

(51:48):
of Carrying the burden, eachother's burdens, of sin.
So as you struggle with sin,that struggle should be my
struggle with you, right, and mysin Should be your struggle too
, right, we carry each other'sburdens.
The second thing is I thinkwe're also talking financially
and Paul is about to starttalking money here in a second,
naturally following in therebecause, economically, as you

(52:11):
start struggling, it's like, hey, you all need to be carrying
each other's burdens to befaithful to Christ, particularly
in this context.
Here it meant it was going tocost you and that means you may
not have the provision that youbut otherwise have.
So when somebody is beingfaithful to Christ and that's
costing them something, youshould be encouraging and

(52:31):
supportive and saying, hey, Igot you in my excess, right, so
we are to carry.
When one of the things that sindoes also is that it creates
burdens on people that they werenever intended or created to
carry, right.
So if you think about you know,because I do youth, right.

(52:51):
If you think about a teenagerwho is having to work a job to
help pay bills because they'rein a single parent home.
Reason they're in a singleparent home is because one of
those parents In their sin wasso into themselves that they
didn't want to be a parent, orthat they maybe had a drug or

(53:12):
alcohol addiction, or that theyyou know I'm saying or violence,
or anything.
They were struggling with lustand had an affair, but it's all
consequence of sin.

Imran (53:19):
Yeah, right.
Or just sex outside of marriagethat led to a child?
Sure, right, they just always.
But it's all a consequence ofsin, right?

Ryan (53:27):
so in this consequence of sin, now you have this single
mother, sometimes single father,but by and large, statistically
80%, it's all single motherswho are now having to carry that
burden.
Yeah right, so what Goddesigned is that the burden of
parenthood should be sharedbetween two people.
Now one is having to carry thatextra load.

(53:50):
Yeah right, now you throw ontop of that, you know the
consequences of all this othersin that's happening, even their
own.
It's just packing down thisbackpack that you're like.
You are carrying a load you arenot intended to carry right as
a marine right.
You have loadouts right youactually you work your way up

(54:11):
for certain homes, right to sayhey, you should be able to as a
hike, for yeah, yes, you shouldbe able to carry 115 pounds, x
amount of distance, right that'sthe expectation.
Obviously, training work up toit.
But now imagine if this happenson hikes.
Right, I remember it drove.
It drives people crazy.
This is my fist.
Fights break out when you takea break and you're like hey,

(54:32):
take your shoes off, change yoursocks.
And you're like why are peoplebrawling in the middle?
The reason is because you gotpeople who carrying their own
load can't carry their own Load,which means I now, carrying my
load, have to start carryingyour load.
Yeah, because you can't carryyour radio.
I have to now carry your radioand all your batteries and
because, you can't carry yourmachine gun.

Imran (54:52):
I know you're a barrel or you carry your right or
something like that.

Ryan (54:55):
I'm carrying more than I was not intended to carry you
know what I'm saying.
But that's how life is is thatpeople start carrying more than
they were intended to carry?
Mm-hmm and you carry it longenough.

Imran (55:04):
There's no safety fix in combat right.

Ryan (55:08):
But if you bet, the point is in life.
If you start carrying that loadthat you weren't intended to
carry for long enough, you'renot gonna walk at the pace you
should be walking at, you're notgonna be as effective and going
the distance into the placesyou should and you're gonna
start compromising down or youstart dropping things out of
that pack to lighten the load.

Imran (55:27):
Yeah, things that you probably need later were
intended to carry.

Ryan (55:30):
Right.
So those are what should say.
There were responsibilities.
Right, there areresponsibilities you are
intended to carry in life.
But when you start having morethan you were intended, you
start dropping things to makethe pack lighter and Paul's like
, hey, it's like being on thatcompany hike and as somebody
starts carrying a load more thanthey intended to carry, you
should all be taking that gear,dispersing it across the rest of

(55:52):
the unit as a church to helpcarry to get to where we need to
go right.

Selena (55:57):
Yeah.

Ryan (55:57):
But he doesn't alleviate them of the responsibility that
you do need to carry your ownload, though.

Imran (56:02):
Yeah, you still gotta carry your own load right A lot
of people just expect God, likeI did my prayer of intervention.

Ryan (56:08):
Lord, you know, I got this porn addiction and I just I
hate it, but it's where I'm at.
So just miraculously intervene,remove the desire and until
that happens I'm just gonna godown this path.
Right?
He's like no, you have a loadto carry with this to your
things.
You have to do Actively tocombat this yeah you have to
take action too, and so, like,that's like in terms of like sin

(56:29):
, right, but you knowfinancially the same same way,
right, yeah you know you gotpeople caring relationally, you
get access.
I mean man, like when he talkedto you even today about money
we're gonna talk about moneyhere in a second but he's like
hey, maybe the the financialblessing God gave you wasn't for
you, but it was meant to gothrough you.

(56:49):
Mm-hmm and that hit me hardbecause I just started this new
job with this phenomenal raise.
Yeah, right, like huge raise thebiggest raise I've ever had in
my life.
And you know me, my wife, we'rekind of going through like well
, cool, like we got this Morethan we had.
You know two months ago.
So we're looking to mineproperty this like front
property for us to go camping onand you know, we're looking at

(57:12):
getting an RV or we were lookingat a the, the new kind of
vacations we get to have, rightand Bob, and that really struck
me today because I was like youknow, maybe God gave me that,
that excess, not really for me.
Yeah but to work through me, tohelp, and at the same time I'm
just saying like at the sametime two of the kids who are in
our youth Are talking abouthaving to move Because they

(57:36):
can't afford to live hereanymore.
They're not making ends meetand I'm like, well, I have this
excess now that you know Sam,I'm saying yeah, and I don't
want to go too much further downon that, no, that's.
I mean that I'm just sayingthat it's, it's a thing.
But I also think this is a goodeconomic model right, because
everybody gets so, like when wetalk about biblical economics.

(57:58):
Like oh, the government bailingpeople out or welfare or things
like that right.
Yeah, of course he's talkingcontext of church, but just
understand the expectation isthe expectation that the church
was supposed to do it.

Imran (58:09):
So the but because the church doesn't do it now the
government has to do it becauseGod's church isn't doing it.

Ryan (58:15):
But the idea being, though , is that, yeah, we'll come in
and we will help you carry thatburden when you're struggling,
but you also have to be working.
Yeah, that's the whole conceptof benevolence and that's what,
and this is just a good, I think, example, right, like, don't
get upset when we offer help topeople, right, but also don't
get upset when people get upsetthat we're giving that help to

(58:37):
people who aren't doing anythingfor themselves.
You are to carry your own load,right.
You should be doing something,actively working, trying to not
just contribute to the societyand community.
Yeah but to help your ownsituation and when you're
falling short, will come in andshare that burden with you.
All right, but we're also notone who's just gonna mooch off
us and have us just Sustain youfor the rest of you know what

(58:57):
I'm saying?
Yeah, so it's a good biblicalmodel.
I think you know when you lookat the comparison of those two.
But Okay, do you want here?
So, nevertheless, the one whoreceives instruction and the
word should share all goodthings with their instructor.
So now we're gonna talk veryuncomfortably.
This idea of money how muchpastors should make, you know,

(59:18):
giving to the church versus thatverse six.
The one who receives instructionin the word should share all
good things with theirinstructor.
Do not be deceived.
God cannot be mocked.
A man reaps what he sows.
Whoever sows to please theirflesh from the flesh will reap
destruction.
Whoever sows to please thespirit from the spirit will reap

(59:41):
eternal life.
Let us not become weary anddoing good, for at the proper
time we will reap a harvest ifwe do not give up.
Therefore, as we haveopportunity, let's do good to
all people, especially those whobelong to the family of
believers.

Imran (59:55):
So you know something just before you, just my overall
, just listening to you readthat, I'm like that's basically
what the early Church did interms like the pastor lived with
the people in the congregation,like Paul just lived with
people that were a part of thechurch.
We actually talked about in oneof the episodes what we did

(01:00:16):
with Pastor David, because wealready started recording some
of them.
But, um, it's like Jesus in allthe Gospels he's going like
from home to home to home andhe's staying with people and
they're and they're feeding him.

Ryan (01:00:29):
They're feeding his disciples, they're taking care
of him, yeah, and he tells hisdisciples when he sends them out
, and this is in Luke, chapter 9.
He says, hey, go out to all thecommunities, only take enough
with you just to last a day.

Selena (01:00:41):
Wow, oh wow the villages .

Ryan (01:00:44):
If they will receive you.
They will receive you if theydo not wipe the dust off your
feet.
Go to the next town.
The whole idea is that you'rewalking by faith as a teacher.

Selena (01:00:51):
Wow.

Ryan (01:00:52):
Hmm, is that you are?

Selena (01:00:54):
dependent on the charity of the people that you're
ministering to.

Ryan (01:00:57):
Wow so, and I think, because you can't escape this at
all, he's talking about money.
Okay, he's talking aboutprovision and the idea and the
expectation, and this is foranybody listening right and for
us in this room, if somebody isministering to you you are
actively being ministered to.
You are showing up to church onSunday, receiving the blessing

(01:01:21):
and the teaching of people whoare ministering to you.
Yeah, your expectation is thatyou should also be providing
them with provision.
Yeah right and I think what washappening in this church.
I think, but I think, and thisis just an opinion- we say this
church is talking about thechurch.
Paul's writing to yes and inGalatia is that, and this is

(01:01:43):
just an inference, but the factthat he includes it here within
the context, yeah, and it's justopinion.
But I think what was happeningis he's kind of addressing of
how they got into the situationto begin with.
How was it that this teacherWas able to come in and undercut
his gospel?
Because they didn't have anystable teacher there Remaining

(01:02:04):
their, discipling them.
So the only one who was fundedby church in Jerusalem, who had
all the money because everybodywas giving To the church in
Jerusalem, right, he came withprovision so he was able to do
ministry there act right, butthose who were the preachers of
the gospel of grace were not,probably because they weren't

(01:02:25):
able to stay there, because theyweren't being provided for.
No it particularly as that otherone comes in and they're
actively there and there's so inthose seeds.
Now you have this competingteacher, so now you got this
tension.
But now, well, who are yougonna give to you?
I mean, like, so it was veryconfusing for them.
I don't think that washappening.
Any one of the things he Ithink he's saying here and
understand what he is saying,okay, but you give people get so

(01:02:49):
caught up about money in thechurch.
It's like what do you thinkkeeps the lights on?
You know?
what I mean I tell people youknow like, and in our church,
right, I'm like hey, you feelthat, especially out here in the
desert right Feel that breezepushing down your neck, that
cool breeze.

Imran (01:03:04):
I don't like to complain about if it's not there.
Yeah, that's not.
That's not the Holy Spiritbreathing on you.

Ryan (01:03:09):
That is the air conditioning and that costs
money right, yeah and the ideais this is that if your heart is
fully focused on the kingdom ofGod and the gospel of Christ,
you're going to give money tothat yeah that's the most
important thing to you, right?
Your personal instruction, yougetting ministered to.
And you're like, hey, I want tobe sanctified, I want to be

(01:03:31):
discipled.
I need teachers and instructorsto do that.
Well, if, how important is thatto you?
Well, it's important enough forme to make sure that they are
here and they're able to do thateffectively, but they need
provision to do that, because ifyou don't provide for them,
what are they doing?
They're having to go work.
Paul was a tent maker.

Imran (01:03:48):
Yeah right.

Ryan (01:03:49):
So they're having to go do a vocation to provide for
themselves, which means that'sless time studying.
They're committed to studyingand preparing and doing ministry
for you.

Selena (01:03:58):
Right.

Ryan (01:03:58):
So if you're like, hey, this is the most valuable thing
to me, then you're going to giveto that you need to, and also
money speaks.

Imran (01:04:05):
So you are giving.
You're always giving to themost valuable thing to you, yeah
, so if you look at your liferight now and right now you're
feeling convicted it's like, ohwell, I shouldn't.
Why would I give to my church XY Z?
They should be able to do X Y Zthing to sustain themselves.
Like, hey, you're always givingto the thing that is most
important to you.
I am always putting my moneytowards the thing that is most

(01:04:27):
important to me, because whywould I do anything other than
that?
Why would anyone do anythingother than that you worked for
that money?

Ryan (01:04:33):
So really think about it before you want to make some
comment about and why thatbothers people is because what
it costs them as the Alternative, because people look at, well,
if I give opportunity cost,that's business term.
Yeah, if this gives me, if Igive this much money to the
church, well I could take thatsame amount of money and go to
TJ Max.

Imran (01:04:51):
You can get another shirt.
Yeah, I can get all thesethings and have my nose car, get
my with that.

Ryan (01:04:56):
But you got to think about that read it again the one who
receives instruction in the wordshould share all good things
with their instructor.
Do not be deceived.
God cannot be mocked Right.
He says I know what's valuableto you.

Imran (01:05:09):
Mm-hmm.

Ryan (01:05:09):
And you're not gonna mock me by showing up and saying that
Christ is the most importantthing in your life.
You're here to receiveinstruction about it.
Then you're not, but thenyou're going to Keep all the
blessings you've been given togo buy nicer clothes for
yourself.

Selena (01:05:23):
What he?

Ryan (01:05:24):
says a man reaps what he sows.
Whoever sows to please theirflesh from the flesh will reap
that destruction.
But whoever sows to please thespirit from the spirit will reap
eternal life.
That's walking in the spirit isthe most important thing to you
, you're going to invest inthings that will help you walk
in the spirit.
Yeah, if the flesh is moreimportant to you, you're going
to invest in things that Feedthe flesh.

Imran (01:05:45):
I feel like that is absolutely Irrefutable fact,
like just by, like a humannature, fact of life, like I
don't, if you're, if you'relistening right now, and you're
like, well, I think that Ishould just be able to go to
church, and you know just you'rejust seeing yourself exactly.
You're deceiving because you arealways going to spend your
money on the thing you careabout.
So if you're gonna say that youcare about your eternal life

(01:06:08):
and you care about your walk inyour faith and you care about
your witness and all that stuff,then You're not caring till
your money is saying that you'recaring.
That's just a fact.
That's just how we, that's howthis society thing works.

Ryan (01:06:21):
Yeah, share all good things with your instructor,
with your teacher, right?
So, with that said, we areopening a go fund me for real.

Selena (01:06:33):
Could you imagine?

Ryan (01:06:34):
that the holy we're Ponds Baptist Church makes make sure
that, yeah, we're we have a goodchurch of givers, so you, that
was a total joke, but.
But what I would say, though,is but notice what it says, but
let us not become weary, anddoing good throughout the proper
time will reap a harvest whenyou give your church.
You're not just like Paying asalary for your pastor, or you

(01:06:56):
know those who do ministryfull-time in your church, yeah,
but you're investing in thekingdom of God for them to go
out and do good for others,right?
I, there's, there's so manyministries in a church that are
that are changing lives, right,and what people have a hard time
with, I think, sometimes withthis, is that they know the
church is doing good things andthey know that they need money

(01:07:19):
right, they don't really disputethat, and they don't have a
problem with that, but it's hardfor them because there's not
like this.
You given faith in the sensethat you're not given automatic
gratification.
Right, because when I do atransaction if I go to TJ max
like well, I just spent $50 onthis shirt, I know the very next
day I can wear that shirt, yeahyou know what I?

(01:07:40):
Mean like I see immediatelywhat my money bought true.
But the kingdom of God doesn'twork that way, right?
Because everybody's kind ofgiven into that pot.
That pot is being dispersed outthrough ministry to bless a
bunch of people, whether it'schildren it's men's ministry,
women's ministry, it'sbenevolence, it's to the poor,
it's feeding hungry people,right?
It's just it's being spewed outof that kind of that one central

(01:08:00):
pot of everybody's given right.

Imran (01:08:02):
Oh, I would so.

Ryan (01:08:03):
So the idea is kind of like you should really look at
when you're giving,understanding that, oh like my
money helped do that.
And what we also don't see isthe the alternative to not give
right.
So some people look at thatwell, I'm not giving now you go
look at COVID times.
Every see that everything seemsto be working fine, right, like

(01:08:24):
I'm not giving now, like theyseem to be doing fine to it, am
I really gonna make an impact?
Well, you're not seeing thealternative, though, that if
everybody who thought, like youdid give, how much more could
you so?
Hey, yeah, you got thishomeless ministry that fed a
hundred people this weekend.
Yeah they're doing good, right,but if everybody who thought
like you actually gave, well,you cannot only be, you won't be

(01:08:45):
feeding a hundred people, youcould be, you know, feeding a
thousand people.

Imran (01:08:47):
Yeah, you know, I'm saying like give them in excess.

Ryan (01:08:50):
We could house some of them possible, but it also kind
of comes back to this whole ideathat build little the blessing
you get, and particularly money,isn't yours to begin with,
exactly belong to Christ.
Everything is surrendered overto Christ.
Right your body Um.
Sexually it's surrendered overyour eyes or ears.
Everything is surrendered over.
That includes your checkbookright.

(01:09:12):
Your bank account issurrendered over as well.

Imran (01:09:14):
I would I didn't get your checkbook fully signed over,
that'll really open, becausethat's probably the hardest
thing to consistently Get signedover and and and following
Christ in the way that you spendyour money.
Because in order to fall, inorder to follow Christ in the
way you spend your money, youprobably are gonna have to buy
different stuff.
You might need to buy somedifferent outfits.

(01:09:35):
You might need to go to somedifferent places Out in town and
spend your money at not thoseaudacious clubs or those odd or
those audacious bars and stufflike that you may lead to
legitimately Go to differentplaces and spend your money in
different ways, not just in theand this is talking outside of
the tie, they're talking aboutthe other 90%.
The other 90% is still supposedto be spent in a godly manner.

(01:09:58):
All right, all right.
So like it's, like you just cuzyou tie this, I mean you can go
drop the next 10% at a stripclub like.
That's not how that works,parable of the sheep and the
goats.

Ryan (01:10:06):
God cares how you spend your money.
Yeah even the money that youdon't give, and so the the thing
.
So I've been doing this wholething.
I know I've mentioned it before, but we've been going through
this series with youth onidentity and man it.
I'm telling you like this wholething and just studying it has

(01:10:27):
completely transformed, justLike the way I've understood, I
understand things right and andreally money the reason people
have a hard time giving withmoney that's because what money
ultimately does for anindividual is what it provides.
What it funds is their identity.

(01:10:48):
So whatever your identity is,your money is going to follow
your identity.
It's going to prop up thatidentity and our identity, our-.
Christ, dress your haircut, howyou look, how you act, what you
drive, yeah, completely came toreform our identity and we've

(01:11:10):
been going through all thedifferent factors of it, your
body being one of them.
So tattoos, clothes, thingsthat are part of your.
Your body is a manifestation ofyour internal identity, your
relationships, your commitments,your boundaries, your geography
geography feeds a lot into youridentity.
So all those things that Christcame to reform and said I'm

(01:11:30):
completely reshaping.
You're a new creation and newidentity.
So when we have a hard timegiving, that's because there's
parts of our identity that areAre in conflict.

Imran (01:11:40):
That are in conflict that you're prioritizing more than
your faith.

Ryan (01:11:42):
And the idea is that if my full identity is now being
derived from Christ, then mymoney is going to flow and feed
that identity Right of who youare in.
Christ and who you belong to asa community, as you know.

Imran (01:11:57):
Yeah, we talked about.
I don't know if we talked onhere, if this was like at a
Bible study or maybe at a sermon, but like, even something as
simple as, like your Spotifyplaylist has to, it's going to
be turned over, like you'regoing to become, and I felt this
.
I feel this, that convicted in,like the stuff that's in my
like old Spotify playlist.
Like sometimes the shuffle isjust so ridiculous.

(01:12:19):
I'm just like unlike in songsfrom that I liked when I was the
middle school, high school,college and all that.
It gets worse with kids.
I haven't.

Ryan (01:12:27):
There's things now that I didn't even, I wasn't even
convicted in, but now I'mdriving with the kids and-.

Imran (01:12:32):
With the music playing.

Selena (01:12:34):
And.

Ryan (01:12:34):
I'm like.
They're like oh, the dad doeshas an E on it.
That means we can't listen toit.
I'm like well, why do I havethese songs that have explicit
content on it?
To where?

Imran (01:12:41):
now my kids are like I'm like why do I have so much?

Ryan (01:12:43):
Right and I was like wow, like I didn't even realize, like
I'm talking things like Blink182, right, like listening to
Blink 182, getting them in.
They love it, you know.
Like but then I'm like I didn'trealize how much like like 182
cussed, like you know what.
I mean, like you just got, Igot so numb to it Absolutely
Over so many years and I feelthat I was washing the

(01:13:05):
motorcycles on the truck theother day, just like two days
ago.

Imran (01:13:09):
And I just had my the shuffle going on Spotify and I
was like, oh my gosh, this is sowack.
I had to go and I had to likehit the like not allow explicit
stuff Because I was like there'sno way.
I'm just gonna like let this bemy witness right now, all this
like music playing out of mygarage and it's just shows,
right, and you're like, wow,that is, I feel like, but before

(01:13:31):
but I think it's like I'vewatched my Mustang and Blast
Music back when I had Mustangthree four years ago.
And I would.

Selena (01:13:37):
That was a music I was listening to.

Ryan (01:13:38):
It's not even that I didn't care, I didn't even know
I didn't even know the depth ofthe sin I was in.

Imran (01:13:45):
That's the most insane thing to look back on myself and
not and know that I did noteven know the depth of the sin I
was in.

Ryan (01:13:51):
So one of the things I think people naturally asked
from this then, though, was likeso are you still required to
pay the 10% tithe?
Because, if you look at theentire context of Galatians, the
rule of 10% belongs to the law.
If the law is not there, Idon't have to pay 10% tithe,
right?
And I think Paul's answer Ihonestly do believe what Paul

(01:14:13):
would answer to you would be no,you're not required to pay 10%
tithe.
However, if the most importantthing to you, right as it should
be is the gospel, then are youwilling to let the ministers of
that gospel fall into poverty,right?
Like, are you willing to letthe church that ministers to you

(01:14:33):
struggle?
Are you okay with the peoplewho minister that gospel to you
to worry day, month to month ifthey're gonna make bills?
Yeah, you know what I'm saying,and because and I, pastor David
, even said it today but wherethe law ends, grace always
exceeds the law.

Selena (01:14:54):
Yep.

Ryan (01:14:56):
Right, so you can't.

Imran (01:14:58):
It's like oops, the standard is higher now, not
lower.
It always has been right.

Ryan (01:15:03):
You've heard it say do not murder.
I tell you, love and pray foryour enemies, right?
So it's not just don't murder,but pray and love your enemies,
right.
Grace always exceeds the law.

Imran (01:15:16):
And so does that mean?
Oh, what does that?

Ryan (01:15:17):
mean?
Does that mean that if I'mpaying only 10%, that I'm not
paying enough, right?
That's not what it's about.
What it's about is that, ifthat is where your passion and
your heart is desired, you'regoing to love people right.
That's why he says what does notbecome weary and doing good, or
the proper time.
We will reap the harvest if wedo not give up.
Therefore, as we haveopportunity, let us do good to
all people.

(01:15:38):
And then notice what he alsosays.
He kind of prioritizes it,especially to those who belong
to the family of believers.
We are first supposed to becaring, be caring of our own
church community first.

Imran (01:15:51):
Oh, interesting.

Ryan (01:15:52):
Especially to the family of believers.
I have a quote here from MartinLuther.
This is from his commentary onGalatians.
On this verse he says I do notfind much pleasure in explaining
these verses, as I appear to bepreaching for my own benefit,
right?
Because?

Selena (01:16:08):
he's right, he's a preacher.

Ryan (01:16:10):
Yeah, he's like I feel like I'd be preaching for my own
benefit, but why do theapostles reiterate this command
so often?
Because when Satan cannotsuppress the preaching of the
gospel by force, he tries tosuppress it by striking
preachers of the gospel withpoverty.
I thought that's a really goodquote.
Where Satan cannot suppress byforce, he then tries to suppress

(01:16:33):
by poverty.
So, in your excess, give, giveto God's kingdom.
Does that mean your pastorshould be in that multimillion
dollar home, with drivingmultiple Lexuses and having a
airplane?
Absolutely not.
That is something completelydifferent.
That is absurd.
My standard is this, and this ishow we kind of approach it.

(01:16:56):
What we said at our church isthat we want to remove as much
stress as possible, so PastorDavid, our senior pastor, can
focus on shepherding thepastoral ministry of this church
as much as possible.
When you start having financialproblems, when you're having to

(01:17:18):
deal with the things thatpoverty brings, that's going to
distract him from beingeffective in our church.
Does that mean that we arepaying him bonuses so that he's
able to go buy that Lexus?
Absolutely not.
That does mean, though, thatwe're paying him enough to where
he doesn't have to live monthto month.

Imran (01:17:36):
That he doesn't have to worry about retirement, he
doesn't have to worry about hiscar, he doesn't have to worry
about his house.

Ryan (01:17:39):
If something catastrophic happens to his house, that we
are committed to coming in andsaying we will help you with
that.
So he understands that he isreassured that he is taken care
of in the event that those biglife things happen, so he can
continue to focus on shepherdingthis church.

Imran (01:17:56):
That we want to shepherd it.
So last week was pastorappreciation week, month, I
guess, day, I don't know.

Ryan (01:18:04):
October's pastor appreciation month but it's
usually celebrated on the second, which, for those listening, if
you have not given your pastorany appreciation, go do so.
Better, go do so.

Imran (01:18:14):
I was talking to pastor last night and he said he was so
thankful for the gift that hegot from the church because he
has this broken window in hishouse that's been broken for a
while that he couldn't shut,couldn't open, and now he can
fix it.
He was so thankful just forthat, to fix the window, to be

(01:18:37):
able to fix this window in hishouse that was cracked, and so
I'm like man, that's awesome.

Ryan (01:18:41):
Yeah, that's so.
Yeah, love your pastors.
Cause that's what he wasworried about.
If the gospel important to you,then it should be important to
you financially.
If discipleship and growing andfaith, hope and love and
walking in the spirit is yourpriority, then it should be a
financial priority for you too.

Imran (01:19:02):
Even in the flip side of that is, you are already going
to put your money towardswhatever is important to you.
So if you're not not puttingyour money towards your faith
and if you're listening to thisand you're still like, well, I
don't want to put my moneytowards my faith, then you are
answering the ultimate questionof what is the most important
thing to you.
Right then and there.

Ryan (01:19:23):
Well, let me just address one last thing, since we're
talking about it.
There's also two people,there's kind of two frames of
thought of how people view this.
They're like in terms of churchgiving or kingdom giving.
You hear this a lot.
The idea is this is that, well,I pay 10% towards the kingdom,
but not necessarily 10% to thechurch.

(01:19:44):
Essentially, I give money toother Christian charities like
World Vision or you know.

Imran (01:19:53):
Oh, so they're deciding how God's money is spent.

Ryan (01:19:56):
Right they're taking points, they're saying I am
giving this much money to thesedifferent Christian causes,
right.

Imran (01:20:02):
Okay.

Ryan (01:20:03):
That's what we would.
I guess you would call kingdomgiving but then there's church
giving which is to your localchurch right.

Imran (01:20:09):
People ask that To the church that's ministering and
teaching you.

Ryan (01:20:11):
Right and people will say well, I give to the kingdom, I
just don't pay to the church,and this is my.
I think it should be both andthis is a bit of gray succeeds
right.
You should be paying your localchurch who's ministering to you
because they need it, right.
But that doesn't just stopthere.

(01:20:33):
You should also be giving tokingdom, giving like those
organizations, and you shouldalso be waiting for
opportunities to bless peopleand be generous and charitable
there too, Just like right.
Like that.
You're in the back, you knowyou're at the grocery store and
you see somebody struggling topay their grocery and they're
trying to remove things to beable to pay within their budget.

(01:20:53):
You're like, hey, I got itright, Like you should be
generous.

Imran (01:20:56):
That way too, pastor David said today it's like if
you're sitting in line somewhereand or you see someone
somewhere and you have that ideain your head, it's like man,
somebody ought to do somethingabout this.

Selena (01:21:05):
Should someone do something?

Imran (01:21:07):
It's like that's probably the Holy Spirit tapping you on
the shoulder, saying hey, I putyou there for a reason, do
something about it, you know.
So those moments like thinkabout that, think about those.

Ryan (01:21:18):
Yeah.
So last piece here, verse 11.
Now see what large letters Iuse as I write to you with my
own hand.
So I know I referenced this inprevious episodes.
But one there's always thisconstant thing with Paul's eyes
If you remember his when Pauland really his interaction with

(01:21:39):
Christ on the Damascus road andhis conversion right bright
light.
Then he's blinded for a timeand he gets healed of that
blindness right by anotherdisciple that's sent to him
after he's persecuting God'schurch and they're like do you
really?

Imran (01:21:51):
want me to go to that.

Ryan (01:21:52):
You know Saul, who's personally trying to kill us.
All right, it seems that thatcondition lasted with him.
I think it.
You know, you see thisreference to his eyes over and
over particularly in Galatians.
You see this reference over andover to his physical, you know
state of what he's done for thegospel, but also his eyes right.

(01:22:13):
So now you see, see what largeletters.

Selena (01:22:15):
I use.

Ryan (01:22:16):
Like you can look at that as one of him, like amplifying
everything he's writing, causehe's really irritated with the
church, if you remember, in thevery beginning of the letter,
right, he's like I'm at a lossfor you, you guys.
He's just like I'm fed up withyou all, like you guys are
driving me crazy, right.
So you can maybe think of it aslike an exclamation point.
I think it's more.
You can't see, and usually theway these letters would be

(01:22:38):
written, right, is Paul or Peteror John is writing, but there's
a scribe who's actually writingit, he's dictate and then signs
writing.
But notice what he says, butlarge letters I use as I write
to you with my own hand.
He personalized this to them.
He's like I'm not even using ascribe for this, I'm writing it
with my own hand and see thelarge letters cause I can't see
worth anything because of hissufferings for Christ right.

(01:23:03):
Verse 12,.
But those who want to impresspeople by means of the flesh are
really trying to compel you tobe circumcised.
The only reason they do this isto avoid being persecuted for
the cross of Christ.
So if you remember againearlier episodes, one of the
claims against Paul is thereason he's telling Gentiles
they don't need to getcircumcised is because he's a

(01:23:23):
people pleaser.
Right and remember, we talkedabout the Psalms of Solomon, not
the Psalms right now Psalms,but the Psalms of Solomon.
It was a rabbinical literaturethat was popular in that day.
Paul, being a Pharisee, wasvery well aware of it, and in
that there were three groups ofpeople.

(01:23:43):
You had the righteous, ie theJews.
You had the sinners, ie theGentiles.
Then you had the peoplepleasers.
These were Jews who were notbeing good Jews under occupation
.
They're just kind of existingto please everybody.
Their claim to Paul was thatyou're being a people pleaser,
you're in that category becauseyou just don't want the Gentiles
being mad at you because theyhave to go in adulthood and get

(01:24:05):
circumcised right.
And Paul's point back is likeI'm not the one being the people
pleaser.
The whole reason you're wantingthem to get circumcised is to
alleviate the fear of the Jewishauthority, so that more
persecution doesn't come.
And you're really the peoplepleaser, right?
So he kind of concludes it here.
The only reason they want youto do this is so they can avoid
being persecuted for the crossof Christ.

(01:24:27):
They're the people, pleaser.
They're the ones who are tryingto avoid persecution not me,
because he then makes anotherreference to his physical state
here in a second.
But not even those who arecircumcised keep the law right.
He's like the people who areasking you to get circumcised
they themselves aren't evenkeeping the law, and if they
were keeping the law, theywouldn't need Jesus to begin
with.
But the fact that those who areunder the law can't keep the

(01:24:50):
law, and those who are not underthe law, who also can't keep
the law, we're in the same boat,all in the need of a Messiah,
right?
So if the law could justify you, it would.
But it's not.
And we talked about.
That's not a whole episode rightwhen we talk about what's the
function of the law.
It's like a rocket ship.

Imran (01:25:05):
You remember all that.
That reminds me of somethingthat we learned last night.
It's like one of the pointsthat the speaker brought up at
Set Free was that, like we allknow, we need a savior.
Like we all, even as kids, webelieve in these heroes, whether
that be from a show or fromMarvel movies or from books that
we read.
But we latch on to this conceptof a hero, Someone who saves

(01:25:28):
and so.
But it's only as we grow and wemature that we understand that,
yes, we do need a savior andthat savior is Jesus Christ, and
that's what he should feel,Whether you're Jew or Gentile
you do need a savior.

Ryan (01:25:44):
If you're able to look at it, most fairy tales is really
just the gospel being told,retold in different ways.
Oh yeah, I noticed that Most ofthe most successful Marvel DC
comics are the same way, right.

Imran (01:25:54):
Captain America is just Jesus Christ repackaged.
It's the same kind of hismorals, his guiding light.
He's like it's the same idea.

Ryan (01:26:04):
So he continues, though he says so.
Those who are circumcisedBecause against the things there
is the law.
Not even those who arecircumcised keep the law, yet
they want you to be circumcised,that they may boast about your
circumcision in the flesh.
What he means is it's not likethat they're going back to the
church of Jerusalem.

Selena (01:26:20):
Man, I got seven of them to go.

Ryan (01:26:21):
You know, get circumcised, and it's like high fives right
what he's saying is they'reboasting in it.
So they could go boast to theJewish authority saying, hey, we
got them to get circumcised.
Like, calm down, don't kick usout of the synagogue.
But the Romans know they'regetting circumcised, right.
That's what he means byboasting.
They are boasting in the factthat you got circumcised in the

(01:26:45):
flesh, but then he says but mayI never boast except in the
cross of our Lord, jesus Christ,through which the world has
been crucified.
To me and I to the world,neither circumcision nor
What counts now?
He said this phrase before, ifyou guys remember.
Remember last time he said thiscircumcised, uncircumcised, it

(01:27:10):
doesn't matter.
The only thing that does matteris faith working itself through
love.
Right now, he's going to say itagain Neither circumcision nor
What counts is the new creation.
If you are still under the lawand need to get circumcised,
then Christ has done nothing newand he's not your savior right.

(01:27:31):
Then he don't need Jesus.
What counts, though, is cause.
He is who he says he is.
What counts is the new creation, the new identity, the new
environment, the new way ofdoing things, and that does not
include circumcision or the law.
It includes being covered underthe grace of Christ on the
cross, verse 16,.

(01:27:51):
So peace and mercy to all ofthose follow this rule to the
Israel of God.
That's a very interestingstatement there that goes into
this whole idea of who is thereal Israel.
Is God still in a specificcovenant with Israel, like?

Selena (01:28:12):
the.

Ryan (01:28:12):
Jewish people, or has there been this switch to where
now the church is really the newIsrael?
Because, if you think about it,if who belongs to the family of
Abraham now is not just simplythose who are of Abraham's
family, but as Gentiles havebeen grafted in because it's not

(01:28:32):
ethnic based anymore, it'sMessiah based, then would that
group of people then be the newIsrael?

Selena (01:28:37):
Yeah.

Ryan (01:28:38):
Right.
So there's, and I want you toknow, like there is and it was
really prevalent, I would say,like in the early 20th century
to the mid, even the later 20thcentury, in terms of theology,
many, particularly Protestants,started adopting this idea that
the church is the new Israel.

(01:28:59):
Right Now, I'll say mepersonally, I do not follow that
.
I think God made very specificcovenants and promises to
specific people.
I think part of those promisesinclude us, right?
So I think one of the thingsthat could be offensive and or
big to a Jew is the fact thatthe promise God made to you also

(01:29:23):
applies to me.
You just thought it was justfor you, right?
Is his promises bigger thanjust you and your people?
It's also including me, right,but that doesn't negate the
previous promises that he had tothe Jewish people, right, in my
view?
So I think that there are stillspecific promises and there is
a state of Israel, right, thereis still a promised land.

(01:29:46):
God made election and choicesGod's people and one of those
elections and choices he madewas that my people are gonna be
defined by my ultimate elect,who is Christ, the elect of God,
jesus Christ, and part of whobelonged to him belonged to me
right, that was an election.
But he also made elections aplace right.
He carved out Alana Cana andsaid geographically, this is

(01:30:09):
what I have chosen for mygeography right.
That doesn't get negated youunderstand.

Selena (01:30:15):
I get confused with that though, though.
But if they're denying JesusChrist as a Messiah, are there
really God's people?

Ryan (01:30:25):
No, but Paul makes that point too in Romans.
So Romans is very Theologicallypacked.
But he also kind of gives areason why he says because if
all Jews were to to acceptChrist as Messiah immediately,
he would never reach theGentiles.

(01:30:45):
So in Paul's view, is that theyare blinded for a time, so that
the gospel could reach its fullmeasure to the Gentile people.
And upon completion of that,that veil will be kind of lifted
up and they will all see it andthey'll see this flooding of
Jews accepting Christ as Messiah.
To bring the full fold in thefull family.

(01:31:06):

Imran (01:31:07):
Okay, fascinating.

Ryan (01:31:08):
Yeah, he talks about that in Romans.
So read Romans, because he kindof gives an answer to that.
But but notice what he sayshere.
So peace and mercy to all whofollow this rule to the Israel
of God from now on.
But no one caused me trouble.
Like he's just so annoyed withthis church.
I just love it.
From now on, let no one causeme more trouble, for I bear on
my body the marks of Jesus.

(01:31:29):
Again, reference to his bodyagain.
Yeah, he showed up to thischurch bruised, a bloody beaten,
right after he was probablystoned, him and Barnabas, right.
That was one of the things thathe talked about in their
relationship.
So when I showed up to you, Iwas just in a very desperate sad
state.
Yeah, and you loved me, right.
And then, like he's, he'stalking about the way their

(01:31:50):
relationship started, but he'svery annoyed at the fact that
people are saying, well, you'rejust doing this to be a people
pleaser, to avoid pain.

Selena (01:31:58):
Yeah, it's pretty interesting.

Ryan (01:32:00):
Yeah, let me tell you about my pain yeah right, I
still bear the marks, but I likehow he says it's not the marks
of the Romans, it's not themarks of the Gentiles, it's not
the marks of unbelievers.
He says it's the marks of Jesus, because Christ went to the
cross.
No one's greater than theirmaster.
I have to carry my own cross,he's like.
So these marks that Jesussuffered for the gospel.

(01:32:22):
I have to suffer for the gospel.
So despite that, I still carrythe marks of Jesus.
So Remember all this has beenSubsuming the gospel of grace,
right, so he ends it assumingthe grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, will be with your spirit, brothers and sisters.
Amen.
Right, he concludes this.

(01:32:43):
All you know this whole thingabout.
You know gospel, circumcision,gospel of grace in this fights
that he had with Peter and Jamesand Kick this person out of
your church.
Now, acts of the flesh versus,you know, walking in the fruit
of the spirit, right, all thosethings.
But it all gets assumed when Ithink the biggest thing he just

(01:33:04):
wants them to remember Is thatyou are under the grace of Jesus
.
Don't forget it.

Imran (01:33:09):
Yeah, that's awesome.
So for this episode, this isthe culmination of all like 7 to
10.
The conclusion yeah, theconclusion of everything and
this has been absolutely awesome.
Thank you so much.

(01:33:30):
You made me wait like threeweeks before we got to the
spirit, but we got there andthat definitely was my favorite
episode, even though we had torecord it twice.

Ryan (01:33:37):
Yeah, record, or three times no, okay, then I listen to
it after yes, recorded twiceand I'd edit it, so that's the
third time.

Imran (01:33:44):
Then I listened to the whole thing after, so at least
four times and I love it Allright.
So thank you so much, fine, forgoing through the book of
Galatians with us.
I will say this mosttheologically dense material
I've gone through, but I feel somuch more aware yeah of my
faith now than I did when wewanted to it.
And so I truly appreciate it,and whenever we start going

(01:34:05):
through Romans, it's gonna bethe six month series.
We have to carve out an entireyear probably.
Yeah, that'll be good.
We'll both have to quit ourjobs and Completely.

Ryan (01:34:18):
Yeah, we're just, we're just grinding through Romans.

Imran (01:34:21):
All right, but um.

Ryan (01:34:22):
I'll say this.
You know, pastor David's comingin with a series that's kind of
getting back to how we startedreal Bible stories right, with a
lot of the narrative, some somecharacter highlights.
When he gets done with that, Ihave a couple I would like to to
do just some fun ones.
But one of the things we'redoing right now on our Bible
study on Tuesday nights as we'regoing through the seven
churches In revelation and thatthat that will be a fun one to

(01:34:46):
do here.

Imran (01:34:47):
Yeah, a little bit.
So we're gonna do the fulljourney through revelation as
well.
No, no, I'm gonna hit the sevenchurches, but if you.

Ryan (01:34:54):
But One of the premises of a revelation is that it's all
anchored on the churches.
A lot of people miss that andif, as you go through each
church, you start seeing theimagery later in revelation how
it's actually Feeding back intothe curses the promises that
Christ made in the situationsthat that, that those churches

(01:35:14):
are facing right, and so we haveseveral good series as a
trailer, a preview.

Imran (01:35:20):
It'll be fun to do.
Yes, next week we'll have thestory behind the story series
with Pastor David, and thenwe'll have Pastor Ryan back For
a couple, stored behind thestory episodes, and then we'll
go into real Bible stories,story by the stories, actually
really just the same premise.
That's true, yeah but you gottagive the series some kind of
something.
So, um, thank you so much fortuning in for this this week's

(01:35:40):
episode of a Bible stories and Ihope you have a fantastic week.

Ryan (01:35:45):
Hey, if you need help, go ask for help.
Go ask somebody.
If they need help, go help them.

Imran (01:35:50):
Yeah, and if the Holy Spirit's tapping on your
shoulders and it's okay, someoneought to, it's probably you.
Go walk in the spirit, go walkin grace.

Selena (01:35:58):
Thank you for tuning in to real Bible stories.
If you enjoyed this podcast, besure to leave a review, share
and subscribe to be notifiedeach week when we upload new
episodes.
Real Bible stories is producedin partnership with Palm Church
in 29 Palms, california.
If you would like moreinformation or want to check out
archive sermons and Biblestudies, please check out the

(01:36:21):
church website at palms Baptistchurch comm or check them out on
Facebook, instagram or YouTube.
Real Bible stories can be foundwherever the podcast are fun.
Thank you again and we will seeyou next week.
You.

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