S6E42-Glen O'Donnell

S6E42-Glen O'Donnell
"Where Are You"
A return to fellowship with God

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Broadcasting from the Golden spread of Texas. This is the
Fred Hughes Show. With each episode we introduce to you
an inspiring person or message to help you grow and
unlock your potential in life. I'm Fred Hughes, professional photographer, pastor, teacher,

(00:26):
author and your show host. Thank you for joining us
and welcome this episode brought to you by the faithful
partners of Decision Ministry. Welcome once again to the Fred
Hughes Show. We're so glad you could join us since
you can see I have my good friend mister o'donald

(00:48):
with me tonight, Glenn O'Donnell, and we're just he is
in the house tonight. We're gonna open up the word
and get going here just in a few seconds. I
just want to remind you of the website and go
over there and kind of avail yourself of the good
things that are there the Decision one dot org and

(01:08):
uh so find to find the things that are there
and locate all that good stuff. There's a little bell
and a little whistle and all that kind of stuff.
I don't know why those things really matter, but they do.
They help us to really get our program out to
different places. So ring bells and blow whistles, whatever you
do on all those things in Jesus' name, that really

(01:31):
does help.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
So appreciate it. Hello Glenn, Hello sir, welcome once.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
I like it when you show up on at on
the show, you'll you'll always have good, good, good things
to offer. And we just you know, I love I
love being part of what God's into.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yes, too, good stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
He is, he is into good stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Amen, Well, I want to you know, not waste a
whole lot of time, you know, I want I kind
of kick it over to you to kind of give
us an idea of what kind of what share.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Where you want to go to bounce around a little bit.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
So, so are set up for this evening?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Is?

Speaker 3 (02:11):
I have a burden on my heart. A few weeks
ago God gave me a word out of Genesis chapter
three and the the account of the fall of man,
where Satan entered in deceived mankind and there was the
fall and then the separation, and the Lord highlighted the

(02:36):
words when when God called out to Adam and in
that narrative and he says where are you h that
it kind of just echoed within my heart, and I thought,
man there's a message right there. What is God saying?
And And it wasn't very long. I just began to
just kind of listen to him and write this message.

(02:57):
And it is this, this call of God to the
body of Christ, and that is where are you are?
Are you? Are you stumbling in sin? Have have you
been struggling for a while? Has has shame and fear
driven you out of the House of God, out of fellowship?

(03:18):
Are you afraid to come back to God? Do you
think that He's angry with you? These are really good questions.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Whether whether you're born again or not. You know, those
are a really good question in this time and in
this hour. You know, I really think the world's to
go through some taking and it you know, we all
need to be ready. Sure, I really do need to
know about eternal things God. God tells them look at

(03:48):
things above, don't keep your eye on things down there beneath,
because it's.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Amass absolutely and and and the word tonight, it is
such a welcoming and really warm word. It really highlights
the love of God and the compassion and and the
welcoming heart of God to all who are willing uh
to just acknowledge His love and and and receive him

(04:15):
and and so we're we're going to go into the
scripture here and look at one of the darker points
in human history. But as we get towards the end
of this message, uh, it's going to be very encouraging
and very uplifting and very freeing. So if you don't mind,
I'm just going to jump in here. And what I
want to do is I want to read the first

(04:35):
few verses of Genesis chapter three and and and stop
about the middle of the chapter. And what we're going
to see is a handful of very applicable truths that
we can pull out of these verses, out of the
narrative of what what will read happened in in in
the garden during the fall of mankind. And we'll see

(04:59):
how how not much has changed over the thousands of
years since that event, and how these truths are still
applicable to our lives today, to our life in Christ today.
The scripture says that in the Old Testament, many of
those things were types and shadows, but the substance of

(05:20):
things today is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so these are lessons, if you will, that we can
see in the Old Testament. But the actual substance of
things now we find in our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So if we're good, I'm just going to begin to read.
If you're following me along while you're listening, we're going

(05:41):
to begin to read in Genesis three in verse one,
and the scripture says, now the serpent was more cunning
than any beast of the field which the Lord God
had made. And he said to the woman, has God
indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of
the guard. And the woman said to the serpent, we

(06:02):
may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden,
But of the fruit of the tree which is in
the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall
not eat, nor shall you touch it lest you die.
Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not
surely die, for God knows that in the day that
you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and
you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So

(06:25):
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree
desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit,
and she ate. She also gave to her husband with
her and he ate. Then the eyes of both of
them were opened, and they knew that they were naked,
and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves covering.

(06:48):
Let's pause just right there. This is verse seven. We
are going to hearken back to this verse near the
end of this message, that the eyes of them were open,
and they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig
leaves together. So keep a mental note of verse seven.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
That is, that is such an interesting verse right there,
that the dead the deadly.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yes, yeah, I mean initially that may have worked for
a few minutes, but as soon as those leaves begin
to dry up, we're going to have some issues. Okay,
let's get back to it. This is verse eight. And

(07:36):
they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in
the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the
Lord God called to Adam and said, and here here's
where we got our message. Where are you?

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Verse ten, So he said, I heard Adam said to
the Lord I heard your voice in the garden, and
now was afraid because I was naked, and I hid
myself verse eleven. And he said, who told you that
you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of
which I commanded you that you should not eat? Then
the man said, the woman you gave to be with me,

(08:16):
she gave me of the tree, and I ate. And
the Lord God said to the woman, what is this
that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me,
and I ate. So we're gonna pause right there for
right now, uh in in in this narrative, and.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
It's all about that woman.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Pastor, this is your this is your program. I'm gonna
let you be the one to say that what what
I love about this is is the the the glaring
truths uh that jump off the page uh in this narrative.
And and so let's let's dig in here a little bit,
and let's break some of these things down and see

(09:03):
what really happened here, step by step, and then see
how these truths apply to our life today, all these
years later. The first thing I want to look at
is is just the very beginning of that narrative. And
I want to call this the deception and the disobedience. Obviously,

(09:24):
the first thing that happened was is that the enemy
came into the garden and he began to speak to
the woman. He took the word of God that he
knew to be true, and he twisted it, he perverted it.
He presented it in a way to Eve that she
was not quite prepared for, and he literally deceived her

(09:49):
into doing something that she knew that she should not do.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
You know, that's the trouble with.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
It is it is so deceiving. And what really, what
I think is important for us to realize today is
I think so many believers maybe believe that that there
is no devil, or if there is a devil, he's
going to leave you alone. Let me tell you if

(10:17):
if you're born again, if you know Jesus uh, and
if you're standing up for him at all in this world,
the devil's not going to leave you alone. Jesus was
speaking in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John.
He was talking to his disciples, and he said that
the enemy comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

(10:38):
The key word is here that Jesus said was the
enemy comes. The enemy comes, sure he is. Adam and
Eve were not seeking the that the serpent out in
the garden. The serpent sought them out. And and this
is very important that that we we go about our lives. Uh,
and we need to be aware that we have an

(10:59):
enemy that is going to seek us out. And when
he finds us, Jesus has warned us already that he
is going. His attempt is going to be to steal,
to kill, and to destroy. But pastor, what is his
main method of stealing, killing and destroying? It is this

(11:22):
the lie and the deception. Remember what Jesus said about
Satan in the Gospels. He said that Satan is a liar,
and that he's been a liar from the beginning, that
there is no truth in him, and that when he speaks,
he speaks his native language. And this is very important.

(11:46):
The devil's never he's going to come, and when he comes,
he's never going to tell you the truth. That's right
now now Here is another thing that's very important. He's
going to give you shreds of true truth. There will
be a strand of truth in it because he needs
you to bite right, he needs you to take the bait.

(12:11):
But but a half truth is a full lie. And
and so we just need to be very aware, as
illustrated here in this narrative today in our life in Christ.
Are we born again? Yes? Do we belong to God? Yes?
Has He given us all power over all the power

(12:31):
of the enemy. Yes. Is the enemy a formidable foe
in our life? And do we need to be aware? Absolutely?
We do, and we go and.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
We get ready for that by getting the word inside
of it. Because if you have the truth, yes, that
that you know, can't just can't just read it topically,
You really have to get it inside of you, because
that's when it's like the Word of God's kind of
like a tuning fork. It will it will tune your

(13:06):
the true voice of God. And when you hear a
little lie or a little addition or a little deviation,
you'll recognize.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
You will recognize it hidden in your heart. That's right.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
You know, if you've just read it a time or two,
you'll do like it and you'll you'll make up something
or or you're absolutely half the enemy twisty.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, you're absolutely right. And actually that that that's that
My very next point, just to your point is that's
my next point. Here is the importance of the Word
of God. It is our defense, and it is our offense,
and and and today tragically, there is so much distraction,
even for the body of Christ. There's so many there's

(13:51):
so much streaming on TV that there's so much on
our phone that we're distracted from the thing that that
really brings us life. People today, so many today not
condemning that. It's just the truth. So many today have
this casual relationship with the word of God. And and

(14:12):
especially in the day where we're living in, we cannot
have a casual relationship with the word of God. We
have to go all in on the word of on
the word of God, or we're setting ourselves up. It
is it is not Remember when when the spirit led

(14:35):
Jesus at right after his baptism out into the wilderness
to be tempted, and and the devil came to tempt him,
and and he's in and Satan jumped right on the
thing that Jesus probably was struggling with, which was hunger.
He said, Hey, if you're the son of God, command
these stones to be turned into bread. And what did
Jesus say to him, Man shall not live by bread alone,

(14:57):
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,
every word. And and so if we are going to
be able to defend ourselves against the approaches of the enemy.
We have to know God's word. We're going to have
to turn the phone off and turn the TV off,

(15:18):
grab our Bible, get together with God, and fill our
heart daily with the word of God. Yes, absolutely, yes, yes,
this is true. Yes, yes, yeah, but but this is

(15:38):
the truth.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
And and in fact, the word and the Hebrew there
that originally Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy, and and and that
that word there in Deuteronomy for every word, it's the
word that we know rama and it is Jesus was saying,
man shall live, and he will thrive, and he will

(16:01):
be victorious when he has a full understanding. Now get this,
when he has a full and deep God revealed understanding
of the precepts of the Lord in his heart. Yes,
this is very important for us. So so we've established

(16:24):
that the enemy is coming, that he's a liar, and
that we have a responsibility to be on defense and
on offense. So this leads us to to the the
second truth from this narrative, and that is the approach.
I call it the divine approach. God. God was very
aware of what had happened in the garden and we

(16:49):
and we read early we we we are aware earlier
that daily God was coming down to fellowship with Adam
and even the cool of the day in the garden,
and we see this divine approach. God's not God is
not unaware of what has just happened, but he still
shows up in the garden. And what I love about
this it reveals the heart of God. God is all

(17:12):
about fellowship. God loves mankind and he's all about fellowship.
He's all about sharing his heart and who he is
with mankind. And in fact, in Christ, we know he
has paid such a high price to purchase that back

(17:33):
for mankind. And we'll get to that here at the
end of the message. But what God does is he
shows up in the garden and he asks the question
that really really births this message, and he says, Adam,
where are you are? And this is very interesting question

(17:56):
when we understand that God is omnistion and God wasn't
wondering where where Adam was. God knew very well where
Adam was when God said Adam, where are you? In essence,
what he was saying is Adam, hey, I'm here in
the place where we always fellowship. I'm here in the

(18:19):
place where we hang out. I'm here in the place
where we've been for the last how many days? But
you are not here, Adam?

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Where are you?

Speaker 3 (18:32):
And so in essence, this question is it's not for
God at all, It's for Adam.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
And guess what we're Adam. So it's not just that
one back in the Old Testament in Genesis.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
This one absolutely absolutely. I'm making sure that I don't
forget anything here that well, you.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Know that that that is, that's that's the truth that
needs to hit home, that we are. You know, God
may be saying to us if we've been forsaking our
time with him here, our walk in the garden of
the cool of the morning or whatever, you know, if
we're forsaking that time, he's asking us the same exact.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Question, this is right where are you sure?

Speaker 3 (19:21):
And and what I love? I'm glad to chake my
notes there, Uh, I thought the Lord remindment earlier. Today
I always call out. God is calling out in the
garden to Adam, and and today God is still He's
calling out. He's a shepherd and and and just like
the shepherd who is shepherding a hundred sheep, and and

(19:42):
and the one wanders off. He calls, He calls out
to that sheep, so that the sheep will hear the
sound of his voice and so that he can rejoin,
so that he can rejoin the flock. And God, my sheep,
they know it.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
No other voice will follow. Yes, because my.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Boy, yeah voice, that's a good question. And in fact,
this is this is a good story for this point.
And the message is I sent to our pastor Jason Kraft.
A few weeks ago I found a video of someone
had posted a video uh of a of a sheep
farmer somewhere over in Europe, and there was an entire

(20:27):
corral of sheep and they were feeding up on the
hill and they had two or three people come up
and they were they were calling the sheep. They were
calling the sheep, calling the sheep, and the sheep would
look up that they wouldn't move. And the next person
would come and they would call the sheep with the
call that the sheep herder always used, and the sheep

(20:49):
would look up and they they were still eating, but
they wouldn't come. Finally, the sheep herder himself, the shepherd,
he stepped in and he began to call the sheep
with the sound of his voice, and within five seconds,
the first the first few rows of sheep began to

(21:09):
just kind of meander. Then the other sheep he keeps calling,
Then the other sheep. See what's going on now here,
You've got about two or three hundred sheep who are
now in kind of a full trot heading towards the
shepherd because they know his voice. And God calls out then,
and God calls out now because we know his voice,

(21:33):
and he calls out to us, especially when we are
not in the place of fellowship. He calls out so
that we can recognize, oh my goodness, I'm not in
the place I should be.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
And it's not just about not being in the fellowship.
It's paying attention sometimes because really and truly we are
part of the only army that has ever existed in
the face of the earth that all have a direct
communication to the commander in chief. And so whenever the

(22:09):
theater of war needs to move this is right, the
commander speaks, we all can hear him personally, we all
need to move in. And that's that's the beauty of
our being able to hear him, because we can be
moved to action quickly and so it's not just a
matter of hearing him for a little ram of word,

(22:32):
it's hearing him for to be instantly obedience of very important.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
That's right, Yeah, that's excellent.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
So, so what we've seen so far is we've we've
seen the enemy coming to see if we've seen the
disobedience in the garden, and then we've seen the divine
approach and that God is always calling out. Now, once
God has called out, Adam responds. And when Adam responds,
I like to call this the hideout. Adam responds, Adam

(23:08):
and Eve respond out of the trees hidden. They've hidden
themselves there in the garden. And in essence, what they
say is, hey, we're here in the trees, and we're
over here because we saw that we were naked, and
we were afraid and ashamed, and so we hid ourselves

(23:30):
and and and so this is tragic because we see
that the most precious thing that was going on on
the earth was this daily fellowship between mankind and God,
and it has immediately come to a standstill at the

(23:52):
at the encroachment of deception, sin, rebellion, and disobedience. And
so the first thing I want to highlight in this
segment is sin will always separate when we allow sin
in our life, when we're not vigilant, when we're not

(24:15):
full of the word, and we allow the enemy to
deceive our heart in any part of our life, and
we engage in sin's going it's going to the first
thing that it will do is it will destroy the
intimate fellowship that we have with the Father. Sin. That's
the first thing it's going to do. And if not corrected,

(24:37):
we can we can end up in a place where
we are again kind of hiding in the proverbial trees
in the garden from the presence of the Lord, the
one who loves us more than anyone else in the world,
the one who knows this better than anyone else and
still loves us more than anyone else. And we're aware

(24:57):
of this, and we're hiding from him, that this, this is,
this is not good.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
We want not what he wants, not what we want.
For sure, we think we might want that. We think
we're embarrassed and we're shamed because we were we were absent,
and we're covering ourselves up.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
You know, we're hiding in yes, but we ought to
be running through it.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yes, and you know, he's the only answer we have.
And so you know, really the thing that we do
intensifies the problem we have.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
This is this is correct, and and and the other
point that I wanted to make here was that that
fear and shame in the hands of the enemy used
as a weapon against us, they're very powerful, and we
can fall prey to them. Shame and fear are going

(25:55):
to drive us from the presence of the Lord. And
and when we when we fall all or engage in
disobedience of some kind for whatever reason, our tendency and
our propensity as human beings is to run away from
God's presence, to run away from the light, so that

(26:16):
we can hide in the shadows, so that so that
were it possible, neither God nor anybody else can really
see the results of of our of our actions. We
want to hide what has happened. And this is what
fear and this is what shame does for us in

(26:36):
our life. It's going to drive us from God.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
Every time, every time. And you know, there's one huge difference.
When you're looking at you know, the garden, you're looking
at the perfect man. He was free of sin, and
he had relations personally with God and this is and
in this process he loses that fellowship with God because

(27:04):
he is separated from it. That we, on the other hand,
were born into the nature that Adam.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Wound up in.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
That's rights in nature, and we, if we get born again,
are set free from that. That's right. However, so many
times we go back because it's comfortable to operate in
that right. We forget, and we.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
We kind of regrets.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
We regrets, we'll do something that we we start, Oh,
God's probably mad at me. My goodness sakes alive, you know,
and this start hiding, and we will start with this,
and we will start moving away from that fellowship, just
as Adam did. Yeah, so we have to really guard
our heart against.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
This is right? You know. You know Adam was was
was naked before he disobeyed. Do you think God knew
about that? He absolutely did? Now Adam was naked after
he disobeyed. Do you think God knew about that? Absolutely?
What's the difference Adam, Adam and the enemy? Now catch this,

(28:17):
you who are listening. The enemy got Adam's eyes off
of God and on himself and on the repercussions of
his decision to disobey, and the more the enemy can
get our eyes off of God, off of his love,

(28:38):
off of his forgiveness, off of who he is, and
off of the fact that God is where we belong,
and he can get our eyes on our sin, on
our field, whatever it is, on our failure, on our shortcomings.
We become overwhelmed with what we are and we begin

(29:01):
to forget all of the things that God is. And
the more we're overwhelmed with ourselves, we're going to hide away.
The more that we become overwhelmed with who God is,
in the depth of his love, the depth of his grace,
the depth of his redemption, the more we're we have
our eyes on Him and become overwhelmed with that, the

(29:22):
more we're going to draw near to him. So what
the enemy wants is to deceive you, to get you
to fail, and then to get you to focus on
the failure so that your visage ceases to be on
the Creator, God forgive or redeemer, and on and on you.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
It's all it's really and truly all about your eyes,
because once we take our eyes off of Him, I mean,
it's just like Peter walking on the water, you know.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
I always think about that story.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Is you know when he when he looked around and
saw that he was in the middle of all this storm,
you know.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
He began to sink.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
You began to sink. It was pretty much PLoP. But
Jesus reached out and grabbed him. He was he was
he was He obviously was very close to Jesus before
he took his eyes off. But then but but he
didn't quite make it. And so you know, he he
The second we take our eyes off, that's when, you know,

(30:24):
we begin to sink. And you know, that's just not where.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
We want to be.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
We we you know, for those of us that are
born again, we don't want to be you know, we
want to be water walkers. And for those of us
that that are not born again, then we need to
we need to put our eyes on Jesus and get
and and and and be you know, born again, be
uh made new and given this new new heart.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
That's absolutely right. Well, what happens, what happens next is
Adam has told God, hey, I I found out I
saw his naked. I was afraid, so I hid myself.
And and see God is just letting things play out.
He's in control, but he is letting things play out

(31:13):
and and and so God what he does next is
is he makes an inquiry. And and so this next
segment I've entitled the divine inquiry and and so now
God's started this, this conversation with Adam here. But now

(31:35):
God is narrowing the radius of the conversation. And this
is strategic here, this is how God deals with things.
And and so in the divine inquiry that God makes
of Adam, he says, really, Adam, you're naked. Who told you?

(31:56):
Who told you that you're naked? How could you possibly
know that? And so this is the tell. Now, this
is the tell uh and and and he and he
follows that question up with another question, is it possible, Adam,
that you've eaten from the tree that I told you
not to eat from? And and and of course now

(32:18):
we we know what happened. Well, the woman you gave me,
she gave me to ead. And then Eve said, well, hey,
the serpent deceive me. We we know that that's what happened.
But but but what God is doing here is he
he is he is having Adam focus to take personal

(32:41):
inventory and get introspective about the fact that Number one, Adam,
you're in sin. Let's let's acknowledge that you're in sin,
and let's acknowledge what the sin is. Number two, Adam,
it's very important that we that we established the source

(33:02):
of that sin. Uh he said, And I say the
source because he said, who told you that you were naked?
In other words, who have you been listening to? Who
have you been listening to? Whose voice has been in
your ear telling you that you're naked, telling you that

(33:23):
you need to hide, telling you that you're not worthy
to walk and talk? Who are you listening to? Do
you remember when you were in school and you would
come home and that you would accidentally say something that
you heard at school that you probably shouldn't say in
front of your mom or dad, and everyone could have

(33:43):
been having a good time until you said that, and
then your mom would would just stop. She would glare
across at you, and she goes, young man, where'd you
hear that? This is exactly what God is doing? But
but the difference is, you know, God knows exactly what
has happened and who Adam has been spending time with.

(34:06):
But what God is doing in our life today, just
like you did for Adam, is when our fellowship with
the Father is struggling, and maybe we haven't been in
God's house. We haven't been with God's people, and we
haven't been in his word, and we're struggling. Good God
is he is a persistent shepherd. Remember Jesus said, I'm

(34:28):
the shepherd that leaves the ninety and nine, and I'm
coming after the one. He keeps coming after us because
he's a good father. But when he finds us, when
he gets our attention, there are some things that he's
going to he is going to insist on bringing to
light for our own good if we're going to walk

(34:52):
successfully with him in relationship. And that is you're walking
in sin. Here's the sin, here's the source of that sin,
and we're going to need to deal with that. And
the third thing that the Lord will highlight many times
is see, when you walk in disobedience to me, it

(35:14):
has very negative repercussions in your life, and I want
to highlight those to you. We said earlier that sin separates.
The other thing that sin does is is it kills.
When sin enters our life, for whatever reason that it
may enter, it is going to kill something, beginning immediately.

(35:37):
Most of the time, in the body of Christ born again,
Christians who have been walking with the Lord and know
the Lord very well, you can tell if something is
going on in their lives that should not be going
on because their joy is gone, their peace is gone.
You can tell by the way they're speaking something has died.

(35:58):
Usually the first thing that that is killed when we're
walking in sin or disobedience, is it kills our joy
in the Lord. We're not happy, we're not excited about
going to church. That begins to die. And that is
to tell many times, uh for for for those who
are struggling in some type of disobedience.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
And start looking for other sources to get our information from. Yeah,
and that here goes you know who you've been listening to?

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Where sure are you? You know?

Speaker 1 (36:29):
And we we we start that movement and once again
to hide away, to hide ourself from God because we
we know our relationship isn't correct. And so you know,
instead of instead of that we need to it should
be driving us toward Him, away from but it doesn't. Yes,

(36:50):
it just doesn't work. It's so easy for us to
run away to hide to you know, we know we've
done something right.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
The wrong way, we know we've made the wrong.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
And it's just so easy to start trying to justify.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
Yeah, it's human nature. Yeah, it's human nature. In fact,
that's a great segue to our our next segment, our
our next applicable truth, and that I'm calling the cover
up and and and remember I told you to mark
verse seven, where where Adam and Eve had sewn fig
leaves together to cover their shame. They're really covering there

(37:30):
was the result of their disobedience. And this is exactly
what what we do, many Christians do, uh, is is
they try to put together some type of uh, superficial
covering for the glaring result uh that has come to

(37:52):
pass as a result of sin or disobedience or rebellion,
that we we try to cover it up. Yeah I
did this, uh, and and I probably shouldn't have done that,
but look, I also I have done this, and I've
I've made this right and made amends here and made
atonement here and and though and maybe some of those

(38:15):
things on a human level might be necessary, but in
the greater scheme of things, God doesn't accept the cover
up and and and the fig leaves. This is very important. Sure,
this is a very important theological point right here, right now,
my nose is a ching. I don't know why it is.

(38:38):
Is God, in terms of our walking with him in
right relationship, always rejects man's effort to make atonement for sin.
He always has, he does now, and he always will.

(39:00):
Mankind has always been trying to make amends. I'm going
to prove to God that I'm good. I'm going to
prove to God that that I'm worthy. I'm going to
do some good. You know, we can sew all the
good works we want to together and dress ourselves up
in them. The reason God rejects the good works of

(39:20):
sinful man in his attempt to reconcile himself to God
is that we can dress ourselves up in all of
our good works. But the scripture says that the good
works of man are as filthy rags in the sight
of God and in essence what God is saying, and
this seems harsh, but he but later we'll see God

(39:43):
demonstrates his own righteousness. When we're dressed up in our works.
We look like us and we smell like us. The
only standard of righteousness that God accepts for those to
fellowship in him is his own righteousness. We will look
like him, and we will smell like him, and we

(40:03):
will bear his image. And if it is anything less
than this, God rejects it out of hand. Another lesser
point is is that if we can work our way
into making atonement for sin for our lives and and
then then who gets the glory for that we do?

(40:26):
And God has said clearly in his word, I will share.
I will share my glory with no man. So this
is it's a little intense, but it's very important for
us to understand. Does God want us to walk in
holiness and righteousness? Yes he does as a fruit of
the right relationship that already exists, but not in an

(40:50):
effort to attain that right relationship right, you.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Know, and sometimes we have we uh will will develop
an apple problem.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
You know what I'm saying. Yeah, I did this, I
pay my times, I read my Bible. You know, I
did this and I did the other.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
We're trying to justify ourself just like just you know,
maybe not the blame game, but it's the it's the
I'll take credit for.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
For my own righteousness. Sure, yes, And you know, like
you said, the right is righteousness.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Not your righteous Absolutely, our righteousness is like a dirty
rag that that actually refers to menstrel cloth. That's how
I mean, yesasty, So you know, we just can never measure, No,
we cannot, which in the good news of this is
it and it brings us to it, brings us really

(41:46):
to our last segment before we close, and that is
the covering.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
And and in verse twenty one, I'm not going to
go there and read that, but I'll just tell you
what happens the verse twenty one. In Genesis chapter three,
we read that God begins to deal with this fig
leaf outfit that Adam and Eve had made for themselves
to cover their shame. And God goes and he slaughters animals,

(42:14):
and he himself makes clothes out of skin for Adam
and Eve, and he closed them. He clothes them himself.
And what we see in this is it is a
much more adequate and much more appropriate covering for the
resultant sin of Adam and Eve in that day in

(42:38):
the garden. And what it is representative of is the
eventual coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and his shedding,
his blood, giving his life being nailed to a cross,
And in an essence, his blood and his flesh became

(43:02):
the covering for our lives. Remember we said, the only
standard of righteousness that God accepts in fellowship is his
own righteousness. And we now being as as we receive Jesus,
and for those of you who know Christ as Lord
and Savior, he is that He is that uh, that

(43:27):
that covering of skin. When God looks at us, now
we don't look and smell like us. We look and
smell like him. When He looks at us now, he
doesn't see our image. He sees his image.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
And that's what's called exchange.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
We've exchanged what we have, our dirty mentrel claw right,
what he has righteous rogues.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
That exchange that makes us.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
It's his righteousness that makes us righteous.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
And that I love that. And and I said earlier
that that I would highlight this is that while that
seems kind of harsh that God would be that way,
you know what, if He didn't come and be the
one himself to take on flesh and give his life
and to have to bear the weight of sin on
the cross, to taste death and hell for everybody, and

(44:20):
then to make it free for all who would have
faith in his name, then then yes, maybe he would
be a little harsh. But God paid the bill that
we could never pay. He is that covering absolutely, and
in that he kind of time we got here, we're fine. Uh.

(44:42):
He has covered our shame. And in fact, he hasn't
just covered it that the scripture says in Isaiah that
our sins have been cast as far as the east
is from the west. But this is only in Christ, Jesus,
this is only in Christian.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
That you know, the old the old priest went in
and they made an offering.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
That covered for a year.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
It would tone, it was, it would cover, but it
wouldn't make payment. It could, it wasn't, it wasn't. It
wasn't enough. But when Jesus came to the lamb slaughtered,
perfect lamb given for us, and he it's it's it's
his death, it's his skin, it's his sacrifice.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
That's now, that's right now, Yes, wiped out. Yes, And
it's and it's our sin past president future. Yes, it's
our sin, past president future, and and and so uh
as we kind of begin to wrap up here, if
we're born again, if we know Christ, all we need

(45:54):
to do is come to the advocate that we have
with the Father, who is Christ. Jesus, Lord, I know
that you love me, God, I know that I belong
to you. I have stumbled in some sin. I'm just God,
I'm confessing that that's not who I am, and it's

(46:15):
not who I want to be. And will you just
wash me right now. I don't want this to interrupt
our fellowship. I don't want this to get in the
way of me spending time with you or in your
house or with your people. And I am I am
confessing it. I'm bringing it into the light. And God,
I'm just asking you to cleanse me right now. And

(46:35):
would you please just refill me Lord with your holy spirit. God,
would you refresh me and your love and your grace God.
And I want to love on you and I want
you to love on me. And this is this is
the beauty of it all. This is the absolute beauty
of all of it. And it is it is one

(46:57):
of the great joys of my life.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Yes, yes, mine too, you know. And that's what we
live for.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Is we live for, you know, that relationship we have
with God. And we also live for the opportunity to
tell other people about That's right, And you know I
love the verse that just is and I can't recall
it right now, but it just says that we are
given a word of reconciliation, in other words, a word

(47:27):
from God.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
It was raym, a word like we talked about earlier.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
We're given a ram, a word of how we can
make our relationship right.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
Then it goes on to say, and we're given a word,
not a word, but a ministry of reconciliation, which means,
now that we are reconciled, we have the good news
to tell others, which is.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
What we're doing right now. Exactly what we're doing. Let
me highlight two terms real quick. As a result of
our covering in Christ and how He has washed us
from shame and sin. What the result of that is
is Christ has made the atonement. Remember before we discussed

(48:14):
that God, God will not allow mankind to make atonement
for sin. He has made atonement for sin. And it
will take that word atonement and break it into three pieces.
What does that say? It says at onement. The work
of Christ has brought us into a place of being

(48:37):
as one with the Father and one with the Savior.
The work of Christ on the cross has brought at
one month between mankind and the Savior. And this is beautiful.
Now the atonement has resulted in our being justified before
the Father. We are now justified. Okay, let's take that

(48:59):
work now, break it into three pieces. It's just if
I'd never send, and that really is the truth. It's
it's hard to believe, but it is just if I'd
never send because of it wasn't like that, then we
then then the the fellowship and relationship that we claim

(49:21):
to have with the Father. It's a lie. It has
to be like that.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Justified because just if I and and that's and we
go back to that earlier statement that you made is past, present,
and future, and we're justified from all of them.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
And just as if we I had never.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Send in the beginning, present, or even in the future.
I remember growing up, I always thought, well, I'm okay
because I prayed my prayers. I'm okay up to this point.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Sure, but now I'm gonna go out right.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
And that's such a such.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
A lie for living life in Christ, right, because all
that we do, even in the future, is paid. That's right,
and all we have to do is receive it.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Right.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
It's that it's once again that exchange. We ex we
say God, I'm sorry, and we exchange that place where
we've messed up with Him and his and his blessings
and righteousness comes and covers and just puts us right
back instantly.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Because because what God is God, God has given us
righteousness through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
scripture says that we are the righteousness of God in
Christ Jesus. But what God has called us to having
become righteous, now, God has called us to walk in holiness,

(50:56):
which is which is the life that we give to
God in obedience and sacrifice. The more that we find
out and learn of His love and grace and forgiveness
and patience, the more that we just lay down the
things that used to separate us from God, and the
more that we take up a lifestyle of drawing into

(51:17):
Him and allowing Him to form his image in our life.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Yes, and as we do that, we will demonstrate his word.
You know.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
And Paul said one time that he said, we don't
come to you with word only.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
Yeah, we come to you and demonstration, demonstration.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
And whenever we have the right relation with God, we
wind up demonstrating the word.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
That we be right, that we are.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
And whenever that happens, times wonders and Norman, not occasional,
but really actually sure, yeah, and we should be walking
expectant of the things.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
That are super natural. We live in the natural, but
God adds.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
His super his super on our life. This is true.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
And we begin to demonstrate just as he walked those
three those thirty three and a half years, we now
I love first John four seventeen, just as.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
He is, Oh yeah, right now.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Yeah, he's sitting up there by the Father, just as
he is right now.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
Right, So are we, yeah, in this world.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
After we die and fly?

Speaker 3 (52:33):
But now that's right, right now, that's right.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
So we are actually the glory of God revealed in
the earth at the moment, and so that we have
such a responsibility to walk up rightly to demonstrate who
we really are.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Sure well, we've got to know who we are.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
That's right in that, in that, and that gets and
that gets back to where we start. It is God's
not going to read the Word for us. God's not
going to go to church for us. We've got to
put ourselves in the Word. We've got to put ourselves
in God's house. We've got to hang out with God's people.

(53:14):
So much of what God wants to do in us
and speak to us. He's deposited in other people. And
so if we want to get it, we've got to
be with other people of God to be able to
get that. But but you know, the enemy now is
deceiving a little bit differently in the world. Is he

(53:35):
wants to come to the body of Christ and to
to deceive them into believing, uh that our freedom in Christ,
our liberty in Christ, our ability to run to His throne,
that these are things that we should not or cannot do.
And and but it is it is a lie because

(53:58):
because because of what Christ is done, because of what
Jesus has done. Yeah, we need not hide away, we
need not go hide ourselves. We need not do that.
We can we can come to God openly, genuinely, honestly,
lay it all out before him. He already knows and

(54:20):
he is the only one who can clean up the mess,
whatever it is. He's the only one who can heal
the broken heart. He's the only one who can take
the pieces and put them back together. Don't hide, don't
hide out, don't be deceived by the enemy. Run to God,
run to his house, run to his people, and let
God reach out with his loving arms and pull you

(54:44):
back into His embrace, because it's only in fellowship with
Him that we're going to find fullness of joy and
fulfillment in our heart and life.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
Yes, yes, And I want to go back to you
to the one of the little statements about what.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
God God is, just where are you? And I want
to just turn to the you know.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Viewing audiences here too, that that's a big question where
are you? And you know, if you're not born again,
if you haven't really received Jesus as yourn as your
Lord and your savior.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
You need to do that right now.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
And if you're just a Christian and you know, but
you you're hiding behind a big leaf for some reason,
the enemy is find you in with a lie, then
you need to repent and you need to move out.
And then and then you get back in the present
and and you know, don't worry about your nakedness.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
God loves you anyway.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
And so I want to glen here to lead us
in a in a word, I just want to I
want if you want to receive that, if you want
to step out, if you want to identify, hey here
I am God.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
I pray this prayer with you.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Absolutely if you are one of those people tonight who
want to restore your fellowship with the Lord. Maybe you're
struggling in a variety of ways, or maybe you're someone
who you've never given your life to Christ. We're going
to pray and you just repeat these words in your
heart and just mean them in your heart. Be genuine

(56:19):
with God. So, Father God, tonight I come to you,
Father God, to come to you in the name of Jesus.
And Lord, I want to love you, and I humble
my heart and I lay my life down before you,
and I ask you, Father God, to forgive me of
all of my sin. I ask you to wash me
and cleanse me and purify me in the precious blood

(56:42):
of Jesus. And I'm asking you, Father God, to fill
me with your Holy Spirit, to fill me with yourself God,
to restore me and fellowship with you God, to restore
the joy of my heart and the joy of my salvation.
And Father, I want to be with you in your
house forever when you come to get us. And Father God, tonight,

(57:04):
I just thank you for forgiveness. I thank you Lord
for reconciling my heart and life to you. I love
you forever. Help me, Father God, to walk as light,
insult and truth in this earth. To share your love
and grace with all those who need it in Jesus' name.
Amen again, absolutely pleasure.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
Loved it.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Yes, hey, listen, I just want to remind every every
Thursday night we have something going on good right here.
Just tune right back in, tell other people about it
and share these videos or the podcast with other people
so that we can get the word out.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
So and once again ring those little bells and do that,
do that stuff that makes a difference because it really
does hit us up to more people.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
And Amen.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
So for now we're going to say bye, and we
love you, and we just just speak of blessing.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
Over you and Jesus and I am in by Bie.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
If you enjoyed the show today, be sure and get
the downloads and the show notes that we have available
for you. If you agree that this is placed to be,
invite your friends, use those little buttonis to connect us
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(58:26):
This is the fred You Show.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Signing off,